Hideo Tanaka established Hideo Plumbing and Sheetmetal Inc on Kauai in the earlier 1900's. He worked from his home in Kapaa, literally a stone's throw from Kauai Aadheenam, just down the hill. Through the years he and his son Bryan (pictured here) established a reputation for excellent work and customer service. The monks have been doing business with him since 1976 when we had Mr. Hideo Tanaka make a lot of custom plumbing parts for our honey extraction and bottling operations in the days when we kept honey bees. Hideo has gone to the spirit world but his son Bryan carried the business forward. Recently we have been having his team prepare a lot of copper flashing work for the renovation of the Manga Mandapam and Ganapati Kulam Media Studio renovation. We invited him and his wife Tanya to come for a visit and a tour. It was their first time visiting the monastery and Iraivan temple.

Today the monastery and countless people worldwide honer Gurudeva, along with the joy, beauty and simple divinity that he brought to all of our lives. The monks perform today's chitra puja, bathing his tiruvadi in milk, ghee, yogurt, vibhuti and more. His loving energy and wisdom filled the temple.

All the monks send a big Mikka Nandri, Mahalo and Thank You -- to all the Saiva Siddhanta Church members in Malaysia for taking care of Bodhinatha and doing such a great job with coordinating and putting on all the events!

With all the footings in place the main structure for the panels was ready to go up. Yoginathaswami put in many hours making sure the first set was structured correctly, creating an accurate model by which the others could be easily built. The SK has been working hard, and will soon be ready to mount the panels.

A sishya writes-- We were blessed with another event with our beloved Satguru Bodhinatha....
The Aloha Dinner at the Pullman Hotel was held for the students and members of SSC...
The evening was stunning...well organized..
The event was coloured with variety of programmes and performances..
Dinner followed with time for members to socialize and have good time with each other...
Thank you Satguru for this great event!!!

Click here for more photos of the event (SSC sishyas are invited to login to SSC website for posting comments)

Click here for additional photos (SSC sishyas are invited to login to SSC website for posting comments)

And click here for a video of a excellent skit at the dinner based on our youth storybooks (SSC sishyas are invited to login to SSC website for posting comments in the videos section)

A sishya writes-- We were blessed to have spent the whole day with Satguru at the Pullman Hotel, Putrajaya, Malaysia...
The 1 day seminar had 4 different sessions on Practising Hinduism, My friend Lord Ganesha, Colour meditation and Letting go of past and future..
Each session was accompanied by Satguru's videos on these subjects followed by question and answer session with Satguru..
We had a short walk to the man-made lake located in the hotel itself...simple and satisfying lunch....chats...laughter...
After lunch, Shanmuganathaswami conducted the session colour meditation, filled with humour and jokes...
Upon leaving, all of us definitely felt rejuvinated, spiritually uplifted...I personally felt so light...and heavenly...just by being around my Satguru!

Click here for a few photos (SSC sishyas are invited to login to SSC website for posting comments)

This morning the monastery held a sacred fire ritual to begin the new phase. Satguru Bodhinatha is traveling in Singapore and Malaysia, so Sadasivanathaswami burned the written prayers and gave a short talk in his stead. He discussed the Iraivan carvings that are on their way from Bangalore, which include Hanuman and the statues of the satgurus. He then gave insight into the world of microbiology and the many amazing new discoveries and understandings coming about in new science, in which the microcosm echoes the macrocosm in infinite complexity and inestimable intelligence.

Cycads and their close relatives the Encephalartos are among the ancient plants of the world, found in fossil remains some 280 million years old. Plus, they are known to live as long as one thousand years. So they are a natural choice for the monks to plant near Kadavul Temple where our giant mango tree had to be removed. So Sadasivanathaswami, Arumuganathaswami and Adi Srikantha visited a cycad nursery yesterday and selected dozens of the species, to be delivered in July.

These plants create giant cones that weigh up to 60 pounds. In tribal days in South Africa, the cones were used as a food source, so it may not surprise that the name Encephalartos means, literally, "bread in the head" since there is a lot of high-quality starch in the crown head at the top of the trunk.

During this last retreat, Acharya Arumuganathaswami, Sadhaka Tejadevanatha and task-forcer Adi Srikantha, traveled across the river to the monastery's Noni feilds to harvest fruit. It will be fermented and later pressed to resupply the monk's dwindling stores of this incredibly medicinal juice.

Over the retreat several of the monks spent some time in the wood shop working on individual projects. Here Sadhhaka Jayanatha has hand carved a natural base for a crystal lingam. In the background Nirvani Nilakanthanatha is on the lathe turning a wooden bowl from our own harvested tree.