Hawaii shiva temple

Kauai aadheenam
Himalayan academy
Yogananda and vivekananda

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Merging with Śiva

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It is the only all-granite, hand-carved Hindu temple in the West built without power tools or electricity, and it’s nestled on one of the smaller islands in Hawaii surrounded by lush gardens and forests.

On the island of Kauai, the presence of the Iraivan Temple—a white granite edifice with gold-leafed domes modeled after millennia-old temples in South India—is unexpected and stunning. Fewer than 1% of Hawaii’s 1.4 million residents are Hindus, and on Kauai, the number of Hindus may not even exceed 50, according to some estimates.

Perhaps even more unexpected and stunning is the story of how the temple came to be.

It began with a man named Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, who was born in 1927 in California as Robert Hansen. From an early age, he was interested in yoga and dance, and joined the San Francisco Ballet at age 19.

But he didn’t stay long. World War II was coming to a close, and Hansen got on a ship for India.

In northern Sri Lanka, he sought out a spiritual teacher, and Guru Yogaswami initiated him into Shaivism, a major tradit

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Swami Vivekananda and Paramhansa Yogananda

Answer

I imagine Yogananda did speak of Swami Vivekananda since, as you have said, they lived in the same neighborhood in Calcutta. In fact, a number of Ramakrishna’s direct disciples lived in that very neighborhood as well. Yogananda knew several of them personally and had a very deep connection with Master Mahasaya (M, who wrote the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna).

But Vivekananda was older than Yogananda, and in fact, travelled to the United States for the first time to the conference in Chicago in the same year (I believe) that Yogananda was born, 1893. Swami Vivekananda was the ice-breaker and introduced Americans to Eastern teachings and most specifically to Vedanta. When he died in 1902 Yogananda was only 9 years old.

So although Yogananda and Vivekananda were not physically connected and taught in different times, the effort Vivekananda put out in America was a first step in introducing people to Eastern teachings.

Yogananda also had a nice connection with Swami Paramananda, who was a disciple of Vivekananda’s and who