Guru Purnima Live Stream
Aum Nama Śivaya
Join us July 27th at 6:15am for our padapuja to Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
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Satguru Purnima Countdown
- A temporary “yellow brick road” nearby the mango trees, just above the Wailua River
We are at T-minus half a day before the annual Satguru Purnima padapuja for Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami inside the Iraivan Temple. Under the guidance of Siddhidata Kulam members, taskforcers are helping this morning to set the stage. Naavalan is picking mango leaves. Aran, Roshan and Brahmachari Arinien are setting up banana trees with accompanying Ti leaves and heliconia flowers, and hanging the thombai cloth pillar decorations. Near the mango trees, a “yellow brick road” appears briefly.
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Kolam Game
Aum Namah Shivaya!
We thought you might enjoy something fun today. Here is a kolam puzzle game where you have to correctly trace the kolams into completion. Hopefully you’ll find it both challenging and entertaining!
Naavalan’s Cleaning Mission
Jai Ganesha!
Naavalan, who is here for a couple of weeks as part of the Taskforce, has been helping the monks with several projects around the monastery. One of his recent tasks was assisting Siddhidata Kulam by pressure washing the pathway leading to Iraivan Temple. This is an important duty because it is the main pathway visitors use to reach the temple. With the recent rainy weather, the path had become slippery in some areas, making it less comfortable to walk on. Thanks to Naavalan’s hard work, the pathway is now clean, much safer, and comfortable to walk without worrying about slipping. Thank you, Naavalan, for the wonderful job and your dedicated service!
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Before and After Iraivan
This before and after aerial photo of Iraivan tells a tale of progress. The BEFORE shot is from 2020 and the AFTER is from 10 days back.
For decades the monks cleared the land, built ponds and waterfalls, planted tens of thousands of plants, trees and flowering bushes. So, by 2020 the Sacred Garden was almost mature. To the first-time visitor it looked complete. Of course, under Siva’s care it has become ever so much more in the last six years.
And for decades Gurudeva, Bodhinatha and the monks worked with skilled teams of Indian silpis to hand-carve and erect the temple, which was completed in 2023 .
But there still remained a no-man’s land between them, a 50-foot-swath of dirt and mud. It has to be so, since it was still a construction site with trucks coming and going constantly.
Now, with the temple completed, we could begin healing, planting and landscaping that surrounding band of raw earth. That has been a focus for the last few years, and continues to be. But it is nearing completion (in August and September a team will clad the new concrete Garden Path that surrounds Iraivan Temple with quartzite which is now on a ship from Brasil).
The effect has been profound. The finished garden is being united with the finished temple, making them a single holy sanctuary. As a Japanese landscape designer once told the monks: “What you have created here is amazing. The temple is Indian granite. It is hard, rigid, strong, structured and commanding. It is masculine. Around it lies the garden which is soft, pliant, graceful, organic and nurturing. It is feminine. You have created the perfect balance of Siva and Shakti.”
“The perfect balance of Siva and Shakti.”
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The Path of Egoity, Part One
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.
“Much has been said of the path toward merger with Śiva, and much remains to be said. But the truth is this: most people on this Earth are following another path for the moment, the path of self-indulgence and self-interest and selfishness. No doubt, it is the most popular path, and it has its own pandits and masters, who teach how to perfect the path of the external ego, how to perfect worldliness, how to perfect the trinity of I, me and mine, how to perfect self-indulgence. But that is not the ultimate path, which is followed by the few, by mature souls. It is important for aspirants to know that the real path leading toward merger with Śiva has many detours, pitfalls and sidetracks that beckon unwary travelers. It is important for him or her to know about these side paths, to be warned, as I am doing now, to be wary of them, to be cautious, to be extremely careful. “
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