Kauai Aadheenam

Bridge not finished; waiting for drier weather after a downpour

New crop of rudrakshas falling from the tree next to Kadaitswami

One of the many areas being cleared of weeds around the Path of Satgurus

Here we are on the looping Path of The Satgurus. Another shortcut bridge is being added just to the right of Gurudeva’s statue and the Narmada Lingam. It caters to those who desire to reach that popular sadhana spot sooner than later, or who just take pleasure in whimsically walking over a gurgling stream as often as possible.

Then a couple more current looks on the Path of Satgurus.

Nearing the end of a day’s installation.

We have an outdoor workshop adjacent to the carpentry shop whose tent frame and cover was worn down after many years. Yesterday we replaced the entire frame with larger, sturdier pipes and installed a new tent cover. The A-frame is now taller and steeper than before, no longer fitting under the carpentry shop eave, so we have to cut into the eave and pull the frame into it, then build a protective covering. The end result is that rain water draining off the carpentry shop eave will fall on the tent and then off the sides to the ground.

The annual temple festival puja concluded with final abhishekam yesterday, which was livestreamed. We also took still photos of the preparatory homas to energize the main kumbha water for Mahalingeshvara and smaller kumbhas representing various shaktis and Siva’s five-fold powers of Isana, Tatpurusha, Aghora, Vamadeva and Sadyojata.

Newly delivered palm tree material

The ever-accumulating main piles

The longer the material stays in a pile, the more it breaks down into rich dark soil

Various plantings recently covered with mulch

Probably not!

Mulch is defined as “material (such as decaying leaves, bark, or compost) spread around or over a plant to enrich or insulate the soil.” Much of our monastery land has a small layer of topsoil and then hard clay underneath, so enriching it is very helpful. Though we have a large property, even if we collected up all the leaves and chewed up all the fallen branches (which would be a huge job), it would barely make a dent in our needs for mulch. As we’ve interacted with tree trimming companies over the years, a great boon came our way, whereby nowadays all the companies who are trimming trees in our general vicinity will deliver the ground-up material to us for free. If they took the material to a county refuse transfer station they would have to pay a fee, so it’s a great deal for them too.

Besides keeping our vegetable garden beds and fruit trees covered which you’ve seen in the past, mulch is used for many plantings on the grounds, basically as much as we have time to transport.

For decades we’ve had a lone teak tree in the far corner of the property, but it is shaded out by many nearby trees. Later we began a plantation across the Wailua River on the leased land we call Himalayan Acres. Then, one or two years ago the Siddhidata Kulam planted a row along the road near their new building. These, along with the adjacent banana trees will provide a noise and visual buffer between us and neighbors in the ensuing years. Many of these teak trees are now about 15 feet tall and growing fast.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“The emanation of the light that wells from within the lotus of the heart is always there, regardless of what you do. You may not be aware of the existence of it, but it does exist. You may not care to realize it, but it still exists. When man does not wish to look for the Self God, it is only because his awareness is busy in other areas of the mind, concerned with desires, and he is on the road to fulfill them. The fulfillment of desires causes reactionary conditions within the subconscious mind itself and clouds vision. This causes what is known as the darkness of the mind. When man wishes and desires to find his true Self, his external desires fall in line with basic religious codes for living, and he then is on the path. He is able to realize the essence of each desire on the path of enlightenment, and is able to sense Reality within himself.“