The three silpi stone carvers, Manikandan, Murugesan and Adaikalan, have completed the finishing touches on the areas where the outside handrail meets each of the 21 pillars. They are now adding some artistic embellishments on the pillars at the sanctum entrance. At the beginning of October several of the monks and the silpis carried Iraivan Temple’s sanctum doors into the temple. These doors are made of solid teak and are fully clad in amazing bronze work depicting ten forms of Siva. The doors will remain in the temple while we move forward with the exacting process of fitting them to the sanctum doorway.  Our lava rock team is making steady progress on the four-foot-high wall on all sides of the temple. On the south side, the team has begun a push to build up the stones around the entry stairway. This type of lava rock construction requires massive attention to detail, as each stone must be fit perfectly with no small stones stuck in between.

The monastery drone captures an aerial photo of the newly-installed entry steps

The monks and Indian sculptors gather among the pillars of Iraivan’s Maha Mandapam for the annual blessing of tools

Ayudha puja is a traditional day of blessings, celebrated at the end of Navaratri, when we give thanks to our tools and equipment. This is an especially important annual event for the members of the silpi stone carving clan. On October 24th Satguru and monks joined the silpis at Iraivan Temple for a short puja to Ganesha and Saraswati. An arati was passed over the tools which the silpis are using to build this temple. Following a ceremonial stone-chipping, Satguru presented each silpli with dakshina and everyone then enjoyed some breakfast prasadam.

On October 15 the monks celebrated Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s 78th Jayanti with a special dinner party. Satguru was presented with gifts, poetry and messages of appreciation from his devotees around the planet. During September and October, Satguru has been giving weekly talks on Gurudeva’s description of the seven dimensions of the mind. This highly mystical work was recently published as a souvenir edition to honor his 19th Mahasamadhi anniversary. In this little book Gurudeva offers a profound map of the universe, inner and outer. The full text has never been published until now. Each week, Satguru reads from the text and adds his commentary in a series of videos which are now on our Kauai’s Hindu Monastery YouTube channel.

The November Ganesha Homa at our Spiritual Park in Mauritius

The wildly popular first-Sunday-of-the-month Ganesha homa continues at the Spiritual Park, hosted by the members of Saiva Siddhanta Church Mauritius for the past 18 years. Thousands of Mauritians, from all across the island, bring their written prayers each month to send to Ganesha through the sacred homa fire. Most recently the Spiritual Park held a blood donation drive in collaboration with the government Ministry of Health and Quality of Life. Ministry representatives said they were happy with the response of devotees and promised to return every month with their mobile clinic to the parking lot outside the Spiritual Park walls. The finishing touches to the newly constructed mandapams surrounding Ganesha’s shrine have been completed. The concrete pillars supporting the roofs were clad with wood and railings were added between the pillars. Landscaping around the three new mandapams and an upgrade to the Koi pond (a favorite of devotees) at the entrance to the Ganesha Mandapam is in the works.

Some of our first tomatoes from our new greenhouse

In mid-October we harvested the first tomatoes from our new hydroponic greenhouse—a great achievement after a lot of care and hard work to create an advanced system for growing fresh vegetables. In celebration, the first tomato to ripen was presented to Satguru on his Jayanti. On Himalayan Acres, the Noni orchard was recently expanded. Our organic noni juice is now being sold at health food stores throughout Hawaii and in South Korea.

