Four Kerala paintings, each four-feet square, were just framed on the island. They depict, left to right, Gurudeva's vision of Siva, the island and monastery being blessed by Siva above and the paramparai below, Siva showering light on the Iraivan Temple sthapati and silpis and the crystal lingam of light which is destined to be installed in the sanctum. These are the last four of nine paintings in the series called Sivadarsanam.

Rajkumar and Ananda Manikam (with daughter Saroja) drove our two swamis wo hours out of Denver to a famous rock formation called The Garden of the Gods. Spectacular red cliffs trust from the earth here. It's also a rock climbers haven and there were 12 or 15 climbers in full gear risking their lives on the sheer faces of stone.

This was once home to American Indian tribes who competed with mountain lions to carved a living out of the somewhat bleak and dry terrain.

The story is, if you believe it, that these formations were horizontal millions of years back and during a tektonic shift were uprighted, thus forming the unusual structures.

Sushma, Senthilnathaswami, and Sivanadiar Jaya went on a flight around the island several weeks ago to shoot footage for a short video that will give a summary of the monastery. Here is a more of the still photos that were shot along the way. (There are fullscreen versions of these as well)

All of the finished tongue and groove rainbow eucalyptus wood for the ceiling of the media studio are being stacked for storing, these 900 square feet of choice material, from local trees milled at the aadheenam, are all hand planed and lightly lacquered.
Here Kumaranathaswami, Adi Srikantha and Haran Kandadas are stacking it all on a custom pallet (made from norfolk pine wood), then using shrink wrap and tyvek, followed by a piece of plywood, then a grommeted tarp. This will keep the wood clean and dry until it is installed sometime next February.

Raj and Ananda Manikam (and fifth-grade daughter Saroja) who live in Colorado drove our two swamis two hours to an amazing place, aptly names the Garden of the Gods. It consists of steep red cliffs in a large cluster. We were also met by Surya Sundaram and his wife Beth and daughter Dana.

We are delighted to have sixty Tamil seniors from Kauai Aadheenam here on pilgrimage from Toronto

Don't miss Bodhinatha's most recent Sun One uypadesha which we just uploaded. It's a classic reminder of why you are here on earth in a physical body! To realize the Self!