Arumugaswami bring us the second installment of pictures from the trip to London…

Saturday, March 26: Bodhinatha is greeted by the priests at Sri Selva Vinayagar Alayam in Ilford. This Ganesha temple was recently opened in a converted society meeting hall and has a surprising strong spiritual vibration. Every temple Bodhinatha went to was staffed with well-trained Sri Lankan or South Indian priests.

It is Sun One today on our spring Sadhu Paksha… the morning sadhana is changed to a more informal routine… to all monks to wonder freely the property and watch the sun rise.

This past retreat was the silpi outing… we took the silpis to “Spouting Horn” at Poipu where the water rushes into a cave on the lava rock shore line and shoots up through through an open hole at the top with a dynamic rushing sound. It is a favorite tourist destination.

Back to our London documentary for the duration of today’s TAKA photos:

Saturday, March 26: Bodhinatha with Bhavit Mehta of Hindu Youth UK. This bright and energetic young man explained how the Hindu Youth UK had successfully recruited other Hindu youth organizations to be part of large exhibitions and festivals, including the Get Connected events.

Saturday, March 26: With Jatindra Saha, a retired physicist who is devoting time to writing about Sanatana Dharma.

Saturday, March 26: With Erasenthiran Poonjolai and his wife, Subashini.

Saturday, March 26: Bodhinatha with the priests of the Sri Selva Vinayagar Alayam. The priest in the center had served at temples in Reunion and is friends with the priest of the Vinayagar temple in Paris, which he hopes Bodhinatha will one day visit.

Saturday, March 26: This vina presentation was part of the 100th birth centenary celebrations of Saiva Sigamani Justice Pon. Sri Skanda Rajah. Bodhinatha spoke on the topic “Work is Worship.” Sri Skanda Rajah’s daughter, Indra, said, “Our father was conferred the title of Saiva Sigamani by the Thirugnanasambandar Aadheenam of Maudrai. He was an eminent judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and also president of the All-Ceylon Hindu Congress. He was responsible for making the temples managers in Sri Lanka agree to admit all persons for worship and not debar Harijans. He was a close devotee of Siva Yogaswami.”

Saturday, March 26: Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami pose with the Skanda Rajah family and friends. The Justice’s daughter Indra Sivayoham is second from right, with her brother Dr. Sri Bhavan Sri Skanda Rajah to her right. Her other brother, Sri Guggan Sri Skanda Rajah, is at far left, to his right is Indra Sivayoham’s sister, Suseela T. Moorthy. Third from left standing is V.R. Ramanathan, president of the Saiva Munnetta Sangam, and fourth from left is Muruganandan, organizer of the monthly Yogaswami Satsang at the Shree Ganapathy Temple in Wimbledon.

Sunday, March 27: Bodhinatha presenting the seminar “Undersanding Saivism” at the Shree Ganapathy Temple in Wimbledon. The event was intended to start at 9 am, but this day was the beginning of England “Summer Time” in which clocks were set ahead one hour–meaning many were an hour late. (And those that weren’t had one hour’s less sleep…) So the event began with 30 or so participants and ended with a couple hundred, including devotees who had come for the temple puja. The entire seminar was videoed and will be broadcast later on CITV.

Sunday, March 27: The seminar covered seven topics: the four denominations of Hinduism, the Nature of God Siva, the Temple and the Three Worlds, Practices of charya, kriya, yoga and jnana, God and the Soul and anava, karma, maya. The audience posed a number of questions to Bodhinatha.

Sunday, March 27: Swami Atmaswarupdas welcomes Bodhinatha to the Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden, England’s premier Hindu temple. Here they tour the heavenly main sanctum. For pictures of the temple, click here.

Sunday, March 27: This is the “haveli” portion of the temple complex, in which the decorations are all ornate wood. At left is the bookshop. The main temple is in stunningly carved marble.

