Aum Namah Sivaya,

Sun Two at the aadheenam.

Today marks the beginning of the new Mini-Mela building, after many delays and refinements in the original plan.

Shanmuganathaswami gives instructions to the team. The main contractor is John Anderson, a long-time associate of the monks. He is an excellent professional and a wonderful person.

Probably because we had to spend so much time getting permits and moving the project forward, the concept also grew. Now, we will have a two-story building with many uses for the monks and guests.

We bring you one more photo of the new view of Iraivan.

It’s like seeing a well-know jewel from an angle you had never seen it before.

Keoke is creating the flat area for our hydro power turbine.

We will turn all this potential energy into electrons moving, and then return the water to nature as if nothing had ever happened.

Usually hydro power involves creating a massive system of lakes, but we have one here already, so the environmental impact is minimal.

Paramacharya Palaniswami guides Keoki’s machinery.

The excavator found a hard bed of rock where we wanted to dig. Keoki is patiently breaking down and digging out the boulders. No small task.

Bodhinatha often mentions to his devotees a wonderful sadhana: to wander around nature, with the mind clear and open. The goal is to observe everything, not letting the thoughts get in the way. Children perceive amazing details that adults are certain to miss with their cluttered, noisy subconscious.

Our photographer took a stroll around the gardens and shares the results.

All photos in this section can be seen bigger. Just click on any photo!

Gurudeva wrote, “Observation is the first faculty to appear in the awakening of the superconscious regions.”

We usually miss the details of Lord Siva’s work.

Here’s Mr. Long-Whiskers, a gentleman, or shall we say, gentlesnail we met today at the drinking fountain.

While he felt around for a safe path along momentous leaves and precipitous cliffs, we chatted about how some humans could consider Mr. Long-Whiskers, well, a little weird.

He promptly replied that the same could be said by any respectable snail about humans themselves.

He reasoned, quite sensibly, that while humans jolt up and down to move forward, balancing on far-stretched appendices they call legs, snails simply slide, smoothly and gracefully. He also quipped, it is a good idea to have one’s house attached to one’s back, since no housing bubble has ever ailed an honest snail.

Siva’s creations offer so much, if we are just to be the watcher and appreciate the view.