Today is the last day of the phase. Tour days have been “suspended” for a while, until we working out more parking. Nevertheless there were a lot of visitors today.

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Today’s video from the Iraivan temple, a close up of the silpis at work. Hopefully it will work for you. We are doing all of R & D these days to bring more digital content but still keeping file sizes down.

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We close today’s TAKA with a somewhat delayed last installment of photos from Ganga Sivanathan’s collection… More pictures with her write up from the final days of Innersearch in New Zealand.

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When we arrived in Auckland there were local devotees patiently waiting, even though we were nearly 2 hours late arriving. I always marvel at the dedication of Siva and Gurudeva devotees who often travel for hours to spend a few minutes with Bodhinatha. In Wellington, one devotee, Neil, drove for 4 hours to meet Bodhinatha at the hotel, have dinner with us, followed by a relaxing coffee back in the hotel, and then returned home. We as Innersearchers also receive their love and wonderful welcome to their country or city. Bodhinatha had been talking in his classes about “offering hospitality” as a key Hindu practice. In Sydney and in New Zealand we saw it in action.

From the train we caught a bus to a lively, noisy, very popular Mexican Restaurant.

Although there were a couple of days left, we all knew that we were coming to the end of Innersearch.

Again, we ate well at the Restaurant. They did an outstanding job, as did every restaurant that we visited. Feeding 50 hungry vegetarian Innersearchers must have been a challenge at times, and we appreciate the outstanding efforts of every place that we visited.

Well, of course in New Zealand you must visit a sheep farm, as sheep outnumber people in that country. So we travelled to Sheep World the next day. Steve was our host, very funny, and clearly showed the friendly rivalry that exists between Australia and New Zealand.

We saw a lot of sheep

of all different types

and colors

and with blue, green and pink markings on their heads (more on that later…..).

And then there were sheep dogs

that could round up a mob of sheep and bring them towards their master (Steve) with very few commands. His commands consisted of Stop, Here, Left, Right etc. Subsequently Palaniswami tried training some of the Innersearchers with the same commands, but it appears that we are not as bright at the sheepdogs.

Then Steve demonstrated to Devi how to sort the sheep according to the colors on their heads. The gate is a 3-way sorter – and the aim is to separate the sheep according to color.

Rudi had a go as well…..

But it wasn’t as easy as it appeared….

Top Sheep Shearers can shear a sheep in under 17 seconds. That is fast!

We fed sheep

and Lisa and Lynda milked goats.

Raman and Krishnan took photos

and Joel passed on to the donkeys some of Bodhinatha’s teachings on Karma. “We must embrace our karma, accept and bear it cheerfully.”

Small ponies,

pigs,

emus

and “chooks”.

We stopped at a beach on the way back to Auckland, where Palaniswami lead an activity based on Helice Bridges’ “Who I Am Makes A Difference”. In pairs we presented the other with a blue ribbon with gold lettering, which we proudly wore for the rest of the day. Then, in our pairs we told each other the things that we most appreciated about them – how they made a difference in our lives.

An then finally to a Maori museum and a performance of Maori song and dance.

The next day saw our last breakfast where each of us gave a testimony on what Innersearch meant personally, our very special people were honoured, and we presented Bodhinatha with his gift. Innersearch 2006 was over. Thank you Bodhinatha. The messages of each Innersearch stay with us for years. The opportunity to be on a study tour with 50 great friends, to hear stories of Gurudeva, to bring more spirituality into our daily lives, to travel with Bodhinatha and the monks for 2 weeks, to absorb the formal and informal teachings of Bodhinatha and the Swamis, is priceless. A big Australian “Thanks mate” to all involved in the organization of 2006 Innersearch Down Under.