Rain from the tropical skies fell gently

to the green island earth this morning

right after our Sun 1 fire ceremony. The

members gathered with the monks and Gurudeva

to lift prayers to the heavens, prayers for

Hanumanji to bring the Iraivan Temple from

Bangalore, India. Prayers for Shiva and his sister

in Florida at the Kashi Ashram of Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati.

Prayers for the upliftment of all, for peace in all

hearts and homes. In the lave rock walls of our Siva Nataraja Temple all gethered with Gurudeva this morning. He spoke of the teachings, of the duty to pass along what gifts of knowledge have been given to us. He noted tghat "To teach means that the central core of the Vedas has to be alive within you. You have to live what you teach, not otherwise. It takes prana, the prana of the voice, the Vac, to pass along the eternal teachings and truths. So each of you must teach and develop the ability to teach others, even those living with you in your own homes. [Photo is a non-flash image of Gurudeva in his peacock chair waiting for the guests and members to arrive and for the fire ceremony to begin.]


Gurudeva offered many prayers into the holy fire. He mentioned afterwards that it it imperative to not become lax on the inner path, but to keep our own inner fire burning bright, and that it is by our actions and responses to things in life that we know this fire is going.
Dr. Ho of the federal agricultural department called today to give us some good news aboutg a special plant we are importing to the monastery grounds. It is Thunbergia coccinea, a red-flowered rare hanging vine from Burma originally, and it has never been brought to America that we know of. We found one after months of searching (thanks to Peshala Varadan and others). We don't have a picture of it yet, so we will show you some other plant photos around the property taken today. [That's a coconut flower. They are used in puja and represent nature's endless abundance]
And that is a Samoan coconut, a special variety that stays fairly low and is therefore easier to pick. The photographer could stand on the ground and get this closeup. Nice shot, Jivananda!
Agave, a desert plant which has been here for six years finally flowered this month. It shot up a giant stem, about five inches in diameter and 12 feet tall, and today these glorious yellow flowers are showing off.
The bees love them, by the way and are buzzing dizzingly around the agave. If you look close, you can see the little apis melliferas drinking nectar.