Today is a magical day, the 63rd anniversary of Gurudeva's initiation by Yogaswami on the full moon day in May of 1949. We celebrate with this slideshow of the progress of the silpi memorial he decreed we make for Iraivan Temple.

Gurudeva instructed the monks to create a bronze memorial that shows the ancient skills that built this temple. He realized future pilgrims would not have the benefit of seeing the silpis at work, and this would give them a visualization, and since it would be in bronze, it would last as long as the temple itself.

At the center stands Gurudeva, who is sharing with the master architect his visions and instructions for building Iraivan.

Around them seven stone sculptors are working on the various stages, from quarrying to rough shaping, marking, fine sculpting and chisel sharpening.

Gurudeva's statue done, Holly moved on to Ganapati Sthapathi, the temple architect. Sadasivanathaswami and Arunuganathaswami flew to the Big Island Wednesday to visit her studio and approve the final was work before molds are made in preparation for the bronze casting in Colorado in the months ahead. See what they saw...

One Response to “Silpi Bronze Memorial”

1. Amma Debora says:
   May 5th, 2012 at 4:20 am

   A lovely idea, and an astonishing result! Congratulations to Holly Young for the magnificent work – that´s really God´s power flowing thru her hands in form of art! Hoonoring the silpis is really very important, for their work will always be a wonder to all visitors at the Temple.

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