Each month, members and students in Southern California gather for satsang in one of their homes. Here are photos from San Diego at the Mahadevan's home

Over the retreat occurred chitra nakshatra, at which point, every month, the monastery holds a padapuja for Gurudeva. As is the norm, Gurudeva's deep, loving presence filled the temple and blessed all those in attendance. We had the honor of hosting Kumar Gurukkal who came to the island to perform a wedding. He joined the evening puja, chanting Sri Rudram along side the monks and Bodhinatha.

Jai Gurudeva!

"Hold your center. Find the place within you that has never ever changed, that's been the same for many lives, that feeling that has been the same within you since you were a little child up to this very time. Find that! Catch that vibration, and you've caught the vibration of the soul and identified it to your intellectual mind and your instinctive area of the mind. Then build on that. Work with that. Say to yourself, 'There's something within me that never changes, no matter what happens.'" - Gurudeva

This morning the monastery observed it's usual homa to start off the new phase. The homa was attended by the monks as well as some local members. Natyam Nandinatha performed the havana, after which Satguru Bodhinatha gave a talk about the importance of ahimsa in our everyday encounters. He detailed the subtle "himsa" acts which sometimes occur throughout our daily life, such as making jokes of the kind which can be hurtful to others, and explained ways to live a more dharmic and "ahimsa" lifestyle. Aum Namah Sivaya

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Our January 2014 news video covers events in December 2013, including: Ardra Darshanam Nataraja abhishekam, Iraivan Temple construction progress, our Media Studio renovation project and the fun, new quadcopter for shooting virtual tours, aerial survey photos and other video of the monastery.

Suriyakumar Kumarakulasingam has flown to Kauai for two days to be with the monks, join in today's Pada Puja for Gurudeva and see the progress of the monastery. He attended the Ganapati Kulam's morning meeting and this photo was taken right afterwards. It is Suriyakumar and his wife Rushika who are making Gurudeva's vision of a temple builders bronze memorial possible, and this was his first time to see and touch the sculptures that Holly Young is making and he is sponsoring. 
We learned he is flying to Honolulu tomorrow to be a guest of honor at the 100th Anniversary of a company that he acquired. Suriyakumar co-founded ARC Document Solutions in 1989 and since 2007 has served as its CEO and president. Under his leadership ARC has transformed the construction management industry and opened new fields of digital communication and information management for many industries, especially the building industry. You may remember his son, Seiyonne, was here a couple of weeks back. Welcome, Suriyakumar.

Click here for description and photos of the first Master Course seminar of 2014

Makilzhan and Priyabala Shanmugam family were back today with relatives to see more of Iraivan Temple and the grounds

Our fourth annual outreach to our thousands of web users is coming to a close. It ends January 31st.

Our goal of $70,000 is just over the $40,000 mark.

The truth is, we are going to forge ahead and create the best tools and resources we can no matter what happens with the goal. So, if you have given enough, we accept that with thankful hearts. But if we do make our goal, much more can be accomplished in 2014, since we will be able to reach out to those who are more expert than we, and apply their technical skills to our year's web goals.

Here in Hawaii there is a pidgin saying that applies: "If can, can. If no can, no can." That's the local way of saying, If you can do it, then do so. If you can't, it's all good. Aum Namasivaya!

Click here to visit our donation page.

Click Here for a beautiful photo collection of our Saiva Siddhanta Church sishyas celebrating Tai Pusam Kavadi in Mauritius.

Somalay and Soundaram Somasundaram returned this morning for darshan. They offered to organize a satsang meeting when Satguru is visiting the east coast of the USA.
The other photos are of a wedding party. Aysha Somasundaram and Tony Long from Chicago were married yesterday morning at the Mariott Hotel and then came up to the monastery for blessings. Priest Kumar Gurukkal, who performs our Gurudeva Mahasamadhi puja, came to perform the vivaha samskara.