We continue today with the final episode of Bodhinatha’s journey. Today’s episode continues with coverage of the main purpose of the trip: attending the August festival at Maryland Murugan temple. Here is Bodhinatha during the festival parade.

The morning activities ended with the main arati inside the temple. Prasadam was served downstairs for everyone to enjoy. In the afternoon the two swamis waited with the children outside for the start of the pradakshina around the temple.

Lord Muruga’s utsava Deity was brought out to bless the people of Maryland. Riding on His peacock Lord Muruga began His journey around the temple.

Bodhinatha is pointing something out to Vayudeva.

Vel Murugan! Vetri Vel Murugan!

Mayil is happy to give Lord Murugan a ride around the temple. Here he is keeping an eye on the camera.

The monks always feel right at home with the Sri Lankan community wherever they are. We relate to them as one family with a common spiritual lineage.

Lord Murugan looks very pleased with all His devotees who came to the festival. Pathmini Saravanapavan opened an endowment with HHE a couple of years ago for this festival. Every year the temple receives a grant to help fund this day’s activities.

The temple has been acquiring additional lands around the temple. Nearby is the “Beltway,” the main freeway coursing through the Washington DC area. They want to build a large gopuram which would be visible to all those driving by the temple.

Around the temple were tables representing the six temples of Lord Murugan in South India. At each table the priests would break a few coconuts. The final stop was a table representing “Iraivan.”

It was a very pleasant day outside the temple. Here Lord Murugan’s palanquin is unstrapped from His vahana’s palanquin.

The ladies really enjoyed breaking coconuts for Lord Murugan.

One of the temple priests with Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha met with Pathmini Saravanapavan’s son, Niranjan, posing here with Niaranjan’s wife.

Kaika and Nilufer Clubwalla drove for five hours from their home in New York. Nilufer opened an endowment for the Yogaswami Girls’ Home in Sri Lanka and has been instrumental in raising funds to send to the home. Currently the money is being used to build bathrooms for the girls. And recently the home was given several milk cows, courtesy of HHE patrons.

Dharmalingam came to see Bodhinatha with his mother Lee and daughter Dhara.

Roman Hunt is a Master Course student. He is studying Tamil and visits the Murugan Temple on a regular basis. Roman asked Bodhinatha for a Hindu name. He is the classic example of a Hindu reborn outside of India in a Western body.

Venkatt and Vinodhini Guhesan came to see Bodhinatha. Venkatt is the IT man for the Murugan Temple website. Both he and Vinodhini are interested in helping with HHE orphanage endowments.

Ashish Chitnis drove all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan to see Bodhinatha. Ashish is a recent arulshishya of Saiva Siddhanta Church. His most recent karma yoga activity was to pack up and ship the book “Gurudeva’s Toolbox” to members around the world. Ashish hosted us when we visited the Paschima Kasi Sri Viswanatha Temple in Flint, Michigan two years ago.

Bodhinatha met with the various members of the executive and board commitees of the Murugan Temple of North America. The main topic of discussion was whether it was timely for the temple to set up an endowment, and what were the options. We encouraged the group to consider the ease and advantages of opening an endowment for the temple with Hindu Heritage Endowment.

The next day we flew from Washington DC to Kansas City, Missouri. Our first stop was to visit our friends and business associates at Banta Publications where they print Hinduism Today. This is our Hinduism Today printing team. They divide themselves up into groups called “pods” which allows each team to handle hundreds of clients.

The following video includes three temple clips. First is Bodhinatha giving a talk at the Ganesha Temple in Nashville, then two clips from the Murugan temple festival and the final clip is from the printing plant where the printing of the October issue is underway, being shown to us by our lead customer service representative, Tracy Beck.

Next we are off to Mail Werx. Meet Rob Sloan. He warehouses our inventory of Hinduism Today magazines, booklets, flyers, pamphlets etc. His company, Mail Werx does our mailings of Innersearch brochures, Mini Mela catalogs, Hinduism Today subscription flyers plus the items listed above. Our second purpose of visiting Kansas City was to visit Rob and his plant.

Rob’s partner is Trenton McCrae. He is owner of the printing side of their plant. Together Rob and Trenton make a great team helping us with various printing and mailing tasks.

The next day Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami flew off to Denver for an overnight stop. Every opportunity was used to brainstorm and discuss various projects. Time was not wasted while waiting in airports, riding in shuttles, flying in airplanes or having meals.

On August 16th they both arrived back on Kauai, having visited 11 cities, taken 13 flights in 16 days. Jai Ganesha!

At the Aadheenam today the work continues at the Iraivan site with a stone lift today.

More roof stones are finding they final place on the top of the temple.

News from our center in Mauritius arrived recently.

Pancha Mukha Ganapati may be becoming the island’s most favourite deity for local worshippers. Since its consecration at the Spiritual Park, thousands of devotees have come to worship his Holy Feet. The Sunday Ganesha Homa offers everyone an opportunity to worship Him as a dedicated spiritual group.

It’s early morning on our last Sunday Ganesha Homa … Something new is about to greet everyone near the main entrance. A granite plate from Iraivan Temple carving site in Bangalore with the words that reminds everyone of the greatness of God Siva…

The pool in front of the Mandapam looks calm and beautiful…Later during the day devotees will sit all around it.

It’s too early…Even the big crowd that usually worship with fruits offerings at the small Pancha Mukha Ganapati Shrine is not yet there…allowing our TAKA photographer a nice shot!

The only brass kumbha on the roof of the small shrine is shining with the rays of the rising sun…

The Homa ceremony starts.. Lots of prayers are being brought by devotees. The youth are there to help the Kulapaties during the ceremony.

As usual the Mandapam is packed to capacity, leaving barely any sitting space for any latecomer. Most ladies are seated inside now. The air is filled with incense and devotional songs…Everyone participates with intense devotion, feeling so close to the deity at this moment.

Every month we observe that the amount of written prayers brought by devotees is increasing!

After the Homa, food sponsored by devotees themselves is served to all.

A view of the crowd outside….

Ganesha Homa is also a wonderful for the family to be spiritually together.

Some new development around the Mandapam.. . Now spot lights have been placed in the grounds and on the building that beautifully light up the whole place at night.

A new exterior switch box has now replaced the old one.

Mr. A. Ramasawmy is the electrician who lovingly did all the electrical works for free at the Mandapam. Thank you so much !