For the conference in Montreal recently, Bodhinatha presented a Keynote speech which was a highlight of the five-day event on World Religions After 9/11.

Meanwhile, for those Satguru Speaks – Inspired Talks fans… keep a close eye on the right side bar for new talks by Bodhinatha being posted to the audio library.

Today he gathered his team together to record the entire thing for making a 60-minute movie. He is shown here reading from the script as the movie records.

Yogi Japendranatha helped with the technical issues. It is our first such movie, and Bodhinatha envisions many more uses.

Arumugaswami brings us a few photos and captions from the trip to Montreal.

The World Religions After September 11 was held at the Palais des Congres de Montreal, an immense convention center in the center of town. We learned later that Montreal is on an island twice the size of Kauai.

Bodhinatha with Dr. Brindaban Bihari Das, known as Kathia Baba, of the Santadas Baba Ashram in Varanasi.

Bodhinatha gives the plenary session address on the afternoon of Friday, September 15. This address will shortly be available on DVD and on the Web. It dealt with how religions can learn to better work with the media to achieve more accurate portrayal of their beliefs and activities.

Following his address, Bodhinatha was interviewed by a Canada-based Muslim TV news report.

Arumugaswami, who accompanied Bodhinatha to Montreal, gave a short presentation as part of a panel of Proselytization and Religious Freedom chaired by Dr. Kusumita Pederson. The panel also included Dr. Sumner B. Twiss, an eminent Catholic scholar who was instrumental in the Vatican II conference in the 1960s.

Dr. Arvind Sharma is a long-time friend of Hinduism Today and the organizer of the conference. He is professor of religion at McGill University in Montreal.

Bodhinatha met with M. Govindan Satchidananda of the Kriya Yoga Sangam. Part of their discussion focused on the Sangam’s translation and printing of the Tirumantiram.

We’re almost home, as the red line on the airplane display shows….

Last month was our quarterly Hindu Heritage Endowments (HHE) meeting, held at a special resort about 30 miles from the monastery. Our special guest was Sivakumaran Mardeemootoo who was visiting Kauai from Mauritius.

The stewards of HHE meet quarterly to review the 65 different funds, discuss plans for the future and educate monks and members in the sometimes esoteric mechanisms of endowments.

HHE is dedicated to give financial stability to Hindu institutions around the world, and is unique in that it can receive cotributions in the US that are tax-decuctible and send those out of the country.

Sivakumaran’s law firm is the largest in the Indian Ocean, and he had some insights into the workings of HHE that were quite useful. He and his family are great supporters of Gurudeva’s mission and monastery.

Bodhinatha guides the meetings.

Much of the work in preparing reports is done under the supervision of Shanmuganathaswami, who is actively working to bring new funds into the endowment in the years ahead.

Quiet and thoughtful, Sivakumaran listens to the reports.

Later that day we found Sivakumaran’s entire family in the Banyan Mandapam, gold-leafing.

They were joined by Amala Seyon, whose grandaughter Basanti is there on the right.

Young Jeyendra oversees the work.

Family portrait.

We bring you now a mini-documentary on cement making, Indian style.

The silpis make mortar for the roofing stones now and then.

It’s all done by hand and is hard work. After it is made, it is lifted on pulleys to the rooftop.

We made a short movie to show you the process. It is yet another of the tasks that, one by one, add to the completion of Iraivan Temple.

Bodhinatha presents Sthapati R. Selvanathan with a certificate in recognition of the work he is doing for Iraivan Temple.

This is Selvanathan’s last day at the Aadheenam. He has set up the work to keep our silpis busy for the next 10 months.

Pilgrim couple, Mr. and Mrs. Jai and Chandra Seecharran originally from Guyana, now living in Arizona, also met with Bodhinatha this morning.

A tireless sevak, Seecharran has been instrumental in getting temples started formerly Iowa and now in Arizona.

