Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami arrived safely in Singapore and were greeted by the members. His seminars in Singapore and Malaysia will be on sections from the book “What is Hinduism” which is continuing to gain traction in the mainstream market place.

Here is a recent review:

Rhe Rediff Special/ Arthur J Pais
Hinduism book seeks to dispel myths
March 14, 2008

As many Hindu parents in America and Canada know too well, you just cannot be prepared for all the questions your child has to face in the school. Questions like: Why do Hindus worship the cow? Are Hindu Gods always married to many women? Why do Hindus worship idols?

And then there are endless questions about what Americans call the dot. Not to forget questions about the Hindu pantheon of gods.

The parents’ answers and explanations are often not satisfactory to the children — or, for that matter, to the parents themselves. Often the parents ask someone in the community, who has commanding knowledge of Hinduism, for answers or seek the help of a Hindu scholar, or in libraries.

Now, parents and children can turn to What is Hinduism? — a landmark book with over 400 large pages and nearly 1,000 illustrations that answers the above questions, and many more, with brevity and clarity.

One of the book’s important achievements is in creating context that explains otherwise inexplicable Hindu practices.

For instance, it connects social practices like untouchability to segregation practiced in America a few decades ago, and to the fact that there are millions in America including African Americans and Hispanics who face continual discrimination in residential areas, schools, at workplaces and in places of worship. These are the true ‘untouchables,’ the book writes.

After telling the readers that it is illegal in India to discriminate against, abuse or insult anyone on the basis of caste, the book looks at modern America, adding that there is a class system in the United States that is very bad.

‘US cities are more racially segregated than before the 1950s Civil Rights Movement because of white flight to the suburbs,’ the book notes. ‘Black Americans receive harsher sentences than white Americans for the same crime.’ It goes on to write a few lines on the plight of Native Americans too.

‘This kind of response — we can call it the you’re one, too defense — doesn’t mean Hindus should not work much harder to end caste discrimination,’ the book warns. But it reminds others that ‘no country in the world is yet free from racial discrimination.’

Among the many subjects the book addresses is the theme of holy cows. ‘Hindus don’t worship cows,’ the book, compiled from articles and information in Hinduism Today magazine, notes. ‘We respect, honour and adore the cow. By honouring this gentle animal, who gives more than she takes, we honour all creatures.’

The chapter on the cow also touches upon vegetarianism. While it explains the rationale behind a vegetarian diet, it also notes that while many Hindus are not vegetarians, ‘most respect the still widely held code of abstaining from eating beef.’

Are Hindus forbidden to eat meat, is another question immigrant Indians often face. The book does not point out that in most regions of India the majority of Hindus eat meat and fish, and it does not reveal that Bengali Brahmins eat fish religiously, and that Swami Vivekananda continued eating fish even after he had become a monk or even that the Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama [Images] is a non-vegetarian.

However, the book notes: ‘Hindus teach vegetarianism as a way to live with a minimum hurt to other beings. But in today’s world not all Hindus are vegetarians. Of course, there are good Hindus who eat meat, and there are not-so-good Hindus who are vegetarians.’

The book offers a wealth of information on various aspects of Hinduism, from the devotional to cultural to epicurean. Published by the Himalayan Academy in Kauai, Hawaii, the book is based on hundreds of articles published in the magazine over the past 25 years.

The academy, which also produces the erudite and popular Hinduism Today magazine, is part of the Hindu monastery founded by Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, popularly known as Gurudeva, more than five decades ago. Though the Kauai monastery is a Saivite institution, the book deals with various Hindu traditions and offers the kind of insights not often found in other books of its kind.

In one of the important chapters in the book, Comparing the Four Major Denominations, Saivisim, Shaktism. Vaishnavism, and Smartism, the authors assert there are more similarities, including the importance of temple worship and the concept of liberation of the soul from rebirth, than differences between the four denominations.

