A group of us were on Kauai's south side and visited with tortoises in a nature reserve in Koloa. They are raised to be like a replacement for an ancient animal that used to graze in the area and is now extinct. For a long time the entrance walkway just before the Kadavul Temple dhvajasthambha has been congested in the spot where the shoe racks and benches are kept. Our employees have just finished constructing a new covered pad next to the path, where visitors can sit and store their shoes. This will allow a free flow of traffic on the main path itself. In the last photo, the concrete foundation has just been poured for the final extension of the Pillaiyar Kulam building for storing more publications and other Minimela items. Now it will cure for some time.  

About 40 years ago Gurudeva noticed that the mountain which dominates our Western view (and is the long-extinct central volcano of Kauai island) changed from day to day, sometimes spectacularly so. He asked the monks to begin collecting photos of what he called "The Many Moods of Mount Waialeale." The years passed and the mountain revealed its wet self, its sunset self, its rainbow self, its waterfalls self, its cloud-shrouded self. One by one these different mountains were captured. We will probably never print that fancy coffee table book, as that is so last millennium. But we do plan to put the images in a newly-designed Virtual Tour in 2023. Ahead of that, we offer over 150 photos and art that reveal the dance of light that Siva performs each day to entertain and amaze monks and visitors alike.

Timelapse:

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A post shared by Kauai's Hindu Monastery (@kauaishindumonastery) on Oct 17, 2020 at 9:30pm PDT

Another Skanda Shashti festival has come and gone. Dancing with Siva defines the festival as "A six-day festival in October-November celebrating Lord Karttikeya's, or Skanda's, victory over the forces of darkness." After two years of no visitors, we once again have a contingent of pilgrims from off-island. Because the six days of this festival immediately follow our late Gurudeva's annual Mahasamadhi puja, most pilgrims who come for that puja tend to stay on for this festival. Every day they were attending the 6am Muruga puja performed by Muruganathaswami, offering soulful singing while the curtain was closed, building the vibration towards the final afternoon puja shown in these photos.

Three silpi craftsmen from India were supposed to return to Kauai a couple months ago, but could not due to visa issues. The issues have now been resolved and we expect them here shortly, so a team headed today to the house where they stay, for a second round of cleaning and food supplies preparation.

On October 5th we were blessed with a double rainbow. Days later, preparations are in full swing for Satguru Bodhinatha's Jayanti event. It is elaborate this year, being his 80th birthday, which means a special homa and abhishekam to the Satguru tomorrow. A Sivacharya priest is coming to perform the pujas.

We mentioned him briefly in the last post about visiting Waimea Canyon, but here's a bit more. Lucas Brzozowski, age 18, arrived from Massachusetts just days ago to begin a six-month resident visit because he is interested in monastic life. He also briefly stopped by a couple months ago for one morning while he was visiting from Maui island. Here he is helping Shanmuganathaswami and Vatshalan unpack MC trilogy books to store in the new back room of the Pillaiyar Kulam building. This back room is the more affordable replacement for the warehouse space we were renting on the mainland.

Our current two taskforce residents, Vatshalan and just-arrived Lucas, have never been to Waimea Canyon and Kokee state park on the drier west side of Kauai. We saw mostly-clear weather on the forecast, so took the opportunity the other day. Besides the standard lookout points, we did the somewhat-strenuous Canyon Trail hike that goes up and down, along the edge of a ridge cliff and ends at a beautiful waterfall and pond area.

The Siddhidata Kulam reports that on June 9th we planted two Atlantic Pumpkin vines and 2 local pumpkin vines ( Japanese Variety). They were harvested a few days ago. The single Atlantic pumpkin on the cart transport is 120 lbs. This variety is usually grown for size competition in state fairs. The local pumpkin produced 211 lbs from about 33 pumpkins.

Many years ago a family commissioned these black granite murtis for placing outside their home. Years later plans changed and they no longer needed the murtis, deciding to donate them to our monastery. In discussing where these murtis could call home--at least for the time being--we noted than many general visitors stop by during our closed hours, so enriching the experience at our very front entrance (outside the gate) was felt to be most appropriate. A granite Sivalingam is already there, so now Ganesha and Murugan join Siva. A couple weeks ago when SSC sishya Gaurav and Ripla Malhotra family was here on pilgrimage, they and two Pillaiyar Kulam construction crew, Raymond and Kawika, helped to installed the two Deities.

Aloha all! Never look a gift horse in the mouth. What is a gift horse you might ask? Perhaps it's a magical horse that gives you whatever you ask for. We don't know what happens if you look into its mouth but we are too scared to find out. The gift horse of today's story is an energy company on Kauai who graciously gifted us a ripper-fertilizer they were no longer using. What the machine lacks for in grace it makes up for with the ability to cut deep into the ground while dropping fertilizer to ensure nutrients reach the roots of newly planted trees. This machine was picked up by two monks from the north island and will be used to plant new noni trees across Himalayan Acres. Aum!!!