The Seecharran’s are also strong supporters of our educational literature program and work closely with Sadhaka Jothinatha to distribute Himalayan Academy Publications at special events.

Jai says, “These booklets are transforming some peoples lives. It’s really rewarding work to help make them available.”

After some weeks of being left outside to be refreshed by the sunshine and tropical rains, sitting by our stream, the green volcanic stone gifted by a 94-year old Choktaw medicine women is now resting inside Kadavul temple in front of the Maha Sphatika Lingam.

We take a short trip across the Wailua River to our 400 acres we refer to as “Himalayan Acres” or the “Kalepa” land.

To get there one has to cross this ford, which may be awash when the river is high, but if the water is not too high, you just drive through.

We have recently planted about 800 noni trees. The new orchard is protected from wild boar with an electric fence.

The new plants are doing very well.

The decision to expand our Noni orchards was made after three years of observing a small planting of about 40 trees that have done extremely well.

Some of the fruits on these more mature trees are gigantic!

If our future acreage of 800 tree produces like this, we will have 1000’s of pounds of fresh noni.

Our new plantation is being managed according to strict organic standards. A local distributor and processor of noni products has successfully opened up distribution channels in over 100 outlets on the mainland and says he can use all the organically grown noni that we can possibly grow! Here are healthy flowers that will soon be big fat fruits.

We are learning a lot about what it is like for farmers who want to work with nature but must also deal with the challenges of nature. One major challenge here in Hawaii, is Guinea Grass, a tall, aggressive, very tough grass that takes over large areas and has stems as thick as your fingers and hard as bamboo. Since we are “going organic” on this section of the land, we do not use any herbicides… The grass must be managed by mowing, weed-wackers and hand weeding.

It was tour day today. This family from California brought their aged grandmother. She was so surprised to find such a sacred place in the middle of the Pacific, far away, just like her mother land of Tamil Nadu, India.

We had about 40 forms of Lord Siva join us on each of the two tours this morning.

One man said he had been to sacred places all over the world, the pyramids, Cambodia, India, and he felt the spiritual power of Kauai Aadheenam and Iraivan were at the top of the list!

Pilgrim family Shankar and Sri Mallampalli are here on their final day, having darshan with Bodhinatha.

They were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Balasubramuniam from Sydney. Originally from Sri Lanka, the Balasubramaniams have waited 25 years to come to Kauai! Now that’s persistence.

Meanwhile a new talk by Bodhinatha was uploaded today… see the side bar links.

This little boy is only happy if he is on the move!

OK that’s better… something interesting to look at: the cameraman!

Meanwhile his twin sister is taking a break waiting for Bodhinatha to arrive.

Bodhinatha blessing some rudraksha beads that our pilgrims will take home and wear.

We discovered early this morning that today’s Inspired Talk on Gurudeva’s PodCast had transcended into samadhi; and you may have heard only silence. That is fixed now. He is now back in the audible realm.

This photo is courtesy of Dora Kovaks of Massachusetts. Her husband, Rudy, gave her a new iPod just so she could listen each day to Gurudeva’s inspired talks. Her iPod displays the playlist. Thanks, Dora!

Today is our architect’s final full day of work on Kauai. Here he is atop the tower, working on details for four large forms of Siva to go between the nandis. He has placed some large wooden blocks on the stone to give the sense of scale for the new sculptures.

During his ten days on Kauai, Sthapati R. Selvanathan was able to move many key areas of Iraivan forward. Each day he worked with the craftsmen onsite, and each night he made drawings to be reviewed the next day.

If you missed the short video of his explanations of the pillar placement yesterday, go back to yesterday and you can still see it. We are so inspired by Sthapati’s visit and all the gifts of knowledge and design he left with us. We learned today that his grandfather designed the Siva Temple in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and did all the murthis and shrines for Ramana Maharishi’s ashram.

Shankar and Sri Mallampalli brought their twins to the publications building today, and were joined by Mr. and Mrs. Balasubramuniam from Sydney.

