We bring you another installment of photos from the Edmonton trip today (see below after the Aadheenam series) Here is Bodhinatha with the students of Aran Veylan’s religion class. Each of the kids received a pocketbook edition of Merging with Siva from Bodhinatha. They all wanted him to sign their copy!

As promised we bring you some shots of the Andara Stone which was gifted to the Aadheenam by Lady Nellie yesterday (see yesterday’s TAKA for details). We moved the stone to the courtyard ledge where he can get some sunshine. Saravananathaswami peers at the stone from the side.

Sadhaka Jothi joins him. It’s a really remarkable stone.

A giant obsidian, it has the appearance of being shiny and opaque from some angles.

But from other views, it is deep and translucent…

It gives the feeling of containing a whole other world inside.

Sadhaka Jothinatha on his way back to the Pillaiyar Kulam. He has some news for us soon of the outreach work he’s been coordinating and the team of “missionaries” that are manning our booths and tables at functions all across the country.

Two more artifacts grace our courtyard where we all eat lunch.

A giant gong that Gurudeva got many years ago. Signals the end of lunch and the beginning of some group activities.

It was Sun Four today and the Siddhidata Kulam detailed its Sivathondu this phase. In the lead of course was the Iraivan crane lift, moving stones and scaffolding. It’s a never ending logistical dance.

Jiva Rajasankara sends a few photos from India, saying:

Here are the photos for the Jalakoms completed. (Stone Lattice works)

All 3 jalakoms. You can also see this shed is being dismantled.

The Pothigai for the one Yalli pillar.

With this all the Rajagopuram stones are ready to be shipped . We still have some work on the cobra stone that comes in the front and one more Jalakom.

Sayanathan and Anubama Sivanathan, who now live in Canada, returned for the 9 a.m. Abishekam followed by an audience with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami to receive a special blessing for their recent marriage.

Shebabrata Sheha, (right) who also lives in Canada, is an Operational Analyst for the Royal Bank of Canada. He came at this auspicious time to take part in the Guru Purnima Festivities which will be celebrated tomorrow when all Hindus honor their Guru.

Other visitors today included Kim Brunetto of Cupertino, California and Sharada Bose of San Diego. Also two therapists from the Deepak Chorpra Center in New York arrived with their two children. Albert and Monique Torok and Laila (age 13) and Sophia (age 11). Both children happily attend a Waldorf School.

We toured the Iraivan Temple and watched the creative silpis while they worked at flower designs. The beautiful and sacred designs on the pillars must be seen to be appreciated. Here is our group in front of the Iraivan Temple.

And later relaxing down at the sacred Wailua River.

Retrospective of Bodhinatha’s visit to Canada 7/2/06: this is a view of the Maha Ganapati Temple from the street entrance.

Bodhinatha is welcomed to the temple with traditional pada puja.

Downstairs they have a shrine for Gurudeva, honoring him for his assistance in building the temple. Bodhinatha worships before going upstairs to participate in the homa.

No photos are allowed inside the temple so we skip forward to the pradakshina parade of the deities. Here’s Bodhinatha and the head priest waiting for the utsava murthies to be carried out of the temple by some strong shouldered men.

Ganesha on a palanquin will be placed on the cart.

Ganesha and Siva/Sakti going round the temple.

Close-up photo of Siva.

Pradakshina completed.

Some of the members of Aran Veylan’s children’s class are outside the temple serving lemon aid to the crowd. It was Canada Day yesterday and this young man wishes to show us the (temporary) maple leaf tattoo that he got for the occasion.

Under the trees here is a little hut with red and white stripes which used to house a Ganesha murthy. It was formerly located on the spot where the main Ganesha sanctum of the temple is now located. Gurudeva walked through the woods after the property was obtained to pick the location of the sanctum.

Thanks to Saravan Veylan (pictured here) and Nitya Sivam for setting up the literature table for the day.

The morning of July 3rd Bodhinatha gave a three-hour seminar on Key Hindu Practices.

In the afternoon he met with the children’s class taught by Aran Veylan. They had many very intelligent questions for Bodhinatha. This is their last meeting before summer break. In the fall they’ll be learning how to do the Ganesha puja.

July 4th: Bodhinatha boarding the flight back to the USA in Vancouver.

Nitya Nadesan greets us at the Seattle airport.

Toshadeva Palani from Reno, Nevada and Sitara Alahan from Seattle have come to the hotel for Bodhinatha’s darshan.

Nitya and Becky Nadesan are treating Bodhinatha to a wonderful dinner at their favorite restaurant in Bellevue, Washington. The owner, Bill Khanna, seen here on the left has come out to welcome Bodhinatha. http://www.chutneys.com/

Today we had a special visitor from California, Lady Nellie, a Choctaw medicine woman, who is 94 years old. Though advised not to travel at her age, she insisted on the pilgrimage to fulfill a vision she had. A year ago she was given a large “Andara” volcanic stone by a Siox chief. Some time after she had a vision of it sitting next to the Iraivan Crystal Lingam, so she decided to bring it herself and gift it to Bodhinatha. It is a 140 lb. other-worldly greenish glass stone. (picture coming soon)

Lady Nellie felt a strong connection to the Crystal Lingam and told a story of her grandfather Chief Natatichi who had died in the same vicinity of where the Crystal Lingam was originally found in Arkansas. Turns out Chief Natatichi was killed shortly after signing a peace treaty with the “white man”. As she sat in Kadavul Temple in front of the Crystal Lingam, Lady Nellie said that today was the high point of her life and the Andara stone was very happy to now be in the monastery.

Lord Shanmuga, under the banyan tree near Kadavul Temple.

