Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami departed for their light flight home and will be back on Kauai tomorrow around noon.

The Ganapati Kulam is hard at work finishing up The Guru Chronicles, The Making of America’s First Hindu Master,a momentous 850-page tome, more than three decades in the making, compiling the stories of the Nandinatha Sampradaya’s Kailasa Parampara. The back cover will display the photo at left and the following paragraph:

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (1927-2001) sailed for Sri Lanka in 1947 to find his guru. After years of arduous training, he fell at the feet of the Tamil master, Siva Yogaswami. Following his guru’s orders, the illumined yogi returned to America to teach the path of enlightenment. Ultimately, he was recognized and befriended by India’s spiritual leaders as the first Hindu guru born in the West. Gurudeva, as he was affectionately known, founded the Saiva Siddhanta Yoga Order and established Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. Hinduism’s many guru lineages are the spiritual rivers that pass the power on through the ages. The lineage that he joined extends to his guru’s guru, Chellappaswami, and before him to Kadaitswami, then a nameless rishi and countless others, back to Rishi Tirumular and his guru, Maharishi Nandinatha, some 2,200 years ago in the high Himalayas.

Stay tuned for a peek at the front cover!

Erasenthiran Poonjolai, his wife Subashini, son Naavalan, and mother were here again today. Saravananathaswami takes them on a tour to the river, and the Narmada Lingam.

Naavalan meets our cows.