Recent activity at Kauai's Hindu Monastery

A live presentation by Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami plus devotional singing, discussions & testimonies by participants. Choose the session best for your time zone.

Hosted from Singapore:
10 AM Sunday Singapore Time
To join email: dohadeva.samugam@gmail.com

Hosted from California:
10 AM Sunday Pacific Time
To join email: easan.katir@gmail.com

• Study Gurudeva's Master Course, which is filled with philosophical, practical, soul-stirring information potent enough to inspire even a skeptic to change his ways of thinking about life and the ultimate goal of existence on this planet: 
himalayanacademy.com/livespiritually/become-student/mc-options
• Read Gurudeva's books online at: himalayanacademy.com/readlearn/books
• Listen to Gurudeva's inspired talks: himalayanacademy.com/looklisten/talksindex

The last two containers from India arrived and were offloaded by the monks

Reservations are now required to enter the monastery temple due to the overwhelming rush of visitors to our little island. Our online reservations webpage allows guests to schedule a time slot for their Deity darshan. You can book up to three months in advance of your visit, signing up for either the 9am Siva puja or 11am temple darshan, which is good for personal worship and meditation. We recommend you make reservations for a temple visit well before your travel to Kauai to avoid disappointment.

Go to himalayanacademy.com/reservations/ to schedule your visit!

A crane lifts the floor tiles from China onto the foundation

The final shipment of stones and other essential items for Iraivan Temple has arrived at the monastery from India. The delivery included the remaining rose granite flower pots which will grace the walls of Iraivan Temple’s perimeter wall, stone carved cladding for Kadavul Temple’s Nandi Mandapam and Kodimaram, Iraivan Temple’s new Nandi, and the golden tiruvasi which will stand behind Iraivan Temple’s Crystal Sivalinga. Big equipment moved in to shape the land directly around Iraivan Temple in preparation for the landscaping. A new garden area was created by our neighbor, the talented heavy machinery operator Dennis Wong. This space is located near Chellappaswami’s granite statue on the Path of the Saiva Satgurus. Some huge (and nearly dead) banyans were removed. Now we can look forward to the beautiful gardens that will be designed!

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami was invited to attend the Maha Kumbhabhishekam at the Hindu Temple of Saint Louis, Missouri, on May 15. The temple was built 36 years ago by Ganapati Sthapati and Selvanathan Sthapati. Satguru gave two short talks during the ceremony to the 2,000 assembled devotees. The following day he paid a short courtesy visit to the BAPS Swaminarayan center where he gave a casual talk and answered questions. That evening he gave a presentation at the Hindu Temple of Saint Louis’ educational building. During May, Satguru continued his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple on Merging with Siva. To see these presentations, as well as his webinars “Climbing the Mount Everest within You” and “Intuition versus Ego,” on the Kauai’s Hindu Monastery visit our Kauai’s Hindu Monastery YouTube channel. During the pandemic, when unable to travel, Satguru was inspired to have a greater presence on the web, holding weekly video satsangs every Saturday and Sunday since March, 2020. It’s a live presentation by Satguru, plus devotional singing, discussions and testimonies by participants. You are invited to attend. See the information under the "Satguru's Message" section of this Newsletter. 

We were recently approached by the owner of a Youtube channel called “Supreme Yogi.” He publishes short videos capsulating the teachings of major Hindu sages, such as Ramana Maharshi and Sri Ramakrishna. With our permission, he posted a 16-minute video presenting some of Gurudeva’s teachings as well as stories from The Guru Chronicles. The video so far has over 100,000 views! See the video below.

In other news, our publications team has finished the editorial and design work on a new edition of the Gurudeva Quote of the Day Calendar and sent it off to the printer. This charming little book should be ready in time for Gurudeva’s annual Mahasamadhi ceremonies, which this year occur October 21 to 24.

Cover and Table of Contents

Hinduism Today’s latest issue has gone to press and will be available online free of charge at www.hinduismtoday.com on July 1st. You can also download our free Hinduism Today app and get the entire magazine in a mobile-friendly format for your device at hinduismtoday.com/get-the-app/. 

