Here is Bodhinatha at the San Marga Iraivan Temple Donor Appreciation event held at the Scott Road Kandasamy temple Kalamandapam… more news follows.

He is sending us brief accounts of the daily events.

Jan 15th:
Om Sivaya everyone,
Today was our first full day, Tue Jan 15th, of Innersearch activities. After the initial orientation gathering we had an excursion to the floating village on Tonle Sap Lake.

Then off to the temple group near the modern city of Roulous, which in ancient times was the city of Hariharalaya.
The king was interested in reconciling Saivism and Vaishnavism it seems in 800 AD Visited three temple sites there, small and medium size.

Jan 16th:
Today was our second day, Wed Jan 16th, of Innersearch activities. First we visited the stream with one thousand lingams. The hill climb leading to the stream was a bit difficult and took about half an hour. The stream area was quite sublime, a real special feeling there. Everyone did ganga sadhana.

Next we went to a Shiva temple with well preserved and intricate carving which was quite beautiful. Above the doorway was a carved Nataraja and in the sanctum the lingam. Very inspiring.

We begin our series of innersearch photos with the arrival of Bodhinatha and the Innersearch monastic staff at the Kuala Lumpur airport.

Monks are greeted by devotees and then taken to their hotel

Bodhinatha and Palaniswami meets with the Iraivan Temple fundraising team upon arrival at the Kalamandapam for our “Donor Appreciation Event”

Mr. Perampalam, president of the Murugan temple in Scott Road, receives a gift from Bodhinatha.

After the event the monks spent nearly 2 hours meeting with those that came.

KLCC at night.

Click here for a slide show of the arrival in Kuala Lumpur.

The day after Thai Pongal is known as Go Pongal.. the day to worship your cows. Brahmachari Nandi decorates our dairy cows with vibhuti.

We feed them special treats, bananas and fruits.

The silpis stop by to give their pranams to Nandini.

Oh boy.. a sweet orange fresh off the tree!

An exquisitely hand-carved ceiling stone awaits its turn to be lifted into place.

The six parrots surround a piece of fruit. Their heads are turned away from the fruit which represents the Self God.

Each parrot represents one of six character of the lower nature that must be overcome before one can experience the ‘fruit within’ or the Self Within.

These are known as the arishadvargas – Shad means six and Vargas means “classes” in this case, classes of negative character traits.

(1) Desire/Kama, (2) Anger/Krodha, (3) Attachment to Wordliness/Moha, (4) Miserliness/Lobha, (5) Ego/Mada, (6) Jealousy/Maatsarya.

When these traits are overcome and the lower chakras are sealed off through constant sadhana, and through the Grace of Lord Ganesha, then one can progress along the Inner Path in the spiritual quest of Realizing the fruit within – God Realization.

A beautiful day found our silpis hard at work on the newly placed roof stones. Here is Vellaisamy and Chelliaya perched high aloft.

Namaskaram Rajendran!

A cheerful wave from Pandi . . .

. . . and a big smile from Karuppiah.

Guest today: Hansa Patel arrived for a visit from Oahu with her brother, Pritful Patel, who is visiting from Salem, MA. They are originally from Gujarat and both later lived in Kenya for many years before moving to the United States.

They thoroughly enjoyed their visit here today. Pritful Patel really loved the morning puja in the Kadavul Siva Temple and felt that it was one of the most spiritually uplifting temples he has ever visited.

Tamils living in South Florida recently celebrated the Thai Pongal Festival at the Miami Siva Vishnu Temple. Rishi Thondunathan was invited as a guest speaker for the event. During his talk, Thondunathan introduced a new book recently released by the publishers of Hinduism Today, entitled What is Hinduism?

Also at the event, a free literature table was set up and Himalayan Academy brochures and pamphlets were made available to all the devotees.

Our Innersearch team is in Cambodia today. The first major event of the program was held. All the participants have arrived, everyone is together now, a bit tired from the long journey, but the word is that Angkor Watt is fantastic and everyone is ecstatic!

