Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami arrived home yesterday from London. The traditional pada puja at the temple is performed.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Sunday, April 3rd.

Our team at the front. “Its good to be home!”

Both are healthy and well rested after a smooth journey home with one over night in San Francisco.

It’s good to have our Satguru back with us…. and Sannyasin Arumugaswami has brought photos and the story along with him.

Though we are in Sadhu Paksha, Amarnath and Srilakshmi are visiting from Los Angeles and made the temple their first destination during their stay on the island. It’s their 1st wedding anniversary today and Bodhinatha presented them with a shawl. Both are serious about meditation and religion and asked Bodhinatha questions about the nature of God with and without form…

Friday, March 25: Bodhinatha is welcomed to the UK at the Wimbledon Ganapati Temple with pada puja.

Sannyasin Arumugaswami has about 40 photos and we will share these with you over the next few days on TAKA.

Friday, March 25: Devotees gather in the hall for the blessing by Bodhinatha. With the windows yet to be installed, it was a bit chilly until the sun came out and lit up the hall.

Friday, March 25: A hall is nearly finished at the Wimbledon temple where monthly or more frequent gatherings will be held to sing Yogaswami’s Natchintanai songs. The painting of Yogaswami and photo of Gurudeva were blessed by Bodhinatha and will be mounted in the finished hall.

Friday, March 25: Each one present came forward for Bodhinatha’s blessings while the group leader, Muruganandan (at far right) led them in singing Natchintanai songs.

Friday, March 25: The Sivayogam family welcomes Bodhinatha to their home with a pada puja. Just prior to coming here, Bodhinatha visited the Rajeswari temple, which is around the corner. We don’t have a photo from that visit, in part because our camera was not cooperating fully. Sivayogam’s provided lunch for Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami, served in their shrine room.

Friday, March 25: On the way to Highgate Murugan Temple, we took the scenic route through downtown London, fortunately light on traffic during this four-day Easter weekend. This, if we recall rightly, is the House of Lords.

Friday, March 25: An ornate church.

Friday, March 25: This slightly blurry photo is of the entrance to Buckingham Palace.

Friday, March 25: This is “Nelson’s Column” in a nearby square. All the government buildings are spread around this area of downtown London.

Friday, March 25: Bodhinatha gives a talk at the Highgate Murugan Temple. This is a large facility, like Wimbledon and Rajeswari, also a former church. The temple is on the top floor of a three-story building. They have a splendid gold-plated kodimaram which you see here.

Friday, March 25: Devotees listening to the talk.

Friday, March 25: Devotees come up to Bodhinatha for blessings after the talk. He gave them copies of the Ten Questions pamphlet, Hindu parenting and How to Visit a Hindu Temple. Ten Questions has been particularly popular in the UK. Many devotees of Yogaswami came to see Bodhinatha at each venue.

Saturday, March 26: Bodhinatha with Sinnappoo and Sivayogamalar Kumarakulasingam and their daughter. They are parents of Surya Kumar, one of the staunch supporters of Iraivan Temple.

Saturday, March 26: With three generations of the Veeragathiyar family visiting from Germany just to see Bodhinatha. Grandmother accompanied her daughter Sivapprintha, her husband and granddaughter.

Saturday, March 26: With Narayan and Chella Rao. Dr. Rao expressed his concern for the visa situation for priests in UK. The government has instituted an English requirement for all visas applicants. Dr. Rao said it was 6th level Cambridge exam which “I myself would have trouble passing,” and required considerable knowledge of England.

A dear devotee of Gurudeva’s, the late Mr. Canaganayagam of Alaveddy in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, was one of Gurudeva’s Alaveddy ashram managers (he is in the photo above with Gurudeva). Here his son Mahendra with wife Kavitha and children Majuran and Mathusha came to meet Bodhinatha at the Swami Narayanan temple in Neasdan, London.

We set up our new camera in just the perfect spot to take this picture of Iraivan… if you didn’t know it, you would think it was finished! This will go on the cover of the next edition of Island Temple magazine. Click here for a hi-res screen shot for your computer (212k download… so be patient)

Meanwhile Paramacharya Palaniswami who worked on that photo sent it to Colorado where Rajkumar Manickam has put together this dramatic poster for a big fund raiser our members are organizing to take place in San Jose in September. The famed flute protege, Shashank, who performed for us in India during the 2004 Innersearch Odyssey, will be on hand to play his incredible music. And his gifted wife will dance… don’t miss it and stay tuned for announcements.

Two of the monks have teamed up to create a new garden space near the entrance to Kadavul Temple, right next to Nandi’s pavilion. Here is a shot of the landscaping of “Nandi Gardens” which will evolve over the weeks into something special.