But the book also explains some of the key differences between them. Saivite Hindus do not believe in earthly incarnations of the Supreme Being; the Divine Mother incarnate in this world is the belief of Shatki followers. Vaishnavism believes that Vishnu has ten or more incarnations. And the Smarta followers believe all deities assume earthly incarnations.

The subject of idol worship is a big issue in America, where many fundamentalist Christians rebuke Hindus calling them idol worshippers. In school text books and in social science classes, Hindu children are often faced with opprobrium on such lines.

‘Hindus do not worship stone or metal ‘idol’ as God,’ the editors of What is Hinduism? note in the chapter titled Ten Questions People Ask About Hinduism. ‘We worship God through the image. We invoke the presence of God from the higher, unseen worlds, into the images so that we can commune with Him and receive His blessings.’

One of the plus points for the book is its humour. ‘Hindus are not idle worshippers,’ the book continues. ‘I have never seen a Hindu worship in a lazy or idle way.’

As for the question about ‘graven images,’ the book says all religions ‘have their symbols of holiness through which the sacred flows into the mundane’: The Christian cross or statues of Mary, the holy Kaaba in Mecca, the Sikh Adi Granth enshrined in the Golden Temple in Amritsar [Images].

‘The Hindu can see God in stone and water, fire, air and ether, and inside his own soul,’ the book says. ‘Indeed, there are Hindu temples which have in the sanctum sanctorum no image at all but a yantra, a symbolic or mystic diagram. However, the sight of the image enhances the devotee’s worship.’

And then there are the questions about sex, marriage and the Gods. There is a Hinduism of the Puranas which is filled with stories about gods and goddesses, the book says. But there is also a Hinduism of higher philosophies in which gods are neither male or female. ‘In fact, attaining to that godly level of being is one of the mystical goals of yoga,’ the book asserts. ‘Hindus know that the Gods do not marry, that they are complete within themselves.’

The editors of What is Hinduism? say that some people in other faiths criticise the Hindu religion as a sort of comic book religion. ‘We should not be part of perpetuating that image by passing on such misconceptions as the marriage of the Gods,’ the editors note.
Some modern swamis urge devotees not to pay attention to Puranic stories about the Gods, saying that they have no relationship with the world today, the book argues. These swamis do not want children to read those stories because children may not be able to understand them in proper context. ‘Instead, they (the swamis) encourage followers to deepen themselves with the higher philosophies of the Vedic Upanishads and the realisation of the Hindu seers.’

One of the highlights of the book is the reproduction of Swami Vivekananda’s Song of the Sanyasin, which is spread across two pages, along with the picture of Vivekananda and the image of Thousand Island Park, New York, where the visiting monk composed the song.

‘There is but One: the Free, the Knower, Self.
Without a name, without a form or stain.
In Him is maya, dreaming all this dream..
The Witness, He appears as nature, soul.
Know thou art That, sannyasin bold! Say
‘Om Tat Sat, Om.’
Meanwhile the book “Wah

Our sishya awaiting their Satguru to arrive. Kumar Katir is here for his wedding to Anusha Samugam.

Two children from two of our congregations strongest sishya families, to carry on the tradition to the next generation.

Bodhinatha is here!

Later that evening there was a satsang… Bodhinatha writes:

“Friday evening satsang at Dohadeva’s good size group for Singapore. After Kumar Katir and Anusha Samugam read their wedding vows to be and received the traditional shawl. ”

At home today, our weekly homa.

Paramacharya Palaniswami presides in Bodhinatha’s place.

He gives a talk after the puja.

Some spectacular flowers from the Mysorensis vines that hang in the banyan tree.

Shipments from India have arrived with treasures for our Minimela… Beautiful small images of Nataraja and other Deities for your home shrine being inventoried and priced.

One of our cats — is ever so dainty, well-behaved, clean, very particular, aloof and reserved — “Princess Chandidevi.”

Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami departed for Malaysia very early this morning before dawn.

All the monks are there to see them off.

They are taking the direct itinerary with a short stop over in Narita and no extra day in Taiwan.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Friday, March 15th.

