The Innersearch is over. Bodhinatha, Palaniswami and Sadhaka Dandapani are on their way back to Australia for another week of events. Saravananathaswami, Sadhakas Jivanandanatha and Nilakantha are in the air somewhere over the Pacific and will land in Honolulu late tonight, and come to Kauai in the morning.

Palaniswami sends these insights from last night’s events in New Zealand:

“Last night we had a truly sweet gathering at the tiny NZ Temple Society temple, a roughly put together little room off in the suburbs. It’s a temporary structure that serves about 100 families of many Saivite communities, from Fiji, India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. More children here than usual, and the kids were alive and alert, asking Bodhinatha some targeted questions when he invited them from the audience. For instance, one 11-year old boy, dressed nicely in a kurta, challenged, “If we have a shrine for Ganesha in our home and worship Him there, why do we need to go to the temple?” Great answer for this and other questions from Bodhinatha.

The murthi here is of Maha Ganapati, and was gifted by Gurudeva back in 1996 after his visit here. Ganesha sits about 3.5 feet tall, marvelously carved. Shankaran, the priest who is from Kamakoti Peedam, took great pleasure in lifting the white veshti that Ganesha wore, to reveal the feet. Why? Because they are the most charming part of the icon, looking like the endearing feet of a chubby baby! They really love Him here. One of the devotees who has looked after us lovingly confessed that this murthi is the Life of his life, and his wife is his life, and his children are his purpose in life.

We were delivered our newspaper to the room this morning, and as we thumbed through the pages, we soon came to a large photo of Bodhinatha, sitting in lotus and smiling broadly. The article was headed “globe-trotting guru for the middle class, subtitled traditional hindu wisdom fits easily alongside cruise ships and computers, written by Julie Middleton. A nice article in the weekend herald, one of New Zealand’s most prestigious papers. (text below)

We all gathered after the short puja and talk for a family photo. About 50 of us in all, crowded together, chuckling and chatting. They all said “Ardhaneeeswara” instead of cheese as the cameras flashed. You will see the photo on TAKA later.

The most amazing part was the conversations afterwards. So many have had inner experiences of one kind or another, visions and trance states, lights and premonitions. Almost every one of them. Many visit our websites daily and read the Master Course as part of their daily spiritual regimen. And every one of them, young and old, has either been to Kauai or is making plans to come! Seems Iraivan is something of a local legend here. As they have done for the past four days, devotees handed the mathavasis a giant Tamil dinner of iddli, dal, coconut chutney and more. They take such joy in looking after Bodhinatha and all are praying he will return, and promising to send him tickets when their new temple site is ready in about a year or so.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami teaches his followers ways to “spiritualise” daily life.

Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

Globe-trotting Hindu Guru for the Middle Class

21.01.06
New Zealand Herald
By Julie Middleton

Think “pilgrimage” and you picture heat, dust and hardship. But a pilgrimage without suffering has just ended in Auckland, led by an American-born Hindu monk.

Satguru Bodhinatha Vaylanswami, a Pope-like figure to his followers, has been leading 45 pilgrims from eight countries on a fortnight’s trip through Australia’s east coast and New Zealand.

Between sightseeing – Milford Sound, Te Anau, Wellington and Auckland this week – the “Innersearch” programme has included intense classes in meditation, hatha yoga and practical Hinduism.

These are middle-class pilgrims – no hardship is required. The point, says the softly spoken Bodhinatha, 63, is to break people out of their normal routine to focus on their faith.

In a stressful, busy world, he says, many people have fallen into the habit of seeing Sunday as a spiritual day and the others as spiritual voids.

You can “spiritualize” daily life “by the way you interact with other people, by the way you respond to difficulties and emotional challenges. It doesn’t take any extra time.”

Bodhinatha is the head of the English-language Saiva Siddhanta Church, founded in Hawaii in 1957.

It has run 22 such trips since 1967, many by cruise liner.

As the Weekend Herald arrived at the Duxton Hotel to meet Bodhinatha and his assistants, some of the pilgrims – a mixed bunch aged 13 to 80 from the United States, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Singapore and Thailand – were warmly farewelling one another.

Local followers are delighted their spiritual leader is in New Zealand for the first time. Aucklander Sandy Jayakumar said Bodhinatha was “equal to the Pope”.

Mr Jayakumar estimates that 40 per cent of Auckland’s Indian population are Saivites – or, he says, about 5000 families.

There are three temples, two at Ellerslie and one at Papakura.

Bodhinatha’s passport bears his Hindi name; he won’t repeat his original name, saying part of becoming a monk, which he did “quite naturally” at 22, is forgetting the past.

He is celibate, vegetarian, has few possessions and no personal money, though he oversees an asset-rich church.

He totes a super-slim laptop and printer. It is getting harder to attract young people outside India and Sri Lanka, he says. Using the “digital realm” may reverse the trend.

Jan 17th (Day 12): We depart Wellington early by train after a brief night’s stay in the country’s capital.

Joel and Lynda from Ohio. They were with us on our 2004 India Innersearch and had to go again on another Innersearch.

All aboard the Overlander! For a 12 hour journey through the north island.

Saravananathaswami talks with Barney Lu from California.

It wasn’t long before we were away from the city and heading along the coast into the country.

Mount Ruapehu is breathtaking in the distance with its snow capped mountains. There are countless sheep everywhere. Actually the survey taken recently states there are 47 million sheep in New Zealand.

And only 4 million people.

3 million live in the north island and 1 million live in the south island.

Kailash Dhaksinamurthy and Puvaneswary Roberts chat with new and old friends.

Best of friends! Nilufer from New York (left) and Carole Kahn (Hawaii) go on every Innersearch.

One of our train stops.

The train crossed 352 bridges. This was the most spectacular one.

We stopped for lunch at the National Park.

And had lunch in this little cafe.

Dharmalingam Siddhan transcribes some of Gurudeva’s talks on the long train ride.

More sheep!

Another beautiful river…….ok…..how many of these do we have to see?

Bodhinatha was lovingly greeted at the railway station by devotees.

It is so nice to be among devotees of Yogaswami and Gurudeva.

It was close to sunset when we arrived in Auckland.

The Auckland sky tower.

First stop dinner at the Mexican cafe.

Chudika Mahadevan celebrates her 20th birthday.

A surprise birthday cake for her. Everyone joined in and sang Happy Birthday.

Congratulations!