Yesterday a bulldozer came to repair the road that was covered in mud during the March flash floods on Kauai.

The ferns in the valley are edible, and also quite aggressive. They will soon colonize the dirt and heal the land.

You can see here where the mud covered the access road. Iraivan in the background.

Meditation Class in Sri Subramuniya Kottam

This is a photo taken, in July, of the meditation class conducted at the Sri Subramuniya Kottam. The class is held every Friday evening. Kulamata Sivalosani Kanagaratnam conducts a guided meditation that the children follow. The session starts with a group bhajan.

Then, Kulamata leads the group using simple meditation instructions that Gurudeva had provided such as the color meditation, the lotus of the heart meditation, the Pancha Siva Chaitanya meditation.

Bodhinatha arrived home from Montreal this afternoon.

Another as yet unpublished audio discourse by Bodhinatha has been uploaded today. Check the side bar link on the right.

He and Arumugaswami go to the temple for arati on arrival.

Our new little calf, Deepti, is brought over by Shanmuganathaswami to greet our arriving Satguru.

One of America’s most highly respected yoga teachers, Larry Payne, visited yesterday with his friend Bob Hyman. Larry brought his yoga students to the monastery for several years, and they all loved their moments with Gurudeva.

Larry showed Palaniswami his current work, making videos for yoga therapy, with seminars and certification provided through Loyola Marymont University in LA.

Yesterday was a special pillar lifting day, so our cameras went out in the afternoon to the site.

Another Larry, our crane operator, was there guiding the process.

He has trained the monks to do all the work harnessing the stones that his crane then lifts into place.

Tejadeva leads the strapping work on this day.

All the carvers join to guide the heavy pillar to the exact spot.

It cannot be even a 1/16th of an inch off in any direction.

So all work slowly to orient it just right.

There is a stone projection at the bottom which fits into a hole in the base stone, giving lateral stability.

Yoginathaswami puts sandalwood paste into the hole.

Then prepares 9 small gems which are placed at the base of each of the temples pillars.

Palaniswami places the 9 stones on the soft sandalwood.

Then covers that with mortar.

Each one then places a little mortar.

Selvanathan Sthapati is next.

Then a thin layer of mortar before the pillar is lifted.

Up it goes!

And on top of the base stone.

Close inspection of the vertical position is important.

Yoginathaswami removes the straps.

An hour later a second pillar is placed.

The two pillars will provide a baseline for the next pillars in the months ahead.

All pose to celebrate a job well done.

Two silpis take levels to the top, to get them perfectly true.

A short video was taken of the work. You can first hear Selvanathan explain the goals of the day and the meaning of the pillars. Then see the progress.

Later in the morning, Selvanathan Sthapati and Yoginathaswami on top of the temple looking for places where more ornamentation work can be done.

As we write today the Aadheenam is quiet. The raising of pillars is happening later this afternoon and we will show you pictures tomorrow. Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami are in transit and return tomorrow.

So we take this opportunity to share with you some more incoming collections from our missions in Malaysia and Mauritius. Here we are back in Sungai Petani, Kedah, in northern Malaysia at the home of long time sishyas, Kulapati and Kulamata Thanabalan and Ahiladevi who hosted Bodhinatha for padapuja and satsang.

Caption from Thanabalan.

Arrival at Kul. Thanabalan’s house

Kulamata’s father garlands Bodhinatha. Kulapati garlands Acharya.

Children waiting for Bodhinatha before showering Satguru’s Pada with rose petals.

Thanabalan & Ahila washes Satguru’s Thiruvadi

Satguru takes His seat

A newly wed in town rushed to Kul.Thanabalan’s house to get Bodhinatha’s blessings.Bodhinatha shawls the bride and bridegroom.

Kul.Thanabalan welcomes Bodhinatha and Acharya and devotees.