For many long years, the monks in the Ganapati Kulam have been designing, commissioning and collecting spiritual artwork. The collection has thousands of pieces, and we have worked for over a decade to make them available on the Web. Today, India’s foremost Photo Library, Dinodia in Mumbai, announced our Himalayan Academy Publications art is online! It was happy news!

Last May when Palaniswami and Yogi Jivanandanatha were in Mumbai, they met with Dinodia’s founder, Jagdish Agarwal, and worked out the plan to add this special South Indian style art to his worldclass collection. From their site (http://www.dinodia.com), you put in the search field a special code (DPA-HAP) and up comes the thumbnails as shown here.

Click on a thumbnail, and a larger images appears. One can purchase the art in four resolutions, from 1 megabyte to 50. Unlike most Indian art which follows a Mughal or miniature style from the North, this collection is traditionally South Indian. We are rejoicing today that the world can now have access to a spiritual treasure house of meaningful Hindu art.

Luxman and Sarmela Sunder were among our guests today.

Luxman has been here many times before with his parents who are ardent devotees of Gurudeva.

It’s Sarmela’s second visit and they were happy to meet all the monks again and see the progress on Iraivan Temple.

2008 Asian Odyssey: We continue with photos from that special homa held at the Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai on January 25th morning. The group is gathered in a small mandapam and all are absorbed in the powerful vibration.

It truly is amazing to be in these sacred ancient temples and be part of these ceremonies.

After the homa the group takes a little break.

Praful and Jayshree Patel from Canada.

The following photos are from the magical eye of Thomas Kelly. Far left is Sankar Sivachariar who organized our visit to the temple.

Receiving vibhuthi prasadam after the homa.

Joel Knepp from Ohio. It’s Joel’s 3rd Innersearch and he is happy to be pilgrimaging with Bodhinatha again.

Kailas Rajan from California.

Prem Chandiramani from Grenada in the Caribbean. Prem was with us on the 2004 Indian Odyssey as well.

We pose for a group photo with the priests.

Kulagan Moonesawmy from Mauritius and behind him is Raman Pumanian from Singapore.

Jai Khanna from Indiana, USA.

Having some prasadam after the morning homa.

After the break the group gets ready to head to the main sanctum for the abhishegam and puja to the Siva Lingam

The press were there in large numbers and an article covering our visit appeared in most major papers in Tamil Nadu.

Sivachariar leads us to the sanctum.

We stop first at a Ganesha shrine in the outer prakaram of the temple. Then the next hour or so is spent in bliss just outside the main sanctum enjoying an amazing abhishegam and puja to Lord Siva. An experience that was not allowed to be photographed but never to be forgotten by all who witnessed it.

After that ineffable experience the group heads out to one of the temple corridors to partake in the prasadam. The holy Arunachala hill, Siva Himself, stands majestically behind the temple.

Arunachaleswarar temple is one of the most beautiful and powerful temples in the south.

Sadhaka Dandapani coordinates with the group the next event of the day.

This afternoon we will be climbing the holy Arunachala hill to visit Skanda ashram and to meditate on the hill.

Today was tour day at the Aadheenam and also a stone lift at Iraivan temple…

Satguruspeaks fans will be happy to see a new upadesha by Bodhinatha is now up… see the side bar on the right.

Our guests arriving at the 9 am tour just in front of Kadavul temple.

Kulamata Isani Alahan is here there and everywhere. She and Brahmachari Shama Kumaran are constantly doing karma yoga for the temple, the minimela gift shop and so much more… Thank you!

While visitors are off to Iraivan, serious worshippers are at the Siva puja.

More roof stones went up today.

Our tour group can only watch from a distance. Our strict safety regulations do not allow for visitors to be at the temple site doing major operations.

Rigging a small stone on the foundation.