In his Publisher’s Desk, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami explains that life’s challenges are the key to spiritual advancement and offers three strategies: staying calm amidst chaos, realizing challenges are your friends and understanding that worldly experience is required to achieve divine experience. Our feature this issue is rich in photography as it puts us in the middle of Madhav Narayan, a month-long festival of worship and austerities centered around Hanuman Ghat near Kathmandu. Our Educational Insight focuses on the four denominations of Hinduism—Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism, their central beliefs, major scriptures, spiritual practices and paths of attainment. 

When we heard about the expansion of the Hindu College in Guyana, we jumped at the chance to report on this little-known part of the Indian diaspora and sent Trinidad correspondent Paras Ramoutar there to witness the rededication and Mahasivaratri celebrations taking place at the same time. 

We were astounded in February when we first learned of the installation of a huge gold-leafed statue of Saint Ramanujacharya in the village of Muchintal near Hyderabad’s international airport. There Sri Chinna Jeeya Swamy has successfully completed the immense project at his 45-acre ashram. See our full report.

In a completely different realm, UC Berkeley freshman Mayuresh Visswanathan contributed an article on “free diving,” an extreme sport in which athletes go as far as possible into the ocean depths on a single breath of air. In the 1950s, scientists believed that without diving gear humans could go no deeper that 100 feet, at which point their lungs would collapse. Mayuresh tells the story of Jacques Mayol of France who in 1983—using knowledge of the breath gained from yogis in India—set a world record of 344 feet, at the age of 56!

Our team of Young Writers (13 to 18 years old) contributed two stories for the issue. “Making Mandirs Cool Again,” proposes strategies for keeping US-based youth engaged with their local temple. “Hindu Camp was Fun,” describes four days in rural California covering what it means to be a Hindu and how to react to criticism of India and Hinduism. 

Dhanesh Budhram explains his college experiences starting in 2014, from finding vegetarian food, to getting the “Hindu” campus group interested in religion and not just socializing, to finding scholars who helped him be a better Hindu. Divya Jain in her article tells a different story: how she was targeted and ultimately converted by Christian evangelicals at the University of Texas.

(clockwise from top-left) Our publisher’s sagely advice on facing life’s challenges; colossal statue of Ramanujacharya is inaugurated; a Young Writers’ account of her winter camp; dare-devil free divers learned from yogis how to plunge hundreds of feet; Insight section on Hinduism’s four denominations.

In one of Gurudeva’s inner-plane writings, he shared the mystical side of the cow and its milk: “A Deity puts His darshan through the goat or the cow, into its milk, to hasten its psychic power. Through His darshan, delivered in this way, He gives inner knowledge and stimulates extraterrestrial experiences…. Lord Siva’s [darshan comes] through the cow….All knowledge of Saivism can be imparted by our Lord Siva when the milk of the cow is taken in the correct way.”

It is common for medium and large Hindu monasteries to have a herd of cows that provide milk and milk products for temple ceremonies as well as for the consumption of the resident monastics. Kauai Aadheenam has maintained a herd of cows since 1979. The current herd are all Jersey cows, as they are smaller than other breeds and easier to manage. The monastery’s active herd consists of six cows: Anu, Salute, Marvelous, Teta, Kali and Mina. Additionally, on the monastery’s retirement pasture there are six retired cows. 

The Aadheenam has two endowments that provide for cows. The Cows of Kadavul and Iraivan Temple Endowment provides for the expenses of the active herd: care, feeding and medical needs (both male and female). This includes dairy supplies, breeding supplies, dairy parlor repair and maintenance, pasture management, fence repair and purchase of additional cows. The Himalayan Acres Wildlife and Cow Habitat Endowment provides for the expenses of the retired herd, which is located across the river on a large licensed parcel we call Himalayan Acres. This includes rent, pasture and fence maintenance, shelters, nutrition and veterinary services. Secondarily, grants are directed to maintaining the wildlife habitat.

If you would like to directly help the monks in their efforts to abundantly fulfill the Aadheenam tradition of caring for cows, you can do so by donating to either the Cows of Kadavul and Iraivan Temple Endowment at https://www.hheonline.org/fund... or the Himalayan Acres Wildlife and Cow Habitat Endowment at https://www.hheonline.org/fund.... These endowments allow the monastery to use your funds as an investment, drawing on the grant income. This is a way to donate and see your impact last into perpetuity. 

For information on establishing a fund at Hindu Heritage Endowment, contact Shanmuganathaswami at 808-822-3012, ext. 6, or e-mail hhe@hindu.org.

