Bodhinatha arrived back home this evening about 7 pm, after a long 18 hours of travel from Florida. It was a very successful mission.

Our artist in Chennai, A. Manivelu, has just completed this depiction of Lord Ganesha, dancing on a lotus flower in a lotus garden. There is a mushika sitting on a rock nearby, offering a modaka ball, the sweet that Ganesha loves so much. This art is scheduled to go in the educational center section, called Insight, in HInduism Today. There will be a 16-page article on Ganesha and His worship in the next issue. Thank you, Manivelu, for your hundreds (make that thousands) of works, small and large, you have produced for us over the years. You have brought Hinduism to life through your brush, and have at the same time kept a traditional art from going extinct, since all Indian artist today want to do contemporary works that resemble Pablo Picasso or Jackson Pollack (AKA, “Jack the Dripper.”)

Our end of phase brought a giant tour group.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Friday, June 24th.

Here’s Sadhaka Dandapani who conducted this morning’s tour. He’s been working on some of Bodhinatha’s upcoming travels which includes the trip to Canada in August, California in October and the Innersearch to Australia and New Zealand next January. With only 195 days to go, it’s a good time to make reservations if you plan to join Bodhinatha on this adventure. You can email Sadhaka Dandapani at ddanda@hindu.org or visit the website for more info at our innersearch web site

Local Hawaiian visitors… standing by a pillar of Iraivan with the shum portraits that describe pranayama and withdrawal of ida and pingala into the spine.

We are happy to have with us Andre Garzia from Niteroi, Brazil. He is here to get oriented to help work on our web sites and other IT technologies.

Andre is 25 and in his last year of study at a film school in Brazil. He’s a code wizard and professional software programmer. He uses all the same tools we use here at the Aadheenam and we look forward to years of collaboration together. He uses one of our favorite tools — the Runtime Revolution–the same computer language we use for this daily web page

Over 80 guests today…

Tomorrow, June 21, Acharya Kumarswami and Yogi Japendranatha fly off to San Francisco for six days. Their mission is to attend a rare, high-end educational seminar on InDesign, the primary design and layout tool for the Ganapati Kulam.

For three days they will be in intense classes for eight hours, morning to night, learning, learning, learning. Some of the most knowledgeable people in the world will be there to teach the intricacies of this remarkable tool. And the monks will be able to ask lots of questions to these designers and software experts. Even though the monks know Adobe’s InDesign program fairly well, a new version has just been released with hundreds of features and added capabilities. The seminar will allow our team to absorb all the important additions and bring them back to the Kauai for the monks to incorporate in producing our many publications. Bon voyage!

The Spiritual Park of Mauritius with its spiritual appeal is a humble place of worship, specially on Ganesha Homas held on the first week of every month. Worship of Lord Ganesha helps bring harmony into one’s family and abundance into one’s life.

Visitors walking along the little pond near the Ganesha Mandapam…

Just below the Ganesha Bridge nature’s beauty is at its peak…

Classes on the Saivite Hindu Religion series by Sat Guru Bodhinatha are being conducted on every Saturday at the Park.

In the Saivite Hindu Religion children also learn how to traditionally worship Lord Muruga, the God of Yoga. Here is what the course says:” Lord Murugan is Siva’s son. He is the God of Yoga. He will help you breathe deeply. When you breathe deeply, your mind is concentrated, your body is healthy, your feelings are positive. When you control your breathing, you control your body and mind….”

Visitors never miss to worship the Siva Dakshinamurti a few metres north east of the Ganesha Bridge.

A closer look at the artistic carvings at the Feet of Siva Dakshina .

Mr. Seeven Veerapen and his family are regular visitors at the Park. He is a manager in one of the big international hotels of the island.

Here is lovely baby girl Niranjana born of parents Sivaneswaran and Venilla Sockanathan after an international marriage which has developed firm membership bonds with Mauritius and Malaysia. Welcome Niranjana!

The Namakarana Samskara ceremony officiated by Sivacharya Umapathi was held in Mauritius at Kulapati & Kulamata Mardemootoo’s residence, parents of Venilla.

The happy father writing his daughter’s name on a plate of rice, easily readable to the inner worlds..

” ….has been born into the Hindu religion to devout Hindu parents, who hereby declare they will raise this child according to the principles of the Sanatana Dharma, and bring forth this child to formally receive a Hindu name and to sanctify this irrevocable entrance into Saivite Hinduism.”

Here is Niranjana in the cradle that rocks, beautifully decorated with flowers for that day.

Putrika Dipanjali Mardemootoo traditionally rocking her little cousin….Many lovely hands will rock Niranjana when the parents are back in Malaysia…

The Spiritual Park Newsletter gives an overview of recent events and current activities at the Park. Bodhinatha’s message to visitors and supporters of the Park for this latest issue is: ” Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami had many visions of Lord Ganesha, including a powerful one of Him bathing in the Rempart River near the Spiritual Park. Gurudeva encouraged all Hindus to regularly worship Ganesha and deepen their devotion to Him. A practical way to do this is to focus on Him when traveling to the Spiritual Park or any temple to worship Lord Ganesha. Make travel time a religious time. Don?t allow yourself to focus on problems at home, work or school. Instead, listen to some religious music, bhajans or Sanskrit chanting. This simple action will put you in a religious frame of mind and allow you to be closer to Lord Ganesha during your worship at the Spiritual Park or temple. Thanks to many our loyal contributors for your continued financial support. Jai Pancha Mukha Ganapati !”

We thought we should share with you this glowing review from a recent reader of Dancing with Siva.

I came across this book during my frantic search of a religion that could answer those long standing questions of life which have been bugging me for ages, and never looked back since. This book presents almost every aspect of life from Hindu perspective, such as explanation of the soul, our purpose on earth, marriage and family, gender roles, social responsibility, death, reincarnation, and also an unbiased comparison of most other major world religions.

…Every topic is presented in a simple short topics which makes reading this book such an ease. The views, stated in the book have very good explanation and reasons on why it is in such a manner. For example, reasons to be vegetarian, law of karma(good deed), praying to statues and why every human soul are unique. It allows readers to question and reason on each views before accepting them. The views in the book makes so much sense, and will certainly will give a good clear picture of the depth of Hindusim and change anyone view that hinduism is merely praying to statues.

I am most impressed that the book says hindus view all other religions with respect and they believe “The truth is one, but paths are many”. To call it merely another book is an understatement. It is the book of life! Being first part of the tri-book mastercourse by Subramuniyaswami, it explains about the fundamentals of Hinduism. His second book “Living with Siva” gives a practical approach on how to lead a Hindu way of live and the final book “Merging with Siva” allows serious seekers to experience God himself through meditation and yoga. Yes, Yoga, it is more than a physical & breathing exercise that have been practiced by most western society without realizing the true value of Yoga.

For serious seekers, this master course books are also being used by Himalayan Academy of Kauai for systematic learning through correspondence studies. I would recommend this book to everyone, including the non believer, because this book is not only about believe/faith alone but more about a way of life and guide to personally experience God himself.