Our March 2008 Ganesha Homa took place during a very pious week in the island of Mauritius, famous for it’s Saivite MahaSivatari foot pilgrimage to the sacred lake Ganga Talao. All Hindus worship Lord Siva on this grand event. While thousands of Hindus and many regular Ganesha Homa devotees were on pilgrimage, there was quite a big crowd at the Spiritual Park this Sunday.

The Mandapam was filled up as usual…

Devotees come from all over Mauritius…

Devotees singing with to their full heart’s content as chorus on the lava rock steps outside…

Our ladies helping with the offerings brought by the devotees…

The Homa is about to start…

A surprise visitor to the Park, a sanyassin of a Vaishnava order from India. He just arrived to the island the day before and was brought to the Park. He was invited to chant a holy mantra to Lord Ganapati and he said a few words on the Lord of Dharma.

Mrs Amravadee Kownden, giving a testimony on how Ganesha instantly came to the help of one of her friends in her recent pilgrimage to the Angkor Temple during the Odyssey with Satguru Bodhinatha. She was herself instrumental to Ganesha’s intervention…

Our Church publications displayed for sale outside the HA booth..

Kulapati Manon’s Talk of the month was on God, the World and the Soul from Hinduism Today.

Offerings and worship going on at the small Ganesha shrine….

The Narmada Lingam ceremoniously receives its first abhishegam on that day. From then onwards devotees would be able to bring water and offer their personal worship there…

Applying the tripundra…

Despite the scorching sun, devotees are all around to witness this historical event at the Spiritual Park.

Everyone contemplates the impressive Sivalingam…

A view of the devotees outside. Everyone stands up for the main final arati…

January 24th: It’s an early departure from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai. We leave the hotel at 4am and head to the airport. A few hours later we arrive in Chennai and are greeted by a few devotees there. Thomas Kelly, is also there to greet us. He is Hinduism Today’s Star Photographer and has flown in from Nepal on a special assignment from Hinduism Today to document the innersearch. He will be joining the Innersearch group for the remaining of the journey. Thomas is a world class photographer (click to go to his web site)who loves to shoot for Hinduism Today because we publish a lot of things that other magazines would not normally cover.

Little grandson of Kulamata Mardemootoo…

January 25th: We gather at 5am at the Arunachaleswarar temple for a special homa.

The sacred fire is mystically consuming hundreds of written prayers again today…

Here goes the lighted camphor into the fire pit after an arati.

Kartikeya Katir receives mantra diksha from Bodhinatha.

What a blessed time and space to receive it at.

Bodhinatha whispers the mantra and instructions into his right ear.

Tomorrow we will showcase some of Thomas Kelly’s amazing photos of this morning’s homa ceremony.

January 22: Nadanachandran and Rathy celebrate their wedding anniversary in Kuala Lumpur and Bodhinatha honours them with a shawl.

January 23: It’s an early start for the group and we depart our hotel at 3am and head to the famed Batu Caves for Thaipusam. Here we gather at the Divine Life Society. Some of today’s photos of Thaipusam are courtesy of Mark Boyer. Thanks Mark for sending your photos in.

Bodhinatha presents Innersearchers with a milk kavadi that has been blessed.

We head to the stairs that will lead us to Muruga’s cave.

Up we go!

And into this gigantic cave.

Our group prepares to offer the milk to Lord Muruga.

After the offering we all gather for a while by the shrine to absorb the wonderful vibration.

The Divine Life Society fed thousands of people on this day.

Most of the Innersearchers headed back to the hotel after our morning event but a few stayed on to witness more of this amazing festival.

Colourful giant kavadis stood high above the crowd.

A beautifully decorated kavadi with a statue of Muruga in the middle.

Many performed severe penance. Despite the piercings there was not a single drop of blood to be seen.

Many groups of musicians led small groups of kavadis with vibrant music.

Bhavani Param and Suselah Periasamy.

Niraj Thaker from London.

This man is sitting on a chair of nails.

Many also took the opportunity to shave their heads during this festival.

Absorbed in Muruga.

