During these few weeks of Sadhua Paksha, the monastics have been enjoying a different morning routine. Instead of their usual group Siva puja and meditation they are rising before the sun to wander through nature and perform their sadhana. Here are a few images from their wanderings.

The sacred garden, like life, is always full of surprises. Sometimes a family of pigs bring a surprise of devastation, sometimes a gnarly vine brings a surprise of flowery show. Today four surprises came to us. And none was of the porcine kind.

Today was a bit of history-making at the monastery. After more than seven years of sculpting and molding and casting and welding work by artists and artisans, and blessed by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami's presence, we installed the life-size bronze statues of Gurudeva and V. Ganapati Sthapati in their final places just 150 feet north of Iraivan Temple.

At 12:38 the arati commenced and at 12:42 the stainless steel bolts were lowered into the granite stone, a time we are told when Jupiter was just rising on the Eastern horizon.

This is the fulfillment of one of Gurudeva's sweetest visions, to give pride of place to the creators of the temple, those who envisioned it, designed it and those who patiently chipped away at the hard rock for almost thirty years now. The main statues are now complete and in the days and weeks ahead will be added to the oval platform, with a goal to have them all positioned for another special ceremony to be held during this year's Mahasamadhi celebrations.

Standing on this center stone, Gurudeva is sharing his vision of Siva's Temple in Hawaii with his architect, India's finest. The architect is bowing before the satguru, his hands held in the traditional mudra of humility which South Indians assume before kings and holy gurus. Under his left arm, he holds the architectural plans for Iraivan.

With the monks and members present and Dennis Wong lifting with the back-hoe, these two took their positions for the next thousand years, so that future pilgrims might have a glimpse of how the temple was manifest on a tiny island in the far Pacific Ocean. AUM NAMA SIVAYA! SIVAYANAMA AUM!

As our CyberCadets know, the Iraivan Temple Builders' Memorial is proceeding this summer. Above is the latest work, three pieces that arrived from Loveland, Colorado. In the captions we tell the happenings of the last few days.

The three bronzes that make up the next masterwork from the hand of Holly Young and the studio of Bobby and Kathy Page are crated up and will head today for Kauai. Several months in the making, this remarkable three-part diorama is truly amazing. Bobby sent these photos from Colorado this morning so we can all celebrate their journey to Kauai Aadheenam.

Enjoy this on-your-own paced slideshow with inspirational quotes

One of the Siddidhata Kulam's most joyous seva is supplying food for the monastery. Once or twice a week we drive around the property picking a wide variety of tropical fruits that were planted years ago by forward thinking monastics.

This week our harvest produced bananas, black sapote, mame sapote, lychees, chiku, Haitian star apple, avocados and egg fruit.

Yesterday the monastery received a gift of rare hybrid plants. These specimens are from David Fell, owner of Fantastic Gardens located in Waimanalu on the island of Oahu. We have traded plants with David for about 20 years, and he has visited the monastery with his wife, Sandy.

David made his offer of free plants, and invited the monks to "come and get it." But that proved not feasible, so we turned to Adi Srikantha who is living for a few months on the Big Island. Adi agreed to jump in and make the gift possible, which was a complicated affair. Adi worked out all of the details of the 20-foot refrigerated container that was needed. Then he flew to Oahu for several days, arranged the agricultural inspections, loaded the container and arranged for delivery of the container to the monastery from the port.

The plants are all mature, colorful, special hybrids that David created over the last 25 years. Thank you, David. Siva's Sacred Garden welcomes these new arrivals.

Jai Ganesha!

With the Nartana Ritau in full swing our sacred gardens have woken up to the fact that winter is over. All the many flowers have started blooming again! We take a short walk and snap a photo of as many as we can find. And oh did we find a lot! It's hard to image just how many we would find if we had explored the whole aadheenam, but it would be tons. To be clear, you won't get the names of all the plants you see in this post, as that information is kept in the mind of another monk, but we can still enjoy all the pretty colors together!

"God speaks through flowers as well as through the tongue of man." - Siva Yogaswami

We go again into the garden to bring you some of the season's gifts. One cannot but be amazed that this is February and so much is blooming and thriving and marching toward the buildings!