Pada puja begins

Abhishegam

Ashtottara Namavali of Satguru Bodhinatha

Devotees sitting outside the house

Final arathi and chants of Aum Nakarmana

Satguru gives upadesha on Lord Ganesha. Everyone present were very impressed by Satguru’s talk.

Student Bala Murugan gets blessings from Bodhinatha.

Kulamata’s mother

Kulamata’s father

Thanabalan & Ahila

Some late comers rushed to get Bodhinatha’s blessings

Sacred Sree Paduka of our Loving Satguru

For the month of September 2006, the enrolled Master Course students of Mauritius have chosen to meet at the residence of Ariadassy and Gayavatee Canagasaby sisters at Rivière du Rempart, the closest village to the Spiritual Park of the island. They set up a nice shrine with a beautiful murthi of Lord Ganesha and photos of our Guru Parampara.

This is the 8th Bodhinatha’s MC Gathering in students homes, aimed at helping enrolled seekers of the Himalayan Academy with their Master Course studies and the Trilogy. The group meets every month.

Today the main topic of the meeting is an interesting and practical Talk from Satguru Bodhinatha entitled, Dance and the Spiritual Path.

Bodhinatha says “And when Gurudeva spoke about dancing, he would regularly make the comment that in learning dance you are expecting and, in fact, paying the dance guru to point out your weakest areas, not simply to compliment you on what you are already doing well, and that as our Satguru he was doing the same in our spiritual life.”

First Comparison: “Our first comparison of the spiritual path to the study of dance, which is the attitude toward strengths and weaknesses. Does a young woman become a better dancer by focusing on the movements she does well? Of course, she does not. She has to focus on the movements that she does not do well and strive to improve them. Said another way, she becomes a better dancer not by focusing on her strengthens but rather by focusing on her weaknesses.” Bodhinatha

Second Comparison: The attitude toward improvement. A good dancer has the attitude that she can always perform a dance better than she has ever done it before. She feels there is always room for improvement and that her movements can always be even further refined.

A third comparison of the spiritual path to the study of dance is our attitude toward mistakes….All dance students make them….. For all of mankind, no matter where one is on the path, spiritual advancement comes from learning from one’s mistakes in life….. Thus a good second reaction to a mistake is to think clearly about what happened and why and to find a way not to repeat it in the future.

After a three hour program including Bodhinatha’s Talk, a guided meditation, testimonies and revision of a few basic Saivite concepts in the worksheets, the participants were invited to share a lunch together.

A few sishyas of the Church pulled together to prepare and serve some nice South Indian curries on that occasion.

After the lunch, the men were in the lounge enjoying some home made dessert.

A nice photo of Gurudeva greeted everyone there ….

Our ladies having their meal….. It is a an opportunity for everyone to know each other better at the table.

Sandhya from Grand Baie, Ouma Devi from Rempart and Veena from Flacq…..

Gowtam Sharma Beedassy, Nursing Officer from Floréal is responsible for taking care of burning learning materials on CDs for the group.

Niroshnee (left) from Quatre Bornes is completing her degree in Management and Veena Kunniah works as an accountant at the Cyber City in Ebène.

The Canagasaby sisters, Ariadassy and Gayavatee did a wonderful hosting on that day. Every student left for home in a happy mood and inspired by the teachings of the Guru…. even a few stayed behind to play some informal football with the children….. A family photo…The parents are long time Church members and are dedicated karma yogis of the Spiritual Park.

As we write, Bodhinatha and Arumugaswami have completed their presentations at the Religion Congress in Montreal. He sent this short report:

“Today was our keynote presentations at the Religion Congress. In the morning we went over early, met key individuals and made sure the technology side of our keynotes worked.

At noon we went back for a press conference and stayed on for our afternoon presentations. At my plenary session on Religion and the Media at 1:30 there were about 100 attendees. it was well received with excellent questions afterwards.

At Arumugaswami’s panel discussion on Religion and Proselytization there were about 50 attendees. It was coordinated by Kusumita Peterson who expected a much smaller group. It generated some excited Q and A afterwards! ”

We begin a six-day phase today with homa held this morning by Sadhaka Jivanandanatha.