A sweet young couple, Sayanathan and Anubama Sivanathan both originally from Jaffna, Sri Lanka were just married July 2nd and have now made their home in Whitby, Ontario, Canada. They enjoyed worshiping in the Kadavul Temple and later talked to Paramacharya Ceyonswami.

Another couple arrived, Prasanna Sampath and Narmada Rajamani from Madras, now residing in Redmond, Washington State.

Prasanna said he had heard about this beautiful Iraivan Temple and made this visit the focal point of his vacation. His visit was “beyond anything he could have imagined. it was beautiful!”

Jay Dare, his wife Alka and their two children, Bahar and Bijal from Texas had also heard about this famous and beautiful temple from friends. The came to worship and enjoy the darshan of this sacred place and tour the Iraivan Temple complex.

As the sun rose on Kauai island today it revealed the first pink lotus blossom of the season. A yellow one bloomed two weeks back.

Within sight of the lotus is Iraivan, where a crane was lifting 13 roof and sunshade stones into place early in the day.

Our well-trained team was working on the ground and atop the roof.

Kartikeya Katir and Maruthu, two task forcers, are shoulder-to-shoulder with the monks.

Helping to lash the stones for each lift.

It takes a lot of teamwork.

And concentration.

Kartikeya places protective cardboard to prevent damage to the stones.

Up they go, to be settled into place by the team at the top.

Visitors from yesterday, since today we have to keep clear, for everyone’s safety.

Chelliah has been raised in Bangalore for 13 years as his father worked on Iraivan, and he too became a fine sculptor in the process.

He shows off a stone he will work on. He has marked a lotus design in it in red dye.

Then he chips away to give the flower its depth.

It will take him two full weeks to carve out this motif.

Such patience.

Hour after hour. Chip, chip, chip.

This stone will grace the roof near the central sanctum.

Jai to our lifting team, and to all who help, in small ways and large, to make this marvel manifest on the Earth for the upliftment of the human spirit.

A giant heliconia flower, almost five feet long.

And a delicate one in a cluster of pink and blue.

Bodhinatha is home after a marvelous journey.

Sadhaka Haranandi is home too. Everyone gained a new appreciation for all the many, many details of our life and temple duties, kitchen, domestic engineering, fund-raising activities and more, that he handles — because we had to take care of them while he was gone (smile)

Here he has two plaques given by two temples to Bodhinatha.

This one reads:

Dedicated to:

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami

Guru Philosopher
Mystical Master
Holy Harmonious Halcyon
Sage Religious
Our Divine Leader

Divine sage and spiritual leader, Satguru bodhinatha Veylanswami, we the Sri Ganesh Temple Society of BC, thank you for graciously visiting us in Vancouver to guide and show us ways and paths of Hinduism for a spiritual and traditional life.

thank you.

Fiji Sanatana Society of Alberta
Vishnu Mandir, Edmonton, Canada

Presented to
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
in recognition for promoting Values of
Sanatan Dharma
July 2004

Visiting families arrived throughout the morning to attend the Siva Abhishekam at the Kadavul Temple.
Dwip Shah, his wife Nipa, and two children, Nytish (age 13) and Anika (age 9) from Texas. Also Lalitha Iyer, Shankar Krishnan and baby Aarthi (20 months) from San Jose, California. Lalitha is a beautiful carnatic singer.

Another family arrived just in time to join our group for a tour of the grounds and Iravan Temple. Pravin and Surbhi Sheth, their son Uumesh and his wife Hetal, and their two children, Sunag (age 12) and Suhani (age 3). The Sheth family is from Fremont, Calif. Also joining us was Marilyn Summer a local resident of Kauai.

A group photo of all the families was taken in front of the Iraivan Temple.

A visit to Rishi Lake with a Flame tree in full bloom in the background. As they were leaving, Pravin stated that he was definitely bringing his whole family back here again. “What a wonderful and beautiful place to pilgrimage to!”

Here is one of our great artisans, Chellaiah, in the process of carving a flower design on a granite roof stone. It takes a lifetime to perfect such a craft and we stood watching in awe as Chellaiah deftly chipped away at his creation.

This wood relief sculpture of Lord Nataraja that is on the wall by the doorway of our publications building is really a marvelous piece. Recently painted by one of our devotees here, Leonora Orr, today we wanted to capture all the different implements and hand poses… enjoy the close-ups.

Our dear Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami arrived home from his trip early this afternoon. Here he is being greeted by all the monks.

A a short traditional pada puja was performed, as is always done when he has been away for more than nine days.

We completed upgrades to our parking facilities in the front of the Aadheenam and also set a new series of dates for tour days that will help easy the flow of vehicles on our street. So, today tours began again.

They no longer fall on the last day of each phase but follow a different, somewhat irregular calendar. See our visitor’s page for the list of tour days.

There are now two tours held on tour days, each is approximately one hour long. The first is at 9 am sharp. Then the second is at 11 am. Here our first tour group is off to Iraivan.

The first group was about 25 people and the second group about 35.

Besides drop-in visitors, we also have a steady stream of Hindu pilgrims.

A deeply devout Tamil family arrived today from Northridge, California: Elango Minnoor, a chemistry scientist, his wife Darshana and their two beautiful children, Niveditha age 8, and Manas age 5. They are in the islands on vacation. They began the morning in the Kadavul Siva Temple followed by a private tour of the Iraivan Temple complex. Another lady accompanied us, Chandrika Kalyani from Beverly Hills, California.

Here they are in front of Dakshinamurthy under the Banyan tree . . .

