Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“A woman living in the iḍā current goes through her emotional cycles, too. Her moods change regularly. She laughs, cries, sulks, enjoys. He has to be wise enough to allow her to have these ups and downs and neither criticize nor correct her when she does. If conditions become strained within the home, the man of the house becomes the example by feeling the power of his spine and the spiritual force of Śiva within it. He finds that he remains calm and can enjoy the bliss of his own energy. He finds ways and means to create joy and happiness and make odic forces that may have gone into a heavy condition beautiful, buoyant and lovely again.“

Contractors are nearly finished installing vinyl wood floor panels throughout the upstairs office rooms. A wooden ridge was also fashioned by the monks for stepping into the meeting room. Soon the kulam will be able to start moving furniture in to the various rooms.

A shot looking straight down at Iraivan Temple

The Chola Gardens and Rishi Valley Ponds

Gathering before the afternoon’s Pradosha Puja

The Svayambhu Lingam’s temporary tent along San Marga, the Shadkonam Garden and Iraivan Temple

A slightly closer shot

Our grass plantings are beginning to grow in

An overview of The Path of the Saivite Satguru’s, with the Silpi Pavilion to the left

The new Siddhidatta Kulam shop

And a final view over to our hardwood forests, across the river. In the far upper-left, the bright green patch is our Noni field

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Happy Pradosha Puja day! With such nice weather we decided to take the drone up for some fresh aerial photos of Iraivan Temple. These also give us a good view of the new temporary service path around the temple, which is in place until funds are raised to build the final stone path. They also give us a snapshot of the growth of our temple gardens and landscaping. Aum.

The best thing to do when you begin meditation is to live in a good environment, among good people.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

Aisles of the Greenhouse

Amaranth

Lettuce

Celery

Leek

Vel washing and cleaning the newly harvested tomatoes

Sadhaka Shankaranatha removing the old tomato plants

The revived Greenhouse that is producing the new tomatoes

Offering Ganesha the newly harvested tomato

Bandit waiting for his belly rub

Jai Ganesha!

Today, as we walked around the monastery, we noticed the Siddhidatta Kulam’s mathavasis and taskforcer working hard in the greenhouse. A few months ago, we had to shut down one of the greenhouses, which was growing tomatoes, due to a bug infestation that destroyed the plants. The Siddhidatta Kulam monks thoroughly cleaned the greenhouse to prepare it for new planting and resumed growing tomatoes. Just a week ago, they harvested the first batch of tomatoes and decided to offer them to Ganesha as a gesture of gratitude for helping them restore tomato production. Meanwhile, the other greenhouse, which grows various vegetables, is thriving and producing abundant greens for the mathavasis to enjoy. A variety of greens, including leeks, lettuce, amaranth and celery, are being cultivated. The images you see here are from the greenhouse producing these vegetables. However, access to the tomato greenhouse is restricted for the moment, to prevent another bug infestation. We hope you enjoy looking at these vibrant greens as much as we enjoy eating them. Aum!

Today we installed the amazing bronze murti of our founder, Gurudeva. He now greets and blesses all pilgrims and visitors in his garden shrine at the entrance to the monastery. For a few years we had a stone murti there, but it began to erode in the tropical weather. This will endure.

This 25″ tall masterpiece is the work of Holly Young who lives on the Big Island. The original was sent last year to the little temple in Sri Lanka which houses our four most recent satgurus. It was so beautiful, we got Bodhinatha’s permission to have the team in Colorado make two copies, one for the Spiritual Park (which arrived about 12 days back) and another for Kauai Aadheenam. All three are now where they belong.

Jai Gurudeva! Jai Kailasa Paramparai!

Doug picks up the murti to move him 800 feet to the entrance.

He is right at home, seems he was always here.

This is the one sent to Sri Lanka, showing Holly’s gifted work.

The first image visitors encounter.

The sign points those who want to know more to his biography, using a QR Code.

Gurudeva in the Wiliwili Mandapam