Paramacharya Palaniswami gives a talk to the devotees this morning.

Later in the morning pilgrim family Shankar and Sri Mallampalli from Florida with new twins Sivani and Eshan were taken on a tour of Iraivan.

They are hoping their son may one day take to the monastic path.

We are very happy to have R. Selvanathan Stapathi here on Kauai, all the way from India. He has been working on drawings for various aspects of Iraivan work, marking some of the stone to guide the silpis in further ornamentation, so that they can continue their work while waiting for our new resident sthapati, Chidambaram Sthapati from India.

And in the back there dressed in white: Nikole Castillo from Los Angeles, a new reader of the Master Course daily lessons for the past several months who is interested in becoming a Hindu.

Mallampallis worship at the Svayambhu Lingam where the vision of San Marga and Iraivan temple all began with Gurudeva’s vision of Lord Siva, sitting and walking here.

At the temple site the big news is that we are getting ready to set up the two pillars at the very end corners of the south end of Iraivan. The crane will arrive tomorrow.

Meanwhile our team is getting things set in place.

Our missions have been very active lately and sending us lots of photos. Here we are in California where our sishya took the lead on the Ganesha Visarjana celebration along with Hindu friends from the community.

Here Amma Renuka and daughter Maya painting Ganesha

Deviyani’s amma, Resmi, Chamundi, Deviyani’s grandmother, Deviyani, and Rika.

Grand puja conducted by Priest Dixit from the Sacramento Vinayaka Temple for all the Ganeshas made by the Hindu community.

carrying the Golden Gate Mission Ganesha

other murthis joining the procession

Closeup of Ganesha murthi made by Hotranatha Ajaya

Ganesha entering the water

the final moments

Ganesha held aloft before immersion

participating from the shore: Sundari, Bhavani, Sabita, Sandya, and Sumana. In the foreground, Soham and Abhi.

The Hindu Sangam 2006 occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area in September at the De Anza college. It was a grand mela celebrating unity in diversity.

One question from the audience “how to answer a non-Hindu who asks questions about Hinduism?” In response, Easan distributes 300 copies of “Ten Questions and Ten Terrific Answers” to the group.

More Questions and answers.

Elder Hindu leaders present: Sri Mohan Bhagwat, Sarkaryvaha, from India and (right ) Prof. Ved Prakash Nanda.

Navakarasu and Mohana Vilashiny are happy to share with you after a 30-day retreat, news of the first child. It’s a little girl, “Yehantini” . They send pictures of the Namakarana Samskara….

Here she is on the day of her naming ceremony

Prayers

Priest chanting the mantra into her ears

Writing her name on the yellow rice..

And presenting her name for blessings to the gods

Parents take turn to call her name 3 times in her ears

Grand parents taking turn to bless her. Nava’s father

Kulapathi Murugesu takes his turn

And her name is “Yehanthini” another Saivite soul joins our Guru Parampara!

Bodhinatha’s flight from Singapore was delayed and so he will not be able to touch base at the Aadheenam before going to Montreal. he will be arriving in Honolulu, join up with Sannyasin Arumugaswami and straight away take off for Canada. meanwhile we bring you another series from his last day in Singapore. in the photo at left, bodhinatha speaks at his two-day seminar in Singapore.

Press Release, Bodhinatha at World Religions Conference in Montreal:

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, publisher of Hinduism Today, will give the September 15th plenary session address on “Religion and Media” to the World Religions After 9/11 Conference now in progress at the Palais des congres, Montreal, Canada. The Hawaii-based Satguru’s highly illustrated Keynote presentation will be among the highlights of this important gathering of over 2,000 religious leaders, social activists, scholars of religion and concerned citizens.

This down-to-earth presentation begins with an explanation of the nature of the media as we find it today, what is and isn’t considered “news,” how the media regards religion and the constraints journalists work under. The media, he will point out, isn’t likely to change, and it is up to religious organizations to learn how to work effectively within its parameters.

