Lakshmi Sivasurier and her friend Lena Wong are visiting from Toronto, Canada and were present for the morning abhishekam in the Kadavul Siva Temple, followed by a tour of the Iraivan Temple and a wonderful meeting with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

Bodhinatha gives them each a copy of What is Hinduism

Lakshmi’s Uncle, Thiru Satkunendran, is a long time supporter of the Aadheenam and much appreciated for his enormous help in a multitude of ways when the swamis visit Canada.

Paramacharya Palaniswami’s visit to Mauritius continues with one of the first Saivite temples of the island, the Sockalingum Meenactchee Ammen Temple at Port Louis. It is one of the few temples here with a very tall gopuram.

One goes through massive wooden doors through the huge gopuram to enter the temple….

Some 25 years ago Gurudeva and Palaniswami on their first visit to Mauritius, stayed at that temple for almost a month. It was a time when many Hindus of the island were being converted to Christianity. Gurudeva then came to the island to help promote Saivism ….

Some youth are already there waiting for swami’s arrival….

The Temple looks beautiful from the outside with nice looking sculptures made by traditional craftsmen from India.

The temple bell….

It is 5:00 PM and many of our Himalayan Academy students and members are already there early waiting for Paramacharya Palaniswami….

…. A few of our ladies seated on the Temple steps ……

Paramacharya Palaniswami arrives at 5:30 PM as scheduled. Paramacharya is traditionally greeted with a kumbam…

Paramacharya Palaniswami is in front of a newly renovated temple…. a big change to what the temple was 25 years ago!

Time for Koyil valam…..Swami led by the temple priest, accompanied by nadeswaram musicians walked around the temple…

The Temple pandaram priest, Soobramanium Sharma has been in this Saivite temple for several years….

An arati at the Ganesha sanctum..and at other shrines.

A murti of Lord Muruga is led around the temple…

After the procession round the temple, Paramacharya Palaniswami gave a talk about how the Tamil community are great temple builders all over the world today. Swami also talked about personal karma and how Hindus are being blindly lured and abused by those promoting Vastu for vested interest today. The book “What is Hinduism” published by Himalayan Academy was introduced and everyone was invited to have a copy once it was released at the local customs. A nice group listened attentively, mostly from our membership and the temple’s regular devotees…