Today is a most auspicious day… we are calling it “Darshan day” 31 years ago in Feb. 15th 1975 Gurudeva had the vision of San Marga and Iraivan, from that blessed morning, all things have unfolded in such a beautiful way. Such a great gift from our beloved Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami and from Lord Siva Himself!

And, speaking of gifts… We would like to extend a special thank you to Ganga Sivanathan of Adelaide, South Australia, for gifting the monastery with a special wide angle lens for our digital camera.

The following photos were taken using this lens which allows us to capture the beautiful landscapes of Siva’s sacred grounds which we were unable to do in the past.

So, thank you Ganga, for taking us to the next level in digital photography!

Today was Sun One… homa in the temple….

Bodhinatha gave an upadesha today “The World is an Ashram.” The audio track for this will be part of the Digital Edition of Hinduism Today.

Our wide angle lens helps capture what you can actually see with your eyes.

The statue of Shanmuga under the banyan tree…. Over the retreat a team of five monks removed the scaffold and rigging…

Here is the site of Gurudeva’s vision: the San Marga Swayambhu Siva Lingam.

Wow! Finally we are able to capture Iraivan in a powerful way…

The inner sanctum of Iraivan… It’s not really this long front to back…

Here is where the Maha Sphatika Siva Lingam will be placed in the years to come. Everyday an arati is performed here.

Looking up from inside the central sanctum… it is open all the way to the top.. .to the inside of the very top stone….

Today is the annual festival for Lord Murugan, the festival called Thai Pusam in the Hindu sacred calendar. Bodhinatha is here watching the silpis at work under the banyan tree, preparing to install the Six-Faced Lord….

Have darshan of Lord Murugan during the powerful Arati by watching today’s latest video posting. Click here to go to our video index home page and navigate from there.

END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Wednesday, February 15th.

Just setting in the west over our extinct volcano, the full moon in the month of Thai heralds this sacred day early in the morning just before dawn in the east.

Thai Pusam is sacred to Lord Murugan, God of yoga and renunciation, of healing and spiritual striving. Here He is in the early hours before dawn, awaiting the devotees, with a golden palm leaf behind Him.

This is the chosen day to install Lord Murugan under our ancient Banyan tree. Here he is at night, in His form as Shanmugam, with six heads and twelve arms. The harness is holding Him aloft until the auspicious moment.

Early this morning he was surrounded by torch lamps …

Sitting on blocks while the puja went on in Kadavul temple.

Inside Kadavul the ever amazing abhishekam to Lord Subramaniya.

After the puja and abhishekam, devotees gathered under the banyan as the sun was just rising.

Bodhinatha leads the installation.

Craftsmen work with the ropes and chains which hold the 4-ton sculpture.

Bodhinatha watches quietly as the silpis go to work…

The statue is rigged now, straight up….

Bodhinatha takes the nine gems…

..places them under the murthi…

And then an arati is performed..

The silpis hoist up the massive nearly 2-ton statue …

Sadhaka Tejadeva rings the bell during the installation rites.

Down He goes, settling into His new home.

The silpis remove the wooden blocks and spread mortar in the opening.

Silpi Chelliah guides the block into place.

The deed is done. Tat Aastu.

Final touches to the position…

And Bodhinatha breaks a coconut…

Bodhinatha with the silpi team. They did a great job.

Morning rites complete… Bodhinatha returns to the Aadheenam..

Later in the morning we had our end of phase tour day… A local group of elders joined us… this Amma wanted to have her picture taken with Sadhaka Dandapani, the tour guide.

Now our visitors have a new and magnificent darshan to experience on the way up the temple path….

Vetri Vel! Muruganukku!

It is Sun Five today. The Ganapati Kulam shared news of its activities this phase. Palaniswami is busy following up on the many post Innersearch details and contacts made during the trip to Australia. Kumarswami is focused on editing the new book on our Parampara. Arumugaswami is working on Book Four of the Children’s Course. Natarajnathaswami is working on art for the same. Sivakatirswami is focused on the Digital Edition of Hinduism Today, HTDE, and web video research and Yogi Japendranatha has also been working on HTDE, drafting the terms of service and EULA, End User License Agreement for the same. This is just the tip of the iceberg of this kulam’s many projects in progress.

Another mini-photo documentary, starting at the beginning of Tiruneri path…

Jai to the Lord of Obstacles, whose strategic placement of barriers protects us from ourselves!

Iraivan Temple seen through two palm trees, sitting in the verdant jungles of Kauai island.

Today we had several wonderful visitors. These three enjoyed the morning puja, sang and told of their impending journeys to India.

Tomorrow is Thai Pusam, a sacred festival day for Lord Murugan. Our team of temple decorators is here this morning, cutting tropical flowers from the gardens which you see stacked here in front of the temple doors.

Foliage from our temple gardens waits for their deft touch.

Fox-Tail Ferns and Torch Gingers and a few dracaenas.

Here two of the team hang orange flags at Murugan’s shrine where tomorrow’s abhishekam and puja will take place.

Servants to the servants of Siva.

By tonight the shrine will shine.

Just two hundred feet away, down the path….

Hidden amid the thousands of tendrils and roots that surround our ancient Banyan tree…

Lord Murugan waits for the morrow. The Indian craftsmen have covered Him with white and blue tarps awaiting the moment.

Tomorrow after puja all with gather with Bodhinatha for the formal pratishta of our Shanmugam, here showing us only His Sacred Feet as if inviting us to draw near and know Him within the chambers of our heart.

Down at the front office of the Pillaiyar Kulam today another Shanmugam, our own Shanmuganathaswami, contemplates his namesake’s moment tomorrow.

