With some helpful dry weather in the last week, our big equipment operator and engineer Dennis Wong was able to complete the process of laying down rocks and gravel for the farthest section of the Iraivan Temple pilgrims' path. This portion is the most challenging because of longer distance for transporting the material, and susceptibility to muddiness in wet weather. He will move on to the flatter sections in the weeks ahead. The rocks and gravel were laid a bit further than the temple entrance hill steps, over to a picturesque stream. Next, Dennis is working backwards, currently around the svayambhulingam area.

As the map shows, our island of Kauai is about 200 miles away from Maui island, where the devastating fires happened on August 9th. It was the most destructive disaster in the history of Hawaii, with the loss of over 80 lives and total destruction of an entire town, Lahaina, with a population of 12,000. It is estimated that it will cost 5-6 billion dollars and decades to rebuild everything.

Many around the world have worried if the monastery is OK, and we want to assure everyone we are.

In a walk near the Path of the Saiva Satgurus this morning we were greeted with this remarkable orchid in bloom. Wow! It is Grammatophyllum wallisii, a rare native of the Philippines. It is among the largest orchids in the world and has many nicknames in the botanical world: Giant Orchid, Tiger Orchid, Sugar Cane Orchid. The flowers are a full 3.5 inches in diameter and the 8-foot-long spikes each have dozens. In the days ahead the spikes will extend and the drama will only increase. The plant as it grows older will form a basket of aerial roots, which is designed to catch falling leaves which will decompose and release nutrients and thus sustain the plant. Above is a Before & After slider of Iraivan from high above.

On this dry and sunny afternoon we get a few shots of more mondo sprigs (the dark green fluffy grass) being added on the west side of Iraivan Temple. We've hired some extra help to move the big project forward a little quicker. The silpis are up there making some corrections on roof stones.

Aum Namah Sivaya

Each month during the auspicious timing of the Krittika nakshatra, Pravinkumar performs a homa in Iraivan Temple. Satguru attends each time and he notes that the temple has become noticeably more powerful each time. Following the event devotees enjoyed the reverberations of the temple's not-so-subtle vibration (and also enjoyed the coconut rice!). Aum.

Fun photos for today. The first is a shot of Nimu, the African Grey parrot you have seen on TAKA before. This morning he was caught piloting our drone (which can be seen on the other side of the glass if you look closely).

The second is a shot of Rudraksha tree roots, taken in May by Rajkumar Manickam. This tree is near the Swayambhu Lingam, near the Muruga shrine.

The Sanskrit Guide, at sanskritguide.com, was initiated by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami to help devotees improve their Sanskrit chanting. He named a few areas in particular, namely, attention to: aspirates, retroflex letters, compound consonants, sibilants (the three "s" sounds) and long vowels. Accelerating from his initial thrust of Guru Shakti, the course was developed over a two-year period with the guidance and genius of Adaityananda, a Sanskrit aficionado, teacher and translator. It includes text lessons, exercises (with audio), charts, illustrations, and supplementary videos. The core idea is as follows. Because of Sanskrit's structural consistency and phonetic nature, you will swiftly build a firm foundation for correct chanting if you learn: proper pronunciation of the vowels and consonants (~51 sounds in all) this means learning the source place of each group of letters (five families, basically) in the vocal system: guttural, palatal, cerebral (retroflex), dental, and labial. Learn the brilliant structural pattern within all five families of consonants: unaspirated, aspirated, voiced, unvoiced and nasal learn to chant syllables rather than words or lines of text learn to correctly divide lines of Sanskrit into syllables by following a few simple rules learn how to recognize which syllables are "guru" (strong, 2 beats, and which are "laghu" (not strong, 1 beat), and chant accordingly with precision. Mark the "long" syllables with bold or highlighting. learn to mentally cognize precisely each sound you chant by paying attention to the text, or memorizing the chant, so there is no ambiguity. You know, for example, if you see a you would knowingly and caringly pronounce it as a retroflex letter, never pronounce it as a dental t. In the beginning stages, it is important to read as you chant, so you stay "on script" and don't develop bad habits. Like playing a musical instrument, it does no good to practice a mistake over and over again. While the tendency is to want to jump in and "learn a lot of chants," a better way to spend your time is to master the above areas. Then you will be able to apply those skills to every mantra, every word, every shloka that you encounter. Then, rather than learning to chant new mantras poorly, you will learn quickly to chant anything well with a minimal amount of practice! Sound good? If so, this is the course for you!

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Today, Brahmachari Shankara is serving in the Ganapati Kulam. As one of his first tasks, he was sent to Iraivan Temple to take photos of the recently completed red granite tiles around the temple's foundation. Upon Shankara's arrival at the temple, Pravinkumar had just arrived to open the temple doors for the morning puja and abhishekam to Lord Mahalingasvara. Before opening the doors he does a small puja for Nandi, requesting Nandi's permission to unlock the inner sanctum. Also happening in the temple, the silpis are carving a special drain from the sanctum gomukai. Iraivan Temple's morning puja is not yet open to the general public because the area is still a construction site, but the worshipful vibration is no less palpable. Jai Mahalingesvara!

Kauai Aadheenam was honored by a rare visit from one of the leading Lingayat Saiva Gurus in the world. Jagadguru Dr. Shivamurthy Shivacharya Mahaswamiji from Sirigere in Karnataka State, India, was accompanied by devotees from Chicago. He has been the head of the Taralabalu Monastery since 1979. He is also the President of the Taralabalu Education Society which has over 170 educational institutions in Karnataka, and teached 50,000 students. Swami is also a Sanskrit expert and translator into English of 22,000 of the vacanas of the main progenitors of the tradition, including Basavana, the founder of Lingayat Saivism, whose poems to Siva have and continue to inspire millions.

Swami met Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami in the Guru Pitham, took a tour of Iraivan Temple, met with the Ganapati Kulam and went out on a garden tour.

Jai Gurdeva!

Recently our monks celebrated the monthly Chitra nakshatra with the usual padapuja to Gurudeva's shrine in Kadavul Temple. This month, Sannyasin Tillainathaswami and Nirvani Tejadevanatha performed the ceremony.

"Peace is the natural state of the mind. It is there, inside, to be discovered in meditation, maintained through self-control, and then radiated out to others." - Gurudeva