Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Life After Hurricane Lowell

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  • A palm tree breaks through the soil
  • New shoots from a destroyed heliconia.
  • A tropical calocasia emerges from a hard-hit area, doubly damaged by the clean up equipment.
  • A Flame of the Forest tree, some 30 years old, fell almost horizontal, propped up vertically and supported by boards until roots reestablish themselves.
  • More heliconias saying “I’m still here!”
  • New growth on an ivy vine.
  • An orchid breaks through black volcanic cinder.
  • Palm trees.

The Resilience of Life

It has been 34 days since Hurricane Lowell passed Kauai close enough to cause major wind and water damage. Though this was most devastating near the shores, the monastery was hit hard. Today we are celebrating the power of life to renew itself, to recover from catastrophic harm. Already we are seeing new growth, plants rising toward the sun from roots that were protected by the earth even after the plant was demolished. Today we captured a few examples of this renewal which you can see in the slideshow above.

When we awoke on September 8, one of the thousands of plants damaged was a giant Encephalartos, which is in the family commonly called cycad. This one was some 50 years old, and its fronds spread some 40 feet wide before the storm. It was crushed by a truly giant cactus. We trimmed off all the broken fronds, leaving the base which is some 3 feet wide.

After about two weeks, we noticed a new flush of fronds peeking out of the stump. It inspired us to start taking almost daily photos with the intent to make a timelapse of the growth. From September 29 to November 6 we captured the progress, and made a rough timelapse, which we show below. In just 30 seconds these days of growth are revealed. In another couple of weeks it will be back to normal. See the timelapse bwlow:

Gurudeva Speaks on This

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The Yoga of Incantation, Part Two

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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.

“Oftentimes japa and chanting are the ardha-Hindu or non-Hindu’s first introduction to Sanātana Dharma. An ardha-Hindu is often one who has been given a Hindu first name. It is our experience over the last fifty years that their japa has little effect unless they make the full commitment to becoming stalwart members of the Hindu religion and join a mature community. Those who are inside a department store handling and purchasing the merchandise and those outside looking through the window at the same merchandise are two different groups. Ardha means half, and ardha-Hindus are those who have come half way to making a full commitment and are still making up their mind. They are still on the outside looking in. Their japa doesn’t have much power until they bring other aspects of their life into line with the Hindu Dharma.“

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A Joyous Final Day of Gurudeva Mahasamadhi Observances

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  • The hybrid hibiscus that fully died just after doing a successful air layering
    The several-decade-old hybrid hibiscus that fully died just after doing a successful air layering
  • The air layered cutting is now thriving
    The air layered cutting is now thriving

Our final day began with the early morning small Guru puja at the samadhi shrine, followed by satsang with Satguru Bodhinatha in the late morning in the Guru Peedam room. Then at 3:30, Kumar Gurukkal, assisted by Pravin Kumar Gurukkal, began a nearly five-hour process of sankalpa, purification of self and surroundings, invoking Ganesha and Varuna to bless the proceedings and honoring Siva’s abundant provision through the substances produced by the cow. This was followed by a homa to honor and invoke Gurudeva’s presence through Agni and a blessed khumba, after which abhishekam was performed to Gurudeva’s paduka, granite holy sandals, at the samadhi shrine. Everyone enjoyed prasadam at the end, prepared devotedly by our resident cook, Mani.

The last two images in the gallery tell a piece of monastery grounds history. In the early years of the monastery, the front, Tiruneri path leading up to Kadavul Temple was planted on both sides with plumerias and hybrid varieties of hibiscus. As the rains fell abundantly, the nearby banyan tree got larger and additional trees were planted in the area, the plumeria and hibiscus suffered and slowly withered, starting to die off in the early 1990s. We were able to successfully save several by transplanting them out to the other side of the property where there was more sun at the time, near the current rainbow eucalyptus grove beyond Iraivan Temple. They did okay for a while, but surrounding trees slowly got taller, shading them out, leading to a slow demise.

After some unsuccessful attempts with obtaining cuttings, we were able to get one viable cutting from a hibiscus through air layering on a branch for a couple months, just before the entire plant died, as shown in the first photo. After transplanting to the more recently acquired 17 acres, which gets more sunlight and had enough space to establish more rows of hibiscus, the plant is doing very well and producing its first flowers!

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Gurudeva Bronze in India

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  • S. Devasenapathy Sthapathy examines the wax worker’s progress
  • Overview of the Silpi Pavilion, a workshop showing the temple building process.
  • Thank you, Gurudeva!
  • What a spirit he had! Hard to grasp it has been 25 years now.
  • Sthapathy is among the finest sculptures in the country, working from his Sri Jayam Industries studio.

On this second day of our 25th Annual Guru Puja honoring the Great Departure of Gurudeva, we were delighted to receive two simple photos from a small shop in Tamil Nadu where an amazing bronze silpi and his team are making a perfect copy of the life-size murti you have all seen here at Kauai Aadheenam.

The new murti is destined for the Spiritual Park in Mauritius. It is being cast from the exact same molds used for the bronze here. All of Holly Young’s molds were shipped some three years ago to India where they were kept safely in the home of Selvanathan Sthapati. But progress was delayed due to a mishap—someone misplaced the head! But some months back it was discovered and all the molds made their way to Swamimalai, the prime center for metal sculptures in India.

The team there is carefully working on the project. We will keep you updated in the months ahead.

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25th Gurudeva Mahasamadhi Four-Day Observance Begins

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This early morning marked our first short Guru puja to honor Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s 25th annual Mahasamadhi (Great Departure) period. The actual Mahasamadhi day, with the main puja conducted by Sivasri Kumar Gurukkal, will be on November 6th in line with Chitra nakshatra. The next issue of Hinduism Today magazine with also feature a article on Gurudeva’s life, in celebration of 100 years since his birth.

Here is a early morning upadesha from Gurudeva in 1998–

Preparation for Transition

Description: Gurudeva talks about karma and reincarnation, being greatful for both happiness and sadness. An invitation was received from the Ford Foundation to attend a conference on AIDS to present the Hindu view. Gurudeva discusses the Hindu view concerning knowledge of impending death as being a blessing a great reward. Vasana daha tantra is explained.

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