Last Day of Our Phase

Aloha and Namaste, the monks are wrapping up another dynamic phase of activities and enjoying some nice weather. The monastery has had non-stop overcast and rainy conditions for the week but now are embracing the sun! As I walked around the monastery this afternoon I was surprised to find so many monks doing things outside and even a group of church members holding a meeting for the future activities on their busy calendars.

We hope you get a glimpse of our "aloha Friday" and are having a great week yourself. Aum Aum

A cactis from Arizona made its way to Hawaii! Sadasivanathaswami\

s garden work includes desert plants, of which more than half survive this wet and humid climate. '

The island team of church women gather to debrief the group on future operation needs and who must be involved. The monks could not do as much without this powerful group of devotees.

I stumble across Nirvani Tejadevanatha and Roshan working in the Banyan Mandapam

Nirvani is on the job to replace the feet of these load-bearing pipes

His years of welding has gifted the monastery projects and kept most work in-house and under-budget

Nirvani points to the welds and explains what is going on. Thank you Nirvani!

The new feet are installed and secure this large structure

Roshan humbly explains he has done nothing...but we know his yearly seva has accrued hundreds of man-hours at the Aadheenam

The team explains more stuff is happening further down the road and I must capture it! I take their word and head off.

Natyam Dayanatha is helping our local master of landscape and tree work Travis Redmond unload coconuts from his truck

Travis has been working with the monks for some years now, both delivering coconut cream and milk that his wife processes, and working on processing lumbar with Kumarnathaswami, providing mulch for the garden and coconuts for the temple and kitchen. Whew!

Not an easy job at all. These stalks of coconuts can weight up to 50lbs.

This huge pile of coconuts are fresh from the tree and can be used in the temple for abhishekam or cooking in the kitchen

Thank you Travis!

A crisply cut tree sits on the ground and waits for the master to arrive and shape into art

The woodshop is quiet as projects sit and rest

The work continues around the greenhouse area. Yoginathaswami talks with Dennis Wong on the days projects.

A few feet later our taskforcer Trey works on painting this equipment shed

Trey is a natural on farms and has spent many months working and living on them. Gurudeva would assign people seeking monastic training to work in that way.

The garden soils of America have seemed to taught Trey many things as he is quite the mystic meditator

And he paints like few can!

Thanks Trey!

The greenhouse is blooming with food. We open the door and snap some shots of lettuce, kale, coriander and baby greens.

A few hundred feet away is the newly constructed noni manufacturing facility

The building is ready for noni and awaits the last few inspections before work can begin. This has been, and continues to be, a monumental effort for Acharya Arumuganathaswami. He has worked tirelessly to manage the work so far.

These barrels will hold the freshly picked and cleaned noni, and the fermentation will be held inside.

That wooden contraption was built by Acharya and cleans the noni as it comes in from the field

Natyam Dayantha finishes with the coconut hauling and shampoos these beautiful Indian rugs gifted by the Pillay family

Natyam has an eye for detail

The view as we return to the Media Studio to process all the photos

The sun is setting on the ponds and waterfalls of the stream and we catch a glimpse of the magic

Our Koi fish are well fed thanks to the consistent work of Nirvani Haranandinatha

Their magnificent colors shimmer in the light falling from the sky

Isn\

t it easy to see that Siva, this miraculous divine energy, flows through all life? Gurudeva said if you were to ask Siva where he is, he would respond by saying, \"I am in the trees and the forests, I am in the animals on land and in water, I am in all things.\"'
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