Sunday, March 27: The temple kitchen is capable of feeding 50,000 people in a day. Here Swami shows off their latest acquisition, an automated chapatti cooker (the device with the stainless steel pyramid roof, at right). One drops a ball of dough in the left side, the machine flattens it, drops it onto a rotating cooking grill, flips it down to a second grill, flips it again to a third and then out. The kitchen had other high-tech modern cooking devices as well. The temple has few hired staff, with volunteers supplying all the man (and woman) power needed to operate this huge institution.

Sunday, March 27: Bodhinatha addresses the Swaminarayan temple Sunday evening satsang. He spoke of the temple as a source of culture and of personal peace, the unity of Siva and Vishnu as the same Supreme Being and Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity.

Sunday, March 27: The devotees listened attentively to Bodhinatha’s talk and also to Swami Atmaswarupdas’s ringing endorsement of Hinduism Today as the “best Hindu publication in the world.”

Monday, March 28: Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami returned to the Neasden temple Monday m
orning to meet privately with the temple’s teaching staff. The staff and Swami Atmaswarupdas explained the various programs they conduct for the youth, which are many and wide-ranging. The discussion form an article in the next issue of Hinduism Today on youth education, explaining the methods used and their successes and failures over the years. Bodhinatha also met with Jay Lakhani of Vivekananda Centre UK during a break in this meeting to talk about the overall situation of Hindus in the country.

Monday, March 28: On the last evening, Bodhinatha visited the Saiva Munneta Sangam. This is a teaching and service organization. The president, V.R. Ramanathan, proudly reported that on this very day the Sangam had completed its mortgage payments for the building and now owned it free and clear, 15 years after they bought it.

Monday, March 28: Devotees assembled at the Saiva Munneta Sangam for Bodhinatha’s talk.

Monday, March 28: Bhajana and singing of Yogaswami’s Natchintanai songs. Bodhinatha commented several times during the trip that wherever Yogaswami’s Natchintanai songs are song, Yogaswami comes to that place on the inner planes.

Monday, March 28: Clive Roberts enjoying the high vibration at the Sangam. He and wife Puvaneswary had come from Holland for the weekend of events.

Monday, March 28: Ramanathan introduces Bodhinatha. He also served as chauffeur for one grueling day of morning to night travel around London. Fortunately, the Easter weekend meant light traffic. But London streets are a maze of crooked lanes, with the constant subject of discussion among our hosts how to navigate successfully from one point to another. Ramanathan’s road skills were especially noteworthy as we criss-crossed London.

Monday, March 28: This is the Sangam’s yoga studio which had just been renovated.

Monday, March 28: Priests welcome Bodhinatha to the London Sri Murugan Temple in Manor Park.

Monday, March 28: Bodhinatha with the priest staff.

Monday, March 28: The new Murugan temple, a US$12 million project, is nearly completed. The dedication is scheduled for May. This is the first Agamic South Indian style temple to be built in the UK. The central sanctum and entry way are both in granite, with the rest in concrete and brick. The temple had to acquire several properties and join them together in order to have enough space for the building and required parking. A team of silpis, stone and masonry workers, is here for the construction (one is second from left). All other temples are in converted buildings of one origin or another. This new temple shows the future for all of them.

Monday, March 28: The back side of the existing building of the London Sri Murugan Temple, the construction equipment and supplies are in the parking lot area.

Bodhinatha with our chauffeurs, Indra’s nephews Ahilan Sri Skanda Rajah (at left), and Dr. Sri A.T. Moorthy. They had rented the van in back to take Bodhinatha around London. By the end, we joked that the van came equipped with a pilot, a navigator, two passengers (Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami) and two back-seat drivers (our hosts) — because travel about London seemed to require a near constant discussion of routes among all four Londoners.

Monday, March 28: Dr. Maheshwaran and wife Geeta met with Bodhinatha late Monday night after returning to the hotel from the Murugan temple. The discussion on children’s education could have continued for several hours, but the early- departure the next morning for Heathrow airport dictated a short meeting. Geeta’s mother is the owner of the Shree Ganapathy Temple in Wimbledon. The couple was enthused with the results of the seminar and saw many opportunities to advance the teaching of Saivism in the UK. They are part of a group of five Saivite temple working to develop youth education programs.