Sadhu Paksha Day Three

All is quiet at the monastery… we have great news from Canada…

Bodhinatha keeps fit by talking early morning walks while he travels… here he is in Toronto…

August 5th: 5:45pm, Bodhinatha arrives at hall where the Sivathondan Nilayam branch in Toronto has gathered to celebrate Siva Yogaswami’s monthly guru puja day. A small pada puja is performed to Bodhinatha to welcome him.

On stage are photos of Ganesha, Chellapaswami, Yogaswami and Gurudeva. Bodhinatha is welcomed and invited to give a talk, which he does, a talk titled “God Siva is All Pervasive Love.”

This gentleman translated Bodhinatha’s talk into Tamil perfectly, word for word, from memory.

After Bodhinatha’s talk, this Amma – a most wonderful and talented singer, led a group in singing Yogaswami’s Natchintanai songs while devotees came up to Bodhinatha for vibuthi blessings.

This group of devoted Yogaswami devotees gather each month to celebrate his guru puja day. Many of them knew Yogaswami personally.

Sri Sivayogapathy shares a paragraph from Gurudeva’s Living with Siva.

Mr. Sritharan, president of Sivathondan Nilayam in Toronto, thanks Bodhinatha for being here and shares how each of Bodhinatha’s visits makes a difference in their lives.

After the wonderful and spiritually uplifting event with the Sivathondan Nilayam group we left for the Sri Varasithi Vinayagar Temple. Bodhinatha is welcomed with a small pada puja by Siva Markandu.

Two ladies perform the traditional arathi to welcome Bodhinatha.

We are led first to the utsava murthi of Lord Ganesha.

Ganesha is beautifully decorated and an excellently performed puja is conducted Him. There are many talented priests in this temple and the main Ganesha deity, we do not have a photo of Him, was elaborately dressed and decorated with sandal paste.

This young boy is the youngest priest in the temple and chanted many of the mantras during the puja.

A shrine to Yogaswami and Gurudeva has been set up for the day.

Ganesha is taken out from the shrine and placed on His Mushika vahana (palanquin) to be paraded around the inner shrines of the temple.

Strong young men are called forward to have the rare privilege to carry Ganesha. The palanquin is heavy and requires a few men to carry it.

Ganesha ready to begin the parade.

Led by Tavil and Nadaswaram musicians, Ganesha and His over 300 devotees present that evening make their way around the inner shrine.

The top of Ganesha’s umbrella barely makes in below the temple ceiling.

Sivasri Panchadchara Vijayakumara Kurukkal, founder and chief priest of Sri Varasiththi Vinayagar Temple (www.vinaayagar.com), officially welcomes Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha is presented with a shawl…

then paraded around the temple.

Sri Vijayakumara Kurukkal shared with us that on July 23rd the temple celebrated its chariot festival day and about 35,000 people were present on that day itself. Toronto has a large population of Sri Lankan Tamils and there are many temples coming up in the area.

Bodhinatha performs an arathi to Yogaswami and Gurudeva before beginning his talk.

Sri Somaskanda Kurukkal, who is the uncle Sri Vijayakumara Kurukkal, shares a few words on the importance of a guru. Sri Somaskanda Kurukkal was the priest of the West Australian Siva temple for a few years. Bodhinatha will be attending the kumbhabhishegam of this temple next month.

Bodhinatha give
s a talk titled “How to develop a close relationship with Lord Ganesha”.

Devotees come up for vibuthi blessing.

The temple recently purchased land across the road and they will be constructing a brand new temple there in the upcoming months and they have invited Bodhinatha to preside over the ground breaking ceremony.

Bodhinatha poses with Sri Vijayakumara Kurukkal and the other priests of the temple. They are all related and the temple is run by this family of priests.

August 6th: We woke up in time to see the sunrise today and a flock of birds making their way across the sky. The sun sets late and rises early as Toronto is experiencing some very nice warm summer weather…..at least for us Kauaiians anyway.

Later that morning we headed to the Vishnu Mandir where Bodhinatha conducted a seminar on How to Raise Children as Good Hindus. It is the first time he is publicly conducting a seminar using “Keynote”, a power point type software, to have notes and graphics projected on a screen. It was a great success and it will be the first of many more to come.

Vishnu Mandir has a high end Hindu museum in the building which tells about the basics of Hinduism. Also, present are lots of art work including this spectacular 4-foot tall monolithic, intricately carved, soap stone Nataraja.

A beautiful Sivalingam made out of copper.

Kulapati Easan Katir on mission, reporting in on his teaching work…

Classes each morning at the SV Temple Youth Camp…

…using all the hi-tech resources a University campus offers.

Subjects this year: Four Ways to See God; Raising Children; all based on Satguru Bodhinatha’s current teaching and writing.