Our dear Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami arrived home from his trip early this afternoon. Here he is being greeted by all the monks.

A a short traditional pada puja was performed, as is always done when he has been away for more than nine days.

We completed upgrades to our parking facilities in the front of the Aadheenam and also set a new series of dates for tour days that will help easy the flow of vehicles on our street. So, today tours began again.

They no longer fall on the last day of each phase but follow a different, somewhat irregular calendar. See our visitor’s page for the list of tour days.

There are now two tours held on tour days, each is approximately one hour long. The first is at 9 am sharp. Then the second is at 11 am. Here our first tour group is off to Iraivan.

The first group was about 25 people and the second group about 35.

Besides drop-in visitors, we also have a steady stream of Hindu pilgrims.

A deeply devout Tamil family arrived today from Northridge, California: Elango Minnoor, a chemistry scientist, his wife Darshana and their two beautiful children, Niveditha age 8, and Manas age 5. They are in the islands on vacation. They began the morning in the Kadavul Siva Temple followed by a private tour of the Iraivan Temple complex. Another lady accompanied us, Chandrika Kalyani from Beverly Hills, California.

Here they are in front of Dakshinamurthy under the Banyan tree . . .

At the Iraivan Temple with two of our very gifted artisan silpis, Manikanda and Chellaiah beside one of the six crocodile water spouts which will be instrumental in removing the rainwater from the roof of the temple. . .

At the famous and beautiful Bali Hai waterfalls.

We pick up our photo documentary of Bodhinatha’s trip with some photos from Edmonton and captions from Saravan Veylan.

Kamala and Geritt Garneau enjoy a darshan visit with Bodhinatha Veylanswami at his Edmonton hotel.

Short notes from Bodhinatha on the trip: his thoughts on the visit to Calgary before going up to Edmonton:

This morning the president and secretary of the Sri Murugan Society of Calgary drove us out to the land on which they will build a temple. It is part of a forty acre parcel of pasture and they have nine acres, the other 31 acres belonging to five other Hindu groups. The land needs to be subdivided so that they are the sole owner of their nine acres. This is scheduled for September. The distance is an eight minute drive from the airport on a country road, with farmland around it. The Ganesha that Gurudeva gifted to them arrived in January 2002. They bring it once a month to the Calgary Hindu Temple hall (in town) for a monthly puja for their group of devotees. Once a year the priest from Edmonton Ganesha temple comes in January for a special abhishekam for the murthi to celebrate the anniversary of its arrival.

In the evening was a temple gathering. The Sri Murugan Society uses the Hindu Society of Calgary temple for this and other special occasions. Met at the temple Swami Ramananda of Divine Life Society of Canada, which is very service oriented group. Group enjoyed the talk and many said they are coming to the Aadheenam in November, a few also in October.

Aran Veylan introduces Bodhinatha to the Fijian community at the Edmonton Vishnu Mandir on July 1st.

Bodhinatha meets with some young devotees of the Edmonton Fijian community.

Rajesh and Sanjana Bali and family pay their respects to the Satguru.

On July 2nd the big events at the Maha Ganapati Temple in Edmonton began.

Nagesvaram and Tavil usher Bodhinatha to the Maha Ganapati Festival at about 9 a.m. local time.

It was a beautiful day – clear blue skies and plenty of warm sun.

Nila, Charu, Sabrina, Abi and SivaRam, students of Aran Veylan’s Saiva Dharma class, help devotees stay cool on a hot day by serving traditional drinks.

Bodhinatha leads the parade of the Ganesha and Siva Nataraja Utsava murthis around the Maha Ganapati Temple.

Subramania Iyer, Chief Priest of the Maha Ganapati Temple, his assistant priest, Raguvan Iyer and Bodhinatha prepare for the Utsava procession.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha rises to the occasion to survey the ocean of devotees. He snaps some precious TAKA photos from his mountain-top perspective!

Bodhinatha speaks on the role of temple-builders in the community and honors the priest and the Board of Trustees during the Maha Ganapati Society 25th anniversary celebration.

Bodhinatha writes of this day:

Today was a busy day. First we attended a homa and abhishekam for Maha Ganapathy at the temple. Then I gave a half hour talk. This was followed by the parade deities of Ganesha and Nataraja being paraded around the temple on chariots.

In the afternoon we attended a short honoring of the priest Subramaniya Iyer, who has been at the temple for over two decades, his new assistant Ragavan and past and present trustees. The ceremony included a short presentation on the history of the temple from 1978 to the present. Gurudeva was mentioned many times throughout.

Back at the Aadheenam early this morning we began our phase with homa as usual conducted by Sadhaka Jivanandanatha and presided over by Paramacharya Palaniswami in Bodhinatha’s absence.

Paramacharya Palaniswami gave a short talk on the concept of parampara, guru lineage. He explained how ours was a parampara that stretched back through Gurudeva, Yogaswami, Chellappa, all the way to Rishi Tirumular. Not all Hindu organizations today are lineages of gurus. Some, such as the Ramakrishna Mission, have an elected president, but he is not considered a guru successor to Ramakrishna or Swami Vivekananda. Palaniswami offered some precious insights into the importance of initiation, Saiva diksha, in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition. It is through initiation, following intense training and purification, that the spiritual power of a Sampradaya is confered upon the seeking soul. Initiationis the entry into the deepest spiritual world and the binding force between Guru and shishya.