Today was the auspicious day of Thai Pongal when the sun moves into Capricorn beginning the month of Thai or Makara in Sanskrit. It is called as Makara Sankranti in other areas of India (“Makar Sankrant” in Hindi). In Tamil Nadu it is an agricultural festival marked by the boiling of a special clay pot of rice and milk (hence the term “pongal”) which serves as an augury for the coming year.

Our silpi team has decorated the pattarai (blacksmith forge) and a pot of rice with milk is already on the fire….

They have done a marvelous job decorating the place

Thai Pongal is always a joyous festival. We celebrate the gifts of nature, the food that comes to us from the harvest, the blessings of life.

The silpis carefully tend the altar and the fire… waiting, waiting…

The pot begins to bubble.

It’s boiling over! Which side is spilled over on first indicates the fortune of the coming year.

Yes! A wonderful year it will be! It is abundantly spilling everywhere.

The flame is lowered and offerings of fruits and vegetables are laid out as the rice continues to cook. The monks have brought some produce from our garden and the milk in the pot was just milked minutes ago.

When it is done it is put out onto the banana leaf and arati is done.

Paramacharya Ceyonswami performs the final arati, giving thanks to the elemental spirits for all of their hard work and energy the past year giving us an abundant harvest of healthy vegetables.

We honor the silpis with dakshina (cash gift) and special luggage bags and other gifts.

The sun rises and prasadam is distributed to all.

Five Maharishi Mahesh Yogi devotees and TM teachers arrived for the puja this morning followed by a tour of the Iraivan Temple.

On the left are Stuart and Mokihana Zimmerman with Meryl Eisen all from Princeville, Kauai. They are hosting Sukanta Kumar Swain and his wife Rashmekha from Puri, Orissa, India. They all teach yoga and their Guru’s teachings both here and overseas. Sukanta and Rashmekha were overjoyed to learn their visit happened to coincide with Makara Sankranti.

Our guests pose In front of one of four large painting of Gurudeva by the great Indian artist Indra Sharma. Directly in front is the very sacred Kalasa stone that will be placed on top of the lotus of the Iraivan Temple Capstone during the Maha Kumbha abhishekam. And on either side of the stone one can glimpse some of the gilded bronze Navaghrahas which will one day have a special shrine near Iraivan.

Here is Bodhinatha meditating at the Orchid Mandapam on a quiet retreat day a few weeks ago…

Not much news from our team, internet access is limited in Cambodia. Bodhinatha writes:

“We arrived in Siem Reap Sunday and settled in. Today Monday we are getting ready for the first event of the innersearch which is tomorrow morning.”

Our visitors arrived from all over the Mainland today.

From the left – Guru Rao Lakshmi from Buffalo, NY (originally Bangalore). Santosh and Karuna Krinsky from Racine, WI. Ardie Jewell with her two daughters from Idaho. Anne and Steve Hyle from Reno NV, and Rupal and Vishal Mehta from LA (orginally Ahmedabad, India.

All (with the exception of Santosh and Karuna) had heard about the temple from relatives and friends who had previously visited here.

Santosh and Karuna Krinsky have been connected with the Kauai Aadheenam through their Company – Lotus Press – since the 1970’s and, although they have been here before, they were amazed to see the progress of the Iraivan Temple and thorougly enjoyed their tour there today.

Palaniswami shares with us some of the scenes and culture of Taipei in this slide show called the Sage of Taipei

Our team completed their transit through Taipei and the first big event in Kuala Lumpur. Bodhinatha sent a brief note saying it was very successful with over 600 people attending.

Meanwhile Paramacharya Palaniswami has begun the “news feed” with slide shows that we will share over time. Click here for today’s first segment of “In Transit to Asia.”

Bodhinatha and his team are still in transit and should arrive in Kuala Lumpur shortly.

The roof beams over the West facing Raja Gopuram we placed by our team the day before yesterday.

The ground team relaxes while the silpis work aloft

We are beginning to see some completed looking angles now…

Fine tuning the joints.