At the Iraivan Temple with two of our very gifted artisan silpis, Manikanda and Chellaiah beside one of the six crocodile water spouts which will be instrumental in removing the rainwater from the roof of the temple. . .

At the famous and beautiful Bali Hai waterfalls.

We pick up our photo documentary of Bodhinatha’s trip with some photos from Edmonton and captions from Saravan Veylan.

Kamala and Geritt Garneau enjoy a darshan visit with Bodhinatha Veylanswami at his Edmonton hotel.

Short notes from Bodhinatha on the trip: his thoughts on the visit to Calgary before going up to Edmonton:

This morning the president and secretary of the Sri Murugan Society of Calgary drove us out to the land on which they will build a temple. It is part of a forty acre parcel of pasture and they have nine acres, the other 31 acres belonging to five other Hindu groups. The land needs to be subdivided so that they are the sole owner of their nine acres. This is scheduled for September. The distance is an eight minute drive from the airport on a country road, with farmland around it. The Ganesha that Gurudeva gifted to them arrived in January 2002. They bring it once a month to the Calgary Hindu Temple hall (in town) for a monthly puja for their group of devotees. Once a year the priest from Edmonton Ganesha temple comes in January for a special abhishekam for the murthi to celebrate the anniversary of its arrival.

In the evening was a temple gathering. The Sri Murugan Society uses the Hindu Society of Calgary temple for this and other special occasions. Met at the temple Swami Ramananda of Divine Life Society of Canada, which is very service oriented group. Group enjoyed the talk and many said they are coming to the Aadheenam in November, a few also in October.

Aran Veylan introduces Bodhinatha to the Fijian community at the Edmonton Vishnu Mandir on July 1st.

Bodhinatha meets with some young devotees of the Edmonton Fijian community.

Rajesh and Sanjana Bali and family pay their respects to the Satguru.

On July 2nd the big events at the Maha Ganapati Temple in Edmonton began.

Nagesvaram and Tavil usher Bodhinatha to the Maha Ganapati Festival at about 9 a.m. local time.

It was a beautiful day – clear blue skies and plenty of warm sun.

Nila, Charu, Sabrina, Abi and SivaRam, students of Aran Veylan’s Saiva Dharma class, help devotees stay cool on a hot day by serving traditional drinks.

Bodhinatha leads the parade of the Ganesha and Siva Nataraja Utsava murthis around the Maha Ganapati Temple.

Subramania Iyer, Chief Priest of the Maha Ganapati Temple, his assistant priest, Raguvan Iyer and Bodhinatha prepare for the Utsava procession.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha rises to the occasion to survey the ocean of devotees. He snaps some precious TAKA photos from his mountain-top perspective!

Bodhinatha speaks on the role of temple-builders in the community and honors the priest and the Board of Trustees during the Maha Ganapati Society 25th anniversary celebration.

Bodhinatha writes of this day:

Today was a busy day. First we attended a homa and abhishekam for Maha Ganapathy at the temple. Then I gave a half hour talk. This was followed by the parade deities of Ganesha and Nataraja being paraded around the temple on chariots.

In the afternoon we attended a short honoring of the priest Subramaniya Iyer, who has been at the temple for over two decades, his new assistant Ragavan and past and present trustees. The ceremony included a short presentation on the history of the temple from 1978 to the present. Gurudeva was mentioned many times throughout.

Back at the Aadheenam early this morning we began our phase with homa as usual conducted by Sadhaka Jivanandanatha and presided over by Paramacharya Palaniswami in Bodhinatha’s absence.

Paramacharya Palaniswami gave a short talk on the concept of parampara, guru lineage. He explained how ours was a parampara that stretched back through Gurudeva, Yogaswami, Chellappa, all the way to Rishi Tirumular. Not all Hindu organizations today are lineages of gurus. Some, such as the Ramakrishna Mission, have an elected president, but he is not considered a guru successor to Ramakrishna or Swami Vivekananda. Palaniswami offered some precious insights into the importance of initiation, Saiva diksha, in the Saiva Siddhanta tradition. It is through initiation, following intense training and purification, that the spiritual power of a Sampradaya is confered upon the seeking soul. Initiationis the entry into the deepest spiritual world and the binding force between Guru and shishya.

A few more pictures arriving from Bodhinatha’s visit to temples in Vancouver. Here he is waiting as he is being introduced before his talk at the Murugan temple.

Bodhinatha visiting the Sri Ganesha temple in Vancouver, Canada.

Bodhinatha and devotees at the Sri Ganesha temple in Vancouver, Canada.

Aubry showing devotees at the Sri Ganesha temple Gurudeva’s books and Hinduism Today magazines.

Devi Tandavan enjoying Bodhinatha’s visit to Vancouver.

Canadian gardens were bursting with colors and fragrences! The Sri Ganesha temple’s rose garden was overflowing with roses. This photo captures but a few of the dozens of rose bushes in full bloom.

If you travel by auto to one of the many Vancouver, Canada, temples the Peace Arch Park will welcome you to Canada.

The Murugan Temple on River Road, Richmond, B.C. Bodhinatha was hosted here by a small but dynamic group.

Colorful flowers for Lord Muruga.

Bodhinatha and devotees at the Murugan temple. We were not allowed to photograph Lord Muruga, but He was resplendent in sandalwood.

Usha Satish arrived with her relatives, two very lovely families who are visiting for five days. Satish Krishnamurthy, a neurosurgeon and his daughter Akhila from Syracuse, N.Y. His brother Shekhar Krishnamurthy also came with his wife, Lakshmi and their two children, Sangeeta and Pranav from St. Louis, Mo. After worshiping in the Kadavul Siva Temple, they toured the grounds of the Aadheenam and visited the Iraivan Temple.

