Friday, 16th May: After an all night flight, arriving very early in the morning in Arizona yesterday (Friday) Bodhinatha rested and then met with devotees and went to the Ekta Mandir in the evening. Here he is speaking at the Ekta Mandir

Bodhinatha meets with Raj Sivananthan. Raj recently visited Kauai with his uncle and aunt from Sri Lanka. They are Yogaswami devotees.

And Raj reads the Master Course daily on his Blackberry.

Vignesh Sukumaran and his daughter Abhirami. Vignesh has been a devotee of Gurudeva for many years now.

Jeff Wiske who use to live on Kauai and was on the 2001 Europe Innersearch with Gurudeva.

Dasan Mahadevan drove out here from San Diego to spend time with his guru.

Arriving at the Ekta Mandir.

Magnificent Sivalingam at the mandir.

Jai Sreecharan welcomes Bodhinatha.

Sat, 17th May: Here we are this morning at the Maha Ganapati temple of Arizona for the kumbhabhishegam.

The Siva kumbha in the yagasala.

Bodhinatha looks into the mirror as part of the eye opening ceremony for the deities. Looking at Ganesha.

Placing sacred gems in the navagraha shrine.

Andre Garzia is here from Brazil after having gone to Las Vegas as a speaker at the Annual Runtime Revolution Conference there. Andre is on Kauai for 3 weeks. He is helping Sivakatirswami migrate all our web sites to a new and upgraded web server. He’s a real wizard with the computer.

He is also helping to migrate all the past Hinduism Today articles into the new XOOPS Content Management System for the release of a new Hinduism Today site which is still under wraps.

Our new web server has a terabyte of hard drive space, the latest CentOS-5 (Red Hat Linux) system. Quicktime Streaming Server will be installed for high end video delivery.

Last year Andre alerted us to the One Laptop Per Child Program. You can buy one and give one at the same time. Since the program would not allow an individual to make a purchase in Brazil, Saiva Siddhanta Church charity fund paid for half and Andre the other half. This is the computer that Andre will get, and and the one we paid for goes to a poor child in a far off country.

This little machine is “just so cool!” To find out more see the One Laptop Per Child web site.

Bodhinatha left yesterday morning for Arizona with Sadhaka Dandapani.

And this morning Paramacharya Palaniswami and Senthilnathaswami left for their trip to California and New York.

All the monks gathered to see him off.

The magic of the iPhone and email… Sadhaka Dandapani captures the arrival in Phoenix.

Long time sishya of Gurudeva: Chellappadeva and Banudevi and pillars for the Hindu community in Arizona.

The event here is the Prathistapana Maha Kumbabhishekam.

Arrival at Chellappa’s home

The padapuja.

At home there was Pada puja for Gurudeva early this morning. A magical synchronicity: pada puja for Bodhinatha in Arizona on the same day.

These are the photos of kodimaram kavacham and tiruvasi for Kadavul temple Murugan and Ganesha.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha send these last photos of Bodhinatha’s last day in Africa.

Final approach to Johannesburg’s Tambo Airport after leaving Durban. You can see that Johanessburg and Pretoria are located on a vast plain.

To our surprise a little bit of Hawaii greeted us as we made our way through the airport terminal!

On the road to Randburg for the evening’s event. A familiar sight to our travelling Satguru.

A coconut camphor arati greets Bodhinatha at the door of Pramlin Naidu’s home.

A small group that has been studying Dancing with Siva under Pramlin’s direction has gathered for Bodhinatha’s darshan.

They are focused on the deities and scripture of our Parampara.

Bhajan was conducted first to build up a nice spiritual vibration.

After the bhajan the children get a chance to participate by answering questions from Dancing with Siva as Bodhinatha listens.

Pramlin Naidu and his wife, our gracious hosts for the evening.

Next morning we see this mural at the airport departure terminal. Bodhinatha agrees with the statement!

Our last glimpse of the African mainland (and a seemingly endless beach) as the plane leaves the Mozambique coastline near Xai-Xai and heads for Mauritius.

Some pictures from yesterday’s homa and Bodhinatha’s Sun One upadesha.

Part of the monastic training program is that during the first twelve years of monastic life, every 4th year, the sadhaka departs the monastery for an extended period. After three of these “Sojourn’s in the World” he returns to the monastery never to leave again.

