Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“The first steps on the spiritual path consist in learning to harness the tendencies and impulses of the instinctive mind and transmute their energies into the higher nature. But we should not think of the instinctive mind as ‘bad’, for it controls the basic faculties of perception and movement, digestion, elimination, ordinary thought and emotion and the many other vital functions of the physical being…”

Listen to Part 1 here https://www.himalayanacademy.com/blog…

When we last left the five murtis of Siva, whty were in Honolulu being gilded with 23-karat gold leaf by Hawaii's premier gilding experts, Thor and Diane Minnick. The team had to stay up til 11 or 12 each night to make the deadline, which they did. The crates returned and were unpacked by the silpis who also carried the precious sculptures to the vimanam area where they will be formally installed. It's an important accomplishment. Enjoy looking over Thor's shoulder as he places the gold leaf on the murtis.

Several days ago Satguru, the mathavasis and local members gathered together in Kadavul Temple for our monthly padapuja to Gurudeva's shrine during the Chitra Nakshatra. Jai Gurudeva!

"The Truth is deeper and is discovered by the resolute devotee who dedicates his life to the search, who lives a balanced life according to the yamas and niyamas, the Vedic spiritual laws, who willingly undergoes change, who finds and obeys a spiritual teacher, or satguru, and who learns precisely the disciplined art of meditation. This, then, outlines the destination of the meditator's journey and his means of travel." Gurudeva

Following the Kadavul Temple kumbhabhishekam to mark the stone upgrades to Nandi, Balipeetam and dhvajastambha, another homa and abhishekam must be performed 48 days later as a vibrational completion to the intensity of a kumbhabhishekam. March 12th was the 48th day, which also just happened to be the 50th anniversary of Kadavul Nataraja Deity installation.

The ceremonies began with a homa at 8am, including five kumbhas to represent Siva, Varuna, Nandi, Balipeetam and Dhvajastambha. After the homa we paraded the kumbhas outside, broke a coconut and returned inside for abhishekam of Nataraja and Sivalingam. After Nataraja's kumbha was poured we returned outside to pour the kumbhas over Nandi, balipeetam and dhvajastambha. Thereafter we closed the curtain to decorate Nataraja. Some temple visitors led vigorous bhajans during this time. Then we completed our normal routine for morning Siva puja, albeit with extra monks present as happens at monthly Ardra puja.
Enjoy the photo collection.

The Siddhidata Kulam's new office and and machine maintenance building frame is quickly taking shape. The contractor team of two put this much together in just five days. It is a metal building, so the work consists of bolting all the pre-fabricated pieces together.

Some 70 years ago Uncle Manuel, who used to be the caretaker of the Aadheenam lands back in the 40s and 50s, brought a special orange tree he was give by the native islanders on the West Side of our island. He planted it on the land, not far from the current Rudraksha Forest, in a pasture.

The tree was famed both for its sweet taste and the fact it gives oranges all year long. It spent its years happily in the sun, munched on occasionally by our cows. But it is getting old, covered with lichen, and suffering from cow abuse. So we set out to graft it and save the genetics.

Yesterday Sean Kelly and Eilene came to help, both experts in grafting. They brought a robust root stock well established in pots, and they cut from the famed tree and grafter three copies.

Hopefully one or more will make it and we will start fresh with a new long life of oranges.

Aum Namah Sivaya

Today we bring you a new collection of artwork accessible on HAMSA - Himalayan Academy's Museum of Spiritual Art. The work was done by Maniam Selvan, an Artist from Chennai who has done work for Hinduism Today magazine in the past.

The the recent April/May/June, 2023 edition of Hinduism Today, Mase (as Maniam is known) created 8 canvases to help explore the genius of India’s Guru-Shishya system of spiritual training and transmission, through the magazine's Educational Insight Section which will be available online March 1st. To see the full collection, click the image below.

"Passing on the Power" In Ardhanarishvara’s presence, we see the important transmission of spiritual knowledge and realization down through history, a power shown as a white light that radiates the same purity from one satguru to another. The gurus differ in many ways, but the light they have is the same in all ages

Last year two pilgrims were taken through the gardens in our road-weary gas-guzzling, past-its-prime People Mover. They were moved to upgrade future pilgrims' experience, and made a gift to inspire an electric one. It arrived and was blessed two days back. We have named it Mayil, Lord Murugan's vahana, the peacock. It is a giant step up for hosting guests in the sacred gardens. Of course, it's quiet, and you can talk while it is running and people can hear and understand you. Our old one forced us to turn off the engine if we wanted to share something. Those days are history. Jai Murugan!

Aum Namah Shivaya

Please enjoy this video made by Indivar Sivanathan from Oregon.

Description: “Final day of the reinstallation of the energies into Kadavul Temple's Kodimaram, Bali Pittam (Peedam), and Nandi facing the temple entrance. Three priests performed consecration ceremonies for three days invoking the powers of the earth and inner realms. Concluding, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives an easy-to-understand explanation of the complex and intricate ceremonies.“

Two flatbed trailers arrived with girders and other parts for the prefabricated metal building. The assembly contractor just finished unloading everything so the trailers can be returned. Dennis Wong is adding gravel around the sides of the foundation, and the Siddhidata Kulam (with new taskforce arrival Thuraisingam Rajasankara) is taking inventory of the many parts to see if everything arrived safe and sound.