Here they posed for a group family photo in front of the Sanctum of the Iraivan Temple.

Another family joined us there. Maha Caldera and his wife from West Covina, California, and their daughter Neluka and her husband, Sanjay DeSilva from Sacramento, California. Neluka and Sanjay were married just yesterday on Kauai. Here they are at the Iraivan Temple building site.

After visiting the path of the Saiva Saints, which encircles the lotus ponds, everyone performed Abishekam to the sacred Narmada Lingam.

A side trip was then made to the waterfalls where the newly-weds Sanjay and Neluka posed for a final photo.

The lovely, simple but powerful image of Lord Ganesha that sits at the beginning of Tiruneri path up to Kadavul is called “Napali Ganesha.”

Carved in Nepalese style, He’s know for dispensing visions and grace to pilgrims.

The tropical setting for Iraivan Temple never fails to amaze visitors.

Iraivan is one of many beautiful temples, but one of a very-few-in-this-world such temples in such a paradiasical setting.

While many lovely temples are being built around the world by devout Hindus, it is understandably common for them to be near a highway, surrounded by asphalt parking places.

Or not far from a factory or even in the midst of a bustling city.

Visitors look out in disbelief, for it seems they have stumbled on an ancient temple in an uninhabited jungle, surrounded only by nature, and nature at Her finest.

Saravananathaswami and Satya are working in the Ekadanta Kulam on major outreach projects today. Swami is taking the morning’s correspondence to the mail room.

En route he passes a petite anthurium reacing for the sun from a shaded niche.

Nearby the famed Peppermint anthurium, specled with Siva white and Shakti red. Or did someone spill paint on it?

Isani guides visitors through the giant banyan entry.

A dwarf water lily takes a peek at the summer sun.

In the publications world, we look out of the window from Palaniswami’s desk.

Today we received this marvelous 5.5-foot by 8.5-foot cloth batik from India. It took the artist three full months to paint this work of art. It was our goal to have it in time for Guru Purnima, which is just 9 days away!

This batik depicts our Guru Paramparai, from Nandinatha to Bodhinatha. Each of the gurus is worshipping a different form of Siva in a small shrine, and above each is a different sacred flower or fruit. The batik will hang behind the Swayambhu Lingam on July 9th, and Bodhinatha will be seated in front of it for the grand annual Pada Puja that morning.

This is Satguru Nandinatha, first in our lineage, who lived high in the Himalayas 2,200 years ago. These were luminous beings, engulfed in the Clear White Light day and night. Who can hide such radiance for long? People still came. The most ardent drew near, and the teachings were passed from one to the next over the centuries. Not in classes or seminars. In the old way, by word of mouth, by the preceptor testing the disciple, preparing the disciple, guiding the disciple in daily context and in dreams. Such men can shake the seeker’s mind loose from its shackles, arouse awareness from the slumber of so many births and turn questions like “Who am I?”  into proclamations of “I am That.”  All this the gurus of the Yogaswami lineage did. In today’s TAKA we give a glimpse of these great souls and the God-centered nondualism they taught.

Nandinatha initiated Tirumular and directed him to bring pure Saiva Siddhanta to the South of India. Tirumular walked the length of India and settled at Tiruvavadhurai in Tamil Nadu, writing the great philosophical epic, Tirumantiram, in the Tamil language. It is a summary of the agamas and the great yogas, and remains one of the greatest spiritual works of all time.

One afternoon sometime in the mid-1800s a whitehaired man happened into a tea shop near Bangalore in South-Central India. He was a stranger, probably from the Himalayan crown of India. He sat at a wooden table and took his tea. When the time came for the shop to close, the owner found that the man had entered a state of contemplation so complete that he could not be aroused. Besides, it is considered improper to disturb a meditator. So he was left alone. Opening the shop early the next day, the shopkeeper discovered the yogi seated in perfect stillness, filling the room with a palpable sanctity. He did not move from that spot for seven years, nor did he speak. The shop closed. Villagers turned it into a shrine frequented by the crowds who wanted darshana, or sight, of this remarkable being. Many came with problems, the kind people everywhere have a new job, grandmother’s health, daughter’s marriage. To their amazement, answers always came. Sometimes in dreams. Sometimes a piece of paper would materialize in the air above the saint and float gently to the ground. On it would be written exactly what they needed. One day, as suddenly as he had come, the Rishi emerged from his divine state, got up and left the shop, never to return. He was the first modern-day satguru in our lineage and is known as the Rishi from the Himalayas.

A few years later, farther south, a high court judge sat at the end of a trial, faced with the duty to pass a sentence of death on a convicted murderer. The man was guilty, but the judge refused to fatally condemn a fellow human being. Instead, he left the bench, quit the law and renounced the world. He became a wandering monk. In time he met the Rishi and was initiated into the inner teachings. Eventually he settled in Sri Lanka’s port city of Jaffna. It was around 1860. He had no home, no ashrama or yoga school. He could be found walking in the marketplace, speaking of man’s oneness with God Siva and taking his meals with common folks. The people called him Kadaitswami, the “Marketplace Swami. One day Kadaitswami was invited for lunch at the home of a devout but poor family. With little food in the house and not wanting to off end a great soul, the wife did the unthinkable–she sold her cherished gold wedding neck lace to buy provisions. When the meal was finished, the swami asked her to bring a piece of iron. A rusty old rod was found. Kadaitswami took it aside, spat on it and handed it back. It had turned to gold! Today this is a wealthy coconut oil family, though it is said they never sold the golden rod.

