Altars for Ribhu Rishi with his disciple Nidagha, and for Adi Sankara

 

 

As devotees await the arrival of the bronze murtis of Adi Sankara, Ribhu and Nidagha, altars for them are built.

Above, Scott has created a CAD image for the placement of the new murtis in the Satsang Hall. Ribhu is on the left and Sankara is on the right.

 

Bronze murti of Adi Sankara in His traditional form.

Bronze murthi of Ribhu Rishi. As SAT is not aware of any existing image or murti of Ribhu, His murti was carefully designed following the description given to Him by Dr. H. Ramanmoorthy based upon what is found in the Sanskrit Siva Rahasya.

Here, Nidagha is shown in the traditional position of a disciple with hand over mouth signifying the disciple refraining from expressing his own ideas through words and attentively listening, free of any distraction by the mind, without disrupting the Guru, and with ego subdued, to the words of Truth given by the Guru.

Scott begins by cutting out the wooden platforms that will be used for the altars.

 

The platforms are stacked and placed in the Satsang Hall for positioning.

Scott and Sangeeta discuss the method of placing marble tiles on the platforms.

 

Once the marble tiles are placed on the edge, it is time to cut the marble for the tops.

 

Scott and Sangeeta place the tile on a platform.

Above, the tiles are outlined to determine where to make the cuts in the marble. Below, the marble has been cut and placed upon the platform.

The cut tiles are placed on the platform, like a puzzle. The tiles will be removed before moving the platform into the Satsang Hall. Once the platform is in the Hall the tiles will be adhered to it.

 

Sangeeta polishes the marble on the edges of the platform.

Above, Sangeeta and Ganesh discuss the proper use of the polishing tool.

More polishing . . .

 

 

 

. . . and still more polishing.

 

 

More polishing . . .

. . . and lots of marble to cut.

 

The tiles are adhered to the edges of the platforms.  It is now time to move the platforms into the Satsang Hall.

The platforms are heavy and awkward to move up the back steps to the Satsang Hall.

Reaching the top of the stairs devotees take a little break before moving the platform into the temple.

 

 

Sankara’s platform is placed upon a stack of wooden planks making it ready for the “engine hoist” to place the murti upon the platform. The planks will be removed once the murti is in place.

Raghunatha arranges the tiles to be adhered to Ribhu’s platform.

Sia supervises the project and is explaining to Scott what is to be done next.

Sia demonstrates to Ganesh the proper procedure in getting the tiles aligned.

Scott adheres tiles to the top platform of Ribhu’s altar.

Sangeeta adheres tiles to the top platform of Sankara’s altar.

 

  Above, Scott applies grout.

 

The murtis of Ribhu and Sankara weigh approx. 800 lbs. each. They will be moved into the Satsang Hall using a stair jack. Scott has strengthened the stairs leading to the Satsang Hall by applying thick plywood.

 

The deck outside the Satsang Hall is reinforced as well.

Here, Raman and Raghunatha prepare an area at the base of the steps to accommodate the stair jack.

 

The altars are complete and beautiful.

 

 

The Satsang Hall now awaits the new additions, that will arrive in the coming week. A new blog post will appear showing their arrival.

Dakshinamurti being the beginning,

Sankara Acarya being in the middle,

Ramana Sadguru being the end,

To this lineage of Gurus, obeisance!

– Homage to the Lineage of the Sadguru, Advaita Devatam