We bring some more photos from Bodhinatha's visit to the Ganesha Hindu Temple in Adelaide, Australia, from Prema and Ramani Iyer who were part of the 2008 Innersearch to Cambodia and India. You can also see other photos of Bodhinatha's visit to Adelaide on Taka on 19th Feb: http://himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2009/2/19/ .

Bodinatha sits at the haven as the local Vedic Chanting Group chant throughout the havan and puja.

Bodhinatha carries the khumba pot, circumambulating the temple, to the Ganesha shrine. Ganga leads the way with the lamp.

After the puja, Bodhinatha is welcomed by the temple President Siva Selvakulalingam. One thing that a lot of us did not know is that Gurudeva gave Siva and the committee guidance as our temple was being planned and build. Siva visited him with the plans to seek guidance and communicated with him several times during the building of the temple.

He presents a wonderful talk to a diverse audience on Hinduism and Temples, also talking about Gurudeva's visions of Siva and experiences in the akasha.

Dr. Ravidran thanks Bodhinata for his visit, his talk and his blessings.

The next morning, after an early breakfast, Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Haranandinatha leave for Melbourne. Thank you Bodhinatha for visiting Adelaide and bestowing your blessings on us. Come again soon!

Umapathi and Geetha Cattamanchi are members of the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago which Gurudeva helped start when he gave that community a granite Ganesha in the late 1970's or early 1980's. Umapathi remembers meeting Gurudeva at that time. They are longtime subscribers to Hinduism Today. They also belong to a Shirdi Sai Baba temple and use What is Hinduism, Ganesha Puja and our other pamphlets in their children's class.

Mohan and Shanthi Thiagarajah are from Edmonton, Canada, members of the Mahaganapati temple there. It is their first visit to Kauai and they love the temples and grounds here. Mohan said "I really felt the peaceful shakti in Kadavul Temple this morning." They explain that the Mahaganapati temple in Edmonton is becoming more popular as more Indian immigrants come to work in Canada. They used to have around 50-60 people on Sunday, now a couple hundred.

Mr. Satyamoorthy and his wife Parameswary met Bodhinatha in 2007 in Toronto at the Thirumurugan Temple. Satyamoorthy translated Bodhinatha't talk into Tamil for the audience. It is their first visit to Kauai. They are wonderful souls that we hope to see back here soon!

We send on to you the blessings flowing from the Summa Iru Walking Meditation Garden Siva Nataraja outdoor shrine on the slope of the world’s most active volcano to Bodhinatha’s blessed Lotus Feed on this most auspicious day.

Our shrine is situated among the rudrakshas gifted by Kauai Aadheenam.

— Hitesvara and Brian

Free Eye Glasses Distributed at Sri Subramuniya Kottam

In honor of Gurudeva’s 82rd Jayanthi, on Januray 3rd, Sri Subramuniya
Kottam held an “Eye Camp” for deserving people. Forty people have received the reading glasses free of charge.

The first pair of glasses was received by Sai Matha Rajeswari, a
Sanniyasini from Nallur.

Group of people who came to Kottam to receive the glasses.

It is the day before Maha Sivaratri and anticipation is mounting as we approach the most sacred Saivite festival of the year.

Maruthu Pandian has been working in the Ganapati this phase on various projects. He is also contributing an article for the next issue of Hinduism Today, in which he describes his experience of “Friendship Evangelism” by a fellow Christian student in Malaysia who tried to convert him. It’s quite a story. Stay tuned for the July issue to find out more.

Mohan and Shanthi Thiagarajah arrived from Edmonton, Canada for Mahasivaratri. Originally from Sri Lanka, they are Tamil speaking so they were very pleased to meet Yoginatha Swami who also speaks Tamil. Amit Arora (right) is also visiting for Mahasivaratri and is from Oahu, a neighboring Island.

A special baby blessing was given in the Kadavul Temple this morning for Kamala and her husband Bodhichitta who have recently moved to Kauai. They pose for a photo in front of the temple tank with baby Emilia who was born on January 12th. They observed the tradition of keeping mother and child sequestered for 30 days and today was the little Emilia’s first trip out in the world. They came to Kadavul for blessings with all their friends.

Iraivan is looking very much like a completed temple. It shine in the morning sun.

A picture of Iraivan’s roof. The stones have disappeared below the concrete.

One of the silpis sprays the concrete to keep it cool and wet so that it will cure slowly.

Yesterday’s cement work saw the team move from Iraivan to other areas of the Aadheenam with extra cement to do a few other jobs.

One of these was the footings that are going around the beautiful image of Pancha Ganapati that has been installed in the middle of our ve

We are blessed to have a vigilant Sivathondar, Shama Kumaran. She is retired from the working world and daily offers her depth of understanding of Gurudeva's teachings to our guests arriving from all parts of the globe.

The beautiful turquoise "Andara Crystal" set in the flower bowl at the entrance to Kadaval temple.

The love birds are sweet pets carefully attended to by Bramacharini Shama Kumaran.

Shama working in the Mini-Mela book and gift shop. Through her expertise on the content of all of Gurudeva's writings and other mystical knowlege, Shama guides guests by answering their sometimes deep philosophical questions.

Here is Shama taking care of her dear charges, the seven love birds.

A guest originally from Latvia, asks questions about karma, reincarnation, the Kailasa Paramparai, vegetarianism and the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. She seemed enthralled with Shama's in depth answers.