Bodhinatha’s flight from Singapore was delayed and so he will not be able to touch base at the Aadheenam before going to Montreal. he will be arriving in Honolulu, join up with Sannyasin Arumugaswami and straight away take off for Canada. meanwhile we bring you another series from his last day in Singapore. in the photo at left, bodhinatha speaks at his two-day seminar in Singapore.

Press Release, Bodhinatha at World Religions Conference in Montreal:

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today, will give the September 15th plenary session address on “Religion and Media” to the World Religions After 9/11 Conference now in progress at the Palais des congres, Montreal, Canada. The Hawaii-based Satguru’s highly illustrated Keynote presentation will be among the highlights of this important gathering of over 2,000 religious leaders, social activists, scholars of religion and concerned citizens.

This down-to-earth presentation begins with an explanation of the nature of the media as we find it today, what is and isn’t considered “news,” how the media regards religion and the constraints journalists work under. The media, he will point out, isn’t likely to change, and it is up to religious organizations to learn how to work effectively within its parameters.

He will first discuss proactive interaction with the press, that is, the purposeful engagement of the media by religious organizations, all of which should be part of a broad public relations outreach. Generally, such outreach works best within the local community. Such engagement should include inviting journalists to attend festival days or religious functions such as weddings and coming-of-age ceremonies, holding open houses, contributing religious views to the media’s opinion columns, participating in the local interfaith movement and creating or joining a speaker is bureau. This is all an application of the principle the environmentalists used, called “think globally and act locally,” for if religious organizations can create good media coverage community by community, then they will be in a better position to deal with a crisis when it comes.

Crisis management or “reactive interaction” is dealing with an event which has offended, misrepresented or somehow negatively impacted the religion. The keys to reactive interaction are swift and accurate reaction and polite persistence until a proper solution is reached. This will all be illustrated with recent events in which religion became a key issue.

The address will be given on September 15 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm at the main conference hall. For more information, visit the conference website at http://www.WorldsReligionsAfter911.com.

Acharya Kumarswami writes:

Mr. Raman, a skilled photographer, also took a lot of photos during Bodhinatha’s visit. We are honored to share some of them with you here. Our two dancers who performed at the seminar.

…discussing details

A large banquet lunch was served on each day.

Anusha played the vina for everyone on the second day.

At the Botanic gardens on Monday, the 11th.

With Kumarswami near the entrance

More garden photos

some of the inhabitants…

visitors…

let’s see, how did they make this…

morning glories that form an effective trellace…

the moving stone ball, sculpted in France.

…OK. Let’s sit here for a minute…

It was tour day today and we are told that 100 plus souls joined us to see the wonders of Kauai Aadheenam and Iraivan temple. Above is the 9 am tour followed by the 11 am tour below and many others came in between.

The last five containers from India brought with them two marvelous wooden sculptures, whch we showed in video form. Here are some detailed photos.

Lord Ganesha will be installed on theleft f the entrance to Kadavul temple, and His brother Murugan on the right.

Here is His mace.

His crown.

His goad, to control obstacles in thelives of devotees.

He stands on one foot on a lotus flower.

Symbolic vines twist above and to the side.

Lord Murugan is equally enforested.

Blessing with theright hand, holding his Vel with the left.

Parrots play in the foliage.

The hand of blessing, assurance and protection.

His vanana, the peacock, watches from below.

Jai to Murugan, the lord of yoga and thefirst renouncer of the world.