Arumugaswami has been working today with our young Task Forcer, Potriyan Sivanathan to scan and create PDF of some Agamas. These are in grantha script, but we are very happy to finally put some of these sacred scriptures on the web. The complete gamut of Saiva Siddhanta and most especially temple worship is contain in this literature from ancient days.

See the new additions to our book site here.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two day retreat,
until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Friday, November 25th.

Our neighbour Greg Smith with his partner Stephanie.

A big tour group today, the last day of our phase…

Christie (middle) and her mother Jenna were among our tour day guests this morning. Jenna lives on Kauai and Christie works as an engineer with Nortel Telecommunications and spent the last 1 year working in Bangalore with Sadhaka Dandapani’s brother, Darmaguhan.

More containers have arrived from Bangalore… airing out the gas used to make sure no insects from India come along with the stones…

Our two dynamic task forcers, Potriyan and Tyler… they both have a wonderful spirit, very energetic, focused and are really helping us a lot. Potriyan sends his love back to his mother and father in Malaysia and Tyler to his mom, Rhonda in Tennessee…

Tirtha Yatra

Mini Innersearch in Jaffna

Among the most important public service that the Sri Subramuniya Kottam provides is pilgrimage to far away temple for devotees in Kopay and surrounding communities. The Kottam has been providing this service since its founding 25 years ago.

During the last pilgrimage 143 devotees, mainly the elderly and children participated. The Kottam hired three buses that took devotees to four historical temples in Jaffna. Because of the distances and cost, these devotees do not have any other means of going to these temples. Two of the four temples are in fact off limits to devotees because they are in the high security military zones. The Kottam had to get special permits from the Sri Lankan army to go through the military check points to go to these temples. It has been almost two decades since our Kottam devotees visited these temples.

The pilgrimage starts with a puja to Gurudeva at his Tiruvadi Shrine in the Subramuniya Kottam early in the morning. After securing Gurudeva’s blessings the devotees hop onto the buses and the pilgrimage starts, going from temple to temple, enjoying pujas and the darshan of the Lord in various forms. By late evening the pilgrimage finishes with the buses arriving back at the Kottam. The temple puja cost, traveling cost and lunch are provided free of charge to the devotees by the Kottam. This is an important public service of the Kottam. Currently the Kottam manages to provide these pilgrimages twice a year. These pilgrimages are a great source of joy for the elderly of the community. It is hoped that in the future the Kottam will be able to provide this service more often.