KHM

Jai Ganesha!

On Guru Purnima, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami had planned a special event—to plant a new bilva tree right in front of Iraivan Temple. During this auspicious occasion, Satguru joined in planting the tree along with our priest, Pravin Kumar. It was a meaningful and sacred moment for all of us, as the bilva tree is especially revered in worship of Lord Siva. Planting it directly in front of the temple made the event even more special. Now, Pravin Kumar will be able to offer fresh bilva leaves to Mahalingeshwara every day.

Jai Ganesha!

Many moons ago, our Ganapati Kulam monks hired a talented Oduvar, Vivek Raja, to sing all the sacred songs of Tayumanavar in Tamil. Tayumanāvar was a revered Tamil poet-saint and spiritual philosopher from Tamil Nadu, India, who played a vital role in spreading the profound teachings of Saiva Siddhanta philosophy to the world. A few months ago, we joyfully completed the entire collection of his songs and have now created a dedicated category on our website. You can listen to them online and immerse yourself in the deep spiritual wisdom of his verses. Aum.

Happy Sadhaka, Happy Monastery

This is where the button size wood decor will be placed. It will look better when it’s oiled and dried

One of the finished sides of the fish tank stand

Sadhaka shows us how to use one of the tools in the wood shop

Sadhaka is focused on cutting the right size

Some of the finished pieces

That’s our boy Yali cat. Always loves attention.

Jai Ganesha!

Today, July 1st, we took a walk around the Aadheenam and found Sadhaka Shankaranatha working in the wood shop. Acharya Kumaranathaswami manages the equipment in the wood shop, and since Swami is an expert in woodworking, he has gradually upgraded the shop with many useful machines and pieces of equipment. We asked Shankaranatha about the new fish aquarium stand update which he has been working on. He told us that it’s almost done and showed us the piece he’s currently working on. Right now, he’s cutting small, button-sized wooden pieces to use as decorations. He also showed us the finished sides of the stand. Aum!

Jai Ganesha!

In June, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Shanmuganathaswami traveled to other side of the world to meet with members and participate in Satsang and other special events. Satguru tries to do this yearly, meeting our members who are far away from Hawaii. Providing encouragement and support for facing life’s challenges and offering ways to uplift their sadhanas. While there, Satguru gave several initiations. Above are the photos of their travels. Aum!

Words of our Master

If you want liberation in this birth make your mind a cremation-ground and burn all your desires to ashes.

-Yogaswami

These high tunnel green houses produce and protect our more vulnerable vegetables

Mayilnathaswami mulches the beds while Nirvani maintains the coverings

Vivshvanathaswami fertilizes the beds

Nirvani Tejadevanatha is watering the keiki (baby) plants that will be planted in the future

Sadhaka Shankaranatha uses the tractor to bring more mulch to the garden

Panchamukha Ganesha in the garden

All these beds will be used to plants more vegetables

Our pumpkin harvest! We have have about 153 pounds of pumpkins here. Kudos to the team!

This thorny tree, when full grown, produces massive amounts of beautiful flowers!

Here it is! This large one just produced its first round of flowers earlier this year. Just like our inner spiritual growth, no matter where start, we can always grow greater!

Jai Ganesha!

On Sun One (which is like our Monday in our Panchangam calendar) the monks of the Siddhidata Kulam enjoy their weekly Garden Day. This week the team of monks joined together to sprout seeds, plant beds, add compost and other nutrients to the soil, weed, mulch and harvest today’s organic lunch. Thanks to an orderly system of maintenance the garden only needs to be worked intensely on once a week in order to go on producing all the vegetables we need. Aum!

A pink hoya dangles from a tree branch

Tirumular in meditation

A bronze Ganesha peers through a giant anthurium leaf

That’s our Bandit sitting on his throne mocking the rain

That’s Yali our guardian, protecting us from the inner planes

Jai Ganesha!

The last few weeks at the Aadheenam we’ve been getting light rains and rainbows. This morning we were walking around our lush, dew-gemmed gardens and thought of all of you! We didn’t want to be the only one’s to enjoy these beautiful plants today. Those on the other side of the world and elsewhere should enjoy them, too! Aum!

“The flower has a stalk. There always has to be something that sustains you. If everything were perfect, there would be no reason for this birth. The moon makes no attempt to dispel the darkness that covers one portion of it; it gives light to the earth and dispels darkness there.” – Yogaswami