Kulapati Easvan Param has for years been helping the Aadheenam with it’s electrical needs. He has been so dedicated to this mission that he studied hard and took and passed the state exam to get his electrical contractor’s license for the state of Hawaii. He already has this for his business in California, Param Electric.

For the past year now he has been working very closely with Yoginathaswami on the planning, equipment acquisition and implementation logistics for our major all-aadheenam electrical infrastructure upgrade.

During these past two weeks while everyone else was enjoying the festival, Easvan has been quietly working with our SK team.

Here he is working on pulling wire through conduit from the distribution shed under the road and over to the Aadheenam.

He’s a real expert and knows how to get things done. The Siddhidata Kulam is learning from him.

He stands by and collaborates with Kauai Electric Utility company men who are here doing the final hook up of incoming power to the new intake panel recently built.

Success! These panels are all now hot! A fresh electrical feed for the whole Aadheenam… but from one point of view, this is just the beginning.

Inside the aadheenam we find thousands of feet of old wiring, going all the way back to the 1950’s! Easvan was generous enough to even provide for the cost and wages of two of his top employees to fly to Hawaii to work with him.

Here he is with Luke Diener in the “loft” over our back kitchen which was the old distribution center for most of the power coming in to the main monastery building. They had to remove 100’s of feet of old wires, locate and trace dozens of old circuits, re-install and re-connect them new electrical feeds. It has been a huge job!

This is Rama Pederson working on the same project.

Since all this is happening behind walls, so to speak, it is hard to convey the massive scope of this upgrade. It also means a big boost for the safety of both our monks and security of our buildings. Much of the old wire could have easily set fire to the infrastructure. Also when the monks don’t know what wiring is old, new, live or dead, there is always the chance of running into a live wire unknowingly and getting shocked. It was also all below code standards and impossible to do anything new. Now we have clean, safe accessible wiring.

Mahalo! Mikka Nandri! Easvan for this huge contribution!

And Yoginathaswami has this to say about Luke and Rama: “They were brought over by Easvan–a very much appreciated gift to the Aadheenam and Siddhidata Kulam in particular. These two men showed high standards of workmanship, were very polite and respectful of the monastery environment. Easvan is very lucky to have such employees. Siddhidata Kulam will be happy to have this crew anytime, any day!”