Today was Ashram Sadhana day, a day where all the monks come together to clean and tidy up the Aadheenam. A few monks did some fence repair for our cows pasture, and the whole herd came over to say hello.

Today the monastery enjoyed a visit from Leimomi Mo'okini Lum. She is the soon-to-be 93 year old, Hawaiian Priestess who originally presented Gurudeva with the Kuloulou Staff. The staff still sits to the right of the Guru Pitam, opposite to Satguru's Silver Danda. She is currently doing wonderful work to restore and utilize a large Heiau—an ancient Hawaiian Temple—on the big island. You'll note that Leimomi is currently in a wheel chair, but it's not because she's too old to walk, it's because she hurt her ankle while hiking! We have much to learn from this bright soul.

"Kulou" means to "bow the head," for the Kuloulou Staff is considered one of the most sacred Hawaiian symbols. Today Leimomi replaced the special Hawaiian cloth which covers the staffs spherical top. While here she also enjoyed a tour of Iraivan Temple and a visit to the Media Studio to "talk story" with the monks there.

"Running water will run faster if you remove an obstruction here and there. You need not do much more." Siva Yogaswami

After a six days phase the monks will head into their two day retreat. Here, the sun sets over Kauai's Mount Waialeale, the Wailua River and Iraivan Temple. Aum Namah Sivaya

Over the retreat the monks of the Siddhidatta Kulam attended a class on banana propagation, along with 40 other local growers. It was quite an informative seminar, covering professional details of propagation along with providing information on dealing with bunchy-top, a local virus that causes a lower yield from banana plants. During the class, everyone got to try out some hands-on propagation and there will be a follow up class in a few months to see how our bananas are growing.

Aum Namah Sivaya

The monastery has enjoyed a busy phase, as we ready for the arrival of pilgrims for our 2018 Mahasamadhi celebrations. Also this phase, the Hinduism Today team has been hard at work finalizing the next issue of the magazine. After our retreat Mahasamadhi phase begins with a early morning homa and days of classes and events for pilgrims. See you agian soon!

"As long as there is searching, Parasiva has not been found, for searching is two, while It is one." Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

On Friday, September 28, Sadasivanathaswami and Arumuganathaswami flew off to Honolulu. They were invited by the Governor to attend and bless the signing of a Sister-State Agreement between Goa in India and Hawaii in the USA. The agreement will promote trade, tourism, information technology; and exchange of health and wellness, agriculture, culinary art, education and cultural programs between private sector organizations and universities of both states.

It was an important event, insofar as it was Hawaii's first official connection at the highest level with India. A delegation of three flew to Hawaii from Goa for the signing. The swamis were able to do other significant things before and after the mid-morning signing, mostly relating to the monastery's agricultural endeavors and our mission to save a $250,000,000 irrigation system that island farmers depend on, including us.

The slideshow tells the tale. Aum Namasivaya!

Two Kauai painters are putting out a new book on heiaus, churches, Hongwonjis and our monastery. These two works appear in the new book.

These giant logs where recently acquired from the nearby Alexander's Nursery, whose owner we have known for 40 years. They were brought up to the monastery and placed near the wood mill. Each is from a massive Earpod tree that fell down five years ago. Instead of rotting, it will now be given a new life as timber. The wood is much like Monkey Pod, being comprised of a swirl of light and dark colors.

One of our monastics recently captured this shot of our friendly Kauai Cane Spiders. They are rather huge, spanning up to 5 inches across, so its common for people to find them quite scary. However, they are harmless and will likely just run at the sight of you. This male was found in our kitchen. It is actually highly recommended that if you have these in your house, you don't try to remove them. They are beneficial in that they control other insect populations such as cockroaches. Unlike other spiders, they don't weave webs, but rather come out at night to hunt.

Finish up those emails, shut down the computer, clean up the desktop and off to the weekend! Two days a week we monks get to see the sun rise, go out and about and stop to smell the honey. A few shots were taken this past retreat, let's see what they're up to...