Today we reached the $80,000 goal of our annual Digital Dharma Drive! It was not at all certain we would meet the goal, but in the last few hours before tonight’s transition to 2025, a few generous donors recognized our plight and gave abundantly. We are grateful for this amazing support. It means we can proceed with our highest ambitions in the year ahead, producing a third edition of Lemurian Scrolls, a new edition of Patanjali’s famed Yoga Sutras (fully illustrated by our Kerala artist), a new edition of Saint Tayumanavar’s 1,454 devotional poems to Siva, website enhancements and more. Mahalo nui loa, as the Hawaiian say.
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.
“The two paths—householder and renunciate—every young man has to choose between them. In Hindu tradition the choice is made before the marriage ceremony, and, if not, during the ceremony itself. The choice must be his and his alone. Though guided by the advice of parents, elder family members and religious leaders, the choice is his and his alone as to how his soul is to live through the birth karmas of this incarnation. Both paths take courage, great courage, to step forward and embrace the responsibilities of adult life.“
For many years we used a certain dirt road (in addition to other roads) for vehicles to go past Iraivan Temple towards the Swayambhulingam Mandapam and west borders of our property, but it was steep and consistently gouged from heavy rain runoff. It also negatively affected water drainage on the northwest side of Iraivan Temple, so we finally decided to close it off in preparation for creating a concrete utility road around Iraivan in the hopefully not-too-distant future. Dennis Wong recently brought in dirt and boulders to lift the area and close it. The photos show a few angles, plus a larger visitor group experiencing Iraivan due to the end-of-year holidays.
Shankaranatha preparing all the woods to bring back to Hale Hana
Jai Ganesha!
The monks of Siddhidata Kulam are currently undergoing the final stages of the construction of their new shop and office building. Recently Sannyasin Vishvanathaswami and Sadhaka Shankaranatha have been working on making the blue gum window sills and trim for the second floor office. Over the past few weeks they milled the lumber, cut it roughly to size, and assigned each sill to a window. There are 13 windows in total for the second floor office, and they are now working to sand them and prepare the wood for the final installation. Once they have completed on this, the second floor will undergo the second stage which is finish the walls of the office space. Aum!
Quotes of the Day
Meditation is a long journey, a pilgrimage into the mind itself.
Bhairava on the way to help other monks in the monastery
Drama King
The “good boy” look
A naughty dog
The playful form of Bhairava
Yes he also attends the morning meeting along with other monks
Having good time in the beach when he was a pup
Bhairava when he was 8 weeks old
Jai Ganesha!
We are not sure how many of you are aware that for a while now we have had another monk (and protector) in a non-human form. Yes! A year ago our Siddhidata Kulam talaivar, Yoginathaswami, bought a male German Shepherd dog and named him Bhairava. He is one of use now. Before we deep dive into Bhairava’s story, we want to share this ai response describing this particular breed of dog:
“German Shepherds are highly intelligent, loyal, and confident dogs, known for their protective and courageous nature. They form strong bonds with their families and are affectionate, especially with children, but can be reserved around strangers. Energetic and eager to please, they excel in tasks requiring focus and are highly trainable, making them ideal working dogs as well as loving companions. Their playful yet disciplined demeanor thrives in active households where they receive consistent training, mental stimulation, and exercise to keep them happy and well-behaved.”
So from that you can guess that he is loyal to us, with many of the practical qualities of a guard dog. This means he will go to great lengths to protect his family. Swami has been training him along with an instructor who has been teaching Swami how to train Bhairava and teach him commands. Bhairava is a wonderful addition to the monastery and always cheers us up. Other monks also get a chance to take care of him by feeding him and taking him for walks. One time, Swami and Bhairava were going for an evening walk, and suddenly a crazed, wild boar appeared. It took a charge at Swami, but Bhairava scared it off, saving the day! He reminds us of Kala Bhairava the destroyer of darkness. Of course, like all dogs, he has a bit of an overly-playful side to him as well. He will excitedly run up to anyone new. He will bark at you until you give your attention and pet him, and with certain people who try to give him a command he will simply ignore you. He reminds us that even dogs are individuals and must be treated with respect. We all are very happy to have him with us. Aum!
Closeup of a basket of partially cleaned Rudraksha seeds from the Elaeocarpus Ganitrus tree
These are the saplings (in the foreground) as they arrived from Kathmandu, before they sprouted.
After a year, they grew to two feet tall and healthy. They like Kauai’s climate.
A field was cleared and mowed, and fences installed to keep the cows away. Then last week we planted 15 Nepalese trees which will be a future miniature forest we are calling a grove.
To make their transition to full sun easier, we placed red ti plants to provide shade at the hottest time of the day.
In the future we will have the original Indian Rudraksha Forest here, and just 80 feet away pilgrims can walk among the Nepalese trees
We published a major story about the growing and marketing of the rudrakshas of Nepal which you can read by following this QR code. Regale your friends with these fascinating details.
Consider the cosmic rhythm of creation, preservation and dissolution. Much of what we do in life is by way of maintaining what was created in the past. Housekeeping, equipment maintenance, mowing the lawn, washing the clothes. Now and again we get to create something special (which will need maintenance far into the future!)
This week we created a new little forest of Rudraksha trees from Nepal. Just 15 trees, so we call it our Nepalese Rudraksha Grove. The seed for this was sown some 2-3 years ago when we did a major article on the Rudrakshas of Nepal. We flew Nikki Thapa from Kathmandu to the deep Khandari Valley that lies just 33 miles from Mount Everest. The story was fascinating, full of facts like Rudraksha sales represent 6% of Nepal’s GNP, and the rather stunning fact that the most expensive single bead every purchased on auction went for $84,000 (it had 33 faces, so one in a billion). Nikki sent us a handful of beads from that valley, and we were amazed how distinctive they were, bigger, lighter in color and even more ornately “carved” than the Indian beads.
So we flew Nikki back to the valley with the mission to acquire 18 small trees which—after nurturing them in her home for the winter—she packed and shipped to Kauai. They grew slowly at first, but when they realized where they were they took off and became lush and healthy. They were ready to get out of their pots, so we cleared a portion of our cow pasture, put up fencing to keep the cows from making them bovine salad, dug 15 holes (three did not make the journey) and planted them in our finest plant mix. They are settling in, happy to be out near their comrades, the Indian Rudrakshas. In the future pilgrims can visit two rudraksha forests from two nations, and the Mini Mela will have a new offering for pilgrims, grown on the Aadheenam grounds. So, having created a sacred space for future pilgrims, we settle in to mowing the field, fertilizing the saplings, mending the fences and so it goes. Create, maintain, dismantle. Take a breath and repeat.
This photo shows the color difference between the darker ruddy brown of the Indian bead and the lighter khaki brown of the Nepalese beads. Only usually the Nepali beads are larger than their Indian brethern.