In recent times Bodhinatha has been putting this time to good use by having the monks go for some training. Sadhaka Tejadevanatha will be enrolling in a school in Utah to take 8 month course on Air-conditioning and Refrigeration and related electrical. This will be a big boon for his Kulam upon his return as the cost of maintenance and repair of these systems by local companies is very high.

Sadhaka is busy gather up all kinds of chants and recordings. While in the world the Sadhaka lives like a monk at home and pursues his personal spiritual practice in solitude.

A bright tour day today brought many visitors.

Yogi Jivanandanatha hosts a group of investment experts from the Bank of Hawaii.

Sanjay and Sheela Voleti are here with their 4-month old son, Kailash and Sanjay’s parents.

Here they are hugging a rudraksha tree.

They visited last year and after returning home learned that they were soon to have a new member of their family. They loved being at the aadheenam and have decided to make Kauai their yearly pilgrimage location.

We bring you a slideshow on The Roof of Iraivan, May 2008

The May 2008 Ganesha Homa marked the winter season shyly coming into the island of Mauritius. A splendid weather on that day and the Spiritual Park was filled up with a large crowd of devotees. Lord Ganesha is covered all over with beautiful flowers.

The main entrance of the Spiritual Park, where is a small Ganesha Shrine…However big is the incoming flow, devotees never miss to pay their humble obeisance to Lord Ganesha at this gate shrine…

Inside the Mandapam…

Just outside the front steps….

Lady helpers taking care of the offerings far off the steps…

Meanwhile devotees are worshiping at the newly installed Sivalingam with water and flowers.

The ceremony is about to start… all possible sitting spaces inside and around the Mandapam has been filled up….

Homa starts ….. four kulapatis officiate the ceremony.

Kulapati SK Moorghen taking care of written prayers being brought in by devotees…while sishya Moorooven is adjusting the PA system.

Sishyas Ramsamy and Nanda leading the bhajan….

Kulamata Koothan (left) and sishya Peruman.

The whole place is covered with devotees, some seated and others standing. It’s time for the Talk…

Kulapati Manon reading from “Dancing With Siva”…….

Master Course student Saminaden Veerapen and his son.

A view of the path leading to the small Ganesha shrine …

Personal offerings are made there. A dedicated group of helpers consisting mainly of members ad MC students are there to help…

The ceremony is about to end….

Himalayan Academy publications on sale outside. Many devotees are coming up to have their copy of “What is Hinduism?”

Another bright phase begins with lots of Hindu guests

This lovely family arrived today who had been looking forward to visiting
Gurudeva’s Aadheenam for many years.

On the right is P. B. Kulkarni and his wife, Sudha Kulkarni from Pune, India. They first met Gurudeva in 1995 in Mumbai where Sudha felt very moved by the presence of this Great Soul. It was there that Gurudeva gave her a gift, “Dancing with Siva.” She was so impressed with this sacred book that she felt that it should be introduced into all the libraries and schools in Maharashtra. And so, with the blessings of Gurudeva, Sudha translated the entire book into Marathi, and it now adorns the shelves of all the libraries and is studied in the schools of Maharasthra.

On the left is Sudha’s daughter, Dr. Yogini Kulkarni-Sharma. On the far right is Rohan Sharma, Yogini’s husband, and next to him is their five-year-old very well-behaved little son, Ishaan. Yogini and Rohan met Gurudeva in Singapore in 2001.

And now – ‘all aboard’ – and off to a meeting with Paramacharya Palaniswami who has known this family for many years.

Rolling the ball around in the lion’s mouth is fun for these children from families visiting the temple today. Front and center is Parshv age 6; in yellow is Vedant age 6 1/2; In the background is Abinaya age 9 and her brother Amrit age 4.

With the sacred Rudraksha trees acting as a backdrop, Yoganathaswami poses with our visiting families on the South side of the Iraivan Temple. All had attended the puja in the Kadavul Siva Temple and all felt “blessed” to be here. They were very impressed with the all-white granite beautifully handcarved Iraivan Temple and asked many questions about it.

From the left is Niranjan Sankaranarayanan from Hartford, CT; Mahesh and Minari Shukla from Alhambra, CA; Adishwar Jain and Sanjay Ghatnekar with their wives and children from Newbury Park, CA.

These two families are going back to India and they pledge to make this visit to our temple as their last stop in America before returning to the homeland.

