An hour after the amazing Pada Puja performed by Sri Kumar Gurukal (third from right, in orange), a tropical rainstorm swept the monastery.

Not an ordinary rain, mind you. This was the most rain in a short period we have seen in all our 40+ years here.

The Wailua River rose. Then it rose and rose. Then it rose some more, bringing giant trees fifty or more feet tall and four feet in girth down the river. They were tumbled in the swift waters like twigs. Nature's energy is awesome to behold, and the monks were mesmerized, unable to take our eyes off this display of natural energy.

It made an island of these giant albezias, something not seen before.

The monks were calling the floating monsters Moby Tree.

This one was so big, it got stuck on the boulders. It will take us weeks to chainsaw it into moveable pieces. What a spectacle it was, and just in the aftermath of our four days of honoring Gurudeva. How could it be a coincidence, that the more abundant rains in history came at just that moment? Color us impressed.