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Gurudeva's Vision of 1975

On February 15 of 1975 Gurudeva had a series of early morning visions of Lord Siva that were to become the founding moment, the spiritual seed, for Iraivan Temple. The next day he set out to find the spot where Siva had sat in the vision. At one point in his search, he stopped to rest on a stone. Though there was no wind, a nearby wild guava tree shimmered and shook in a dramatic way, as if it wanted to tell Gurudeva something. He listened, then got up and looked around. Just a few feet away, hidden in the bushes, he found the six stones, one of which Siva had sat upon. To tell this story, we drew this sketch and then looked far and wide to find a masterful artist to render it in his style.

This is the Kerala muralist's interpretation! Just received today. In fact, it is not quite finished but Palaniswami was eager to see how it was going, so the artist photographed the four-foot-wide canvas.

Note the magical details. Gurudeva is seated on a mini Mount Kailas, to subtly convey Siva's presence in the moment. The artist said he drew the tree as though it were dancing its message, again betokening Siva's part in the moment.

The Wailua River flows by, replete with fishes and turtles.

And these? These are, of course, the ridgeline of the volcanic mountain range we see from the monastery, their fiery birth captured in this stylized form.

The bushes behind Gurudeva provide a kind of nimbus and aura.

There are nine such paintings in the series, to be completed by the end of 2010. Ultimately they will be presented on the ceiling of this Swayambhu Mandapam which will be build around the stones Gurudeva discovered that day. It is common in Hindu temples to have visions, deities and stories painted on the ceiling for pilgrims to explore, enjoy and learn from. Jai Gurudeva!

Guru Purnima Week Continues

The vibration is very high at the Aadheenam as the auspicious Guru Purnima day approaches. Rajen Manick writes from Mauritius:

Jai Ganapati!

I am happy to wish Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami a happy Guru Purnima 2009.

I am really blessed to be always guided by Bodhinatha in my life to fulfill both my family obligations and my seva to our Church.

I have just started learning graphics with photography last week and I am sending Bodhinatha my very first attempt to creative photography using special effects. It is not really perfect but I am happy to created something different with Bodhinatha’s photo and feel inwardly good about this first trial. See photo attached.

Thank you Bodhinatha for everything. aum.

Rajen.

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We call this photo “Bodhinatha in the Ocean of Consciousness” Click here or on the photo to see a higher-medium resolution image of this graphic.

Grounds tour

The Sriskandarajah family was back today for more activities on the Aadheenam grounds, starting with collecting water from the stream…

…to bathe the Narmada lingam

Then driving up San Marga path. Our cow Nandini happened to be nearby and came trotting over to be fed some konrai (golden shower) tree leaves.

Then visiting the Svayambhu Lingam, first offering golden shower flowers to Ganesha and Muruga,

then to the Sivalingam

At Bali Hai falls…

and down to Wailua River

and the large pond

Iraivan Gold Leafing Complete (and it shines!)

The gold leaf work is complete and how magnificent it is! Pilgrims this morning commented “Photos can never do justice to what they really look like!”

But we have a slideshow below that can help you visualize what the real temple looks like.

Here is the Vimanam.

Rajagopuram

This is a Chinna Gopuram before…

and after! We want to thank all the donors for their generous help to turn Iraivan into a shining manifestation of the Sivaloka here in the Bhuloka!

Iraivan Gold Leafing Slideshow

  • It is not showing the photos? Try reloading the page
  • Press the play button (second button from the right) to watch our slideshow
  • Or, walk through the photos one by one by clicking on their thumbnails
  • We highly recommend the full screen version — click on the last button to the right

  • [slidepress gallery=’2009-07-03-iraivan-gold-leafing-complete’]

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