The Folsom, California chapter of the HSS invited Kulapati Easan Katir again to speak at their Sunday Balagokulam. They are an active group with lots of good questions.

It is the end of our phase today. The Ganapati Kulam gave their report today.

The big news is that after a year or more or hard work by Sannyasin Arumugaswami, and the grace of God, Gods and Guru, the Religious Worker Visas for our silpis in India were finally granted. It was through his indefatigable efforts to work through our congress representatives and a top lawyer in Washington D.C. that we were able to not only get visas for our silpis, but to also set a major precedent for Hindu temples across America in having silpis recognized as religious workers.

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END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, May 13th.

The Ganapati Kulam also just completed the editorial production of the July-September-October issue of Hinduism Today. The Insight section covers the life and work of one of Hinduism’s greatest and most influential saints: Sri Madhvacharya, who expounded the dualist principles of Vaishnavism and forged a powerful movement based on bhakti and the principles of the soul’s relationship with the Divine, that re-shaped the future of the Hinduism.

Other fascinating stories are based on Lord Ganesha

More and more American Hindus are taking on the responsibility to improve Hinduism in India by actually doing something about it instead of just talking about it. This is a great story about a Hindu American woman who supports a school in India.

We also have a wonderful youth feature based on interviews of the youth who went on the recent Innersearch.

Work continues on a Keynote presentation for Hindu Heritage Endowment.

This is a slide show that focuses on how endowments can help US temples and mandirs. It will be presented to boards of trustees around the country and put online, including a YouTube version.

Our Amma Debora arrived from Brasil yesterday, to visit the monastery for the first time and see her son, Sadhaka Satyanatha.

After a few hours with Satyanatha, she came to the publications building where he serves, and immediately unpacked some gifts she had carried 10,000 miles from her home near San Paulo.

First out of the box came a hand-made quilt that Amma Debora made for the monstery, complete with a delightful sacred AUM.

She explains that she worked for weeks, and even has a callous on the end of a stitching finger to prove it!

Then into a bigger box.

Full of goodies for the monks.

Amma goes through each item, explaining.

There are the all-important chocolates. These days real chocolates, the 60 and 70% kind, are highly touted for health, and who does not love long life and dark chocolates!

Every wholesome thing you can think of: nuts, dried fruits, exotic things we’ve never eaten before.

That was yesterday. Today she was invited to attend the Ganapati Kulam morning meeting, to see how our little team, which includes her son, begins each day with chanting, affirmations and sharing of projects/duties/logistics/and such.

As it happened, she was here the morning we took our updated photos of the entire monastery, and was invited at the end to stand with Bodhiantha to record the moment. Good timing, Amma!

She knows Photoshop, so she and Satyanatha worked on some color correction of the photo. Welcome to Kauai, Amma Debora!

Last chance! The seminar dates are nearly here…

Sun Three today. It was Ardra puja day.

After the powerful abhishekam to Lord Nataraja that must be experienced in person… the curtains are closed and the devotees sing some bhajans.

Sivanadiyar Rajan, one of our three new pre-monastics has a great spirit of bhakti and has learned to sing many songs and Natchintanai during his stay here.

Kadavaul temple, scintillating with actinic energies…

Gurudeva presides in the background.

The very skilled and amazingly all-round “power” artisan for construction, renovation, painter, carpenter, interior redesign installation, John Andersen is here today. You name it he can do it and to super high standards. If you work with him you better be sharp and ready to get the job done and do it right!

John his helping with a small adjustment into the Java Cafe area. He lives nearby and let’s the monks work along side him and gives them a lot of good training.

Our poor refrigerator needed more fresh air to function properly; so we are opening up the space and giving room for air to flow all around. It’s all a part of an on-going and massive effort on the part of the Aadheenam to reduce energy usage. And thanks to many changes we have reduced the electrical usage of our entire enterprise here by 15% over last year this time. And we are just getting started.

It was tour day at the Aadheenam we had about 100 visitors over both 9 and 11 am tours.

Otherwise, it’s quiet at home… and we bring you some good news from Sri Lanka.

Sri Subramuniya Kottam Vijayadasami Celebrations

Last November the Sri Subramuniya Kottam celebrated Navaratri and Vijayadasami for 10 days. The photos were taken on the last day of Vijayadasami. The Kottam children made the “kolu” where they beautifully decorated a stage with many images of God and Gods.