Literature in the nonprofit world indicates that in 2020 because of COVID-19 many nonprofits have been forced to scale back on staffing and support programs, and some even had to close their doors. As one publication states, “Organizations with an endowment have been fortunate to be able to utilize those funds for additional support during the crisis.” Fortunately, Kauai’s Hindu Monastery has a number of endowments at Hindu Heritage Endowment. Two of them, Iraivan Temple Endowment and Kauai Aadheenam Monastic Endowment, are by far the largest and provide significant support to the monastery and its activities. The combined principal of these two endowments is approximately $12 million, which is currently providing a grant from Hindu Heritage Endowment of about $19,000 a month—an amount that covers a significant portion of the monastery’s basic operating expenses. Because of these two endowments, the monastery has not had to cut back on its activities or lay off any of its grounds workers. Kauai’s Hindu Monastery looks forward to the day, a few decades from now, when grants from its endowments at Hindu Heritage Endowment will be large enough to cover all of its basic operating expenses and provide total financial security in any future pandemic, hurricane or other event that temporarily disrupts the monastery’s normal flow of income. What is an Endowment? This animated video explains the three types of endowments in 101 seconds: www.hheonline.org/what-is-endowment.shtml. Hindu Heritage Endowment strengthens communities by supporting orphanages, temples, monasteries, schools, ashrams and homes for the elderly, youth hostels, cows, distribution of free Hindu literature and audio scripture for the blind.

For information on establishing a fund at Hindu Heritage Endowment, contact Shanmuganathaswami at 808-822-3012, ext. 6, or e-mail hhe@hindu.org.

Entrance Steps: The nine entrance steps are 30 feet wide and comprise 64 carved granite stones in all—shown above during installation. Sponsorship for each intricate stone is $2,500. On either side are two massive handrails, intricately carved in the form of a yalli, a fictitious creature made of several animal species said to protect the temple. This grand stairway creates a magnificent entry to Iraivan Temple.

Perimeter Wall: The perimeter wall is 40 inches tall, 24 inches thick and 475 feet long. It comprises 50 short pillars and 49 panels (the long section between the pillars). Each pillar and panel pair required 430 man-days to carve, even with the massive granite slabs being sawn to size by machine. Of the 49 panels, 35 have an ornate border (as shown in the photo at left) which will display (etched on bronze plates) verses from scripture and information about the philosophy and history of the temple. Sponsorship for one pillar section is $15,000, and $30,000 for one panel section.

