A Royal Path to Iraivan Temple—Part One

Jai Ganesha!

Yesterday, the first portion of an improved royal path to Iraivan Temple was poured in concrete. This path stretches from the area around the Silpi Pavilion, up the Corypha palm-lined hill and ends where it intersects one of our roadways at the top. When done, it will be 650 feet long and ten feet wide. A Royal Road we are tentatively naming Siva Saalai (சிவ சாலை in Tamil) Siva’s Road.

Many pilgrims may remember this hill and the challenges it has historically presented during heavy rains. Our hope is that this path will now serve as an mud and erosion free avenue for monks, pilgrims and work vehicles.

Over the this last week, concrete-expert Jim Fain and his 12-man team worked to prep the roadway. First they scraped and flattened it and then prepared the forms and the wire mesh for the concrete pour. Yesterday the trucks and pumps arrived, bring in a total of 88 yards of concrete, ten trucks in all. For perspective, a single yard weighs about 3,700 lbs. As it was pumped into the forms, Jim and his team continuously worked it and shaped it. They started their work day at 6:00am and finished at 5:30pm. Just imagine yourself raking rocks for a whole day, and you'll have a sense of the endurance that this type of work requires. So today, in appreciation, the monastery brought them lunch: pizza, Hawaiian potato salad, regular salad and local juice drinks. After all, Yogaswami told Gurudeva he would "build palaces and feed thousands!"

Jim and his team rake and screed the concrete in the first section to be poured

It all began with a lot of road scraping and leveling

Then the form boards are laid out

The team stakes them in place

Looking good!

It\

s a long roadway to be done'

Here\

s the bottom, with the forms and wire mesh in place'

A small pathway to the stream

For this size of a project, you need cement trucks and big pumps

The wire meshes are placed to the side as the trucks are slowly (and carefully) backed in

Into the pump it goes!

It begins.

From here on out the team has to work nonstop, quickly and effectively

One truck leaves and others soon arrive

Even managing the hose is like heaving around a heavy bag of sand

Thankfully it was a big team. \"Many hands make light(er) work.\"

The float ensures a smooth and even finish on top

Day one concluded with half of the road finished. Today removed the forms and did some finishing work on what had been done the day before. Next week the truck will come for another round. Aum.

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