Jai Ganesha!
We took a simple walk to the woodshop and spotted Sadhaka Shankaranatha working on a project there. Lately, Sadhaka has been working on upgrading the new fish tank recently installed in the Siddhidata Kulam office. This particular project focused on covering the visible gaps and adding a refined edge to the upper portion of the existing casing, giving the entire setup a cleaner and more polished appearance. Aum.
New update on Fish Tank Read More »
Aum Namah Sivaya
Recently Kauai has been having bright sunny days with a few clouds and perfect temperatures. It’s our spring time and the flowers have started blooming everywhere, while the birds and insects are happily enjoying the clear air. During the full moon our monks observed a three day retreat—a good time to appreciate the ocean side, and to take longer walks throughout the monastery gardens. This is the season is when we have Nēnē (our special endemic Hawaiian geese) visiting the property. A specific group (see slideshow) has chosen to make the Aadheenam a consistent stop in their migration cycle. Aum.
“I am the waves. I am the ocean. We are all waves-there is no higher wave or lower wave. The waves and the ocean are one. You have to plunge yourself in the ocean.” – Siva Yogaswami
Jai Ganesha!
We are now working diligently to finalize the Hinduism Today July/August/September 2026 issue. Saravanathaswami will soon begin uploading all the articles to Quad, where they will be professionally formatted into the final magazine layout. At this stage, all the monks will carefully review the final copy of each article to ensure there are no errors and that everything reads clearly, accurately and in its best possible form.
Hinduism Today Final Stage Read More »
As the Garden Path surrounding Iraivan Temple takes shape (the first concrete trucks arrive tomorrow), we reflect on how far it has come in recent years. Building such an architectural gem on a remote island presents special challenges, and those challenges have been overcome one by one with Gurudeva’s inner guidance and blessings and Bodhinatha’s practical genius.
The Garden Path has several purposes. First, it will provide safe, mud-free walking access to Iraivan. Second, it will make maintenance in and around the temple (such as landscaping and stone cleaning) more efficient for our electric vehicles. Third, it will provide an elegant circumambulation path for pilgrims and for the annual chariot parade which carries Satguru around the temple on Guru Purnima. Fourth, it is the last unfinished major component of the temple, tying together the mature and beautiful landscaping that took decades to create and the completed-three-years-ago granite Siva temple.
Below is a shot of the foundation pour in 1999 and almost the same angle photo of the completed temple. Slide back and forth to see the changes.
Aum Namah Śivaya
During his training as a monastic Aspirant, Brahmachari Arinien has been having many classes with the monks, including philosophy classes with Siddhanathaswami, meditation training with Tillainathaswami, puja training with Mayilnathaswami and Sanskrit chanting with Kumarnathaswami. Over the last few weeks, Brahmachari has begun his classes with Arumuganathaswami in preparation for taking his next steps towards monastic life. This next step involves the taking the Supplicancy vows of Purity, Humility, and Obedience. Once entered, this stage is the final 6-8 month period before someone is ready to take their vows as a monastic sadhaka. One of the wonderful pieces of study in Arinien’s current material is Gurudeva’s On the Brink of the Absolute which reads as follows:
“On the brink of the absolute. The higher states of consciousness very few people are familiar with, having never experienced them. They are very pleasant to learn of, and yet out of our grasp until we have that direct experience of a higher state of expanded consciousness. The mind, in its density, keeps us from the knowledge of the Self. And then we attain a little knowledge of the existence of the Self as a result of the mind freeing itself from desires and cravings, hates and fears and the various and varied things of the mind. I say “things” because if you could see hate, you would see it as a thing that lives with one as a companion. If you could see fear, you’d see it as a thing, and as understanding comes, that thing called fear walks away down the road, never to return. ¶As you unfold spiritually, it is difficult to explain what you find that you know. At first you feel light shining within, and that light you think you have created with your mind, and yet you will find that, as you quiet your mind, you can see that light again and again, and it becomes brighter and brighter, and then you begin to wonder what is in the center of that light. “If it is the light of my True Being, why does it not quiet the mind?” ¶Then, as you live the