A candid photo of Bodhinatha on the last Innersearch in India.

At home things are quiet. A few guests were hosted by Brahmacharini Shama, who tell about them in the photos and captions below.

At lunch the Pillaiyar Kulam gave their news. Shanmuganathaswami is slowly but surely getting a new distribution center set up in India which will have its own online shopping cart, price structure and shipping rates for books from Chennai to any point in India.

He says that someone recently requested 15 copies of What is Hinduism for a study group, and sales are doing well as more and more find out about this fantastic publication. Click here for more info if you don’t know about the book yet.

Sadhaka Jothinatha reported on the formation of a new Hindu Students Council at a university in Arkansas. They requested blessings from Bodhinatha. He sent them a small Ganesha, at their request, to perform puja to at their meetings.

Our mission team has arrived in Delhi. We caught them briefly on SKYPE last night during their 9-hour stopover in Taipei.

Daksha and Ghanshyam Merai are from Chicago, where they attend the Chinmaya Mission. They thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the Iraivan Temple given by Sadhaka Dandapani the previous day. They want to spend every morning during the remainder of their stay here in the Kadavul Temple.

“Its so blissful and peaceful here.” said Ghanshyam, “We don’t want to go home!”

They came to the Aadheenam nine years ago and met Gurudeva. He gave Daksha a big pile of books and literature for her classes with Hindu children. During this visit their son had some books signed by Bodhinatha on tour day.

Siri and Gita Kumar, originally from Bangalore, now live in Illinois. Gita’s mother lives in Palani in South India. Siri is very familiar with temple architecture. He conversed at length in Tamil with the Silpis while touring the Iraivan Temple.

Gita was touched by the peaceful spiritual energy permeating the property and wants to return here again.

Leonora Orr “Leah,” a local artist and temple devotee, regularly makes a decorative “floral offering” for the Gods and Devas near the Kodimaram. She saw such arrangements done in stone “bowls” in India and sponsored this one for Kadavul temple.

Samarth Kumar and Shveta Bansal, both from New Delhi, now residing outside Philadelphia, were given a special tour of the Iraivan Temple.

Shveta remarked that she is used to going to South Indian temples, but “what a blessing to actually see the hard work that goes into creating such a great temple of this kind.” Samarth was impressed to hear that this is the only all hand-carved white granite Chola-style Agamic Hindu Temple in the Western hemisphere.

Samarth and Shveta beside Kartikeya Shanmugum under the sacred Banyan tree.