"Concentration is man's power over his mind as he goes through life working out life's problems. And meditation is man's wisdom."

Gurudeva

Gurudeva Darshan of the Day

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What Happened Today at the Monastery?

Pilgrim family Shankar and Sri Mallampalli are here on their final day, having darshan with Bodhinatha.

They were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Balasubramuniam from Sydney. Originally from Sri Lanka, the Balasubramaniams have waited 25 years to come to Kauai! Now that's persistence.

Meanwhile a new talk by Bodhinatha was uploaded today... see the side bar links.

This little boy is only happy if he is on the move!

OK that's better... something interesting to look at: the cameraman!

Meanwhile his twin sister is taking a break waiting for Bodhinatha to arrive.

Bodhinatha blessing some rudraksha beads that our pilgrims will take home and wear.

We discovered early this morning that today's Inspired Talk on Gurudeva's PodCast had transcended into samadhi; and you may have heard only silence. That is fixed now. He is now back in the audible realm.

This photo is courtesy of Dora Kovaks of Massachusetts. Her husband, Rudy, gave her a new iPod just so she could listen each day to Gurudeva's inspired talks. Her iPod displays the playlist. Thanks, Dora!

Iraivan Temple Construction Progress

Today is our architect's final full day of work on Kauai. Here he is atop the tower, working on details for four large forms of Siva to go between the nandis. He has placed some large wooden blocks on the stone to give the sense of scale for the new sculptures.

During his ten days on Kauai, Sthapati R. Selvanathan was able to move many key areas of Iraivan forward. Each day he worked with the craftsmen onsite, and each night he made drawings to be reviewed the next day.

If you missed the short video of his explanations of the pillar placement yesterday, go back to yesterday and you can still see it. We are so inspired by Sthapati's visit and all the gifts of knowledge and design he left with us. We learned today that his grandfather designed the Siva Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and did all the murthis and shrines for Ramana Maharishi's ashram.

Shankar and Sri Mallampalli brought their twins to the publications building today, and were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Balasubramuniam from Sydney.

Yesterday a bulldozer came to repair the road that was covered in mud during the March flash floods on Kauai.

The ferns in the valley are edible, and also quite aggressive. They will soon colonize the dirt and heal the land.

You can see here where the mud covered the access road. Iraivan in the background.

Saiva Siddhanta Church Sri Lanka Mission

Meditation Class in Sri Subramuniya Kottam

This is a photo taken, in July, of the meditation class conducted at the Sri Subramuniya Kottam. The class is held every Friday evening. Kulamata Sivalosani Kanagaratnam conducts a guided meditation that the children follow. The session starts with a group bhajan.

Then, Kulamata leads the group using simple meditation instructions that Gurudeva had provided such as the color meditation, the lotus of the heart meditation, the Pancha Siva Chaitanya meditation.