He will first discuss proactive interaction with the press, that is, the purposeful engagement of the media by religious organizations, all of which should be part of a broad public relations outreach. Generally, such outreach works best within the local community. Such engagement should include inviting journalists to attend festival days or religious functions such as weddings and coming-of-age ceremonies, holding open houses, contributing religious views to the media’s opinion columns, participating in the local interfaith movement and creating or joining a speaker is bureau. This is all an application of the principle the environmentalists used, called “think globally and act locally,” for if religious organizations can create good media coverage community by community, then they will be in a better position to deal with a crisis when it comes.

Crisis management or “reactive interaction” is dealing with an event which has offended, misrepresented or somehow negatively impacted the religion. The keys to reactive interaction are swift and accurate reaction and polite persistence until a proper solution is reached. This will all be illustrated with recent events in which religion became a key issue.

The address will be given on September 15 from 1:30 to 2:30 pm at the main conference hall. For more information, visit the conference website at http://www.WorldsReligionsAfter911.com.

Acharya Kumarswami writes:

Mr. Raman, a skilled photographer, also took a lot of photos during Bodhinatha’s visit. We are honored to share some of them with you here. Our two dancers who performed at the seminar.

…discussing details

A large banquet lunch was served on each day.

Anusha played the vina for everyone on the second day.

At the Botanic gardens on Monday, the 11th.

With Kumarswami near the entrance

More garden photos

some of the inhabitants…

visitors…

let’s see, how did they make this…

morning glories that form an effective trellace…

the moving stone ball, sculpted in France.

…OK. Let’s sit here for a minute…

It was tour day today and we are told that 100 plus souls joined us to see the wonders of Kauai Aadheenam and Iraivan temple. Above is the 9 am tour followed by the 11 am tour below and many others came in between.

The last five containers from India brought with them two marvelous wooden sculptures, whch we showed in video form. Here are some detailed photos.

Lord Ganesha will be installed on theleft f the entrance to Kadavul temple, and His brother Murugan on the right.

Here is His mace.

His crown.

His goad, to control obstacles in thelives of devotees.

He stands on one foot on a lotus flower.

Symbolic vines twist above and to the side.

Lord Murugan is equally enforested.

Blessing with theright hand, holding his Vel with the left.

Parrots play in the foliage.

The hand of blessing, assurance and protection.

His vanana, the peacock, watches from below.

Jai to Murugan, the lord of yoga and thefirst renouncer of the world.

Our TAKA today brings you Bodhinatha’s last day in Singapore. As we write he is already on his way home and will arrived tomorrow morning at the Aadheenam.

Acharya Kumarswami brings us the story .

On the 11th in Singapore, Bodhinatha enjoyed a walk through the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Actually the whole city is very garden-like as well. The city planners have done a remarkable job of keeping the greenery in tact as much as possible.

Here’s a large root rise with a carved lizard to greet visitors at the entrance.

A series of benches made of large wood slabs. We got lots of good ideas here to possibly implement in the future at the aadheenam.

This is in the middle of swam lake, carved from a single log. The garden was established in the 1860s by the British.

No, we didn’t get a downpour here, I’m shooting from underneath a waterfall.

A set of the handsome and practical signs that guide pilgrims through the park.

A massive granite railing of tasteful proportions. Bodhinatha and the pilgrims are in the background on the path along the waterway.

A blooming lotus. Raman got some better photos of the same flower�

Here is a large gazebo�nice design.

An artistic, naturally flowing walkway leading to it with curved railings made of wood.

A species of fig flower, so we gather.

Sivakumar and his son Easan walking with Bodhinatha in the Evolution section of the park. Easan is 3 years old.`

Here’s Easan again, energetic and adventurous.

Signs like this are placed throughout the park.

This section of the garden features a series of terrace waterfalls.