The next satguru in this tradition was called Chellappaswami (1840–1945). Chellappan means wealthy father.  Except in a spiritual sense, he was anything but rich. In fact, most thought him a vagrant, and mad in the bargain. He wore disheveled clothing and preferred to be alone. At age nineteen, Chellappan was initiated by Kadaitswami. Thereafter he camped on the steps of Jaffna’s Nallur Temple, that is when he was not walking the country roads, which he did frequently and energetically. Chellappaswami spoke of God only in the first person, oblivious of duality, never admitting that there was –another. He would puzzle passersby by asking questions like –Did you know that I am the King of kings? –Did anyone tell you that all the money in all the banks in the world is mine? Chellappaswami was strict with himself, especially about food. He cooked his own meals, simple affairs of boiled rice and dal. His favorite curry was eggplant, for which he would sometimes walk ten miles to the market to get fresh and ten miles back. Never would he allow base desire to well up. If it did, if his mouth would so much as water at the smell of a hard-earned curry, he would chide himself, –So, you want this tasty food that much, do you? Laughing aloud he would pick up the clay cooking pots and break them on the ground. Then he would meditate on greater things as the crows loudly shared the scattered food. One morning a pilgrim was walking by the temple where Chellappaswami lived. Suddenly, the sage laughed, calling out, “Just who do you think you are?” It was a seemingly innocuous query, but somehow it went deep into the heart, then deeper and deeper. Later the 35-year-old man left all worldly life and joined Chellappan as his disciple.

This was Sage Yogaswami (1872–1964), who wrote many verses recounting that meeting: I saw my guru at Nallur Temple. “Hey! Who are you?” he challenged me. I saw darkness all-surrounding and could not comprehend his meaning. As I stood perplexed, he looked at me with kindness, and the maya that was tormenting me left and disappeared. He pointed above my head, and I lost all consciousness of body and stood there in amazement. He then spoke of the essence of Vedanta, that my fear might vanish. “It is as it is. Who knows? Grasp well the meaning of these words,” said he. Everything disappeared and by the grace of my guru, who has no one to compare with him, I remained still, with no one to compare with me. Thus Yogaswami wrote of how he was captured by his satguru.

In 1947 a 20-year-old American sailed from San Francisco to Bombay in search of his guru. His cabin on the ship was directly over the engine room. It was his habit to meditate long hours each day in his room. One morning his contemplation was particularly deep, and as he returned to normal consciousness the mechanical roar of the engines became annoying, then grating, then unbearable. In his mind he spontaneously commanded the noise to –Stop! The engines immediately halted, and the ship drifted quietly and inexplicably for two days before the voyage was resumed. Arriving in India at age 21, the youth traveled south by train. Crossing the straits to Sri Lanka, he found himself among Buddhist and Hindu mystics. His urge to realize God fully grew irresistibly intense. Entering the dense jungles southeast of Colombo, he settled in the famed Caves of Jalani, vowing to fast and meditate until he attained the ultimate illumination. A mystic from a nearby mosque observed the young man disciplining himself and growing thinner as he med itated longer and longer. One day the mystic was amazed to see a giant snake slither across the lap of the yogi, who had lost body consciousness. Finally, the youth broke through the various wheels of consciousness, or chakras, into full enlightenment, beyond time, beyond form, beyond space. Months later, the youth was taken to Sage Yogaswami” s humble hut in the North. The 77-year-old Yogaswami named him Subramuniya, –silent teacher of light, and initiated him in to the famed mantra Nama Sivaya. Later, on the full-moon day in May, 1949, his satguru initiated him into the holy orders of sannyasa and, with a forceful slap on the back, commanded him to carry the ancient Natha teachings back to the West. The event was acclaimed a coronation by all who witnessed. Sage Yogaswami attained oneness in 1964, and Sivaya Subramuniya swami continued the lineage, founding temples in the West and building Kauai Aadheenam in Hawaii in 1970. Gurudeva was deeply immersed in furthering the global Hindu renaissance for half a century. He reached Siva” s feet on November 12, 2001.

Before departing this world, he ordained Bodhinatha Veylanswami, his senior disciple for 37 years, as his immediate successor, who today carries forth the mission of teaching the Saivite Hindu path to enlightenment, a path that leads the soul from simple service to worshipful devotion to God, from the disciplines of meditation and yoga to the direct knowing of Divinity within. Today Bodhinatha is in Canada visiting temples and communities of seekers, carrying forth the eternal work of the Kailasa Paramparai as did those before.

Mr. Panch Panchalingam welcomes Bodhinatha to Calgary on behalf of the Hindu society. He arrived there yesterday afternoon after a some free time and a short flight from Vancouver.

Panch and Nimi Panchalingam have come to see Bodhinatha in the evening of June 29th. They have been here in Calgary about 20 years. They are members of the Sri Murugan Society of Calgary which includes about 150 families from Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.

Bodhinatha likes to take an early morning walk while he travels. Here he is in front of the Calgary Hindu Temple which is just a short walk from the hotel. See its website at http://www.calgarymandir.com/

Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Haranandinatha hold the site plan in front of the property. It’s only eight minutes from the airport in what is now farm lands. Can you visualize a Murugan temple on this spot? See their website http://srimurugansocietyofalberta.com/

Country Hills Boulevard looking back towards Calgary. From here it’s about 5 miles to Highway 2. Not like Hawaii…. this is Big Sky country!

Panch Panchalingam and Raja Ramaraja Gopal, treasurer and secretary of the Calgary, Sri Murugan Society, are showing Bodhinatha the site plan for a 30-acre parcel that was purchased by several Hindu societies in June 2002. The Murugan society’s portion of the parcel measures 10 acres.