The stairways leading up to the cave is packed. The center stairwell is reserved only for kavadi carriers.

Aravindraj, one of our main coordinators in KL, explores some interesting seeds with Arumugaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani.

Our wonderful media team that photographed the Innersearchers experience of Thaipusam. We will show their photos on TAKA soon.

That evening Swami Guhabhaktananda from Divine Life Society joined us for dinner. We are very grateful to swamiji for letting us use his premises during our visit to Batu Caves earlier in the morning. Thank you very much!

Dr. Arjunan Subramaniam hosted the group for dinner. Thank you for welcoming our group so warmly to Kuala Lumpur.

Tatiana Martushev from New York celebrated her birthday on this auspicious day. Happy Birthday!

Braj and Yamuna Kachru, accompanied by Larry, the President of Friends of East-West Center in Honolulu, have darshan with Bodhinatha. Braj and Yamuna are visiting scholars at the East West Center, former professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana, and members of a community in Urbana planning to build a temple dedicated to wisdom and culture in the forms of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Saraswati. Bodhinatha will be visiting the community in May on his way to Toronto.

Announcement: The April Digital Edition of Hinduism Today is now online! Boot up our Hinduism Today Digital Edition PDF and Media content manager and you will be prompted to download the latest issue.

The Hinduism Today Digital Edition brings you the magazine in full color PDF’s including the cartoons like this one from the beautiful 16-page Insight Section on Mediation.

Click on the “View Multimedia” button and you will be presented with our all new Hinduism Today Media Browser. This is a dedicated channel to all the media previous published that is associated with any article in the magazine. Unlike YouTube, the videos are high quality. And you don’t have to go digging web pages. It’s all here in one place. (You do need an internet connection…) The library is growing with 46 sound files, songs, movies, and audio interviews. Don’t miss it!

If you have not subscribed, go to http://www.hinduismtoday.com/digital/ It’s free!

Inspired by the recent publication Twelve Shum Meditations, Kulapati Easan Katir, himself a Shum student for 36 years, is conducting 12 classes in California.

The little publication is the first time ever that Shum has gone out to the whole world. Don’t miss it, get your copy at www.minimela.com

2008 Asian Odyssey: We continue from yesterday’s coverage of January 20th’s excursion to a remote island. After our picnic lunch we all decide to clean up the beach.

We divide into 2 groups. One heads to the left and the other to the right of our picnic spot picking up any trash scattered or washed up on the beach. Nadanachandran from Australia has filled his bag very quickly.

Saravananathaswami cleaning the far side of the planet.

Vighnarajah from Queensland, Australia.

Palaniswami and Puvaneswary Roberts team up to move a large bag to our trash gathering spot.

Young Mayuresh Rahavendran is into this environmental clean up session as well.

Sri Mallampalli from Florida.

We all feel good having cleaned a decent portion of the beach. And we load the trash onto a boat to take it back to our hotel and dispose of it properly. The tide is going out quickly and the boats start to drift further out into the water and we must start to leave in a hurry.

The first boat is filled with people and pushes off for the ride back to the hotel.

Back to our hotel!

Our hotel has lots of beautiful Langur monkeys and it is lovely to see them play outside our rooms.

Sunset in Langkawi.

We head off to dinner at a nearby restaurant which requires us to walk along the beach to get there.

Puvaneswary (Netherlands), Saraswathi (USA), Rathy (Australia) and Suselah (Singapore) all enjoy getting to know one another. We truly have an international group of spiritual travellers.

January 21st: It’s a quiet day filled with hours of classes. Bodhinatha guides the group in Gurudeva’s Shum meditation.

Mohan who works at Berjaya Hotel has been a tremendous help to the group and Bodhinatha personally thanks him for all his efforts over the days we are there.

And presents him with a shawl.

Dinner is at a lovely Indian restaurant. Langkawi is warm and dry and we enjoy having our meals outdoors.

