We had a busy day at the Aadheenam… 100 guests, trees falling down… (pictures toward the end). Meanwhile more pictures arriving from Bodhinatha’s mission….in Mauritius where September 16th has already passed by….

Here is the Mauritius Broadcasting Company which has come to cover the gifting of stone signs from Kauai Aadheenam to the island of Mauritius. It ran on the evening News on MBC. Bodhinatha is being interviewed by a reporter.

(more photos below)

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day full-moon retreat,
until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, September 20th.

At home, one of the many points of focus is the next Innersearch…Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sadhaka Dandapani are meeting regularly now to workout the details of the upcoming Innersearch. With only 111 days before the program begins the many logistics of flights, meals, transportation, events, etc need to be pinned down.

Bodhinatha will be attending the World Saiva Conference in Sydney from Jan 27 to 29th after the Innersearch. This will see him stay on in New Zealand and Australia for 10 more days after the program concludes.

Photo shows the city of Auckland in New Zealand where our program will conclude. Here we will visit a Murugan temple that Gurudeva helped get started.

Bodhinatha’s post Innersearch itinerary is looking as such:

Auckland, New Zealand from Jan 19th to 21st morning
Melbourne, Australia from Jan 21st to 24th morning
Sydney, Australia from Jan 24th to 29th

Sydney, our starting point for this upcoming 2-week spiritual adventure. For those of you who are planning on joining Bodhinatha on this Innersearch we strongly recommend you sign up soon with only a little over 3 months to go. We currently have participants from South East Asia, Europe, Caribbean and North America. Email Sadhaka Dandapani today!

(From the 15th…)

After a long hours flight to reach Mauritius, Bodhinatha and swami had some rest at a quiet bungalow at Grand Baie, on the northern coast of the island.

Bodhinatha and Saravananatha swami had their lunch in the open terrace overlooking the white sandy beach

Here is Mr. Dhandev Bahadoor from the Human Service Trust, a social organisation created in Mauritius by Swami Krishnanand. Mr. Bahadoor talked at length about the education and his views of Hinduism in Mauritius.

Minister Anil Baichoo, Minister of the Environment and his wife had a long conversation with Bodhinatha about temples and other Hindu issues in Mauritius.

This is nature’s wonder! A few metres from the bungalow is a one foot tall mango tree already in full bloom!

(September 16th)

On Friday morning Bodhinatha paid a short visit at the Saiva Siddhanta Church, Spiritual Park at La Pointe on His way to Flacq where His Holiness is meeting three kutumbas.

Here we are at our Mini Mela Gift Shop where all publications of Saiva Siddhanta Church are available.

Meanwhile, a few volunteers are setting up the large granite plates for display. Those plates are a gift by Saiva Siddhanta Church to the island of Mauritius. There are six such plates which the Government will display at various places of the island.

For the MBC interview, Bodhinatha explained about the activities of the Spiritual Park and how the monthly Ganesha Homa is an opportunity for devotees to come and worship at the Park.

Then Bodhinatha went to the Ganesha Mandapam where the Guru is traditionally welcomed.

Kulapati Valaytan did an arati…

Inside the Mandapam, worshipping at Gurudeva’s photo….

Mr. Anil Baichoo, Minister of the Environment was present to officially receive the granite plates from Bodhinatha . He said it was a great honor for the island to receive such plates from the hands of a Satguru. Minister Baichoo will see to it that these plates be properly displayed at strategic places on the island.

A group of sishyas were there to witness this official event.

Bodhinatha at the Muruga Pavilion

Bodhinatha having a walk on the property. On the left side of the land there is an urgent need to build a wall.

Bodhinatha stops at the Siva Dakshinamurthi.

Bodhinatha and swami ready to leave for Flacq.

One of the granite plates to be soon placed somewhere in Mauritius.

Here is another plate…Similar plates carved in Bangalore were gifted to the island of Kauai by the Church.

Wow! Last night a huge Albezia tree next to one of the ponds, fell over…right across the back entry road.

It has been growing right next to this small pond

And while nearly 80 feet tall it had no root structure on the east side, by the pond. During the past 30 years of its life it went through two hurricanes, a decade apart. Each one did the job of natural pruning… breaking off the top.. meanwhile the main trunk grew and grew and grew… over six feet in diameter…

Then last night with all the heavy rain, and with several large limbs growing way off to the west… he just decided to fall over (smile)

We called the tree trimmer and told him a tree fell down across our entry road.. when he came it was way bigger than he thought… they had to send for a 36 inch chainsaw…

Albezia is soft wood and was cut up into pieces in a few hours.

The main stump was propped back (on the left) and he will continue to live on…

Every morning the Siddhidata Kulam goes to pick fresh vegetables for lunch. Long beans from the trellis….

When we say “long beans” we mean long! some of these beans can reach nearly 24 inches in length…

It was the last day of the phase and tour day….

Silpi at work…

Despite the rainy weather over the last few days and this morning a very large group of about 100 people or so was present for our tour day (not all of them are in the photograph).

Here is Ashish and Shilpa from Los Angeles who are here on their honeymoon. They were told they had to go visit the monastery by friends and relatives.

All these couples are newly weds and are here on their honeymoon.