Employee John is nearly finished placing the two rows of paver stones next to the seashore paspalum grass sprigs popping up. Underneath the grass is the geotile, and this will constitute the ground pradakshina path around Iraivan. Below the front of Iraivan Temple, employees Doug and Jim are nearly finished creating this lava rock pony wall around the steps up the hill.

Another Skanda Shashti festival has come and gone. Dancing with Siva defines the festival as "A six-day festival in October-November celebrating Lord Karttikeya's, or Skanda's, victory over the forces of darkness." After two years of no visitors, we once again have a contingent of pilgrims from off-island. Because the six days of this festival immediately follow our late Gurudeva's annual Mahasamadhi puja, most pilgrims who come for that puja tend to stay on for this festival. Every day they were attending the 6am Muruga puja performed by Muruganathaswami, offering soulful singing while the curtain was closed, building the vibration towards the final afternoon puja shown in these photos.

Today, We celebrated Kadaitswami's 131st Guru Puja in Jaffna. Here with I'm enclosing a few pictures for you to enjoy. Thank you so much for your love and blessings.

Love, Thondunathan

Island School is a private school on Kauai, and the social studies classes have taken a field trip here almost annually during the period of the year when they study world religions. The teachers say the students always enjoy their visit here because it's so different from anywhere else on the island. Pat Gegen is the teacher who brought the students this time. He said, "I really enjoy bringing the students because they are so amazed and it interests them - they leave with a much better understanding and a greater appreciation for the Hindu world." Here are some photos of the group visit a few days ago.

A few days ago we posted about the Bala Alaya events to transfer energy from Kadavul Temple Nandi, Balipeedam and Dhvajastambha flagpole to a miniature wood replica so that craftsmen can soon do upgrade stone work around the bases. Here we present photos of the final event when the shakti was transferred from the kumbha pots into the replicas, just after the priests, Satguru and monks paraded all the kumbhas from the yagasala in Banyan Mandapam into Kadavul Temple in front of the Iraivan Sivalingam.
The shakti is contained in the water inside the kumbha pot, so a small amount of water from each kumbha was poured over each replica accompanied by powerful chanting, followed by decoration, dhupa, deepa, naivedyam. Toward the end, the priests chanted selections from all four Vedas, as is traditional at an event like this. Finally, they honored Satguru and he gave them the traditional tray of gifts and dakshina for their efforts.

Swami Sarveshananda from the Chinmaya Mission center in Dallas, Texas, visited our monastery for the first time as part of touring some Hawaiian islands. He attended the Siva puja first, then sat with Satguru for a few minutes to reminisce their previous interactions in Dallas/Fort Worth. Afterwards we took a walk out to Iraivan Temple. He was very charmed with the temple and surrounding grounds, noting various sacred trees and flowers as we walked. Swamiji recently installed a two-foot crystal Sivalinga at a Chinmaya Mission branch in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. When we were inside Iraivan Temple, he recalled being taken up inside the Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu Brihadeeswara temple vimanam tower by a priest who showed carvings of the Siva Tandava poses and said those were the first carvings copied from the original book about bharatanatyam dance. More about Swamiji here-- https://cmdfw.org/about/our-acharyas/swami-sarveshananda/

We are getting ready to attach granite ornamentation to the base of the Kadavul Nandi and adjacent flagpole. In order to do this work, the shakti needs to be removed and stored temporarily in kumbhas through a special homa/puja. The Agamas prescribe a yagasala structure to contain the shakti until the work is done and we are ready to reactivate the area. Priests are being flown in to perform the pujas on Sept 11 and 12. Here are some photos of progress in the yagasala construction by the Siddhidata Kulam in our Banyan Mandapam. The kumbhas will be stored in the central platform. In the last photo they are preparing to paint red stripes.

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Recently work has begun on the landscaping immediately surrounding Iraivan Temple's foundation. For the most part this means preparing the ground for the hardy grasses that will surround the temple. In other areas, the landscaping is growing in lush and full. Below we present to you some aerial footage of the plants and streams along Rishi Valley, to the west of the temple.

"God is with us always, even when we are unaware of that holy presence. He is His creation. It is an extension of Himself; and God is never apart from it nor limited by it." - Gurudeva

We recently received a colorful new banner to help enliven the atmosphere in Kadavul Temple during festival pujas. It has cute Nandis, elephants, roosters, a Sivalingam and kumbhas sewn on it.

Happy monthly Ardra nakshatra abhishekam today! The evening before Ardra, the Nataraja murti is cleaned and polished with tamarind paste and vibhuti. Speaking of cleaning, while our SSC sishyas--Sivaram Eswaran family--were here on pilgrimage, Sivaram cleaned the Ganesha and Muruga murtis who bless the entrance to our Svayambhulingam area at the end of San Marga path.