It’s our last night in Langkawi so take the opportunity to thank Rhonda and Trevor McPhee for their amazing organisation and selfless help. They do not do this for a living. We happen to come across them on the internet and they offered to help us plan our visit.

When we asked them how we can pay them for their help, they replied “we just want you to have a wonderful time on our island.” So, from all 95 of us Innersearchers, we sincerely thank you for everything that you did for us. We know you’ll be seeing this report on TAKA.

Shankar Mallampalli and his ever lively daughter, Sivani.

Our long time supporters, Dr. Sunder and his wife Thilaka, meet with Bodhinatha this morning.

And chat with the monks…

Ceyonswami looks over the astrology of the day with devotees in the temple after the morning puja.

A local Balinese man who lives on Kauai, brought this amazing traditional offering to the temple today.

Sivaratri night decorations.

Chudika is an excellent artist…

Sadhaka Dandapani is responsible for preparation of the first draft of the monthly Kauai Aadheenam newsletter. Sadhaka Haranandinatha, who manages the fund-raising for Iraivan, keeps an eye on the content because it goes out to all our temples supporters.

Saravanathaswami at work coordinating future travels

And preparing for up and coming seminars in distant lands.

Gurudeva once said: “Whenever someone reads my writings, I will be there.”

This testimony comes from Norway:

Dear sirs

I have just begun reading the book “Merging with Siva” more in depth. This is the most joy I have felt since I was a child. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I have been taking notes of my “rooms of the psyche” myself for ages, and now I find it all mapped in your books. Everything I have suspected, and more, is right there — what a masterpiece you have given the world!

I have written to you several times, and you have helped me, but I never felt joy like this before, so I decided to send this email. Siva only knows how I will get any sleep tonite!

I now consider myself a Saivite!
I have contacted a temple in Oslo and will ask them to perform the rituals for conversion.

Also, I have ordered your books from Amazon, along with loving Ganesh.

I start each morning with a soundtrack by krishna das called “Om Namah Sivaya”, and instantly the light in my chest begins to radiate (along with the burning sensation on my forehead). I can sit for hours smiling.

Thank you!

And thank you Siva for allowing me to know these things.

Siva be praised!

The last day of the phase was Maha Sivaratri, to which only sishya and a few devotees are invited. It is always a powerful night. This photo captures an unusual ring of fire that appear above the homa…

This was a particular auspicious night because three pre-monastics took their supplicant vows. Brahmacharis, Nandi, Tandava and Rajan….

The temple is scintillating.

Monks prepare for the powerful Siva worship…

Sadhaka Tejadevanatha hard at work in the back room preparing items for the puja

Monks are deep in meditation on this holy night

The abhishekam…

January 20: Our second day in Langkawi and we have a wonderful excursion planned for the group. Trevor McPhee, our Langkawi coordinator, arrives with two cars filled with picnic supplies. He and his wife have been amazing in helping make our stay on this island truly special.

Mohan who works at the Berjaya hotel we are staying at helps us move the supplies to the beach. Mohan incidentally is an expert thevaram singer.

Kala Jeyakumar (lef) and Devi Tandavan arrive at the hotel beach ready for the outing.

The excursion today is to a remote island. The boats that will take us out there have just arrived and are waiting for us to board.

The group gathers in the shade.

A small team helps to load the boats with all the supplies.

The view of our hotel as our boat speeds off into the straits of Malacca.

About half an hour later we arrive on a beautiful island all to ourselves.

The boats are anchored in the distance in the clear blue water.

Babu Chandreswaran from Batticaloa, Sri Lanka.

Kirti Thakrar (left) from the UK chats with Sri Mallampalli from Florida.

The children are having a great time and have become friends very quickly.

Indrathevi and Tharumadevi from Australia are used to life on an island having come from Sri Lanka. They now living in Australia.

While the group is meditating Shanmuganathaswami is on guard to protect our supplies from monkeys on the island. We already had one bag of chips stolen and swami is determined to make sure nothing else is taken by the island residents.

Palaniswami leads a group meditation.

