Pilgrimage to Kauai in Hawaii –1

With over 750 miles of shoreline, over 400 beaches and an excellent tropical weather, Hawaii is a tourist’s paradise. Most people visit Hawaii to play water sports like surfing, snorkeling, swimming, or just relax and enjoy a restful vacation away from the crazy business world. But then, my Dharmapatni Vidya and I are not like most people. We seem to be cast in a different mould. We enjoy Mother Nature's every little creation including the young green blades of grass that grow on our lawn. We love anything that charges our spiritual batteries - like performing a simple Puja, reciting slokas, visiting temples or just singing Bhajans, no matter others like it or not. So, how did we land in far-off Hawaii, the exotic destination for merry makers? Well, it's what I call the divine hand at work. 

It all started in August 2015 with an e-mail from my son-in-law Suresh to someone at the Kauai Hindu monastery suggesting me as a good candidate for doing some Sanskrit translation work. This was a totally unexpected compliment to my untested skills. Pat came the response from Paramacharya Sadasivanatha Swami of the Kauai temple giving me a short Sanskrit-to-English translation work. I really enjoyed doing the work. The Paramacharya liked my work and graciously commented, "This is exactly what we had hoped for!”

Suddenly, my brain recalled the nice words of DGP Ravindran of Chennai who had visited this temple decades ago. He said that this temple demonstrated how well a band of dedicated white American monks could build and manage a Hindu temple perfectly adhering to the Agama Sastras. A deep desire sprang in me to visit this temple. When I wrote to the Paramacharya expressing my desire, he responded promptly suggesting October 4 as a good day for a visit because the Ardhra Abhishekam to Lord Shiva was to take place on that day. Thus, Vidya and I took off on October 2 and landed late night at Lihue airport in Kauai.

The next day, we drove to the Kauai temple about 6 miles from the hotel. The entire route was scenic with the road (Highway 580) winding up like a snake on a lush green mountain. It's a single lane road with varying speed limits of 25 and 35 mph. I could see the clouds hovering over the mountains and the blue sea on my left.

Paramacharya Sadasivanatha Palaniswami

When I entered the temple parking lot, it was a surprise to see Paramacharya Sadasivanatha Swamiji right there sitting on a go cart smilingly holding up his hands in Namasthe fashion. Vidya and I were visibly moved by his welcoming us right at the entrance. We offered him our humbale salutations. Paramacharya guided us to the temple and said Saravananathaswami will take us to Sathguru Bodhinatha Veylan Swamigal after the Puja.

We climbed up to the shrine about 100 yards passing up a huge Nandi. The sanctum hall is small, carpeted up to the steps leading to the inner sanctum where there is a beautiful lighted spatika lingam in the front and a large panchaloha Nataraja idol about 10-12 ft high behind on a pedestal. There was a small homakuntam and a shivalingam before the Nataraja.

The Puja started with Nadaswaram music, followed by abhishekam, alankaram, and archanai. We sang some Bhajans. After the Puja, the priest Sannyasin Yoginathaswamy gave us a spoonful of sweet abhishekam milk and puja teertham, flowers, vibhuti and finally a little kumkum. Saravananathaswami came around 10:40 and took us to have a private darshan with the Sathguru. After the darshan, we met Sadasivanatha Swamiji who showed us around the work place where all the publishing and website work gets done by a group of dedicated monks. This place is heavenly with a splendid open view of a deep valley with water falls and exotic green foliage. (... to be continued)