"Let every second be a second of discrimination. Let every minute be a minute of realization. Let every hour be an hour of fulfillment. Let every day be a day of blessing, and every week a week of joy."

Kulapati Jiva Rajasankara departed for the airport early this morning and had darshan with Bodhinatha before leaving.

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Most Recent update: June 16, 2003, Bodhinatha speaks on Astikya, Faith, Niyama #4.

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Jiva and the silpis and Acharya Ceyonswami who coordinates communications with Bangalore. It was a good opportunity for Jiva to have a mind merge with Shanmugam Sthapati. Often there are issues in the assembly of the temple that need to be conveyed back to the carving site to make sure future carving meets the needs here at a later time of construction.

Thank you, Jiva, for bringing over the new team, and have a great trip home! Jiva is off now to visit with our sishya in California before flying back to Bangalore.

Silpi Sankaran

Silpi Adaickan. He has been working at the Iraivan temple site since he was a teenager.

Silpi Karuppaiah, who has also been working on Iraivan since he was a young man.

Silpi Sinnakkannu. He worked closely with Shanmugam Sthapati on the assembly of the giant Tiruvalluvar statue at Kanya Kumari. Although he has not been working at the Iraivan Temple site at Bangalore, Sthapati recruited him for this next two-year period for the critical work of raising up the vimanam tower over the main sanctum. We feel in good hands with such experience!

Now we take a look at the entry way over at the south east end of our property, at the end of Kaholalele Road where all our mail arrives and visitors also.

First they see a humble building which belies the 400-acre wonderland that lays ahead. This is our "information center" which is where the Pilliyar Kulam serves.

It will not be unusual for arrivals to be greeted by one of the Pilliyar Kulam members... Here is Sadhaka Jothinatha, our Hinduism Today subscription and advertising manager, with the Pilliyar Kulam feline mascot "EeReh" which means "cat" in the Shum language.

Next, the arriving pilgrim will come to the Nepali Ganesha at the Puakenikeni Mandapam.

Here is the beginning of the path to Kadavul Hindu Temple.

This image of Ganesha has a lot of power!

Now for the trek up the path.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha who is serving in the Lambodara Kulam and handling fund raising matters for the Iraivan Temple building project is often on hand to greet visitors. He is standing by as we have a big crowd coming today.

On their way past the front of the main monastery building guests will see the inspiring granite images of Tirumular and Tiruvalluvar. This is Tirumular

We had a large group today called the "Maha Samadhi Network" from Japan. This group was founded by Tenge Shiroh (his spiritual name) who watched his father go through a difficult transition in a hospital bed. He then vowed that the passage to the inner world should be done with proper preparation and understanding, so he founded the "Maha Samadhi Network" to propagate this knowledge. Tenge is known in the business world as Dr. Toshi Doi, Vice President of Sony, and inventor of a Aibo, the famous robot dog of Japan. If your interested an ideal artificial intelligence companion, go to: http://www.us.aibo.com/

The group attended the morning Siva puja and also had a talk given to them by Bodhinatha.

We were also honored today to have Alvin and Francois Buchignani visit. We have known Alvin since he was a young attorney in San Francisco in the late 1960s, just graduated from law school and getting started. Gurudeva wanted to retain a competent attorney for his several institutions and spotted a fine soul in the young man. Alvin has been serving as the attorney for Saiva Siddhanta Church now for over 40 years. He is a well-known lawyer in San Francisco with specialties in estate law, contracts and finance and a personal dedication to the principles of arbitration. Francois speaks proudly of their attorney son, Anthony, to whom Gurudeva wrote a note on the day of his birth, saying, "Welcome to planet Earth, Anthony." Francois is trained in hospice work, has numerous social service callings and still finds time to help her husband as his legal secretary. Alvin was instrumental in helping Gurudeva and Bodhinatha in hammering out the details, over a three-year period, by which we were able to establish the public foundation known as "Hindu Heritage Endowment." Thank you, Alvin, for all your good counsel over the decades!

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Current Overview

We gave Alvin and Francois a tour of the Iraivan Temple and they were truly amazed... as everyone is who stands before it. Here we are at the north end of Iraivan.

Stepping into the area around the sanctum we see the retaining stone wall, adjacent pillars and the sand sub-floor.

On top of this sand will be placed a flooring of granite stones that will be one level up from the outer, main floor.

Sand is traditional a sub-base in temple floors. Underneath sand will be the drainage system for water that may come in from rains that blow into the temple from the side.

Now we lift our camera up, as if we were walking around the inner sanctum.

With the sun shaded by the roof, the intricate carving stands out to the eye...

Here is a look up at the rear, north side of the sanctum. This is always considered a very sacred wall and pilgrims will touch the sanctum here to take in the shakti of the inner sanctum and Siva Lingam which is just inside this wall of stone.

The full beauty of Iraivan starts to unfold as what have been separate pieces in our minds, at the carving site, on containers and forklifts... all come together now in marvelous elegance.

The small holes you see on the undersides of the potagai are sockets for future neon light bulbs... NO! Just Kidding!

😉

Actually these are indeed sockets, but will receive delicately carved stone banana flowers which will be screwed into these holes from below.

The work on the underside of the roof beams which form the ceiling is amazing.

Above, planks are in place for the silpis to take the stones to even higher levels.

The first stones of course sixteen are being fitted now.

The remaining courses will take the sanctum up almost double its current height.

Coming now to the front of the temple... We are keeping Gurudeva's picture there at the entrance, blessing the silpis as they work and all of us who come to wonder and worship.

When all is still and one stands at the temple site, the ancient power of the granite from India, the power of the architecture, the 1000's of hours of carving, the presence of Lord Siva and the fruit of Gurudeva's vision all merge into an indescribable presence that makes Iraivan feel as old as time, even though it is only just beginning.

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Date: March_19_1999
Title: The Guru Parampara
Category: Self Improvement
Duration: 3 min., 8 seconds
Date Given: March 19, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva

Today at Kauai Aadheenam, March 19th. Greetings everyone!

Today was a very special day. We had a beautiful fire puja in the Kadavul Hindu temple in the celebration of one of the Gurus of our line of succession, Chellapaswami Maharaj.

All the Gurus dating back two thousand two hundred years ago, up until the present day were driven by soul force. They were not driven by the intellect, not driven by the instinctive mind, but driven by soul force. You know people in the world today that are driven by their soul. They are generally religious people. They are people who have a mission, but the mission comes from the inside. We have three million or more swamis, yogis, sadhus, sadhakas, mainly in India, but scattered out all over the world who are driven by soul force to spread the teachings of the Sanatana Dharma, the eternal truths of the Vedas around the world. These are based on the three kinds of karma, reincarnation, all the intricacies of dharma, right thought, right speech, right action and all the many, many things that you have been reading about and hearing me talk about for a long, long time.

We are very happy to greet everyone in cyberspace today. We know that your computer is coming alive with 'Dancing with Siva', 'Living with Siva', 'Merging with Siva'. Read just a little bit every day and get these wonderful teachings into your subconscious mind. That is where they belong, in the subconscious mind. They will help mold your life so that you as an individual, depend upon your soul, and that still, small voice within your inner ear, and your third eye, the all-seeing eye that looks through, sees and simultaneously understands. That is what you can depend on life after life after life, rather than the intellect, which is fading after this life. Rather than your instinct which fades as you live out your life.

The soul force of this great Guru, Chellappaswami Maharaj, is with us today, and we honored him today on his Mahasamadhi. We will be back again tomorrow. Greetings, everyone and Aloha until we meet again.

Aum Namah Sivaya.

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