Our team of helpers set up the lunch station.

Another very quiet day at home.

Today the Ganapati Kulam reported on their work. They announced the release of the Hinduism Today April Digital Edition. If you are a subscriber, but start our PDF Content Manager and you will be prompted to download the latest issue PDF’s. We have also done a major upgrade to the Multi-Media Viewer, and you can enjoy all paste movies, sound files and live interviews in neatly organized in the archives without have to go dig into web pages.

We continue with the retrospective from innersearch below.

And another reminder about Bodhinatha’s trip to Malaysia on March 12. Click here to go to the travel page and download PDF’s of the programs there.

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Saturday, March 8th.

On this most Holy Night of the Hindu Calendar, we bring you a Maha Sivaratri special slide show, replete with not only marvelous photos from India, but movies too! (click)

18 January 2008: We depart Cambodia in the morning and head to Kuala Lumpur for a few hours before our flight to Langkawi island.

Devotees in Kuala Lumpur planned a sweet picnic lunch for the group and greet us with the warmest of welcomes.

They hand out packed lunches that are absolutely delicious.

Thank you all so much for your support and for making us feel so welcome in KL!

Innersearchers all sit along this walkway in this garden and partake of their wonderful Malaysian meal.

We head to the aiport a few hours later to catch our flight to Langkawi and discover that our flight is a couple of hours late. Our bags all neatly lined up in front the check in counter

A very patient group to say the least.

We all find spots to sit around and get to know one another.

And some take time to study or go within in a noisy crowded airport.

Finally we arrive in Langkawi island.

Rhonda and Trevor McPhee are there to greet us. This Australian couple have been living in Langkawi for many years and helped us to organise our excursions and meals on this island. Many thanks to them for making it all possible.

January 19, Langkawi: We begin our first series of classes on Shum with Bodhinatha.

Langkawi is lush and green.

In the evening we head down to Pantai Cenang to watch the sunset and have dinner by the beach.

Arumugaswami dips his feet in the ocean to test the temperature of the water. It’s warm!

Nilufer Clubwala (middle) with Bijamati from Mauritius (left) and Ruby from Thailand.

Ganga Sivanathan, Devi Tandavan, Devi Marks and Carole Kahn were all on the 2004 Indian Odyssey and are happy to see one another.

Aubrey Burke (left) and Oisin Thompson.

Kantha Reddy (left) from Georgia and Jayshree Patel from Canada.

Arumugaswami enjoys a conversation with Harish and Kirti Thakrar from UK

Palaniswami poses with our Tamil contingent from Australia.

Ravi and Sheela Rahavendran from southern California.

Saraswathi Gowda from Tennessee, USA.

Saravananathaswami with Shivani Rajan and Shailesh Trivedi.

Dinner at the La Playa restaurant right on the beach.

All is quiet at the Aadheenam… in-breath before the Great Night of Siva

Mahadevan family on pilgrimage, visiting with Paramacharya Palaniswami….

We continue with our photos of our visit to Angkor Wat. Bodhinatha strolls though the center of the complex.

Steeps steps lead up to one of the sanctums.

Angkor Wat is absolutely massive and would require at least a couple of days to properly view it.

The giant moat that surrounds the temple.

Bodhinatha poses for a photo outside of Angkor.

Off to a lunch break at a local Indian restaurant.

From left: Jnanideva Cevvel from Canada, Balakrishnan from Australia and Jeyakumar from New Zealand.

Then we are off to the Bayon.

We attempt another group photo outside of this spectacular temple.

The temple has towers with giant faces of the king carved into it.

Sadhaka Adinatha

Tatiana Martushev and Shailesh Trivedi from USA.

Innersearchers have a quiet moment in one of the sanctums.

The Angkor Thom area is filled with numerous temples, large and small and we walk aound this massive complex exploring some of them. It is amazing to see an entire city of temples.

Kailash Dhaksinamurthy who helped to coordinate some of the travels.

