Bodhinatha meets with Janahan Balasingham who flew over from California yesterday, just to perform today’s Mahasamadhi Pada puja. After the puja he has darshan with Bodhinatha.

Early this morning devotees arrive for the finale puja…

Gurudeva’s shrine is magnificently decorated.

The temple is packed.

Janahan explains at length the order and meaning of this morning’s rituals. The purification and protection right for the priests, the invocation of the parampara into the kumbha pot, the abhishekam to the pada puja, the chanting of Gurudeva’s names, first in English and then in Sanskrit and the final abhishekam.

Three of our young monks follow along with him. As he focuses on the kumbha, one is focused on the paduka, another on the small Sivalingam and another on Gurudeva’s murthi, performing the same kriyas.

Final arati…

He then carries the kumbha around the temple and each one touches it and adds their prana to the water inside.

Bodhinatha performs the final abhishekam.

Blessing the devotees with water from the Kumbha.

During the puja Janahan asked for the whole group to participate in certain mantras.

Especially touching was his innovation of himself first chanting the English version of Gurudeva’s Namavalli, and then the whole congregation chanting together the Sanskrit. This way the consciousness of everyone was following the meaning of the chanting and this gives the mantras great power.

Leaving the temple we see this lovely kolam prepared yesterday by the ladies.

The sun is up and what a beautiful morning it was… it was hard to keep our feet on the ground or think of any mundane task as we were all lifted into the Sivaloka by the morning puja.

Everyone comes in for a final Darshan with Bodhinatha as the last official event of the Mahasamadhi observances. Here is Nitya Nadesan and his wife Becky. Nitya is a stalwart supporter of Gurudeva’s work since early days and ever ready to serve. He has been coming up to the monastery during mornings while on Kauai, doing humble service with the Siddhidata Kulam, taking a break from his high-stakes real-estate business in Seattle. Nitya is responsible to put the quarterly issue of Hinduism Today on the internet, which he has been doing for years without fail. Thank you Nitya! He was also blessed to be one of the last sishya to have a personal conversation with Gurudeva before Mahasamadhi.

Chellappa Deva and Banudevi from Scottsdale, Arizona. Chellappa and Banu have been anchors for Gurudeva’s presence in Arizona which finally manifested as the new Ganesha temple.

Bodhinatha with Saraswathy Sivanathan from Malaysia.

A young man now living and studying in Malaysia came to visit. He has his master’s in computer engineering and is working in Honolulu in the field of “remote sensing” …. no, that is not the psychic art of seeing things in distant places… it is the scientific of analysis of digital imagery of earth, taken by satellites.

Stepping back to yesterday…. The devotees had lunch together with Bodhinatha at the Panda Gardens Chinese restaurant.

It is a good time to have discussions with the Satguru, sans all the formalities, a tradition that Gurudeva started in early years.

It is also an excellent way to have fellowship with others and using a restaurant means no one has any chores to do!

Meanwhile today… Happy Deepavali! We gave our cooks the day off and Nitya Nadesan graciously sponsored a Thai meal for the monks.

As usual it is full of vegetables and the occasional flaming chili pepper!

So many dishes… but all quite light… the day was filled with the love and gratitude we feel for all that our Gurudeva has given us… It is something that we cannot really convey on the internet..
. but, you might try this recommendation from priest Janahan:

“You should close your eyes and visualize that the Guru’s Feet are on top of your head (with toes to the back of your head). You send up all your prana, love and gratitude. Then visualize, from his feet a flood of light or water, cleansing and filling your whole being, then, if you can concentrate deeply enough, visualize the Feet of Yogaswami on top of Gurudeva’s head, and the feet of Chellappaswami on top of Yogaswami’s head… if you can achieve this visualization perfectly, it is said there is no doubt, that by the grace of the Guru, you will enter into samadhi.”