Aum sivaya,everyone.
Ayudha Puja is a important puja for all production units. Iraivan worksite celebrates this in a grand way. All the silpis will be very happy because they will receive their bonus and new clothing.

Here is the group photo of the silpis . Jiva Rajasankara and Senthilathiban is seated .

This is another group photo where Thuraisingam is seated. Chinmayie (Thuraisingam’s daughter) is standing with Senthilathiban..The third generation has joined the function. We will learn her to learn this craft.
We do not allow boys under 18 to work. The boy standing is a son of one of the silpis .

Puja begins at the blacksmith (pattarai) Our retired silpi, Sundaramachari came to join the function. We allowed him to do the puja.

After the puja, he shows the arati to all the silpis.

A new stone is normally blessed and chipped on this day. Supervisor Manikandan is preparing the thread to mark the stone. Sundaramachari is doing the puja.

The stone is marked with the red oxide thread. The silpis are looking on.

It is a tradition that the sthapati or the supervisor starts the first chipping. Then each of the silpis come forward to chip. After chipping they apply sandal paste and kumkum on the point where they chipped.

After the chipping a huge pumpkin with coins inside is taken around the stone three times and broken . It is done to remove evil thought forms.

One of the highlights is when the silpis rush to pick the coins when the pumpkin is broken.

Puja is done to the gangsaw. This machine can cut 2.5 feet in depth. You have to cut 0.5 inches at a time.
Periperal wall stones will be cut using this gangsaw.

After the puja, the machine is started. Water keeps pouring from the shaft above while it cuts.

There are 2 trolleys below the stone. The top trolley can rotate 360 degrees. This makes it easy to cut any sides without removing the stone.

Hello Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami, I met you during the last few hours of HMEC 2011 in Columbus, Ohio in September. I was/am one of the youths from Toronto. I really enjoyed your talk on the 14 common questions that Hindus may be asked about our religion. I really liked how you broke down the responses into three sizes: " the tweet, the elevator pitch and the rotary club response." I was wondering if you have and if possible, a copy of that presentation you could send me? Aloha, Girish! Yes, I remember you and than you for the kind words about our presentations. I put the 15-minute highly graphic Keynote presentation I gave here for you and others to download and use in your local communities: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/923572/14%20questions/HMEC%2014%20Questionsg2.zip(128MB Download Apple Keynote file) Sadasivanathaswami

I have also put a printable PDF of the 14 Questions booklet in the same Dropbox, and you can retrieve it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/923572/14%20questions/14%20Questions%20Booklet%20%202.pdf