One of the massive old trees.

An effective trellis made from wrought iron.

Which way to go�

One of the most charming objects in the park, as you can see by Easan’s interest: a granite sphere in perpetual spinning motion, propelled by a stream of water. The secret is that there is also a high-pressure jet of water directly under the center of the stone that keeps it lifted enough to allow it to spin.

Beautiful wooden walkways in this section�

A banana flower.

In case you ever wondered how to support a young banana tree�

Resting after the two-hour walk�

Two of our photographers trying to get out of the way of our lens�

A roof garden, not unlike some of ours at the aadheenam� well almost.

That evening was satsang and pada puja at Dohadeva’s home.

Here Girish performs arati in the shrine room.

Here is Bodhinatha in Kuala Lumpur presenting Hinduism Today to a reporter from the Straits Times, in a 40-minute interview.

We’ve had many Hindu visitors in the past few days, but we will continue to bring the news from the missions overseas. Acharya Kumarswami brings us up-to-date with photos and captions from the last day in Kuala Lumpur and then two days in Singapore. Tomorrow, they begin their long journey home.

On the morning of the 8th at 10am Bodhinatha granted an interview with a reporter from the New Straits Times (http://www.nst.com.my)

Before the interview, the professional photographer took a series of photos of Bodhinatha. We stood behind him and got some nice ones of our own, including this one.

Presenting Hinduism Today.

Sivajnani Nagappan’s darshan photo with Bodhinatha.

…members and students saying Aloha to Bodhinatha at the KL airport as he departs for Singapore.

Coming in for a landing above Singapore.

…and a warm welcome in Singapore.

With Dohadeva at the wheel, we head for the hotel.

Sept 9 was devoted to the first day of the “Spiritualizing Daily Life” Seminar, arranged the the Singapore Mission members. Here we see Bodhinatha in the hall where he conducted the seminar.

Bodhinatha has just inaugurated the seminar by doing arati to a small shrine. Our camera, lense fogged over from the AC, captures a slightly obscured image.

Exuberant participants. At right Sivakumaran, who was most instrumental in coordinating the event.

We were so engrossed, that we forgot all about taking photos today, for the most part, more to come tomorrow. Here, however, is a shot of some of the majestic skyscrapers of Singapore that we viewed on the way back to the hotel.

In Singapore the second day of Bodhinatha’s seminar, “Spiritualizing Daily Life” began at 8am with a welcoming for the satguru.

Then an arati to Lord Ganesha.

It was a lively seminar for all.

A group photo to end the very successful event.

A few more photos from Mauritius of our Ganesha Chaturthi celebration at the Spiritual Park….. Devotees had a wonderful experience of the festival during the ceremony in the Mandapam.

Devotees inside the Mandapam…

Our leading singers of devotional songs for that occasion…

The Ganesha Homa at the Spiritual Park is becoming very famous in the island. Devotees burning their prayers are building a greater faith in the inner workings of Hinduism and are discovering the greatness of Lord Ganesha.

Devotees leaving the Park after having made their offerings and worshipped at the small Pancha Mukha Ganapati Shrine.

Vivek, one of our close Friends of the Park introducing our Hinduism Today magazine to visitors walking down the property…

Yudananda Munian, Ananda Mootoocurpen, Bala and Poobarlène have been taking care of offerings brought by devotees all through the day at the small Pancha Mukha Ganapati Shrine…Tired but happy to have served Lord Ganesha in this way…

At our food serving station…

Devotees waiting to be served…

Happy to be in a spiritual picnic mood…

Our two police women have been busy patrolling the property, mostly helping mothers find their kids strayed in the crowd…

A group of our enrolled MC students who took care of the HA books stall under the responsibility of Kulamata Premila.

Paramasiven and Kulapati Kulagan (left) who has co-ordinated the whole event.

Kulapati Mougam Periatumbee and his family…

Kulapati Koothan (2nd from left) with other sishyas from the south…

(from left) Krishna, Tirthadeva and Kevin have been helping selflessly all through the day….