Building Fund Donations; AUSTRALIA ; Mrs Saroja Bommireddipalli US$111.00; Nagaratnam Jeyasreedharan 40.00; D. Karthigesu Family 200.00; Rama Krishnan 60.00; Vimala Muniandy 64.00; Luckshmi & Logan Siva Nirmalananda 70.00; Gunavinthan Siva Thirumalai 200.00; Thanavinthan Siva T. Thirumalai 200.00; Essen Subramanian Valayten 4.87; Chandran & Mathini Wigneswaran 216.00; BELARUS ; Tatsiana Mezhennaya 50.00; BRAZIL ; Leonidas Coutinho 266.00; CANADA ; Anonymous 1,004.85; Thushyanthan Amirthalingam 108.00; Rajesh K. Bali 361.45; Serge Bilan 200.00; Bill Brown 75.12; Peter Christian 50.00; Lutcheemee Curpen 100.00; K. Dakshinamurti 100.00; Jean-Marie Dionne 108.00; Frederik Jan Elbers 2,016.00; Rathinappillai Logeswaran 100.00; Ganapathy R. Mani 20.00; Ioana-Gabriela Manoliu 66.00; Changam & Kamachi Naidu 100.00; Vanesh Naidu 54.00; Mr. & Mrs. Pranavan 50.00; Vijaya & Thiru Satkunendran 50.00; Sivakumaran Sivalingam 42.00; Nandi Sivam 220.00; Sayanthan & Anupama Sivanathan 22.00; Sara K. Sivasurier 434.70; Saravanamuthu Somasundram 100.00; Prashanth Srichandramohan 21.60; T. Thangarajah 1,084.35; Rajan & Radhika Upendran 37.02; Santhira Devi Vairavanathan 144.58; Sahunthala Vinothachandran 200.00; GERMANY ; Tharsika Chelvarajah Vasanthan 40.00; Jeeva Velusaami 42.00; GREECE ; Artemis Bimpiza 20.00; INDIA ; Anonymous 108.00; Lakshmanan Nellaiappan 20.00; Maragatham Nellaiappan 20.00; Sankula Prasad 5.00; Jiva Rajasankara 60.00; Thuraisingam Rajasankara 500.00; Vikram Santurkar 102.00; INDONESIA ; Mahadevan Gengadaram 150.00; ITALY ; Cristina Ma Puja Canducci 40.00; MALAYSIA ; Anonymous 1,214.80; Klinik And Surgeri BD 47.80; Ramu Alageswari 30.20; Nageswarie Apana 116.00; Supramani Apana 116.00; Appulanaidu 30.20; Arulmani Devi Arumugam 142.16; Devinasree Balasegaran 23.90; Om Krittik Balasegaran 23.90; P. Barathi Balasegaran 23.90; Balamurali Balasupramaniam 23.90; Hemakheshaa Naatha Batumallah 23.90; Mekaladeva Batumallah 23.90; Rathidevi & Veerasamy Batumallah 47.80; Arulmani Chandra Kumar & Sujith Arulmani 47.38; Theevhiyaa Chandrasekaram 47.80; Umaabati Chandrasekaram 23.90; Sasikumar Darmalingam 23.90; Sai Aaditya Deva, Sai Janany, Sai ; Hamsiny, Chandran Ramamurthy ; & Kalpana Devasagayam 201.50; Omaya Devasagayam 35.55; Parimala Devi 25.00; Annapoorani Ganesan 82.84; Yoga Rubini & Chandra Ganth 23.90; R. Jayakumar & Yoga Bhavani Family 47.80; Muthukumar Jeyapalan 4,000.00; M. Shanmuganathan & A. ; Kamalambikai 47.80; Anbu Kandasamy 28.00; Gunasekaran Kandasamy 823.53; Krishnamah 30.20; Amaraysh, Kumutha & Jarry Lai 35.52; Kavin Kirav, Leena Lakshmi ; Devasagayam & Anand Kumar Letchumana 142.22; Nameegri Marimuthu 71.02; Ramesh Murthi 11.83; Logadasan Murugesu 23.90; Mohanavilashiny Murugesu 35.52; Puvana Murugesu 35.52; Gowri Nadason 71.02; Kamalaharan Nadason 71.02; Ponnamah Nadason & Family 35.52; Rasiah Vallipuram & Pathumanithi Nagalingam 71.02; Achi & Suriakala Naidu 40.28; M. Suranthiran Naidu 127.84; Vinod Nair 695.00; Yehanthini, Sivatarnee & Dhevashri Navakkarasu 