Sadhu Paksha Day 1

It’s sadhu paksha and our flow of guests and TAKA photos will be more “quiet” than usual.

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami are in Salt Lake City after some flight delays in Lihue followed by a day of appointments in San Francisco. Both are well and strong.

Today we bring you photos from “off shore” missionary activities. In Pennsylvania and Sri Lanka

Kulapati Easan Katir sends sends photos from the youth camp in Pennsylvania. A series here on a morning hatha yoga session at the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Preparation for Meditation at Sri Venkateshwara Temple Youth Camp.

This bright young man wearing the shawl has attended camp the past four years, and hopes to serve on Task Force at Kauai Aadheenam soon.

On the bus to visit all the local temples, Kartikeya expounds on an abtruse philosophical point ( we are guessing )

Group photo

Senior counselors spell out SVTC: Sri Venkateshwara Temple Youth Camp, 2006

Tamil New Year celebrations at Sri Subramuniya Kottam

On April 14 2006, the birth of the new Tamil year named Vyaya, was celebrated at the Sri Subramuniya Kottam. A special shrine of Yogaswami and Gurudeva was setup at the Kottam and pujas were performed for them to receive their blessings for the coming year.

The worship was attended by the Kottam students, teachers and devotees from the surrounding community. All those who came for the celebrations received kai-visesam from Rishipathi Kanagaratnam afterwards. Kai-visesam is a Sri Lankan Tamil tradition, whereby young people receive cash gift from their elders, usually their parents, grandparents or an elder community leader. On Tamil New Year morning after visiting the temple, devotees will go and pay their respects to their elders to seek their blessings and advice for the coming year. After that the elder will give them kai-visesam. It is believed receiving money on this day from an elder will bring them good luck for the coming year.

After receiving kai-visesam the devotees at the Kottam were served food.