Aloha, as many of you know, Sadhu Paksha is a time when the mathavasis change their usual morning routine and instead enjoy their sadhana unstructured, walking and meditating among nature. This change of routine provides an opportunity for a change in perspective. Shifting perspectives is a wonderful thing and an invaluable tool when solving complex problems or any time you feel stuck. We hope you enjoy these photos taken by the monks, that offer a unique perspective of the monastery. Aum Aum Aum!

Back in 1972 Gurudeva was leading an Innersearch to India that stopped over in Thailand. While walking through Bangkok, he and a few of us were exploring a shop specializing in carved wood items. There, near the entry, stood two marvelous teak elephants, about 40" tall. They were carved from a single tree. If you know teak, you know it is slow growing and seldom reaches such a size, since it is so valuable they are harvested early in their life. Gurudeva loved this pair. One of the Innersearchers heard him admiring it, and offered to get them as a gift for the new aadheenam on Kauai. They arrived a year later and for many years have stood as sentinels in the brick-floored courtyard where the monks have lunch each day. The years passed along with their pristine look. Recently our young Taskforcer Arunesh was inspired to clean and refurbish them with a concoction of bees wax and orange oil. Like magic, the wood turned radiant, like the day Gurudeva first saw them. Thank you, Arunesh...

For decades it has been one of the most popular little books from Himalayan Academy. It is "an eternal calendar," meaning it is designed in such a way that it never becomes obsolete. It's good from year to year. This is a new edition, inspired by devotees in Tucson, Arizona. They wanted the calendar to be available to all members, and to have Bodhinatha quotes included. So we added Bodhinatha photos and quotes, and also Yogaswami quotes. It's a rich collection of lofty thoughts and insights, with 365 quotes in all, and 52 photos, one for each week. The dedication notes it was produced especially for Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami's 80th Jayanti, October 15, 2022.

Today we received two photos of a small desert garden under construction at our Spiritual Park in Mauritius. The energetic landscaping team of Sivathondaars there are paying homage to the 60-foot-wide Shadkonam (six pointed star) arid garden on Kauai. Theirs will be a miniature version, just 10 feet wide or so. The slideshow compares the two.

The Pillaiyar Kulam is adding to their existing building at our front entrance so they can store most of our printed publications, as they are shutting down the expensive storage space on the mainland US. The new area is taking shape more quickly now, with extra workers on the job. Here are some images of the progress.

Earlier today a shark took a bite out of one of the cables connecting Hawaii to the rest of the world taking out all of our web servers... Not really, but that's a much more interesting story. The real story involves human error, the computer terminal, and a lot of convoluted code. Anyways, everything looks like it is working as of now, the only casualties were a few taka post published before the server backup happened.    As consolation, please accept this picture of our cat Kavi. Aum Namah Sivaya

Yesterday, during the Chitra nakshatra, Brahmachari Akash entered the Guru Pitam to sit with Satguru and the monks and to take his pledge as a supplicant.

This important ceremony signifies the stage where the young pre-monastic has made a firm decision to follow the monastic path. He is now in a state of "supplication" begging the monastic order to take him into their midst and to become a postulant, or full Sadhaka.

"The supplicant's foremost objective is to strive for mastery of the charya marga, or path of service. This begins with the avoidance of wrongful actions and the overcoming of base instincts and emotions as he learns to transmute worldliness into the higher states of devotion and selflessness. At this stage on the path, the Saivite devotee is content not to strive for profound spiritual attainments but to work diligently with the faults and flaws that are stumbling blocks on the path, learning at the same time to depend not only on his own resources but on the limitless abilities of the Gods to resolve all difficulties and dissolve all obstacles. In "The Final Conclusions for All Mankind," Gurudeva has said, "In the stage of charya, similar to karma yoga, the devotee naturally awakens a desire to work for the sake of work, to serve for the sake of service. He does this in his daily life and through helping in the temple in practical ways--through sweeping the marble floors, polishing the brass oil lamps, weaving fragrant garlands for the pujas, helping other devotees in their lives and in general through a humble and unseen kind of service." The Supplicancy is a time of profound worship of Lord Ganesha, Lord Murugan and Lord Siva and of deepening commitment and service to Saivite Hinduism and to the Church. It is also a time of study, challenge and inner change. The supplicant is encouraged to strive for the perfection of service and for the monastic ideals of humility, industry and responsibility, renouncing personal needs for the benefit of others. In this service, he should strive for transparency, that quality of anonymous virtue in which the premonastic lives in full harmony with others, remaining centered within and not standing out or disturbing the surroundings. It is this ancient tradition of unseen service and unperturbable stability that the supplicant seeks to emulate, realizing that serving in unheralded ways and renouncing the fruits of even good deeds averts the pitfalls of the spiritual ego and nurtures the state of unpretentiousness. By putting great energy into premonastic life and by serving tirelessly for the benefit not of himself but of others, the supplicant opens himself to the inflow of Lord Siva's grace."