2024 Ganesha Chaturthi
Join us at 7am (Kauai time) on September 6th, for Kauai Aadheenam’s live stream of our Chaturthi abhishekam.
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Art for the Year-End Mailing
Each year at this time we create a special flyer which serves as an appeal for support for our most urgent needs. This year Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami chose The Garden Path as our focus. It is a special 8-foot-wide path surrounding Iraivan Temple that serves as a mud-free walking entry for pilgrims and also as a maintenance road for our electric vehicles, allowing the team to bring supplies to the pujari, maintain the landscape, and such. It’s a big project, and costly, more than $500,000 due to the special engineering required for water control (so important on our high rainfall island) and the quality installation which will give the impression of a cobblestone path.
We commissioned Baani Sekhon, our artist in Chandigarh, North India. She just submitted the finished art, and we thought it would be interesting to take you behind the scenes to see the process, which takes weeks to complete. Follow the steps in the slideshow.
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The Sweet Sugar Palm
A walk through the garden today brings us to the Rishi from the Himalayas murti where two stunning Arenga pinnatas are blossoming again. This is the first time we have captured the early protective sheath that covers the inflorescense, and also its removal to reveal the flower buds.
When you visit Siva’s Sacred Garden, you must stand in front of this Sugar Palm, a true gem of Southeast Asia, especially revered in Indonesia and the Philippines. Towering up to 20 meters, this majestic palm boasts large, feather-like leaves that dance in Kauai’s tropical breeze. More than just a scenic marvel, every element of the sugar palm is utilized by local communities. The sap is tapped and transformed into sweet sugar and aromatic alcohol (called arrack). Its fibers are woven into durable ropes and rustic brooms, while the broad fronds find a second life as robust roofing materials. This versatile palm is a cornerstone of sustainability and a testament to the ingenuity of traditional practices in harmonizing with nature.
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Our New Monk-Made Aquarium
Jai Ganesha!
This week, the monks of the Ganapati Kulam finished up a long term project to rebuild their office aquarium. With the help of Mayuresh, who was visiting for a few months, the monks built this custom aquarium stand out of rough koa wood, some tarnished copper panels and a giant bronze mandala (donated by Holly Young). It’s a copy of the the same bronze chakra that resides on the back of Hanuman’s neck at the rudraksha forest. The tank is made of five tempered glass panels, and the interior is filled with a papaya root-ball and plants from the previous aquarium.
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Siva Is Silence
Today while walking along the Path of the Saiva Satgurus we came across a bird sitting on the black granite murti of Satguru Yogaswami. It reminded us of a story he told that one day “I was in meditation under the Illupai tree and a bird came and sat on my head.” The unspoken implication is that he was seated so unmovingly, drawn so far within, that the bird did not take him to be human, so rested on his head.”
Silence, Summa Iru, was a major teaching of the Lion of Lanka. Yogaswami taught it often, urging seekers to quiet the mind more and more perfectly, a meditative exercise that proved a life-long sadhana for many.
When he established the upstairs meditation hall in the Sivathondu Nilayam, in the late 1930s, he had a sign installed with three short sentences that summarized his requirements for all those climbing the steps to the room. “All words are in silence. All doing is in silence. Everything is perfect within silence.” He would nnot allow a single word to be uttered in that space.
Read more of this story by following this link to The Guru Chronicles chapter on Yogaswami. Click Here.
Welcoming the 2024 Jivana Ritau
Today is the first full day of our new season, the Jivana Ritau. Early this morning, monastics and members gathered in Kadavul Temple for a homa. Following the final arati they proceeded out the the Aadheenam’s flagpole to fly the dvaja for the new season.
Excerpts from Saiva Dharma Shastras about the this time of year:
“Beginning with Hindu New Year in mid-April, three seasons of the year divide our activities into three great needs of humankind the learning of scripture in the first season, Nartana Ritau; the living of culture in the second season, Jivana Ritau; and the meditating on Siva in the third season, Moksha Ritau. Thus we are constantly reminded that our life is Siva’s life and our path to Him is through study, sadhana and realization. In ritau one, we teach the philosophy; in ritau two, we teach the culture; and in ritau three, we teach meditation.
During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December,Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Cultureis the primary text. The key word of this season is work. The colors are rust, copper-maroon and all shades of red rust for earthy preservation, copper-maroon for fulfillment and red for physical energy. The Aadheenam’s flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags. This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life’s elder advisor stage. The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past. Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world. Practicality is a word much used this season.”
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