Here is Bodhinatha in Perth, after the yagnasala ceremonies of the 7th… on his way to make a presentation to the devotees on Karma Management.

Meanwhile at the Aadheenam, we had a busy Ganesha Chaturthi and Chitra Puja day…

We started our “mangalam” (auspicious) day with a Chitra Pada puja for Gurudeva…

The sweet and profound aura of Gurudeva’s being always fills the room during these pujas…a silent blessing full of his love and infinite wisdom…

Later in the morning…. Thamby Kumaran on the right, a trained architect and adept in CAD programs (Computer Aided Design) with Sannyasin Arumugaswami and Yogi Japendranatha. He is working on plans to renovated our 50 year old kitchen area, which is badly in need of an upgrade.

The in the afternoon at 3 PM… the annual Ganesha Chaturthi Puja and abhishekam. This is the one time of year that Ganesha gets a complete bath with milk, yogust, honey, panchamritam and more…. We had quite a few devotees this year…

After the puja, one clay Ganesha murthi is placed on a palanquin, and the devotees carry their murthis with them down to the Wailua River…

Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar and his son Manas carry the palanquin. This is the his second year Manas has helped with this sacred task…

A long parade of devotees…

Down the path… thru the torch ginger flower patch…

It is one of those absolutely perfect Kauai days…

Moriya… Bapa! Mangalam Murthi!

Arriving at river’s edge…

Dr. Suhas’s daughter stand by as her brother prepares to swim out in the river. The devotees place their Ganesha’s on the palanquin

All ready to return to the Universal Mother….

Everyone comes forward to place flowers and put their prana into the murthis…

The sun is setting over the mountain and a bright light shines down the river valley, Manas, a good strong swimmer, guides the palanquin out to the center of the pool where the depth is 60 feet… there he over turns the palanquin and the murthis are returned to the great Ocean of Consciousness.

Mangala Murthi! Jai Ganesha!

September 7th, Perth, Australia…

Arriving for evening rituals during the Hindu Temple of Western Australia’s multi-day kumbhabhishekam ceremonies.

The entrance to the new temple building is behind Bodhinatha. He is first walking to the yagasala for an initial visit to all the kumbhas where the deity power is currently stored.

Gathering under the yagnasala tent. On the right is priest Somasundaram, who taught some parartha puja chants to Ceyonswami many years ago in Sri Lanka

Viewing the homas being done in the yagasala

Shiva is the main deity for the temple, and so He has the largest yagnasala space, with many homa pits surrounding the kumbha

Other deities of the temple have kumbhas next door to Siva kumbha in this yagnasala. On the left is Vishnu.

Space for Devi

Arati being performed by the head priest

Mr. Senathirajah, secretary of temple, gives some background to Bodhinatha. Gurudeva visited the temple group back in 1995 almost on the same day in September that Bodhinatha is currently visiting. Gurudeva gifted a Sivalingam to the temple.

Entering the new temple building to view the shrines. A lot of work is unfinished, many parts still under construction. Here we are walking through the initial brick structure of what will be the rajagopuram.

The building is large. Arun Garg, current president of temple management, is explaining to Bodhinatha how the temple is structured.

A side shrine for Hanuman. The temple serves both South and North Indian community.

Ganesha shrine on the left. Beautiful granite murthis were acquired through none other than our sishya Tiru Nellaiappan in Chennai

The main shrine, to Siva. Today is the day where all the devotees get to go into the shrines and personally apply oil to the murtis, as part of kumbhabhishekam preparations.

Head priest of kumbhabhishekam is on the right.

Nagaswaram and tavil players brought from India especially for this occassion.

An interesting design feature of temple: there is a wall of windows behind the main shrines so that you can see the gopurams rising up behind

Back in the yagnasala now, all the priests tended homas in the Siva section toward the end of evening rituals.

Receiving final arati…

The priest closest to the camera is from the Madurai Meenakshi temple and had met Bodhinatha there in January 04. He has a website

Entering the old temple hall. Now that the power of the deities has been moved into the kumbhas, it is amazing to note how the building now just feels like an empty hall. The power of the kumbhabhishekam rituals….

Setting up to give a Apple Keynote computer projected presentation on karma management. About halfway through we lost electric power which caused a loss of our projection. It has been stormy–windy, rainy and cold weather here, which is not an unusual for kumbhabhishekams when the energy is intense. The other night the wind was so strong that it ripped up part of yagnasala tent! Wild weather…

Audience for the computer presentation.