Bodhinatha gave a superb talk this morning after our Sun One Homa… another in his series to be published in the Vanakkam newspaper in Mauritius.

A wonderful morning at Iraivan…

Showers in the near distance pick up the rays from the east and the light show begins…

The rainbow became a full 180 degree halo directly over Iraivan….

Saravananathaswami performs the homa today.

Kulapati Deva Seyon writes:

The Wailua Mission family home evening pictures. “Rudraksha night.”

The ladies work on stringing finished beads.

The men string up new beads to be cleaned with a pressure washer. It is a tedious job but the results are fabulous

This very successful karma yoga program brought in $1,632.00 for Iraivan in November! Rudraksha sales are brisk both at the Mini-Mela shop at the Aadheenam and on the internet.

Our guests this month were Aran & Valli Sendan from California.

When Bodhinatha pilgrimaged through South India in February of 2004 with 89 Innersearchers, he was deeply moved several two special pujas held for the group. At two temple, while the pujas were lush and profound, going for hours, he noticed that the curtains which were drawn in front of the Deity were a bit worn. He asked the monks when they reached Kauai to design new curtains and have them made as his gift to these special places.

Last week our Liaison Officer in India, Tiru Nellaiappan, who arranged for the production of these special artifacts, personally presented the temple curtains. Each temple got two, so one could be cleaned and kept in readiness for special events.

The first two curtains went to the Pillaiyarpatti Ganesha Temple, perhaps Bodhinatha’s favorite. We placed Ganesha’s goad on one, with which he prods us along the spiritual path.

His ever-present mount, called Mushika, is on the second curtain.

The second set of curtains were gifted to the Tiruparankundram Murugan Temple near Madurai. On this one we designed Lord Murugan’s mount, the peacock.

And on this His Shakti Vel. We thank Mark and Lindsey Boyer (at right) for the photos. They were at the presentations (are are there in this one). In fact, the temple managers thought they had flown all the way from NY to help make the presentation. Well, in a sense they did!

Sivaram and Devika Eswaran send these lovely photos of Thai Pongal in Penang….

The pongal pot contains the first rice harvest of the year.

It comes to a boil and auspiciously begins to overflow the pot, portending a bountiful year.