Stone Chains: Among the “wonderments” of Iraivan Temple are the stone chains, each carved from a single solid block of granite. In all, 24 such chains, three feet long, will adorn the spaces. Twelve will hang from the corners of the Nandi Mandapam and 12 within the main temple. Asked why these marvelous artifacts are created, the master builder said with a smile, “To show off the extraordinary skill and artistry of the carvers.” Of course, they also add an ornate and charming visual masterpiece at the corners, and provoke a sense of awe in pilgrims who encounter them for the first time. The process, which takes around 350 man hours per chain, is so difficult that few have been made in the past hundred years, we've been told. Sponsorship is $10,000 per chain.

Rose Granite Flooring Stones: One of the last remaining large projects for Iraivan Temple is the installation of one-inch thick rose granite flooring stones (sample of the reddish stone below) in the second prakaram, the 6,500 square-foot area surrounding the roofed area of the temple. The diagram at left is a detailed map of the project prepared for the tile supplier and the professional installers The colors indicate the various tile sizes. Sponsorship is $1,800 for each 25-square-foot section.

For the nine months of September 2021 to May 2022, our minimum monthly goal was $630,000. Excluding contributions directed toward special projects, we received actual contributions of $1,125,517.27.

Building Fund Donations: AUSTRALIA Nagaratnam Jeyasreedharan US$20.00; D. Karthigesu Family 100.00; Rama Krishnan 30.00; Luckshmi & Logan Siva Nirmalananda 35.00; Bhanugopan Ramudu 108.00; Gunavinthan Siva Thirumalai 100.00; Thanavinthan Siva T. Thirumalai 100.00; Essen Subramanian Valayten 2.27; Chandran & Mathini Wigneswaran 108.00; Anonymous 30.00 | BELARUS Tatsiana Mezhennaya 50.00 | BRAZIL Leonidas Coutinho 108.00 | CANADA Rajesh K. Bali 74.95; Serge Bilan 50.00; Jnanideva Cevvel 3,611.10; Peter Christian 25.00; Frederik Jan Elbers 1,008.00; R. Janakiraman 51.00; Fenulla & Rahim Jiwanni Hirji 1,800.00; Ioana-Gabriela Manoliu 33.00; Ganga Murugan 501.00; Changam & Kamachi Naidu 50.00; Vanesh Naidu 27.00; Jayshree P. Patel 500.00; Mr. & Mrs. Pranavan 25.00; Vijaya & Thiru Satkunendran 25.00; Vivek Sureshbhai Shah 100.00; Sara K. Sivasurier 281.06; Saravanamuthu Somasundram 50.00; Riorita Tkatchenko 1,100.00; Kohila Vivegananthan 51.00; Anonymous 49.25 | GERMANY Tharsika Chelvarajah Vasanthan 20.00; Jeeva Velusaami 21.00 | GREECE Artemis Bimpiza 20.00 | INDIA Lakshmanan Nellaiappan 10.00; Maragatham Nellaiappan 10.00; Vikram Santurkar 51.00 | ISRAEL Alexander Surdyaev 125.00 | ITALY Cristina Ma Puja Canducci 40.00 | KAZAKHSTAN Alfiya Khasanova 5.00 | MALAYSIA Klinik And Surgeri BD 22.72; Devinasree Balasegaran 11.36; Om Krittik Balasegaran 11.36; P. Barathi Balasegaran 11.36; Balachander Balasupramaniam 11.36; Balamurali Balasupramaniam 11.36; Hemakheshaa Naatha Batumallah 56.80; Mekaladeva Batumallah 56.80; Rathidevi & Veerasamy Batumallah 184.59; Gunasegaran