They performed the pujas and sang bhajans each evening. On the last day, known as Vijayadasami, the students enjoyed dancing and singing, and gave speeches on stage.

Some of you may be wondering about the timing of these photos — due to the raging civil war, the city of Jaffna has been essentially cut off from the rest of the country, resulting in several months’ delay in mail — and these photos — from reaching the USA.

Bodhinatha read from today’s Master Course Lesson and offered insights on the subconsious mind. He explained how all past happenings were registered in the subconscious mind. Those that are not correctly understood and resolved, such as disputes between husband and wife, will repeatedly surface to the conscious mind. He emphasized Gurudeva’s point about resolving disputes before going to sleep at night as a way to keep the subsconscious clear.

Yogi Jivanandanatha does the homa today.

Chinna Chinnakaruppan, an Engineer, and his wife, Dr. Nachu Chinnakaruppan, a pediatrician, arrived for the morning puja. Originally from Kothamangalam, S. India, they now reside in New Jersey with their two young children, Abwani (age 4) and Arun (age 2).

Following a tour of the Iraivan Temple they were then blessed to receive the Darshan of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

On the left is Dr. Bhartendu Srivastava and his wife Uma from Toronto, Canada. With a week-long Pediatrician’s Conference taking place on Oahu, we have had several physicians visiting the temple these past few days.

(Center) Originally from Nallur, Sri Lanka, Sangarapillai Mahendran and his wife Amirthavathy both originally met Gurudeva in 1989. Sangarapillai’s mother strongly recommended that they pilgrimage to the Kauai Aadheenam – and so they did. Here all three couples pose with the silpis on the south side of the Iraivan Temple complex.

All of our visitors are happy to say that they have been subscribing to the Aadheenam’s International magazine “Hinduism Today” for many years and find it the most informative and inspiring magazine on Hinduism available today anywhere.

West side overview shots of Iraivan. With the scaffolding removed we have a magnificent view of the roof line.

Faces and figures of Iraivan, close up.

Today we bring you Bodhinatha’s State of the Church Address, 2008 in the form of 2 YouTube Videos.

The sound file and transcript will be uploaded next phase.

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dvitiya Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, May 6th.

Today the Ganapati Kulam is working on the final touches of the July-August-September edition of Hinduism Today. In Bodhinatha’s Publisher’s Desk this issue he addresses the age-old issue of who is the greater among the Gods, Vishnu or Siva? His answer carries the wisdom of the ages, that they are a one Divine Perfection, not two that can be compared and argued over.

For this, artist S. Rajam in India crafted this art. This is Hari-Hara, the half-Vishnu, half-Siva murthi of ancient times. Siva with His mountains and bull, Vishnu with his eagle mount and the sea. Notice Rajam’s marvelous little hint of blessedness, the two disembodied hands at the bottom, as if the cosmos itself is reaching out to grant all gifts. Soon the files will be digitally couriered to the midwest for printing. Look for the full magazine in about a month.

When we were in India in February, we encountered a long wall, 15 feet high and 120 feet long, being painted by a muralist with hundreds of intricate, traditional Saiva panels. Here a woman worships the All in All, hands held above her head in the gesture of loftiest adulation. Siva smiles from the white Lingam.

Nearby many are gathered to praise their Loving Lord, not only from all castes, but Brahma Himself is there in the crowd.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha brings us another great set of photos and the story from Bodhinatha’s recent trip to South Africa.

“On the evening of April 19th Bodhinatha heads for Pietermaritzburg, a city of about 350,000, located about 40 miles inland from the Durban coast. He gets an enthusiastic welcome at the local center of the Saiva Sithantha Sungum”

Just inside the door they’ve made a little shrine for Gurudeva which remembers his visit to this place in 1982. Newspaper photo clippings show Gurudeva blessing members of the center with vibhuti and an article entitles “Wives should remain in the home, Swami says”

Three of the leaders of the Pietermaritburg center keep Bodhinatha company til its time for him to enter the hall.

Swami Siva Yoga Nanda, head of the Sungum, introduces Bodhinatha.

Altar contains only light. Siva alone is worshiped. The Sungum follows the Meikandar Saiva Sithantha philosophy, using the Tirumurai,Tirukural and the Tamil songs of Sri Subramonia Swamigal.