Stepping back to the 28th and final hours in Vancouver… Bodhinatha had a chance to go sight-seeing.

At a place called Capilano Suspension Bridge, British Columbia.

http://www.capbridge.com/

A 27-acre nature park that shows some things that could be done with San Marga.

During the summer months they have 100 employees!

Bay cruise…Carnival Spirit and Peaceboat docked at cruise terminal. There is some kind of international peace conference going on this week at the University of BC.

On June 28th afternoon Bodhinatha met with Manickam Senthivel his wife and elder son.

Next morning of the 29th. Almost time to leave now… Manickam his younger son Sentheepan.

We want to thank Manickam and everyone in Vancouver for the marvelous hospitality. It is an inspiration to see Hinduism coming up so strongly here!

Here’s Bodhinatha making use of his time waiting for the flight to Calgary.

Lift off to Calgary. Leaving beautiful British Columbia.

University of BC on the point in the foreground. Horseshoe Bay at center of photo.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha takes a photo of Calgary, Alberta from the plane just before landing.

Summer is here and with children out of school we are seeing a lot of families visiting these days. Shama our host writes:

“Our beautiful Island Temple is fast becoming known far and wide in the Hindu community of the world. Pilgrims come from all over the planet come to this tiny island to visit this powerful and profoundly spiritual Home of the Gods.”

Prem and Sonia Sobti came with their two children Archana (3 1/2) and Sushil (12). Prem is an Oncologist. They came from New Delhi and now live in Missouri.

The lovely Sobti family outside Kadavul Siva Temple, with “Nandi.”

A newly wed couple Mary and Mark Gilbert from Lakewood, Colorado were married on Kauai just five days ago and arrived to experience a “special spiritual blessing” at this sacred place as they begin the rest of their lives together.

Other visitors not pictured here: Althura Srinivas and Sarada Reddy originally from Andhra Pradesh enjoyed the powerful morning abhishekam. Savitha Subramanian, M.D an Endocrinologist specializing in diabetes mellitus, and Venkatesh Gopala Krishnan, a computer scientist both arrived in time for the arati.

More photos from the 27th evening events at the Kailas Mandir in Surrey, a new temple started by the Fijian community. More photos of the temple events below.

Meanwhile present time, today Bodhinatha writes:

“This morning we checked out of our Vancouver hotel, took a flight from Vancouver to Calgary, were met by the President of the Calgary temple, Panchalingam. He was born in a village three miles from Columbuturai, Sri Lanka.”

Master Course student Maruthu Pandian Dharmalingam is from a town outside of Klang, Malaysia and is here for a month on Task Force.

Maruthu completed his medical studies and is now in a first year program at a hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia.

He always wanted to come to the Aadheenam, see Iraivan Temple..

And to see the “place where Gurudeva lived.”

We are really happy to have another man on the team for 30 days.

Sivanadiyar Satya has been rotating thru the various kulams to get to know everyone and assisting in a diverse number of tasks. He was with Pillaiyar Kulam this phase on Sun Two. His service therecan range from sending letters to people who register books, changing addresses for Hinduism Today subscribers, shrink-wrapping booklets for people who attend festivals on the mainland, arranging magazines and booklets in our Jnana Dana container and sending complimentary books to prisoners. Today Satya is working on packing kumkum in jars. These should be available at our Mini Mela store on Kauai and at www.minimela.com.

Andre Garzia has been with us for nine days. Most of that time was spent with the PK also. Here he and Natyam Jivanandanatha have been working with various projects such as coding web pages for online donations, creating a 4D database “reporter” for credit card transactions, setting up a fund description page for HHEonline.org, moving the HHE website to a new format and a Master Course donation form. Today they are working on a “grep” routine for finding email addresses. They are laughing at three pages of code they found on the web to do this. Andre has accomplished a lot during his nine days visiting the monks.

Andre flew off back to Los Angeles last night then on to Brazil from there. Just before leaving we took final photos. Here he is with a new friend: Kartikeya Katir.

He spent his last day with Sivakatirswami working through plans for a variety or projects: new upgrades to the Digital Edition of Hinduism Today, refinements for the RSS feed for HPI, future planning for a complete online glossary, a special web page editor and more.

It was a really fruitful visit.

The cool welcoming trades are back and it is another gorgeous day. This is the time of the year when all flowering trees and plants are in full bloom all over the island.

A couple arrived for the morning puja at the Kadavul Siva Temple, Rama and Sastry Ambatipudi from California, previously Madras. They were joined by a large family from Tennessee, three brothers, Ratilal Patel, Suresh Patel, and Mahesh Patidar and their wives and one sister, all originally from Surat, Gujarat, India.

Following the puja the entire group was taken for a tour of the property. A brother and sister from Oahu, Marie Ponce and Curt Sanders joined us. A group photo was taken near the beautifully hand-carved Dakshinamurthy which sits under a sacred banyan tree.

Another group photo in front of the Chitra pillars following a tour of the Iraivan Temple.

This is their first visit to this Island and this sacred Temple. Following the tour, Mahesh Patidar stated that “there are no words to describe how he felt following this mornings experience.” We then headed back to meet with Arumugaswami who was going to give them a tour of the Aadheenam Press Rooms.

Our aquarium is finally finished and back in full operation after quite some down time. It is set in the wall between two rooms, visible from both sides. We switched from salt water to warm fresh water.

The tank contains large 6 inch fish called Discus (which we call Chakra) that originated from the Amazon in Brasil. Hard to tell from the photo, but the tank is actually 6 feet across and holds 269 gallons.

Very unusual fish: as our consultant and expert on this species, a local Kauai man, Rodney says, “They are more like pets than fish. They can recognize individuals and watch everything going on outside in the room.”

