For some reason, I couldn’t not to visit the Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. Maybe it was a part of my search for that something.

I can not possibly describe everything that happened there; words are not and will never be enough. What I wish for you is to get the chance to visit this place yourself one day. But until then, I’ll try my best to get you as close to it as possible through you reading this.

I arrived at the monastery shortly after it opened its gates. With my colourful long skirt and brown cotton shirt, nobody there thought about me as a visitor; apart from the very few other visitors who came there at this hour and got approached and directed to places, I had to come up to one lovely woman wearing a beautiful salmon-pink sari and ask.

She kindly pointed me to a few places and explained a few things and soon, I ended up under an enormous banyan tree in the company of Lord Shanmuga who “guides the transformation of the instinctive into divine wisdom through the practice of yoga,” as she explained.

Now, I’m not Elizabeth Gilbert who wrote Eat Pray Love and so I don’t know how to write about the next several minutes spent there. Instead of hearing my experience, just try to imagine yourself there and what you think you’d do.

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Later, after I spent some time with the Deity, the woman in salmon-pink sari returned to me and after what seemed to be just a usual friendly conversation about a little unusual topics, she invited me to join the meditation and worship in Kadavul Temple.

The area is closed to visitors who are just exploring until the worship is over. I left my shoes at the gate wearing a sign that said so and made my way around a huge smooth-black statue of Nandi Bull to the temple.

A very little and a lot happens during a meditation and the ceremony, Siva puja, at the same time.

I could describe the puja moment by moment and I would still not be describing what was really happening there.

I was thankful to the woman in the salmon-pink sari, whom I’ve considered my guide and guardian by then, for guiding me through it.

The rest of my time at the monastery flew by faster than I thought. I walked there, bare-footed, the rain started to come down once again on this always-wet piece of Earth.

The paths were warmed by the little bit of sunshine that made its way through the clouds that morning and I couldn’t get enough of putting one foot in front of the other on the smooth rock the paths were paved with.

I hid from the rain in a little pavilion and just sat there, not doing anything but being. And I must say, it’s a very unique feeling when you allow yourself to just be. Not being anything but just being…

The time to leave arrived. As I was walking through the gate, I gave goodbye to the statue of Ganesha who welcomed me here in the morning and headed down to the coast.

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The previous Searching-the-Aloha article is HERE.

The next one is waiting for you right HERE.

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