Today was the big day for our Siddhidata Kulam team to do something they had never done before. Will it work?

Here we are at the new electrical box wall where the power will be coming in from the main outside lines. The team is taking four giant cables and getting their ends together and tied to the rope that passes down, and then underground for about 300 feet before coming up in the road behind the monastery.

Up and over this scaffolding…

to the spools that hold the cables…

An amazing pulley system was set up. The total weight of the four cables, plus estimated friction, was calculated to require about 2,000 pounds, 1 ton, of pull force to draw them through the conduit. At the beginning, the team though of using the hydraulic power of the tractor auger to wind the rope and pull.

One pulley is attached to nearby tree.

As it turned out, since the ropes passed through pulleys on both ends, twice, the total required force was cut to 1/4 or 1/6, so the team adopted a simpler system, pulling the rope by hand.

Way off in the distance is where the cable will come up.

Sadhaka Nilakantha standing by at the destination.

The rope comes out and up through a pulley and then 300 feet above ground to the starting point.

It’s working!

Here it comes! It is through!

One last happy effort by the team.

And the job is done…

Finished… “Pau hana!” as we say in Hawaiian.

Click here to view a slideshow of the gathering to celebrate Satguru Bodhinatha’s Jayanti.

With the main conduit piping of the new electrical system all now safe and sound beneath the ground, the next stage it to actually get the new electrical cables through all the pipes.

Normally you will have to pay a contractor $1,000’s of dollars for this part of the operation. But, since it does not require a professional license just to put electrical cables through pipes, the Siddhidata Kulam has decided to do this work themselves and save a bundle for the Aadheenam construction budget.

First they used scrap metal from our property and created this big holder for four giant spools of huge thick copper wires that weight altogether nearly a ton.

Yoginathaswami design this and Sadhaka Tejadevanatha welded it all together with footings that will slide onto the forks of the Caterpillar Skid Steer.

Next a light weight cord is tied to a plastic bag that is blown up and inserted into one end of the pipe that goes some 200 yards from this point back to the new intake panel wall. Down inside this whole a vacuum cleaner is attached to this end of the pipe and it sucks the bag all the way through the pipe. Then the light cord is used to pull a heavier rope back through the pipe all the way out to the other end where the spools of wire will be attached.

Them we will use the our small track hoe to be the mule that will pull all four cables through the conduit. Today was all set up day. Tomorrow the fun begins and the team will do the actual feeding of cables.

Thanks to Hindu Heritage Endowment and Other Donors

Dear Bodhinatha,

In order to improve the living conditions of our children at the Yogaswami Girls Home in Batticaloa, we constructed a new dormitory building as the second storey above the kitchen, which was newly built last year.

The reason for building the dormitory upstairs was that the village Sitthandy — where the Girls home is located — is prone to floods. Last year, the home was impacted a great deal by the December flooding in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. We are hoping to complete the building before the rainy season starts.

Herewith, I am enclosing some photos of the new building under construction showing the second storey dormitory.

As you can see the beds are too crowded, and they do need a new building. But at least for now everyone will be dry when the rains come.

Our sincere thanks go out to the Hindu Heritage Endowment and other kind-hearted souls who have made this project possible. It is because of this generosity that the girls are getting a new dormitory.

In Peace,

Rishi Thondunathan

Vanakkam

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Gurudeva’s Mahasamadhi. It was on Deepavali Day 2001 when Gurudeva breathed his last in our mortal world. To commemorate the legacy of a great saint such as Gurudeva, I would like to invite you to attend a puja on the 22nd of October at 5.00pm at the following address:

Thiruvadi Nilayam
20 Slan Avenue
Scarborough, Ontario M1G 3B2
Canada

I would like to cordially invite you and your family to attend this puja in Gurudeva’s honor. I am looking forward to sharing this auspicious day with you and your family.

Aum Shanthi,

Rishi Thondunathan

We began a new phase today.

For Satguru Speaks fans, note the new talk we posted in the side bar…. this was Bodhinatha Upadesha from last week, a very interesting talk on some differences between Christianity and Hinduism and how we should never stand still on the path.

We are back after a three-day retreat. Here are some photos from last phase’s pilgrims.

Jai and Ganga Murugan on pilgrimage from Edmonton, Canada. Longtime devotees, on this visit they were reinstated as formal sishyas in Saiva Siddhanta Church

Kondapi family from Phoenix, Arizona, coming toward the close of their pilgrimage. The daughters Meera and Manu sang beautifully every day; Anil and Jyothi study the Master Course trilogy lessons every day at home. We will be including some of the songs by the sister’s in the music library of our new web site.

Mr. and Mrs. Umakanthan with daughter Janani and grandson Kailash visiting from southern California and New York. Three of them have visited many times before, but this is Kailash’s first visit since being born.

Click here for report of youth meeting after Oct 2 Ganesha homa.

Our visitors today were too numerous to fit in a single photo, so this is the first half, gathered at Iraivan to hear the story of this one-of-a-kind sacred temple in the West.

Almost as many were sitting in Kadavul Temple for the morning puja.

The Tanaka team arrived early to add copper details to the Gurudeva Visions Exhibition Shrines, officially known as the Sivadarshana Vanam.

Ultimately, this copper roofing will turn the traditional and ineluctable green as it oxidizes. Their work today is important in controlling the moisture.

Later this month a team of Sivathondars will place five copper spires on each of the three roofs.