Sriram Vishwananathan and Alpa Patel were married recently, on July 10th. Sriram heard about the Siva Temple on Kauai from a friend and so they came for their honeymoon and pilgrimage. They were in attendance at the Guru Purnima ceremony on San Marga last phase.

Today they attended the 9am Siva puja, met with Bodhinatha and wandered our grounds performing sadhana at the various shrines.

Today was Sun One with homa as usual this morning.

Bodhinatha gave a talk introducing the Twelve Monthly Meditations booklet, focusing on the subject of “Taming Distraction.” Watch for it in the side bar tomorrow or the next day.

He explained how from the Shum perspective, awareness moves and the mind remains stationary. All states of mind always exist, it is our awareness which travels from one to the other. For meditation, one does regular hatha yoga and pranayama. As one gets more involved in meditation and more control over awareness, distractions are experienced less often.

Durgam and Subha Chakrapani are on pilgrimage from Portland, Oregon. They pause in front of the exquisite and beautifully hand-carved granite Umbrella Ganesha along the well-worn path to the Iraivan Temple.

This sacred Swayambhu Lingam was where Gurudeva experienced his threefold vision of God Siva. In future years, the sacred Swayambhum Lingam will be housed in a beautiful pillared temple building. This is the sacred site where devotees honored Gurudeva and now Bodhinatha during the most auspicious annual festival of Guru Purnima – which was held just three days ago!

Ramesh and Sujata Sachdeva on their yearly pilgrimage with son Shiva and daughter Simran. Hugging rudraksha trees and bathing Narmada Lingam.