35.52; Nalakini Niranjana 71.02; Palanisamy & Vasande 23.80; Paparaw 30.20; Paruwathy 30.20; S. & Nirmala Raja 30.20; Rajini 30.20; Mogan Raju 138.00; Sai Ram 35.52; Supramaniam Ramoo & In Memory ; of Neelavathy Thangavelu 71.02; Raagini Ravindren & Senthil Ravindren 82.84; Jayaraj Kantharaj & Saranraj S-O Jayabalathilagam 42.67; Sanjana Saravan 35.55; Lachmi Savoo 35.55; Doraisami & Mohanasundari Selvaraj 24.00; Parimala Selvaraj 60.00; Ambikabathi Shanmugam Pillay 47.80; Raja Singam Raja Ratnam & Shreema Rasiah 71.02; Sinnamah 30.20; Nutanaya Sivaceyon 10.00; Saraswathy & Ramesh Sivanathan 23.98; Mohana Sundari & Sivasekaran 71.02; Girish Skanda 47.80; A. Sockalingam & Chandrasekari 71.02; Sivaneswaran Sockanathan 50.00; Devi & the late Selvadurai ; Subramaniam 35.52; S. & Santhi Subramaniam 30.20; S. Sugumaran & Sarasammah 62.44; Vasanta Tanggavelu 71.70; Remalah & A. Thinathayalan 35.52; Saroja Vasudevan 23.90; S. Veerasamy 40.28; Vikneswaran A. Vinsent 71.02; Yuvanes Waran 40.00; Darrshan Letchumanan & Yuvan Letchumanan 47.38; MAURITIUS ; Anonymous 205.86; Soondiren Arnasalon 6.11; Soundarajen Arnasalon 14.64; Prem Audit 4.87; Gunavadee Caremben 17.11; Moorghen Caremben 17.11; Ragini Caremben 17.11; Somasoundarum Caremben 17.11; Sukanta Caremben 17.11; Jegadessa Chenganna 24.37; Shree Saroja Devi Doorgiat 2.43; Rohit Jogessur 4.87; Darcinee Jugessur 1.22; Meeravadee Koothan 7.31; Mooneenagen Koothan 4.86; Poospawadee Koothan 2.43; Sooreshen Koothan 36.59; Amravadee Kownden 92.59; Vel Mahalingum 48.73; Sivakumaren Mardemootoo 2,016.00; Kulagan Moonesawmy 4.87; Seedha Lutchmee Moonesawmy 4.87; Jayaluxmi Mooroogen 7.31; Goindamah Moothoosawmy 4.87; Revathi Mootoosamy 2.44; Siven Barlen Mootoosamy 9.75; Karoumee Pareatumbee 6.08; Saranamutha Pareatumbee 100.00; Naden Seeneevasen Pillay 4.87; Dayalen Renghen 7.31; Ezilveylen Renghen 19.49; Jagadissen Renghen 14.62; Madhevi Renghen 19.49; Siven Renghen 24.37; Varaden Renghen 19.49; Vega Renghen 7.31; Kannen Valaydon 24.30; Saroja Valayten 4.87; Toshadeva Valayten 2.44; Ulasa Valayten 2.44; Siven Veerasamy 7.33; Devadasen Vythelingum 15.00; NETHERLANDS ; Prekash & Sabita Baladien 30.00; NEW ZEALAND ; Yogini Ratnasabapathy 100.00; NORWAY ; Anil Ananda Badhwar 110.00; Anuradha Badhwar 20.00; Meetu Badhwar-Hansen 10.00; QATAR ; Narayanan Sivasubramanian 101.00; RUSSIA ; Inna Aleshina 16.00; Dinanatha Borzunov 240.00; Oksana Kitaeva 145.00; SINGAPORE ; Roshan Gurmeet 10.00; Vasaant Krishnan 30.00; S.G. Nathan Narasa 30.20; Bijamati Pareatumbee 20.00; Shamala Raman 34.78; Kasturi Raman Amar 34.78; Easan, Lavanya & Sivakumar Saravan 800.00; Kavitha Darshini & Amitpal Singh 73.38; Kamala Devi Vaiyapuri 100.00; SWEDEN ; John Wahlen 11.00; UAE ; Anil Kumar 54.00; UNITED KINGDOM ; Anonymous 231.00; Christopher Brooking 20.00; Anthony Buckland 10.00; Vani Chenganna 500.00; Punitha Ganeshwaran 60.00; K. Jananayagam 1,000.00; Georgiana Lukshmi Dorothy ; Barnes & Theeba Ragunathan 200.00; Puvaneswary Roberts 350.00; The late Shree Vishna