Newsletter – September 2023
| Ola. As we go into the Fall Season this year many families have been travelling to various parts of this globe for various reasons. Just this past week Sundari and I completed a brief visit to Spain to attend a family wedding. We were exposed to a new culture and many historic facts about Europe. There are so many similarities and differences in how the cultures evolve but it is very clear that all of us are working towards the same goal of Universal peace, harmony and growth. I invite our community members to take this opportunity to share their experiences in our Community Corner section of this newsletter in the coming months. We have completed Phase 1 of our face lift of the Wahiawa Shiva Temple. Overall the goal of these is to preserve the physical space in a comfortable and usable condition and really provide our devotees and visitors a clean place for meditation, prayer and reflection. Please do visit if you have not come recently and help us with the process of maintaining the premises in a clean condition. Majority of the cost of this face lift was covered by our fundraising though we welcome targeted donations towards this effort as we do have some more renovations to be completed by the end of this calendar year. The next major event for our organization to coordinate is the Annual Diwali celebrations. We are targeting to have this event on November 4th. This is an initial save the date. Please respond back to us on our Lotus email if you have an interest in being a part of the cultural program and also a volunteer during that day. Please also share this information amongst your friends and colleagues and solicit participants for the cultural portion of the event. Within our geographic community we are gradually moving on with the long phase of rehabilitation from the devastating fires on Maui. Lotus leadership has approved and will be sending a monetary donation of $2000 to the Hawaii Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund. Please feel free to do your individual donations for recovery from this and other global disasters that have been in the news in the past month. I believe most of us are coping with the challenges of the ongoing pandemic with going about our daily chores. Please do heed to common sense and continue to practice meaningful personal precautions for the safety of yourself and the ones around you. Warm aloha, V. Balaraman President |
| LOTUS UPCOMING EVENTS Annual Diwali Function on November 4, 2023. Details will be forthcoming. We look forward to your participation in the event. |
| Temple Activities – September 17th, 2023 Our monthly pooja will start promptly at noon on the 17th. Prof. Bhawuk will be officiating. It is a community pot luck day so bring your favorite food to share.  . |
| September/October 2023: September 17 – Wahiawa Temple Pooja Day September 18 – Ganesh Chaturti – Ganpati Bappa Morya September 23 – Autumnal Equinox September 27 – Ananth Chaturdasi and Ganesha Visarjan October 1 – Local Gandhi Jayanthi and Peace Celebrations. See flyer below. Please reach out to [email protected] if you need more information about the event. October 2 – Gandhi Jayanthi October 15 – Navaratri Begins October 23 – Vijaya Dasami and Dussera  |
