Bodhinatha spend December 2nd in Kuala Lumpur having darshan meetings with devotees and then attending a forum in the evening. He writes:

“In the afternoon and evening we attended the forum on “Creating Spiritual Awareness in Business.” Our role was the introductory religious speech and closing summary. Vijay Easwaran gave one of the talks. His style is motivational in nature, getting the audience charged up about being successful in business. Vijay mentioned his initial meeting with Gurudeva in San Francisco and described Gurudeva as a rishi. Additionally, there were 4-5 other excellent speakers. About 250-300 attended.”

[Another Bodhinatha Inspired Talk was posted today… see the side bar to the right.]

Kulapati Easan Katir who traveled to join Bodhinatha in Malaysia along with Kulapati Deva Rajan, sent this photo from KL moments before we went live today… Easan writes:

“Om Sivaya!
The Malaysia Hindu Sangam produced a forum on Creating Spiritual Awareness in Business, under the patronage of Bodhinatha. Well-attended by several hundred people.
Speakers pictured attached:
HH Satguru Bodhinatha, YB Dato S. Veerasingam, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs, and Datuk A. Vaithilingam, President of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.
Other speakers included :
Dato Vijay Easwaran, CEO of the Qi Group, author of “In the Sphere of Silence,” and sponsor of Iraivan’s Nandi Mandapam.
Mr. R. Shanmugam, Entrepreneur and Saiva missionary for 25 years in Malaysia.
YB Dato B. Sahadevan, CEO of National Land Finance Co-Operative Society, a large palm oil estate.
and others.

Visitors arriving today included friends of Kulapati and Kulamata Easan and Sundari Katir of California, Dr. Rashree Gaitonde who is here attending a medical conference at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, her husband Mr. Surendranath Gaitonde who is very well versed in temple architecture. They enjoyed the sanctity and darshan of the morning Siva Abishekam in the Kadavul Temple, after which they were taken on a tour of the grounds and the Iraivan Temple. Here they hugging rudraksha trees in the sacred forest.

We pick up the photo documentary of Bodhinatha’s travels to India with the second half of November 27th, their day in Pondicherry. Arumugaswami has the story:

“That evening we visited the International Centre for Yoga Research and Education under the direction of Meenakshi Devi Bhavanani.”

Here we have dinner with Meenakshi and a group of mostly European devotees taken a several week course at the Institute.

The group gathered for a simple dinner.

Later we met with them for satsang and questions and answers.

They were a pretty tough group of questioners.

There was also a meditation.

Here we visit Meenakshi’s son, Ananda, at their city center. They conduct yoga and cultural classes for hundreds of local children each week.

From here we went to Auroville. This is their exhibit hall.

Pictures of tree planting–they’ve planted two million trees in what was once a barren land.

Town plan of Auroville.

Still photo of a video on the project.

Ashok Chatterjee, our host, organized a meeting of teachers from the community. Mostly they were working in schools set up for children in the local villages.

They shared with us their methods, which began with a deep commitment on the part of each teacher to a spiritual life. This commitment and inner understanding rubbed off on the children through their teaching and daily interaction.

So strongly were they impacting the children, the parents were in turn becoming more religious. In fact, the schools have sparked something of a Hindu renaissance in the area. The local villagers discovered that one of the their temples was sung about by Saint Sambadar centuries ago. They’ve renovated this temple and are promoting it.

This is a great banyan tree at the exact center of Auroville. They’ve trimmed it in a way that allows grass to grow under it (unliked our Kauai Aadheenam banyans), so it is an ideal meditation place.

The huge Mantri Mandir sits to one side of the banyan.

This is a graceful amphitheater nearby which has a huge gas fed torch in the center for a kind of bonfire. Two thousand people gather here for special events.

Closeup of the discs covering the mandir. They are gold tiles mounted on stainless steel.

We transit now back to the worksite where our own Hanuman statue is being carved. Photographer Devrayan’s took this series on the carving of Hanuman. As you can see, he is a much better photographer than I am.

The elephant in progress. There are two like this, plus many other unusual carvings which will one day grace the Aadheenam temple grounds.

The Hanuman clay model.

Presentation of the kodimaram to Bodhinatha by the sthapati responsible to create it.

As we headed back to Chennai, we stopped at this fishing village which has been rebuilt by the BAPS Swaminarayan organization.

Volunteers met us and showed us around the project. Each family was provided a free new house. Another organization provided them all with new boats and nets lost during the tsunami. This was rebuilt on the same site. The water came in 6 to 8 feet deep. There was only some loss of life, all among elderly people, as these sturdy fisherman could deal with the water.

Each house is about 16 by 20 feet, three rooms, with a roof that can be built on for a second story.

We are standing on the edge of the beach here, looking back at the village.

We stop to meet with the main BAPS organizers from Chennai.