Rasiah & ; Sharmila Harry 71.02; Selvakumar Selvaratnam 108.00; USA ; Benevity 155.00; Benevity - Shenoy 200.00; Wailua Mission 1,642.50; Anonymous 9,400.21; Abhijit Adhye 100.00; Asha Alahan 50.00; Vel & Valli Alahan 50.00; Yohini Alvappillai 51.00; Palani K. Aravazhi 102.00; Kailas Aravinthan 501.00; Yuvaraj Athur 101.00; Rao L. Atluri 50.00; Bryan Bailey 20.00; N. Balasubramanian 5,000.00; Jon Banks 100.00; Arvind Bhakta 51.00; Jaydev Bhavsar 51.00; Shaila Campbell 108.00; Natalie Cardona 50.00; Cira de Castillo 300.00; Gurdial Chadha 42.00; Mallik Chaganti 40.00; Asha Chaku 140.00; R. Chandramouli 101.00; Naren Chelian 102.00; Sharath Chigurupati 246.00; Charles Close 216.00; Shyamadeva & Peshanidevi ; Dandapani 108.00; Janakbhai R. Dave 50.00; Amit Dass 101.00; Janakbhai R. Dave 50.00; Piyush & Krishna Dave 251.00; Ed DeDeo 200.00; Paul DeSantis 333.00; Chellappa Deva 50.00; Amarnath & Latha Devarmanai 224.00; Venkat Devraj 219.00; Gayathri Dhanasegaran 50.00; Rakesh Dixit 22.00; Aiyasawmy Dorairajan 50.00; Ramya Subramani & Rajesh Ekambaram 422.00; Ian Farrow 250.00; Rama & Sangeetha Gali 5,000.00; Raju & Heena Gandhi 51.00; Suketu & Mita Gandhi 102.00; Panshula Ganeshan 50.00; Siva K. R. Gara 51.00; Dominique Gay 12.00; Rajendra Giri Family 40.00; Toshadeva & Kamala Guhan 90.00; In memory of Chaitan ; Prakash Gupta 1,008.00; Kriya & Sharyn Haran 250.00; Jayashree Hariharan 102.00; Chandraleela Hoezoo 108.00; Usharani Iswaran Magaña 40.00; David Jaffe 216.00; Chandrashekhar Jairaman 102.00; Ramana Jandhyala 216.00; R. S. Jeyendran 101.00; Navin & Damyanti Jariwala 101.00; Kamaraj Jawahar 51.00; Haran Kandadas 102.00; Vigneswaran Kandiah 501.00; Srinivas & Shanthi Karri 180.00; Saravanan & Vasavi Kasthuri 3,542.00; Sundari Katir 40.00; Dilip Kumar Katrodiya 100.00; Kavya Kaza 36.00; Richard Kennedy 20.00; Siva & Jana Kesavan 1,000.00; Pavithra Khanapurkar 1,000.00; Andrzej Kraja 150.00; Joe Kreuzman 300.00; Vic & Vasantha Krishnamurthy 51.00; Rajagopal Krishnan 216.00; Anil & Anzila Kumar 251.00; Arvind & Neelima Kumar 108.00; Gregg Lien 1,108.00; Inna Linnyk 150.00; Gerard & Zhena Linsmeier 52.00; Abha Lokhande 64.00; Karthi Luneburg 151.00; R. & K. Mahadevan 101.00; Rachel Mahas 50.00; Gaurav & Ripla Malhotra 201.00; Chandra S. Malladi 50.00; Mallikarjuna Rao Mamidipaka 50.00; Laura Devi Marks 216.00; Tapas & Uttara Mazumdar 20.00; Dasarathi Minjur 18.00; Inder & Aileen Mirchandani 1,116.00; Sanjay Mirchandani 108.00; Harish V. Mistry 1,001.00; Shailesh & Jyoti Mistry 108.00; Palani & Selvarany Nadarajah 30.00; Nitya & Becky Nadesan 300.00; Manish M. Naidu 22.22; Rama Chandran & Rema Nair 5,000.00; Thillai Raj & Santhi Natarajan 150.00; Lok & Pushpa Nath 21.00; Sanjaya K. Nath 22.00; Emma & Narendra Nemivant 50.00; Neelam Oberoi 42.00; Neela Oza 150.00; Gopal Padmanabhan 101.00; Gurudas Pai 202.00; Satya & Savitri Palani 102.00; Cassan Pancham 5,040.00; Logaveera Pandian 20.00; Easvan & Devi Param 310.00; Janaka & Bhavani Param 20.00; Jothi Param 102.00; Harish Parmar -Dhanraj Inc 101.00; Balu & Damiyanti Patel 108.00; Dhiru C. Patel 51.00; Prasan Patel 70.00; Rakesh & Pinal Patel 201.00; Sanjay & Shalu Patel 51.00; Vinay & Hansa R. Patel 202.00; Salik & Sanjia Pathak 102.00; Viji Patrick 200.00; Venkat Pichairaman 22.00; Jonathan, Sabina, Brendan & Kai Pieslak 253.00; Indrathan Pillay 100.00; Raman & Uma Purighalla 1,000.00; Jagdish Ragade 251.00; Ramegowda & Shyamala Rajagopal 501.00; Parthasarathy Rajagopalan 100.00; Deva & Gayatri Rajan 2,110.00; Mohan Deepak Ram 22.00; Janevi Ramaji 202.00; Jeyashree & Venkat Ramakrishnan 100.00; Varalakshmi Ramamoorthy 216.00; Eswar Raman 80.00; Rajesh & Yatra Raman 22.00; Kasi & Vidya Ramanathan 102.00; Sudharsanam Rathinam 202.00; Cliff & Kathy Runge 100.00; Chamundi Sabanathan 260.00; Santosh & Madhu Sahay 162.00; Aran Sambandar 162.00; Shashikant Sane 1,000.00; In memory of Mrs. M. Sangarapillai 200.00; Gowrie & Eesan Sankara 31.00; Pathmini Saravanapavan 100.00; Vijaya and the late Ramachandran ; G. Sastry 251.00; In memory of Kewal ; Krishan Sawhney 500.00; In memory of Wishwanath & ; Motia Devi Sawhney 500.00; Aran & Valli Sendan 50.00; Muthu & Nandini Senthilkumar 51.00; Deva & Amala Seyon 102.00; Salil Shibad 42.00; Terrill Silke 100.00; Sarojani & Vingh Singh 150.00; Bageshwari & Achla Sinha 108.00; Iraja & Nilani Sivadas 216.00; Nirthika Sivakumar 202.00; Dharshi & Sivasothy Sivakumar 300.00; Jai Sivakumara 400.00; Jnana Sivananda 200.00; Lakshana Chetana Sivananda 102.00; Nathan & Sulena Sivananda 216.00; B. Sivaraja 20.00; Aditya Soni 251.00; Kuppe & Sarala Srinivas 51.00; Kiran Srinivasan 40.00; Padmapriya Srinivasan 50.00; Joseph W. Steelman 200.00; Yasotha & Thevarajah Subarajan 102.00; Mahesh Sundaram 194.00; Nandi Deva Sundaram 100.00; Surya & Beth Sundaram 100.00; Savithri Sundaresan 162.00; Phani Kumar Sureddi 14.00; Karthik Suresh 1,332.00; Shanthi Suresh 409.00; Siva U. Thillaikanthan 60.00; Reid & Pamela Tippets 21.00; Radhakrishna Tummala 502.00; Kumethini & V. Vamathaevan 20.00; Rama Vangala 42.00; Vayudeva Varadan 102.00; Rajiv Verma 216.00; Aditya Vinadhara 108.00; Mahesh Viswanathan 50.00; Tsajon & Kamalia Von Lixfeld 100.00; Sarala Vunnam 116.00; Keith Wallach 251.00; Michael Wasylkiw 216.00; Richard Bosworth & Kerri Watts 404.00; David Wiekrykas 1,008.00; Sundeep Yalamanchi 232.00; In memory of Shelah Young 102.00; Ashutosh Zade 22.00; Michael Zimmermann 5.00; Total Building Fund $98,739.72; Iraivan Temple Endowment ; Anonymous 232.00; Frank Burkhardt 20.00; Gunasegaran Chitravelloo 11.90; Ramana Jandhyala 10.80; Dinesh Kumar Jayaram 6.85; A. Paranthaman 4.65; Calayvanee Ragaven 50.00; Jayaram Rajaletchumi 11.45; Vijayaluxmy Senathirajah 500.00; Indrani Shanmugasundram 11.45; Terrill Silke 200.00; Total Endowment Funds $1,059.10; Special Project Donations ; Anonymous 108.00; Leonidas Coutinho 108.00; Siva & Arti Devaki 101.00; Valliammah Kandasamy 35.52; Gowri Nadason 355.15; Rajesh Thekkadath 100.00; Total Special Project Donations: $807.67; Grand Total: $100,606.49