A lot of temple reconstruction is taking place and it is nice to see.

The elephant terrace.

Multiple giant archways lie in the distance.

Back to the buses after a day of exploring a few of the best temples in Siem Reap.

Dinner this evening is at the lovely FCC Angkor a nice evening stroll away from hotel.

Tomorrow we leave for Kuala Lumpur and onto Langkawi Island. It has been a memorable visit to Cambodia.

All is quiet at the Aadheenam today, so we bring you 40 photos from Innersearch.

Here we are again in Cambodia. It’s our last full day in Siem Reap on the 2008 Asian Odyssey and before we head off to explore more temples we honour Raymond Boey in the hotel lobby.

Raymond is from Kuala Lumpur and is our travel coordinator there that helped to organize parts of the Cambodian and Kuala Lumpur portions of the Innersearch. He has helped us on previous Innersearches as well and always does a great job. Thank you for always being so reliable and ready to help.

Our first stop is Ta Prohm the ancient temple covered with giant trees.

We cross a bridge to get into the temple premises.

Giant trees with their roots wrap around structures, an amazing sight to behold.

Praful Patel from Winnipeg, Canada.

Niraj Thaker from London, UK.

Only the base of the Siva Lingam remains in this sanctum.

Carole Kahn from Kauai, Hawaii.

Shailesh Trivedi and Sadhaka Dandapani.

Lindsay Boyer and Palaniswami.

Swami knows that two straws are faster than one.

Saravananathaswami tries to get a close up photo of a cow and her calf.

We depart Ta Prohm and head to Angkow Wat, the world’s largest temple.

It took a while to get all of us lined up for this group photo but it was well worth it. A sweet memento of our days in Cambodia.

The causeway leading to the temple.

Within the gigantic corridors of Angkor.

The monastic staff pose for a group photo in front of Angkor Wat.

The corridors are filled with intricate artwork that stretches on and on.

Shanmuganathaswami

Indra Dhaksinamurthi from Boston, USA.

Devi Marks and Vinaya Alahan from USA.

Nathan Sendan from USA

Steep steps lead up to one of the sanctums.

At home all is well, the Ekadanta Kulam of two, Saravananathaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani are back on the job, working hard on post-innersearch follow up as well as planning for more trips coming along. Saravananathaswami is working on Keynote presentations for seminars in Malaysia and Mauritius and informs us that over 200 have already signed up for the program in Mauritius and the sishya there have arranged for a hall that will hold up to 500 people!

The saga of Innersearch, 2008, continues, 16th January.
After our morning visit to the 1000 Lingam river and lunch we head off to Banteay Srei.

Mark Boyer from New York.

This Hindu temple is intricately carved and one of the most beautiful ones we visited.

Bodhinatha leads the group into the temple premises.

Our guide tells us about the history of the temple.

The temple is covered with an amazing amount of detailed carvings.

The Thompson family playfully pose for a photo.

Shaha from Toronto enjoys a conversation with Bodhinatha during the tour.

Tall Vimanam

Shivani Rajan takes a close up of one of the intricate carvings.

Giles Thompson.

Another long day ends with a lovely meal at the L’Escale des Arts et des Sens. Here’s Nangh and her daughter Ruby, our Innersearchers from Thailand.

Jeffrey Thomas and Kailas Rajan

Hiranya Gowda (left) from Tennessee and Manon Mardeemootoo from Mauritius.

From left, Kulagan (from Mauritius), Vighnarajah (from Australia) and Jai Khanna (from USA) all enjoy the opportunity to sit with Bodhinatha over a meal.

We also enjoyed traditional cultural performances. This is an apsara dance.

The outdoor peedam and installation of the magnificent Narmada Lingam at our center in Mauritius was recently completed.

A drain for the abhishekam water

A beautifully polished setting.

Brahmachari Vel Mahalingam performs a puja.

The Lingam is officially “open” now to receive abhishekam from devotees. Next on the roster for construction will be steps down to the river.