In this series Bodhinatha arrive and speaks at the Kailash Mandir, gives darshan, passes out vibhuti and talks with the temple trustees. They are just getting started and he offered to send them a Ganesha Deity — an old tradition that Gurudeva started many years ago.

From June 28th. Asian pulse TV interview with Bodhinatha which will air this Saturday on Channel 20, 1:30 pm.

The beautiful sunny morning brought several families for the morning Abhishekam. The first family, Bruce, Suzi and Jena Smalling, residents of Kapahi, Kauai for 37 years. Their daughter Coco and her husband, David, and sons Ben and Lars Baldwin are from Wailua. One of the young men is working towards joining the US Olympic swim team.

Here they are near the Dakshinamurthy with Acharya Kumarswami. After watching the silpis perform their miraculous work with granite stone, one member remarked that he had no idea that this “unbelievable work” was going on here. Coco said that she planned to bring her family back here again and “truly loved the whole experience.”

Several families, all related, arrived for the puja. All were originally from New Delhi and now reside on the Mainland. They “read about the temple on the Internet.”

A group photo was taken at the Iraivan Temple site. Dr. Parul Bhaskar, an Internist, and his wife Sudhir, and two children Neha and Ria from Orlando, Fl. S.P. Agrawal and Vijaya from Memphis, Tenn. Suresh and Sangeeta Gupta and their children Sapra, Sundeep Sonal, Orlando, Fl. Mukul and Anu Gupta and Krish from New York. and Dr. Tapan and Nila Roy from St. Louis, Mo. Two sisters Ann Marie, a registered nurse, and Ester Whaley a dental assistant also joined the group.

On the way to the river….

Everybody walked down to the Wailua river to rest and enjoy the beauty and peace of this special place before going up to the Kadavul Siva Temple for the noon Arati. As one family member put it, “what a wonderful and spiritually fulfilling morning!”

A family from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, now living in San Jose, arrived just in time for the noon Arati. Ala and Laksh Chandon and their 13 yr old son. They posed for a photo beside Nandi, (meaning joyful), outside the Kadavul Siva Temple.

Our monthly June Ganesha Homa was a big event as previous months drawing devotees from all over the island. Lord Pancha Mukha is decked with garlands and flowers lovingly brought by devotees.

At 10.30 AM the homa fire is lighted by the most senior kulapati present .

Devotees are seated all around in the Mandapam…

Everyone joins in the singing of devotional songs…

A pious atmosphere always prevails on such occasions…

Kulapaties seated around the sacred fire conduct the ceremony. Notes dipped in ghee are burnt into the fire to reappear into the inner worlds. More and more prayers are being sent each month.

Here is Venilla from Malaysia. She gave a testimony about her attending the Ganesha Homa.

Another lady from Curepipe came forward to say how the teachings of the trilogy have helped her better understand Saivism. Other nice testimonies followed.

As part of the ceremony, a talk of Bodhinatha is read to the public every month. Here Kulapati Manon uses one of those talks from Hinduism Today.

The use of the PA system allows everyone to hear the talk translated in creole, the local French dialect.

Devotees outside listening carefully.

The talk of Bodhinatha always captivates everyone by its practical approach and examples that better illustrate deep philosophical concepts.

The pond is a favorite place for many… now red and white interlocking bricks have replaced the old wooden planks near the pond.

After the talk, it is time for the final arati to Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati who now is becoming the favorite deity of many Hindu devotees who attend Spiritual Park Homa every month.

Sishya Lomavadee with her little daughter Venilla.

Food sponsored by Hindu families, is served to everyone in the shade of the mango trees.

Paramasiven and Thungavello have been helping during the ceremony.

The whole family who sponsored the June Ganesha Homa lunch for a souvenir photo…

In real time, Bodhinatha had a free day yesterday and today until this evening when he went to the Kailash Mandir in Surrey, British Columbia, the center for the Fiji Educational and Cultural Society of BC.

We bring you photos of earlier events…Here he is at the Edmond community center…

Departing his hotel in Vancouver for evening events at the Ganesha temple.

Arriving at the Ganesha temple…

Here is Manickam Senthivel who did great service coordinating Bodhinatha’s visit. He was gracious enough to allow Aubrey Burke, who came over to Vancouver from Victoria, BC to stay with him. The two of them teamed up to run the Himalayan Academy Publications tables where our literature was given away at each event and temple.

Aubrey writes that he had a great time introducing everyone to our literature and really enjoyed the opportunity to stay with a Tamil family.

Thanks from all of us to Manickam and Aubrey for all their hard work!

Here we bring you photos from yesterday’s homa… the images tell the story.

Paramacharya Palaniswami gives the talk today in Bodhinatha’s absence.

Kartikkeya Katir is here on Task Force for a month.

Young software developer and IT collaborator from Brasil, Andre Garzia is here from Niteroi, the city just across the bay from Rio de Janiero. He has been with us for nine days, working on web development and returns home tomorrow. He enjoys coming to the temple early each morning.

Sivanadiyar Satya Subramaniam who took most of these photos poses for a shot.

Satya takes a later noon-day stroll with the camera. Here is Tiruvalluvar…

Tirumular

Endless cloud paintings….

Wailua River, just below the monastery.

He catches Andre having lunch with Sivakatirswami and Yogi Japendranatha.

Thondunatha sends scans of photos from Jaffna. He writes:

One of the early students of Sri Subramuniya Kottam who now lives in Germany visited the Kottam recently and sent us some pictures.

