How Can I Help?
THERE ARE MANY WAYS YOU CAN HELP BODHINATHA’S WORK
Many have asked how they can support the monks. If you have a clear idea of what you want to support then you can click here to go directly to our secure donation form now and choose to feed the monks, help with our garden or enter your intention for your gift if you have something specific in mind. If you want more detail on various options, then read below.
If you want to give a donation directly to Bodhinatha for him to use at his discretion or donate to the temple, see below. You gift will encourage the many projects Gurudeva has set in motion and which Bodhinatha is carrying forward. Or to simply do something for the monks in appreciation of their work. This page is a response to all the good souls who wish to help. We know each of you is inspired by different things, so we will work to keep a broad spectrum of the needs (or wants) on this page, from high-tech stuff to warm socks for the monks, from small items to serious improvements that we could not otherwise afford to implement. Please feel free to sponsor part of a project, even if you feel you cannot sponsor the whole thing. Every dollar counts!
If you are interested in sponsoring a project or need that is not listed below, please send an e-mail to sadasivanatha@hindu.org.
SUPPORT THE FUTURE OF IRAIVAN TEMPLE
Summary: This is our most important project: fulfillment of Gurudeva’s The fulfillment of Gurudeva’s grand vision to fully endow Iraivan Temple far into the future. To support the priests, festival and puja expenses, landscaping, infrastructure maintenance, utilities and more will require an endowment of $25 million. We now have $10 million, so need to grow the fund by another $15 million. Ambitious, but possible. This will be an historic gift to future generations of Hindus around the world. Don’t miss the opportunity to participate today! Click to help support one of the most remarkable temples in the world.
The Garden Path
The next large project is a cobblestone-like maintenance and access road called The Garden Path. It will cost more than $750,000 since it requires serious engineering and extensive earthwork for water control. Plus we want it to be as elegant as the temple itself.
Need of the hour: If you look at the August aerial photo to the far left you will see the need for this Garden Path. The temple stands finished and the landscape has surrounded it on all sides, leaving a wide swath of dirt that turns to mud with the rain, obstructing pilgrims and monks trying to supply and maintain the temple. The Garden Path will tie it all together, creating a seamless whole and providing access in all weather conditions. The path, depicted above in orange by Indian artist Baani Sekhon, will be 8 feet wide made of durable concrete, but it will appear to be stone, using large molding forms they call concrete stamps—an art in itself. At left is one of several installation plans for the path developed by the engineering company. Donate here.
Contribute to the “Thank You Bodhinatha” Fund
Summary: If you have been inspired by Bodhinatha’s life work, grateful for his influence in your life, appreciative of the gifts that he has given us all, you may honor your sentiment with a donation to the Thank You Bodhinatha Fund. This fund is used for promoting Bodhinatha’s teachings around the world and the travel of Bodhinatha to spread the great truths of Hindu dharma. The fund is maintained as a permanent trust within the Hindu Heritage Endowment so your donation will grow and build through the years. Click to go to the HHE secure donation page.
Donate to Hinduism Today Magazine
Summary: Hinduism Today Magazine is a nonprofit educational activity of Himalayan Academy with the following purposes: 1. To foster Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity among all sects and lineages; 2. To inform and inspire Hindus worldwide and people interested in Hinduism; 3. To dispel myths, illusions and misinformation about Hinduism; 4. To protect, preserve and promote the sacred Vedas and the Hindu religion; 5. To nurture and monitor the ongoing spiritual Hindu renaissance; 6. To publish a resource for Hindu leaders and educators who promote Sanatana Dharma. Click to go to the Hinduism Today secure donation page.
Feed the Monks
Annadana refers to religious feedings of different groups such as the poor, devotees at a festival, priests and sannyasins. It is considered an important source of earning merit (punya). In the traditions of Saiva Aadheenams, annadana is called Maheshvara puja and refers to the feeding of Saiva ascetics or to the feeding of close, usually initiated, followers of the Aadheenam, both lay and ascetic. Maheshvara puja conveys the idea that feeding Śiva’s spiritual servants is a way of worshiping Śiva Himself.
As our monastery is on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the preferred way that devotees offer Maheshvara puja is to make a cash donation. If you wish to sponsor the monks’ meals for a specific day, a donation of $501 will cover one day’s cost of food supplies and hired workers. Smaller donations are welcomed but will not be assigned a specific day.
You can make your donation online. Click here to go to a secure donation form. If you are sponsoring a specific day, please indicate the date in the notes field on the donation form. Also, if the day’s sponsorship is to commemorate a specific event, such as the birth of a child or the passing of a family member, please include that information as well.
For those who would like to commemorate an event every year on a permanent basis, this can be accomplished through making a one-time donation of $18K to the Feed the Monks Endowment. For details please email Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami at shan@hindu.org.
Keeping Siva’s Sacred Gardens Beautiful
As the sacred gardens were developed over the decades, not much thought was given to how they would be maintained. But now they have become extensive and mature, making maintenance a must. If you are inspired by the gardens, their beauty and healing presence around Iraivan Temple, you can sponsor them for a week, a month or a year. A week of landscape help costs $500. You can make your donation online. Click here to go to a secure donation form.