Gurudeva’s vision becoming real through cash, stone work in India WAILUA HOMESTEADS — In some ways, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva) was just another California visitor who fell in love with Kaua’i and decided to make it his home. There are
Gurudeva’s vision becoming real through cash, stone work in India
WAILUA HOMESTEADS — In some ways, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva) was just another California visitor who fell in love with Kaua’i and decided to make it his home.
There are some major differences, though:
- While some dream of coming to Hawai’i and Kaua’i, his first glimpses of Kaua’i came to him via a vision.
- He brought with him, at least in spirit, around 3 million followers of his type of Hindu beliefs.
- Instead of building a dream home, he built Saiva Siddhanta Church, Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, on 50 acres of lush land including a waterfall and natural pool accessed along a rural road in Wailua Homesteads.
- He began publishing his religion’s largest periodical publication, Hinduism Today, which reaches 100,000 readers.
- Gurudeva says he first saw the lush valley now owned by the church in a vision that included Lord Siva, whom followers believe abundantly grants blessings and, ultimately, supreme transformation.
Being carved entirely by hand now in Bangalore, India, are pieces of white granite which will be shipped to Kaua’i and turned eventually into the first-ever Hindu temple built in India and constructed in the western hemisphere.
The massive San Marga Iraivan Temple, the concrete slab for which has already been poured (68 feet wide by 168 feet long) is the church’s current center of attention.
In the Hindu ancient scriptures are plans for building temples, some of which have been around for millennia themselves, explained Thondunatha, a guide during last Wednesday’s visit to the church arranged by the Rotary Club of Po’ipu Beach.
According to Thondunatha, Gurudeva came to Kaua’i to be away from the rest of the world, and because this is the place he saw in one of his visions.
While over 75 percent of the congregation lives in Asia, India, Singapore and other countries, the monks travel there to do their mission work, Thondunatha explained.
“But we always come back to Kaua’i, because this is the place that we love,” he said.
He estimates it will take 3.2 million pounds of granite to finish the temple. Nearly 100 carvers use hammers and chisels to do the work, and assistants by hand sharpen over 3,000 chisels a day for the work, Thondunatha continued.
One of the top pieces of the temple, an 11-ton work of art already on the Wailua property, took six years to complete. It takes two workers eight years to carve special pillars of the open-air temple which make distinct musical sounds when struck with mallets.
On May 31, a ceremonial first stone will be laid at the temple, marking the start of construction of the temple that will overlook a section of the Wailua River which has a waterfall and natural pool on church property.
The church is negotiating with Amfac to obtain an additional 400 acres of adjacent land, said Thondunatha.
The entire temple is being financed through public donations, and so far Hindus in 54 countries have contributed. What will cost the church $16 million for fabricating the white granite pieces in India would cost $160 million to accomplish in the United States, he said.
While the temple won’t be dedicated until $16 million is raised, already being set aside as an endowment to operate and maintain the temple in perpetuity is 50 cents of each dollar donated. Some $50,000 a month is donated now, Thondunatha noted. He estimates that between six and seven more years of carving in India will be required before the temple’s pieces will be completed there.
Near where the temple is to be built is one of seven heiau, or sacred sites of worship for Native Hawaiians, which stretch from Wailua Bay to Mt. Wai’ale’ale. The place in Hawaiian is called Pihanakalani, or, literally, where heaven meets the earth.
The centerpiece of the temple will be a 700-pound, 39-inch-tall, uncut quartz crystal, believed to be the largest six-sided, single-pointed crystal ever found. Followers believe the crystal grants spiritual wishes. It currently rests in a small temple on the Wailua grounds.
Some 4,000 stones will be shipped from India to complete the temple. Also included in the temple will be a time capsule to be opened 1,000 years from the temple’s dedication date.
The capsule will include, Thondunatha said, issues of The Garden Island, as well as instructions on how to build a new temple, as well as other information.
“Hindus believe in reincarnation,” he said. “I’m planning on coming back to see” the opening of the time capsule.
He envisions one possible problem, though: Y3K.
The 50-acre grounds include enough space for the monks to grow most of the vegetables they eat. Five milk cows share space with 400 kinds of ginger, heleconia, ti leaves, and 36 varieties of bananas, including one from South America that is 60 feet tall.
About 60 Rotarians and guests made the trip up Kuamo’o Road to the church.
Want to visit?
The grounds of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery are occasionally open to the public. Information on visits is available at 822-3012 or www.gurudeva.org.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
