Kauai

Living in Lala Land 🌀

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  • Hurricane Lala passes below the Hawaiian Chain
    Hurricane Lala passes below the Hawaiian Chain
  • Lots of rain and gusts pass over the aadheenam
  • there’s some strong winds, but it’s not too bad
  • The river is surging from the mountain rains
  • Lots of leaves and sticks cover our walkways
  • As of now, the storm is mostly passed and we await the clear skies ahead.

Yesterday and today, Hurricane Lala made landfall on the big island of Hawaii as a level one hurricane. Thankfully, the strength of the big island’s large mountains quickly downgraded Lala to a tropical storm, but not without a large amount of damaging weather and flooding. Over the day, Lala passed beneath the island chain—its outer weather bands covering all the islands with heavy rains and some decent wind speeds. At certain points the rain was so thick that you couldn’t see the distant tree tops.

Thankfully for Kauai it was not a very difficult storm. All the monks are safe and well, and the Aadheenam didn’t suffer any real damage. Many small branches and countless leaves now decorate our roads, but only a few larger tree chunks fell in isolated areas. We did have our power out for most of the day (it’s back now), but the main monastery buildings have an emergency generator to keep them running. We look forward to a sunnier day tomorrow!

Aum Namah Sivaya

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Drones Preserve Siva’s Golden Glory

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  • Quality is today’s pilot, with Calib acting as wingman
  • They begin with the flagpole
  • It took about 20 minutes for them to adjust the droplet size just right
  • Next over to the main vimanam tower
  • The central tower gets a bath.
  • Some of the granite sculptures are also protected from the mold.
  • The drone is about six feet in diameter and can carry five gallons of liquid each run.
  • Just 60 feet away Siva was showing another golden crown, the flowering of a super rare yellow poinciana in the fullest-yet bloom of its young life.

The Hawaiian tropics with its daily sun/rain/sun/rain rhythm challenges the 23-karat gold leaf on the flagpole and the five golden towers of Iraivan Temple. One of the issues is that old gold, left to its own devices, invades the new gold.

A great solution has been found. A mold-retardant called D-2 is the industry’s gold-standard (I know) for control, but there was a challenge in applying it way up there.

We tried by hand, but then we discovered a Maui-based drone company that has been applying D-2 every 3 or 4 months. It’s working!

Yesterday, the team flew in from Maui, brought their massive agricultural drone, and wet down the flagpole and towers in just a little more than 2 hours. Thanks to Quality and Calib for their careful work. They even got a taste of Chef Mani’s masala dosai in the bargain.

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Art for the Year-End Mailing

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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

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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

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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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