The Thiruvadi Temple at the Sri Subramuniya Kottam enshrines a pair of traditional Thiruvadi that Gurudeva wore during his visit to Kopay in 1982. The puja ceremonies of this temple are conducted daily by the children studying at the Kottam. The Tiruvadi temple continues to preside over all the activities of the Kottam as a symbol of Gurudeva’s everlasting benevolence and blessings to the Hindu community of Jaffna.

Rishipathi and Kulamatha Kanagaratnam

Kulamatha and three of the Kottam Students.

Shama Kumaran our guest host has some photos and captions for us:

Early morning showers brought a welcome coolness with over-head cloud cover over the island today.

Aruottianus. This beautiful flower is the only fragrant white hibiscus and is native to the island of Kauai.

Dr. Mohan Saoji, a dentist, his wife Maya and their five teenage children arrived for the morning puja. Mili, Sima, Meghana, Janaki, all girls, and one boy Amrit. Dr. Saoji is on the Board of Trustees of the Hindu Society of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida. They posed for a family photo at the Nani Kauai Pond and Falls lookout. He was very impressed with the Iraivan Temple and mentioned that Sat Guru Bodhinatha Veylanswami had visited their temple in Orlando a few months ago.

Two young visitors Tanya Abernathy and Heidi Diaz also took a tour of the grounds. Here they are at the beautiful lotus ponds.

Bret and Alyssa Saks joined us at the Iraivan Temple site and posed for a photo next to one of the main Chitra pillars. Alyssa is the grandaughter of Ed and Joyce Doty from Na’Aika Kai Gardens near Kilauea on the North-East side of Kauai.

Down to the waterfalls and the sacred Wailua River before heading home.

Many pictures are arriving, some with captions, some without… Here is Bodhinatha giving a talk at Edmonds Community School center in Vancouver.

Kumar Natarajan from Seattle, who went up to Vancouver, writes:

His talk was on the “Hindu Path to Enlightenment” and he explained a number of subjects in the clearest and most simple of ways. The devotees were so very relaxed and secure with his practical thoughts. He had asked everyone for written questions and he received quite a big stack of them, and answered each and every one with an obvious care. He later said that sometimes he will speak to a large audience and not get any questions at all but if he would have known ahead of time that he would get so many questions from this small gathering he wouldn’t have come with a topic to speak on.

Bodhinatha being greeted at the airport in Vancouver.

Second from right, Manickam Senthivel was instrumental for helping arrange things in Vancouver. Thank you Manickam and to all the devotees there who helped take care of Bodhinatha and Sadhaka Haranandinatha!

A short evening visit to the Subramaniyam temple…(June 23rd)

Visit to the Thurkadevi Temple for lunch

A traditional Tamil meal is always a welcome moment!

Reviewing written questions from the audience….

Evening lecture at Edmonds community center…

Bodhinatha writes: “This morning was our three hour event at a school auditorium. The Iraivan DVD was well received and my talk on the Hindu Path to Enlightenment with lots of good questions and answers took about 2 1/4 hours!”

On Kauai, the morning sun is quite hot so our group of visitors were first taken down the path to the waterfall. On the way we stopped for a group photo on a hill above the Wailua river, with the Iraivan Temple just visible in the background.

Our visitors today included Smita and Prakash Patel and their son from Fremont, California, originally from Baruch, Gujarat, and their friends Jay and Hemu Hazari and their son Aakash also originally from Gujarat and now living in Hayward, California.

Everybody enjoyed the cool shade and beauty of the Bali Hai Falls. Prakash Patel felt that this was definitely “The God’s country.” “Such a peace and spiritual presence, beyond words.”

Another young couple Michael Karlovich and Yenling Wang Karlovich, married for only two days and here on their honeymoon, are from Redwood City, California. They both stated that “coming to such a spiritual place was such a blessing and was beyond anything they could possibly have imagined!”

Everybody enjoyed the cool shade and beauty of the Bali Hai Falls. Prakash Patel felt that this was definitely “The God’s country.” “Such a peace and spiritual presence, beyond words.”

Another group photo on the steps of the Iraivan Temple sanctum doorway wherein will reside the magnificent crystal swayambulingam.

The silpis are busy these days on the roof joining the stones and working also in the Gopurams putting finishing touches to the stones there. Visitors are always encouraged to ask questions, and there is one question that is always asked, “when will the temple be finished?” Response about 2010.

Another photo in front of the South-facing aspect of God Siva, Dakshinamurthy, or the Silent Guru and the four sages which also represent the four vedas, Sama, Yajur, Atharva, and Rig Vedas.

What a beautiful day!

Rajkumar Manickam, representing Iraivan Temple, spoke at the Hindu Mandir Executives Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. He explained the steps the temple trustees took to achieve financial success. Fifty-four temples were represented by the 90+ attendees.

Easan Katir, representing Hindu Heritage Endowment, also spoke at the Conference. His topic was “Eternal Money for your Temple.” To emphasize the long-term power of endowments, he proposed each one in the room put in $1 for a new endowment benefitting the Atlanta Siva Vishnu temple.

Conference organizer, Nachiketa Tiwari, adds to the Atlanta Temple endowment as the impromptu hundi is passed around the room. The $156 collected compounded for 150 years totals almost $2 million dollars. Then from that accumulated principal HHE grants $78,000 a year to the Atlanta temple in perpetuity.

In Penang a small but momentous event: Sivaram’s mother is applying for Level Two of the Master Course.

Here she is signing her Vegetarian Vrata (Vow) as part of her next step on the path.

Congratulations! Sivaram writes about his mother:

“Amma is so happy and proud of her accomplishment, since at the initial stage she felt she was already old and impossible to do it.”