Aum Namah Sivaya

Acharya Arumuganathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami just concluded a five-day trip to LA. The initial purpose for their visit was to attend a small conference for the Uberoi foundation. The foundation's aim is to help support Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism in the United States through education and scholarly support. Over the years the foundation has funded several of the monastery's educational videos which are intended to supplement the material available to American classrooms for teaching about these traditions. Following the conference, our monks traveled to a Hindu Temple, Buddhist Temple, Sikh Gurudwara and Jain Temple with the eventual goal of creating more educational videos, showcasing temple tours as their basis. There was also the opportunity to have satsang with Southern California members and devotees. Aum.

Jai Ganesha! On last months episode we were introduced to Vatshalan and got too see him in action picking tomatoes in the green house. Todays episode stars Vatshalan again and his various zany adventures with Kauai Adheenam's heavy machinery. Will this city boy survive doing Siddhidata kulam work in Kauai's gruling climate? Watch more to find out!

The Siddhidata Kulam reports that on June 9th we planted two Atlantic Pumpkin vines and 2 local pumpkin vines ( Japanese Variety). They were harvested a few days ago. The single Atlantic pumpkin on the cart transport is 120 lbs. This variety is usually grown for size competition in state fairs. The local pumpkin produced 211 lbs from about 33 pumpkins.

September is almost behind us but before that happens enjoy some photos from this month's pada puja to Gurudeva. "You need a tremendous, indomitable will to make a reality of your quest of realizing the Being within." -Gurudeva

Suresh Mutthukiulam of Kerala sent this canvas recently, commissioned by us to adorn Bodhinatha's Yoga Sutras to be printed next year. We thought you might like a previews. In this unusual piece, Suresh creatively describes eight siddhis, powers, that a yogi naturally attains (and is encouraged to renounce). There are 25 in Patanjali's text, but these are the famous ones. Read the captions in the slideshow for a deeper immersion into the powers.

One of the creative things happening at the monastery is the golden Rudraksha beads. Our trees are now in full blossom with more flowers than we have ever had since the forest was planted in 1978. Of late, we are experimenting with applying 23-karat gold leaf to the home-grown seeds. They are beautiful, something never done before, so still a bit experimental. They make wonderful gifts, a precious combination of spiritual meaning and sheer beauty. To one of the monks, "These should be in a Gucci shop in Milan. They are that elegant." But, for now, they are only in a humble MiniMela shop on a little island in the Pacific Ocean.

Happy Chitra Nakshatra! After 22 years, we have replaced the trusty, conventional lightbox that has displayed Gurudeva's photos at his shrine in Kadavul Temple. The technology was old school. Each month a monk stepped up on the shrine, opened the box, pulled out the plexiglass sandwich and inserted a new transparency. The new box houses a high grade digital screen that will rotate through many high quality images every three hours, while drawing a similar amount of power as the old unit. Kumarnathaswami and Kanda Alahan teamed up on the project. It was Kanda and his sons who had built the original version in their California cabinet shop.

Jai Ganesha!

Recently, Satguru and our two other traveling sannyasins enjoyed some time in California as a final stop on their short mainland trip. While there they visited the Concord Temple construction site in the Bay Area, and also enjoyed a hike in Mount Tamalpais state park. They then made a short drive to visit the home of Easan and Sundari Katir. Next they headed south to LA where they had a group meal with Southern California members. Tomorrow Satguru returns to Kauai. Aum Namah Sivaya