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Bodhinatha goes inward, just a few moments before starting his Sun One morning talk. Today's talk is up as a video. We are also noting below the date of the current video so that you will know if a new one hane posted or not. Today's talk was a reading from Gurudeva's writings on darshan from the daily Master Course lesson follow by Bodhinatha's trenchant dismantling of some false concepts about spiritual life.

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Last Update: February 10, 2003.
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All the monks are gathered early at 5:30 am.

Saravananathaswami begins with the worship of Lord Ganesha.

Bodhinatha presides.

The Vedic Yagna, while being perhaps mankind's oldest form of ritual worship to make a connection between the three worlds, is far from a fading tradition. Quite the contrary, more and more Hindus around the world are performing yagnas.

Bodhinatha offers the prayers to the fire.

Gurudeva watches us all from within. His giant illuminated transparency helps to keep him very much alive in our midst.

Our servers were upgraded over the past few days and we were not able to do TAKA on the last day of the phase... Here is our tour group from that day. We thought that after the new year we might see a slow down of visitor's, but more and more are coming. Bodhinatha's prediction that we should be prepared for 1000 people a week may come much sooner than expected!

More guests who dropped by briefly...

Today's guests were the van Waardenburg family from Oregon and Praful and Jayshree Patel from Canada. Frank van Waardenburg decided to bring his mother (Lenall), wife (Josephine) and two children (Ineke and Paul) to Kauai. He has visited here before and on one of his trips here he had his copy of Merging with Siva signed by Gurudeva who said to him as he handed him the book "Don't read this book if you don't want to change your life". They had a wonderful tour and purchased a copy of the new Living with Siva in their efforts to secure the collection of the trilogy. The Patels heard about us through some friends and decided to make their trip to Kauai a pilgrimage vacation and have been coming here every morning for the puja and darshan.

Iraivan's four new pillars... and now we continue with the final installment of "Raising the Pillars of Iraivan."

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Stepping back in time to Sun Four of last phase. We covered all the ceremonies surrounding the first pillar. Pillars 2, 3, and 4 went up without further ado. Here is the second pillar.

up, up up....

Now down...

The prices for Island Crane and Rigging, per hour are not cheap... the team moves swiftly and carefully now.

We had no idea what to expect today. As it turned out the whole operation was smooth and painless -- thanks to our expert crane operator, Larry Conklin and the careful preparations made in advance by the Siddhidata Kulam.

OK, he's down...

Unhook.

Larry move his boom truck forward about 20 feet for the second set.

Ok, up with Number Three.

Larry is very experienced.... here he is raising his boom and cable simultaneously

just at the moment the pillar is upright, he pulls the pillar up.

6000 pounds of stone does not swing around too much at all.

Number three goes in now....

Yoginathaswami called to Larry while the silpis guide the pillar into place.

OK, contact! Just come down more for unstrapping the top...

The large strap girdles the top of the stone. It has loops on the end with a turn buckle.

The turn buckles are unscrewed from the straps.

And now, the final pillar. First, the strap is carefully wrapped

Larry guides the team explaining just where the overlap should be so that the strap will be right on the center line of the pillar as it is raised.

OK, strap is on and the spreader at the top is connected. Here we go, one last time for today.

Looking good, Larry, go for it!

Our silpis man the guide ropes attached to the base.

Ok Number Four in the air...

And down again.. That's it!

Larry is happy. He dismantles his rigging.

Mr. Conklin said that of all the jobs he has ever done in his life this is probably the most significant of all his projects. Thank you Larry Conklin for making our day!

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		Innersearch 2004 in India! Bodhinatha will lead the next Innersearch to India in January, 2004. We will visit Bangalore and the Iraivan Carving Village, and settle in the South in Tamil Nadu, Click on the above for details on what will be an inspiring journey to our holy land of Bharat!
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