Chitravelloo 10.90; Sasikumar Darmalingam 11.36; Yoga Rubini & Chandra Ganth Family 11.36; R. Jayakumar & Yoga Bhavani Family 22.72; Uma Dewi & Dinesh Kumar Jayaram 6.69; Muthukumar Jeyapalan 1,530.00; M. Shanmuganathan & A. Kamalambikai 22.72; Anbu Kandasamy 28.00; Malaysia Mission 698.58; Parvathy Muniandy 45.71; Logadasan Murugesu 11.36; Gayathri Palanisamy 34.08; Palanisamy & Vasande 11.36; A. Paranthaman 4.37; Jayaram Rajaletchumi 10.90; Mogan Raju 69.00; Suruthiswar Rau Raja Rao 45.44; Doraisami & Mohanasundari Selvaraj 24.00; Parimala Selvaraj 30.00; Devaladevi Sivaceyon 48.73; Ramesh & Saraswathy Sivanathan 11.38; Girish Skanda 22.72; Vasanta Tanggavelu 34.08; Thanabalasingam & Manimala 11.36; Saroja Vasudevan 11.36; Yuvanes Waran 20.00 | MAURITIUS Jegadessa Chenganna 11.36; Shree Saroja Devi Doorgiat 2.27; Rohit Jogessur 2.27; Darcinee Jugessur 2.27; Mooneenagen Koothan 6.82; Poospawadee Koothan 2.27; Kulagan Moonesawmy 2.27; Seedha Lutchmee Moonesawmy 2.27; Goindamah Moothoosawmy 2.27; Revathi Mootoosamy 1.14; Siven Barlen Mootoosamy 2.27; Vimaley Chellen Mootoosamy 2.27; Naden Seeneevasen Pillay 2.27; Nuckiren Pyeneeandee 45.45; Kannen Valaydon 22.73; Saroja Valayten 2.27; Toshadeva Valayten 1.14; Ulasa Valayten 1.14; Anonymous 22.91 | NETHERLANDS Prekash & Sabita Baladien 15.00 | NORWAY Anil Ananda Badhwar 60.00; Anuradha Badhwar 10.00; Meetu Badhwar-Hansen 10.00 | RUSSIA Elena Dmitrichenko 2.27 | SINGAPORE Vasaant Krishnan 30.00; Singapore Mission 33.00; Kala Ramasamy 50.00; Easan, Lavanya & Sivakumar Saravan 1,000.00; Kavitha Darshini & Amitpal Singh 73.00 | UNITED KINGDOM Georgiana Lukshmi Dorothy Barnes & Theeba Ragunathan 100.00; Clive & Puvaneswary Roberts 175.00; Sharavanan Selvadurai 100.00; Ravi Thaker 15.00; Anonymous 11.00 | USA Benevity 1,252.00; Fidelity Charitable, In memory of Mrs. Manonmani Sangarapillai 100.00; Kanda Alahan 158.00; Vel Alahan 25.00; Priya & Amar Amaresh 108.00; Manoj Apte 1,008.00; Palani K. Aravazhi 51.00; Rekha & Promodh Bahri 101.00; Bryan Bailey 10.00; Bhama Balakrishnan 21.00; Akhila K. Balaram 25.00; Gurdial Chadha 21.00; Asha Chaku 80.00; Ajay & Jamuna Chalasani 100.00; Naresh & Sunita Chand 501.00; Naren Chelian 51.00; Sharath Chigurupati 123.00; Charles Close 108.00; Janakbhai R. Dave 50.00; Paul DeSantis 144.00; Chellappa Deva 25.00; Amarnath & Latha Devarmanai 112.00; Ganesh & Romila Devendra 101.00; Gayathri Dhanasegaran 25.00; Nita M. Dhora 101.00; Demo & Genevieve Di Martile 1,000.00; Purushottam Dixit 172.00; Aiyasawmy Dorairajan 25.00; Michael Doyle 108.00; Bharath Durga 101.00; Ramya Subramani & Rajesh Ekambaram 211.00; Melodie Essig 3.24; Warunee Lion Feinberg 50.00; Malvi Gandhi 25.00; Suketu & Mita Gandhi 51.00; Ashish Gandotra 100.00; Panshula Ganeshan 25.00; Rajendra Giri 208.00; Ateet Goel 251.00; Shoba Gopalan 501.00; Shiva Kumar Gorrepati 101.00; Toshadeva & Kamala Guhan 18.00; Kriya & Sharyn Haran 125.00; Usharani Iswaran Magaña 25.00; Raghavendra N. Iyyer 51.00; Chandrashekhar Jairaman 51.00; Seetha & Krishnaswamy Jayaraman 108.00; R.S. Jeyendran 