Here is Bodhinatha in transit. About ready to fly off to Taipei…

Meanwhile at home the weather has cleared for our Iraivan team to raise up more beams to the roof.

On hand to watch is Tim Mize and his wife Krista and son Evan. Tim is a web designer from Pennsylvania who is here on Kauai to help us redesign our Hinduism Today and Hindu Heritage Endowment web sites.

Here is Tim at work discussing the new web interface for HHE with Yogi Jivanandanatha

Tim has a great background for working with the Ganapati Kulam. In earlier years he worked for several publications and was responsible for porting those print editions to the web.

Their 4-year old boy Evan is very shy to talk but always has a bright happy smile..

You can check out Tim’s work at his web site Crafted Images.com

Evan checks out an orchid

The 12 Shum meditations booklet is available at our web store.

It includes Gurudeva’s famous “Preparation for Meditation” instructions.

The first photos in from our team are from the airport last night…

Our team is wired… getting work done and staying in touch while they travel

Hot drinks anyone?

“Luggage Logistics” is a big part of Innersearch

Good bye Kauai! See you in February!

Gurudeva’s Jayanthi Satsangam in Florida

Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s Jayanthi was joyfully celebrated with a Satsangam at Mrs. Vimala Selvaratnam’s home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Rishi Thondunathan with the Mrs. Selvaratnam’s mother, the presiding Grandma of the home who was inspired to hold this Satsangam. She had met Yogaswami and Gurudeva many years ago in Sri Lanka.

Devotees from the local community attended the event.

The big news today was the departure of the Innersearch team for Malaysia.

Bodhinatha is all smiles on the way out…

All the monks gather for the departure.

On this trip with Bodhinatha:

Paramacharya Palaniswami
Sannyasin Arumugaswami
Sannyasin Shanmuganathswami
Sannyasin Saravananathaswami
Sadhaka Adinatha
Sadhaka Dandapani

Our coordinator making last minute checks with the team.

Ready to Go!

Shankar was the trustee of the Hindu Temple in Chicago. He met Gurudeva in 1982-83 in Chicago when Gurudeva helped that community bring up their temple by giving them their first Hindu deity, Lord Ganesha, “Vara Siddhi Vinayaka.”

Gurudeva invited Shankar to visit the Kauai Aadheenam and now, 25 years later, he arrived on a pilgrimage.

After a tour of the Iraivan Temple, Shankar stated that he feels “very blessed to be here. We can feel the spiritual vibrations here very strongly. We are very happy! We want to return and spend more time at this sacred place.”

Also among our visitors today are (on the rght) Arvind and Dipa Phukan from Anchorage, Alaska who are only too happy to be here away from all that frigid weather. They are friends of longtime devotees, Shyama and Peshanidevi Dandapani. Gurudeva gave the Anchorage community their first Lord Ganesha deity many years ago to begin their temple there.

And from Johannesburg, S. Africa are a lovely group from the Bodhgayashanti Ashram where their Brahmacharis take lifetime vows. Here are Denicia Samuels, Virusha Kalideen, Jayendren Reddy, Kuvem Govender, Thevashen Naidu, Subash Samuels, and Balram Chetty.

Here are Shankar Planjery and his wife Rajyalakshmi with Shankar’s friend of 30 years, Manikya Rao and his wife Radha in front of the east side lion pillars of the Iraivan Temple.

Only three days left to Innersearch departure.

Everyone here is very, very focused…

~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Wednesday January 9th.

A beautiful sunny morning brought more bright and happy souls to the Aadheenam.

Dr. Ramprasad Konanur arrived with his wife Aruna and 6 year old son Abhay. Aruna’s parents visited the temple in 2005 and highly recommended that they also make a pilgrimage here. Aruna is a carnatic singer and sang beautifully in the temple today.

