A heartfelt thanks to all who contributed to the Kali Mandir Expansion Project.  You made it happen! Now, the deed is done - literally and figuratively. The hill now belongs to Ma!

A few days ago, we were officially handed the keys to the round house on the hill, the bungalow and all current trailers. Our swamis and a few devotees walked up the hill past our neighbor's house. From the vantage point up on the hill, you don't see houses or the road. You only see nature - hills and ocean. So peaceful.

There were many questions as to why it took so long to take possession of the property even though we were ready with the funds last April. Ma has Her own timing and taught us patience. As custodian's of Ma's money - hard-earned money given by Her loving devotees - we had to be cautious. There were many issues with the five parcels that had to be worked out one by one.

We are indebted to Rohit Singh, CEO of Hexeum Capital LLC, who worked tirelessly to solve numerous issues, communicate with the seller, coordinate with the escrow company and helped all of us come up with the best solution. We couldn't have accomplished this without Rohit Ji's help.

As of immediately, we can offer plenty of parking for visiting devotees! For the future, we are working on a strategy to tackle the many things needed to make the hill beautiful and functional for our purposes. We have to clean up the property, trim trees, get rid of weeds and dead foliage, replace the old trailers, turn the round house into a library/classroom for our Ramakrishna Seminary, and rebuild the lower bungalow into rooms that can be utilized by devotees. We also need to find spaces for our holy trees so that they may grow healthy and big on the hill. Right now, we have a nice-size peepal tree; an amalaki tree; and a ceiba tree, which is sacred to the Aztecs and Mayans. One devotee offered to give us several banyan trees. We still need an ashoka tree and a bel tree to complete the traditional five-tree Panchavati grove. If anyone has a small ashoka tree or bel tree that they can spare, please let us know.

Kali Mandir is situated in Laguna Canyon, a land considered sacred ground for thousands of years by the indigenous Tongva and Acjachemen peoples. In the late 1980s, the Irvine Company received approval for the construction of 3,200 homes on 2,150 acres in Laguna Canyon. Conservation activists, indigenous peoples and locals rallied to protect the land. The result was the creation of 22,000 acres of protected wilderness parkland. Kali Mandir today now owns a total of 4 acres in sacred Laguna Canyon, two miles from the Pacific Ocean, surrounded by the natural and protected beauty of the South Coast Wilderness Parks. Through worship, we strive to continue the ancient traditions. 

We ask for your blessings during this sacred time of Navaratri and Durga Puja and pray that Ma may bless you and your loved ones with heath, love and abundance.