so-called “good life,” a life that treats your conscience right, that light does get brighter and brighter, and as you contemplate it, you pierce through into the center of that light, and you begin to see the various beautiful forms, forms more beautiful than the physical world has to offer, beautiful colors, in that fourth-dimensional realm, more beautiful than this material world has to offer. And then you say to yourself, “Why forms? Why color, when the scriptures tell me that I am timeless, causeless and formless?” And you seek only for the colorless color and the formless form. But the mind in its various and varied happenings, like a perpetual cinema play, pulls you down and keeps you hidden within its ramifications. ¶In your constant striving to control that mind, your soul comes into action as a manifestation of will, and you quiet more and more of that mind and enter into a deeper state of contemplation where you see a scintillating light more radiant than the sun, and as it bursts within you, you begin to know that you are the cause of that light which you apparently see. And in that knowing, you cling to it as a drowning man clings to a stick of wood floating upon the ocean. You cling to it and the will grows stronger; the mind becomes calm through your understanding of experience and how experience has become created. As your mind releases its hold on you of its desires and cravings, you dive deeper, fearlessly, into the center of this blazing avalanche of light, losing your consciousness in That which is beyond consciousness. ¶And as you come back into the mind, you not only see the mind for what it is; you see the mind for what it isn’t. You are free, and you find men and women bound, and what you find you are not attached to, because binder and the bound are one. You become the path. You become the way. You are the light. And as you watch souls unfold, some choose the path of the spirit; some choose the path of the mind. As you watch and wonder, your wondering is in itself a contemplation of the universe, and on the brink of the Absolute you look into the mind, and one tiny atom magnifies itself greater than the entire universe, and you see, at a glance, evolution from beginning to end, inside and outside, in that one small atom. ¶Again, as you leave external form and dive into that light which you become, you realize beyond realization a knowing deeper than thinking, a knowing deeper than understanding, a knowing which is the very, very depth of your being. You realize immortality, that you are immortal—this body but a shell, when it fades; this mind but an encasement, when it fades. Even in their fading there is no reality. ¶And as you come out of that samadhi, you realize you are the spirit, you become that spirit, you actually are that spirit, consciously, if you could say spirit has a consciousness. You are that spirit in every living soul. You realize you are That which everyone, in their intelligent state or their ignorant state, everyone, is striving for—a realization of that spirit that you are. ¶And then again for brief interludes you might come into the conscious mind and relate life to a past and a future and tarry there but for a while. But in a moment of concentration, your eye resting on a single line of a scripture or anything that holds the interest of the mind, the illusion of past and future fades, and again you become that light, that life deep within every living form—timeless, causeless, spaceless. ¶Then we say, “Why, why, after having realized the Self do you hold a form, do you hold a consciousness of mind? Why?” The answer is but simple and complete: you do not; of yourself you do not. But every promise made must have its fulfillment, and promises to close devotees and the desire that they hold for realization of their true being hold this form, this mind, in a lower conscious state. Were the devotees and disciples to release their desires for realization but for one minute, their satguru would be no more. Once having realized the Self, you are free of time, cause and change.”
Training for Supplicancy Read More »
Jai Ganesha!
We recently purchased a new vehicle, the Kandi EV Cowboy UTV. Previously, we used vehicles such as the Cushman utility vehicle and the Polaris Ranger, and this new addition has further improved our daily operations. We typically use these types of vehicles within the property to travel from one place to another. The Kandi EV Cowboy UTV is larger and wider than the other vehicles we have, making it more practical for carrying supplies. It features a rear cargo bed with a higher load capacity, allowing us to transport more materials efficiently. The vehicle can comfortably seat up to three people and a long-lasting battery suitable for extended use throughout the day. This has been an excellent addition for the monks here. Aum.
A New Vehicle for the Monastery Read More »