On the left is Mr. Rao Gudimetla from Kihei, Hawaii (orginally from Andra Pradesh). He also came on the recommendation of a family friend in Dayton, Ohio

Venkateswara R. Kolli with his wife Padma and daughter Sai were very happy to visit and tour the Iraivan Temple. “What a wonderful experience this has been!” said Venkateswara as he and his family departed for the airport to return to El Paso, Texas.

Only 4 days left to Innersearch… A quiet intensity is in the air.

Upon the urging of a friend, this lovely family arrived to attend the morning puja in the Kadavul Siva Temple. Originally from Mangalore, South India, they now live on Oahu, Hawaii.

Following a tour the Iraivan Temple, they posed for a group photo. From right to left – Govind and Tara Shenoy with six year old Kathan; Krishna and Damodar Shenoy and their other son, 12 year old Kedar Shenoy.

Sadhaka Jothinatha has been working through the years on the landscaping at the front entrance to the monastery.

Upon entering the Aadheenam grounds, one is treated to a kaleidiscope of color and visual wonder of the Coleus Garden. A display of a multitude of patterns and colors beyond imagination…

The humble herbaceous coleus plant is self-pollinating and constantly amazing us with new displays of colors we haven’t see before.

Lord Siva’s designers are the best!

Last year a group of gardeners met one of the swamis here, where the coleus grow. They informed us that they belong to the Coleus Growers of Northern California.

Then they said, “This is quite an experience for us. Where we live, coleus grow to about 10-15 inches in height. Some of these are four feet tall. We’ve never seen them flourish like this. Just what do you fertilize them with?”

Our answer, “Nothing. They just love the climate here.”

And so they do…

Shows what love does to a garden, just like it does to a person.

The Thirunavukkarasu Nayanar Gurukulam in Sri Lanka celebrated Gurudeva’s Jayanthi, 2008 and sends these photos. This is the orphanage that is dedicated to our Guru Paramparai, sings Yogaswami’s Natchintanai and studies the Master Course lessons.

The sannyasin at the altar is doing arati for Gurudeva to bless the noonday meal.

Each year they celebrate January 5th in this way.

Thanks to a special anonymous donation, the leader of this orphanage, Babu Chandreswaran, will be joining the Asian Odyssey. He was awarded the Gurudeva Innersearch Scholarship and is in Comombo today working on his Cambodian visa.

Several others of the adult staff of the orphanage will be joining Bodhinatha for the South Indian portion of the study-travel program, and bringing all the teachings back to the young ones to enrich their spiritual life.

Here is Bodhinatha at a function in Malaysia. He will be there again in a few days. Only 5 days to innersearch

The Patel family who live in Texas, Mrunal, wife Padmaja and daughter Pooja, has sponsored a Suko Thai lunch for all the monks. They were here for Mahasamadhi and have made very generous contributions towards Iraivan. This is a picture from their last pilgrimage. If they are looking in on TAKA we send them all a big ALOOOOHA! from Hawaii to Texas. Thank you!

In house production in full swing for the coming innersearch… Here we have a wonderful pamphlet by Bodhinatha to the Hindu priests. It is in Tamil and English and will be given out in Pillaiyarpatti when he gets there after the innersearch.

It tells about the importance of clarifying our Hindu denominations and encouraging the priests to clarify what sampradaya and tradition their temple is rooted in.

Everything must fit in these bags!

Study guide

hatha yoga guide with sheet showing how to do Surya Namaskar

Time to start wrapping and packing…

Sadhaka Dandapani has been doing an incredible job with all the logistics. Here he is at his command center in the middle of the Pacific.

Our cats are in bliss today as we have the first day with out rain in nearly 45 days!

The chocolate perfumed orchid

Sadhaka Satyanatha is processing some sound and video files.

A quick in-house reprint of Gurudeva’s Toolbox was output on our new Xerox copier, trimmed and bound in house… like the old days.

On the east side of Kadavul the Siddhidata Kulam is doing some major renovations of the landscape and erecting a beautiful bamboo wall and gate.

Yoginathaswami, with our Caterpillar Skidsteer back hoe. digging out tree stumps.

A walk about the Aadheenam…