After a long three-day retreat, our phase starts again. It is all quiet at the Aadheenam. So we will turn to a series that arrived today from Shanmuganathaswami who sends pictures of their time in Colorado.

We continue our story on Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami’s “Across America” journey.

In our last TAKA episode our latest stop was Salt Lake City. Stopping off in Denver we took one of those “dinky planes” to Eagle, Colorado, the local airport for those living in the Eagle/Vail, Colorado area. High in the Rocky Mountains we were met by Vel & Valli Alahan and Rajkumar, Ananda and Saroja Manickam. The Eagle airport is quite new with high vaulted ceilings of giant natural wood trusses which reminded us of a ski resort. We came to find that this style of building was the norm for this area.

One of our first visits was at Rajumar, Ananda and Sarojo Manickam’s new home in Eagle. Their townhouse number was “B1,” and we had fun talking about how they were always reminded to “Be One.” Here you see Rajkumar doing a welcoming puja for us in his shrine room. Little Saroja is helping by ringing the bell. You can see Gurudeva’s tiruvadi in the center of the photo.

Rajkumar presented Bodhinatha with a gift from Nepal, a brass bowl with which you make a mystical sound with a wooden stick.

A group photo is a requirement on these kinds of visits. Here is Bodhinatha with Vel in the back. Ananda is on the left, then Valli and Rajkumar, with Saroja in front of Rajkumar. Saroja turned 4 years old on August 9th.

The next day we went to Vel’s house. Here you see two additional members of the family. Ambika is all the way to the right with her husband, Mat. Vel and Valli’s house is next to a perfectly clear stream of cool water. Every few minutes a small flock of Canada geese would fly over their house. They really live in a magical place.

Bodhinatha chatting with Rajkumar and Ananda.

As a group we drove to Vail, Colorado, of ski resort fame. We rode up the ski gondola to the top of the mountain. This is one of the views of the ski area. Siva’s little beetle creatures make their homes in some of the trees, and the trees eventually die. This turns the tree red and adds some additional color to the forest.

A view of Vail’s ski slopes in the summer.

This photo is taken at 12,000 feet. The air is a bit thin up here which makes the scenery even more “breath taking.”

A view of Vail from the gondola.

Later in the afternoon we left Eagle for Denver. Here is a double rainbow we saw in Denver created by the rain which came with us.

On Sunday, August 6th we started out the day with breakfast with the Alahans and the Manickams, who had driven down from Vail. Surya Sundaram joined us with his wife Beth and three daughters, Dhamanika, Chandra and Dhena. Rakesh and Rasi Chandranatha also joined us with their four children. Then we drove south of Denver to the Hindu Temple And Cultural Center Of The Rockies. Bodhinatha talked about two questions on the minds of youth today.

Bodhinatha is introduced to the Denver community.

The first question is “Why do we need Hindu temples?”

About 150 worshippers were there to hear Bodhinatha.

The second question is “What is the relevance of Hindu temples in this modern age?”

The temple’s acharya was very appreciative of Bodhinatha’s message. The temple congregation has grown larger since it was built, and they are thinking seriously about buying some land to build a larger temple for the Denver area community.

In a separate room of the temple is a shrine containing many of the South Indian Deities, including the Ganesha murthi given to the temple by Gurudeva to start the temple. Ganesha is on the left. You can see the flowers and fruits which are placed at His holy feet.

A closeup of Lord Ganesha.

Outside the Denver temple.

In the middle is Rajendra Giri who escorted us to the Siva Mandir. Vel, on the left, is our host and driver.

We visited Siva Mandir located at 1391 S Pennsylvania St in Denver. Here we were greeted by Kim Howard, the caretaker of a large four-faced Siva Lingam from Nepal. Kim told us this mandir is a “gateway” for Westerners into Hinduism.

A view of downtown Denver.

On Monday, August 7, we met with our regional rep from Stelter Company, Jeremy Stelter. Jeremy is helping us to develop a comprehensive planned giving program for Hindu Heritage Endowment. Stelter maintains the planned giving section of our HHE website at www.hheonline.org.

That afternoon we flew to Des Moines, Iowa to visit the Stelter headquarters. More to come…