Kulamata Premila Manick going out to serve some sweets to our seva staff …

While all these activities were happening outside, Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati continued to bestow divine Blessings on everyone present. Aum.

As we write today’s TAKA Bodhinatha has completed his time in Malaysia and moved on to Singapore. We pick up the thread of events of his journey from September 6th with photos and captions from Acharya Kumarswami.

Here is giving an inspired talk to the sishya in Malaysia at a satsang of in Klang.

On the 6th morning in Malaysia, Bodhinatha paid a visit to Swami Guha Bhaktananda at his Sivananda Ashram, Batu Caves. Swamiji is head of the Divine Life Society in Malaysia. He has served here for about 20 years. Here Swamiji is greeting Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha, as did Gurudeva, always visits Swami whenever he comes to Malaysia. Swamiji also accepted into his ashram young aspirants to monastic life from Malaysia, who would serve there at Batu Caves for a time before coming to Hawaii. In this way, they gained experience in ashram living, in karma yoga, worship and meditation.

Swami told us of the various activities he is currently overseeing, with the help of the younger monks here with him, especially a new orphanage that has just been completed for twenty children and which has a capacity for fifty. The grand opening will be held soon. The actual care and schooling of the children is being done by family people.

As we left the ashram, it was pouring down rain. Still we made a brief visit to the Batu Caves compound at the base of the sacred hill to gaze upon the newly completed, 100 or so foot tall golden statue of Lord Murugan, and even got a photo to capture the moment.

A relaxing moment at one of the pleasant spots at the hotel.

The afternoon was devoted to preparing for the seminar this weekend in Singapore.

The main event of the day was the mission satsang at Kulapati Selladurai’s home. Here is an artistic shot of Bodhinatha’s entering the compound.

Lots of people had gathered on the full moon evening.

Arati of welcome.

Soon everyone got settled for the pada puja, ceremonious worship of the feet of the satguru.

The pujaris started out by bathing the feet and offering arati.

Bodhinatha closed his eyes and went into meditation.

At one point his feet were covered with holy ash.

Near the end of the puja his feet were covered with flowers.

Then Bodhinatha gave an wonderful inspired talk about applying the principles of spirituality to daily life.

Everyone came forward for vibhuti blessings afterward.

The newest edition to the mission satsang, just 30 days old, gets a special blessing–the child of Navukarasu and Mohana Vilashiny. The little girl’s name is is Yehanthini.

�and a first feeding for the child of Sivanathan and Puvana, whose name is Hiteshvar Skandanatha

At the Aadheenam today we began another short four-day phase with the homa

Paramacharya Palaniswami gives a talk after the homa.

Earlier in the morning at about 7 AM, another little girl entered this world — an addition to our herd of cows. Her name is Deepti.

A very beautiful white coat, with black spots. The monks bring her to the temple for a blessing.

Strong and healthy, unlike humans, calves arrive fully ready to roll, able to stand almost immediately, walk in hours and stronger than a person by the end of day one.

She already thinks we are her mother…

Welcome to the Bhuloka Deepti!

Shanmuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha, the team who take care of all our Pillaiyar Kulam business matters, are also our cow caretakers.

Occasionally on long 3-day retreats the monks will go for a camping trip, a few at a time, to the “end of the earth,” the famed Polihale beach on the very, very end of the west side of Kauai.

Seas are calm there this time of year and the view is spectacular. Being in the middle of the week there are very few visitors.

The sun set here over the Pacific has to be experienced to be known….

And then camping out under the light of the full moon is always an amazing experience. As God lights up the beach, you can go walking along gently kicking the sand and the flourescent algae throws showers of colors before your feet. It’s a magical macrocosmic world away from the little world of mundane affairs, putting you into a visionary mood to ponder the destiny and evolution of the soul through it’s long, long journey to merge back, into your true home, into the Ocean of Divinity.