101.00; Aravind & Ramya Kailas 25.00; Haran Kandadas 51.00; Shanthi & Srinivas Karri 90.00; Sundari Katir 20.00; Kavya Kaza 25.00; Michael Kempinski 215.00; Padma & Venkateshwara Kolli 501.00; Sirsha Krishnamurthy 108.00; Rajagopal Krishnan 108.00; Chitra Saraswathy Kumar 5.00; Luke Labella 200.00; Gregg Lien 50.00; Gerard & Zhena Linsmeier 52.00; Abha Lokhande 32.00; Yulia Machalaba 108.00; Manjula & Satya Mahanty 101.00; Subhashis Mallick 101.00; Mallikarjuna Rao Mamidipaka 25.00; Laura Devi Marks 108.00; B. Matheswaran Family 101.00; Patty Mcsherry 100.00; Chandra Mohan Mehrotra 51.00; Wailua Mission 18,575.75; In memory of Amitav Mukerji 500.00; Karan & Ragini Munalingal 151.00; Kris Murthy 51.00; Palani & Selvarany Nadarajah 15.00; Nitya & Rebecca Nadesan 150.00; Rama Chandran & Rema Nair 1,001.00; Sanjaya K. Nath 11.00; Emma & Narendra Nemivant 25.00; Neelam Oberoi 50.00; Neela Oza 75.00; Gurudas Pai 101.00; Satya & Savitri Palani 51.00; Cassan Pancham 2,400.00; Pankayatselvan Family 25.00; Easvan & Devi Param 101.00; Janaka & Bhavani Param 108.00; Jothi Param 51.00; Bharat & Jigisha Parekh 251.00; Ravi Parvataneni 101.00; Dhiru C. Patel 101.00; Nima Patel 201.00; Shabhdben Patel 51.00; Salik & Sanjia Pathak 51.00; Surendra Pathak 101.00; Suresh Patnam 101.00; Venkat Pichairaman 11.00; Deva & Gayatri Rajan 1,001.00; Mohan Deepak Ram 11.00; Janevi Ramaji 101.00; Ravi & Renuka Ramakrishna 101.00; Jeyashree & Venkat Ramakrishnan 50.00; Eswar Raman 40.00; Rajesh & Yatra Raman 11.00; Kasi Ramanathan 51.00; Ravi Rao 101.00; Shree Rawal 80.00; Aruna Reddy 50.00; Cliff & Kathy Runge 50.00; Vaidyanathan Sambasivan 51.00; V.R. & Indira Sanda 101.00; Vijaya Sastry 501.00; Achaibar Kaushik Sawh 1,008.00; Payal Sehgal 101.00; Aran & Valli Sendan 25.00; Sivendiran & Nirooshi Sethuram 108.00; Deva & Amala Seyon 51.00; Kanika Sharma 11.00; Salil Shibad 21.00; Anand Singh 25.00; Iraja & Nilani Sivadas 108.00; Nirthika Sivakumar 75.00; Dharshi & Sivasothy Sivakumar 150.00; Jnana Sivananda 100.00; Lakshana Chetana Sivananda 51.00; Nathan & Sulena Sivananda 108.00; B. Sivaraja 20.00; Keith Sorlie 20.00; Adi Srikantha 51.00; Kiran Srinivasan 20.00; Padmapriya Srinivasan 25.00; Joseph W. Steelman 100.00; Yasotha & Thevarajah Subarajan 51.00; Ravi Teja Sukhavasi 101.00; Nandi Deva Sundaram 50.00; Savithri Sundaresan 54.00; Phani Kumar Sureddi 7.00; Karthik Suresh 108.00; Shanthi Suresh 101.00; Vasuhi & Siva Sureshwaran 251.00; Nirupa & Nagamany Thayalakhandan 648.00; Siva U. Thillaikanthan 60.00; Ramesh Thimmappa 42.00; Marianne Hvidsten Thompson 75.00; Rama Vangala 21.00; Gita Varagoor 101.00; Mahesh Viswanathan 25.00; Shoba Devi Vittal 101.00; Tsajon & Kamalia Von Lixfeld 201.00; Richard Bosworth & Kerri Watts 202.00; Jhamandas Watumull Fund 1,000.00; Nagarjuna & Padma Yerra 116.00; Manny & Vinothini Yogarajah 101.00; Anonymous 7,388.03 | Total Building Fund $65,175.47 | Iraivan Temple Endowment Frank Burkhardt 10.00; S. M. & S. Ramachandra 200.00; Anonymous 72.80 | Total Endowment Funds $282.80 | Grand Total $65,458.27