Morning at the Aadheenam

Om Namah Sivaya

Click through the slideshow above to join our photographer for a quick journey around the aadheenam this morning and see what's been happening.

Each morning Yogi Haranandinatha takes our (solar-power-charged) electric leaf blower and makes his rounds along the temple paths.

If you follow the recently cleaned paths out to the pali lookout, you\

ll find some big, blooming, pink roses'

We find Sivanathaswami near the breakfast counter (full of fresh tropical fruits, or course). Swami is preparing to go on his three hour vigil in the temple to perform the 9:00am Siva Puja for the day.

Inside the temple, an abundance of flowers adorn the shrines. Gurudeva\

s tiruvadi receives a flower from each monk in the morning'

Ganesha has many hibiscus along with a gifted rose garland

Where do all these flower go after being imbued with the sanctity of Kadavul Temple?

Lets follow the flowers to find out!

The temple pujari\

s collect the older flowers and put them in buckets. In the morning, Nirvani Tejadevanatha collects them and brings them to the garden.'

We find Yogi Dayanatha on the way out to the garden as well. Yogi is gathering tools to work on the new High Tunnel green houses.

We make our way out to the garden. As you can see, all along the side of our fence are large composting bins. That\

s where the flowers go.'

That means that all those blessed flowers become the soil that grows our monks\

food. Holy shrines, holy flowers, holy soil, holy food. And you are what you eat right? '

hmmm... maybe everything is holy, sacred and divine?

Here\

s the high tunnel that the monks of the Siddhidatta Kulam are working to finish today'

They also have plants still being grown in the regular beds, such as okra and eggplant

And more flowers!

Inside the functional high tunnel, we find Nirvani pollinating plants. On most days he has a helper.

\"Potato Chips\" is a semi-wild cat that protects the garden from rodents. When he was small, the monks saved him from a bad injury from another cat. Now he shows affection to anyone he sees.

In this high tunnel we find a bed of butternut squash. A few are getting close to ripening.

Everything in this first high tunnel is a bit of an experiment to see what grows best and to discover how the growing process can be made more efficient for each vegetable

These heads of lettuce were moved here from one of our green houses.

After some acclimatization, they seem to grow fine, despite being such a delicate variety

Potato Chips wants attention...

And here we find our spaghetti squash. We just had our first harvest yesterday.

Soon perhaps, Chinnu will make them into some tasty, homegrown, organic foods for the mathavasis. Then with all that energy, the monks will pick more flowers and offer them to God, Gods and gurus. Om.

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