Reservations were booked solid for the public tour today. We thought visitor count would wane in September but it seems interest in Kauai’s Hindu Monastery is becoming a priority for visitors to the island. This is Bokka and Renuka Reddy from Fremont California. Originally from Hyberabad, South India.

Sometimes you forget to “look up” when walking through the Aadheenam property. High in a tree overhead are these huge beautiful orchids.

When we finally arrive at the stone carving demonstration guests find it almost unbelievable as they stand before Iraivan and realize that the entire temple was created from this simple hammer and chisel combination.

The ease and effortless work of Kandan as he moves from the larger chisels to the finer and finer movements makes obvious a sensitivity to stone that is truly extraordinary.

Today, among the 70 or so visitors we had a special group of 20 volunteers who joined the public tour from the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Each year the garden does something special for them, and this year it was a morning at the monastery. Their love and service to plants and trees on the island brought a rare treat for our guests, with the appearance of Paramacharya Palaniswami.

Always giving blessings and gifts, he had brought some seeds of a beautiful and intoxicatingly fragrant tree “Mimusops elengi,” also known as the Bullet Tree, or Bakula in Sanskrit. Several guests were from the big island and were delighted to expand their own plant collections with the addition of this special gem that is not known much in Hawaii. Palaniswami had recently brought in 1,000 seeds from India.

Paramacharya Palaniswami with the National Tropical Botanical Garden volunteers. “Na Lima Kokua”

Nani Ka’ua pond and waterfall

At the conclusion of the tour many guests visit Kadavul Temple to feel the power and purity of a monastic staffed Siva Temple.