Bodhinatha’s talks at all three Sungum centers that he’ll visit while in Durban are all focused on “spiritualizing daily life”. Pursuing the goals of artha and kama, wealth and love, through honest means (fulfilling the principles of dharma,) will bring us closer to realizing the final goal of moksha.

Several hundred people turned out to be with Bodhinatha this evening. Here’s a small portion waiting to receive vibhuti holy ash prasad. The center had prepared packets of vibhuti in advance with a sticker to commemorate Bodhinatha’s visit.

Sunday morning is a visit to the Sungum’s main center in the south Durban suburb of Chatsworth. This area is home to a large population of Indians who moved here in the late 60’s during South Afica’s infamous Apartheid era. From a single center founded in 1937 by Sri Siva Subramonia Guru Swamigal (1910-1953) the Sungum has expanded to include 22 branches.

Gurusubramonia gave outdoor lectures and “lantern services” at eight locations around Durban. His mission was to provide saintly leadership and combat religious conversion. He conducted classes on Devaramam, Thiruvasagam and lives of the Saiva Saints. He composed his own divine hymns in Tamil in order to give his spiritual message in a manner that all could understand.

Swami Yogananda leads the congregation in their worship ceremony which was written by the founder and followed strictly to this day. It consists of of the singing Subramonia’s Tamil songs in praise of Shiva in a prayer and response manner between the swami and the congregation, a short sermon, concluding prayers and arati before the altar to the Formless aspect of Shiva. A portrait of the Guru Subramonia is seen to the left of Swami Yogananda.

Here’s the Sungum’s prayer book. The first half contains the worship ceremony and the last half contains the Tamil hymns of Sri Siva Subramonia Guru. They are reminiscent of Yogaswami’s songs.

Hymns in Tamil, English transliteration and English translation. One called Summaa Irupathuveh Sugam-The Greatness of Silence- goes like this; “To remain in silence is joy and a pleasant happening. That joy is an expression of inner contentment, it is the mirror of your inner being. The celestials adore and praise Lord Sivaperumaan. We have to experience his Divine Vision and rejoice in the chamber of our hearts……..”

When Bodhinatha ended his talk, saying “I’ve used up all my time” they asked him to please continue!

Later that day Bodhinatha was in the Durban studios of Lotus FM. Lotus plays a mix of Indian music, news, interviews and other programs of interest to Indian youth. It can be heard in every part of the country where Indians are living. On Sundays there are religious programs. One of them will broadcast this interview.

In the early evening we go to the suburb called Phoenix on the north side of Durban. The rains and chill have come a little early this year.

Bodhinatha waits to share his talk.

A small but eager crowd has gathered to hear him speak. Our thanks to everyone at the Saiva Sithantha Sungum for their gracious welcome to Bodhinatha. Perhaps he’ll be able to visit again next year!

Thank you, Shren and Misha, for helping to arrange Bodhinatha’s first visit to Durban.

It is another very quiet day at the Aadheenam. A warm dry spring day with gentle breezes, peace all around.

More on our guests yesterday from host Shama Kumaran, who write:;

“Arumugamswami hosted Dr. Siva Subramanian and his wife Kalyani (both originally from Columbuthurai, Jaffna, Sri Lanka). They enjoyed the morning abishekam in the Kadavul Siva Temple followed by a grand tour of the Iraivan Temple.

Dr. Subramanian had previously met Gurudeva many years ago when he visited the Washington Area. He was also blessed to meet Bodhinatha more recently during the assembly of The North American Council of Hindu Temples in 2007 in Flint Michigan.

In 1981 he hosted Ganapathy Stapathi in his home while Stapathi initiated the building of the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland.”

A quiet peaceful morning walk causes one to deeply appreciate the absolute beauty and pure spirituality of the Aadheenam’s sacred paradise.

Officially named “Colorado,” – the pastel peach and yellow tones of this beautiful waterlily reminds one of a new sunrise.

A gigantic vibrant torch ginger flower basks in the early morning rays.

There is beauty everywhere . . .

A little stream flows beside the Narmada lingam offering fresh mountain water for abishekam to Siva.

A grove of Guava trees gives welcome shade.

The soothing sound of lifegiving streams and waterfalls flow freely throughout paradise affording the meditative pilgrim numerous peaceful sanctuaries to enjoy the “within” of himself.