Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami returned home today with Sadhaka Dandapani after a truly “victorious” mission.

Despite some very long and challenging transit schedules, Bodhinatha looks bright and strong.

Sadhaka Jivananandanatha performs the pada puja..

Jai Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami ki Jai!

After entering the temple, arati is performed before each of the deities…. Lord Muruga welcomes home our Satguru…

Sadhaka Dandapani did a great job planning and being Bodhinatha assistant on the journey…

And we all appreciate him for staying up late after long days of events, processing photos and writing captions for TAKA… Thank you Sadhaka!

And now he brings you another installment…

August 13th (New Jersey): Bodhinatha, Palaniswami, Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani at the Student Centre of Rutgers University for the Dharma Conference.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati whose idea was to have this conference addresses the group. He gave an inspiring talk about preserving and promoting Hinduism.

Dr. Ved Chaudhary organized and coordinated this 3 day conference.

Spiritual leaders, heads of Hindu institutions and scholars were among the attendees.

The first session in the morning included also a panel discussion on the future of Dharmic Traditions in North America.

Swami Chidananda (left) and Swami Dayananda Saraswati.

There were many inspired speakers.

Dr. Frank Morales who recently contributed the “All religions are not the same” article to Hinduism Today.

Swami Chidananda from Rishikesh, India, also addressed the congregation.

Dr. David Frawley.

Nilufer and Kaika Clubwala came over from New York to meet with Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha speaks with Swami Jyotirmayananda who is an ardent devotee of Swami Vivekananda.

The conference took place in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the weather was warm and humid over the 3 days.

Later that day we returned to the conference. Palaniswami being interviewed.

Here Palaniswami had a wonderful meeting with members of the Hindu Students Council (HSC) with Samir Rawal (president), Nikunj Trivedi and Bhakti Modi. To his immediate right is Kanchan Banerjee, one of the co-founders of HSC.

Arumugaswami talks with Dr. Seshagiri Rao who is one of the key people pulling the Encyclopedia of Hinduism together.

Palaniswami takes the opportunity to talk to the Hindu American Foundation board members, Aseem Shukla and Nikhil Joshi.

You can learn more about their organization at http://www.hinduamericanfoundation.org

Bodhinatha has a quiet moment just before his keynote address to the group.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati talks to Bodhinatha and our monks.

Bodhinatha gives his talk using Apple’s Keynote software (similar to Power Point).

Everyone was inspired by his talk and most impressed with the presentation. Bodhinatha talked about how to raise children as good Hindus and the four denominations within Hinduism.

Bodhinatha attended the first day of the conference. On August 14th he left New Jersey leaving Palaniswami and Arumugaswami to attend the remaining two days of the conference.

Bodhinatha delivers the keynote speech at the 2005 Dharma Summit in New Jersey.

August 14th: A view of south San Francisco at night. Bodhinatha is on his way home.