The gardens, too, await the hour…

A lone Catteleya orchid has taken root on an old Wiliwili tree and shows her colors in celebration of Thai Pusam. We each celebrate in our own special way!

Our latest new resident guest: Nutanaya Sivaceyon. Nutanaya is 16-years old and has a break between graduation from 5th Standard and the new 3-month compulsory military service recently instituted in Malaysia…. He is an intelligent, clear-minded young man….

He is serving in various kulams in the morning and with the Siddhidata Kulam most afternoons.

Nutanaya rarely experiences 60 degree weather in Malaysia… Burrr. it’s chilly… Here he takes a moment in the sun while helping the SK at the Iraivan Temple site…

Today is Sun Four… Our Siddhidata Kulam reported on their many activities this phase. They really do a lot! Here is just a short list:

• Many hours working on the rigging of a high beam under the banyan tree to hoist up the statue of Lord Murugan
• Lots of work on top of the temple installing safety railings and scaffolding, to make sure our silpis are safe at all times. This requires constant attention as every time they have to move to a new area, everything must be reconfigured.
• The stream of fresh fruit and vegetables is no accident! The team is working daily to pick bananas, start new seedlings, harvest greens, transplant seedlings into the beds of the main garden, harvest oranges, grapefruit, starfruit, papayas. It’s a never ending work they do. It reminds one of some of the words of Saint Tiruvalluvar “Farming is the most honorable profession…The whole world lives off the labor of the farmer.”
• Vehicle maintenance… this week the 100-hour servicing of our valuable Bobcat.
• And research into replacing some of our aged fleet of utility and people mover vehicles… stay tuned.

Its a special day for the publications team… we call it Archive day… Paramacharya Palaniswami tells the story of this important work…

“Today our Malaysian youth, 16-year-old Nutanaya, served in the Ganapati Kulam. Here he is entering the publications building to begin his day.”

He was here for six months back in the year 2000, so there have been lots of changes for him to get acquainted with.

It happens that today was Archive Day, the one day each month that the entire publications team works together to sort through, log, protect and organize Gurudeva’s lifetime legacy of audio recordings, videos and photos. This 40-foot container was installed a few years back just for the purpose of housing Gurudeva’s gifts to the world as we go through the enormous task of digitizing everything for future generations to have access to. Here Nutanaya is leaving the container with a box of photos to be organized.

Natarajnathaswami was his mentor today, and together they sorted through hundreds of old photos, from 1949 and before, and placed them carefully into protective sleeves. One day all those tens of thousands of photos will be digitized, but not today!

Inside the Archive Container there are shelves and shelves of reels, tapes, cassettes and more. At the back are stored all of Gurudeva’s office and personal items.

These blue and white binders, hundreds of them, contain the photos we took from the 1960s onward, up to the digital age, that is. After the late 1990s it was all digital. Each binder has several hundred photos, all sorted according to Gurudeva’s travels and according to the year.

A typical set of binder labels showing the year and general contents.

One of the amazing discoveries of the day was a few seconds (about four) of Gurudeva which were part of a documentary by the History Channel. Here Arumugaswami has captured the short image for our archives. A rare video glimpse of Gurudeva from the year 1958, when he was just 31 years old.

Meanwhile, Sivakatirswami was compiling the audio CDs, logging in the hundreds of files and reconciling various lists. For the first time, we have all of the digitized audio files on our server, and we are getting ready to develop a small piece of software that will give us facile access to this wealth.

Here we have a look at the shelves in the Cedar Room. These are the VHS tapes which over the past three years we have digitized onto DVDs.

Just in time, since in our tropical climate many were covered with mold and the tapes were quickly deteriorating. Fortunately, they are all in digital form now.

There are approximately 600 hours of video in this format alone, hundreds more in Mini-DVs and such.

All of these tapes were boxed and stored in the Archive Container, making room on the shelves for our next phase of video work.

Arumugaswami works on organizing the tapes while Nutanaya carefully works through photographs. Lucky him, being able to look into the monastery’s past…

Yogi Japendranatha is working on capturing the special talks, called “the Mathavasi Shastras,” a series of talks Gurudeva gave for the monks during the last few years of his life.

Each morning after our meditation he would speak to the monks about monks’ things, about the ideals of our lives, about the disciplines and expectations, about our vows and our responsibility to seek the Self throughout life.

Palaniswami gathered the next 128 reels tapes and wrote instructions to our team in Chennai which is digitizing them, guided by Sivathondar Sheela Venkatakrishnan. Here is his note to her, with contents of each of the reels.

These ancient audio reels are so archaic that it is even hard to find machines that can play them. They are on 7-inch and 5-inch reels, using magnetic tape.

This is the kind of humongous device we used back in the 50s and 60s, to record all of Gurudeva’s upadeshas.

Not finding anyone in the US who would do this for a reasonable price, we turned to Sheela who found a company equipped for the task. For about a year now we have been sending boxes of reels to them in Chennai.

They painstakingly record them on CDs, which Sheela then sorts through before shipping revised CDs to Hawaii.

Here are her last three CDs, containing all the audio files from over 100 reels sent last year.

Today these were loaded onto our server. So now we have some redundancy: the original reels, the CD files and a copy in a secure part of our server. Despite the old technology, the audio quality from the reels is excellent.

As you can see, this CD contains 12 of Gurudeva’s talks. Thank you, Gurudeva, for these gifts of knowledge and insight, unequalled in all the world.

Another treasure from the past from Sri Lanka. While in Australia, a man came forward at Bodhinatha’s seminar to hand us a letter and envelope written to his father by Yogaswami. Dated August 20, 1938. It may be the first time we are seeing his writing in English. Such a mature style. Palaniswami took out his small digital camera and captured this onsite in Melbourne. We thought you would all enjoy seeing Yogaswami’s beautiful English script. The letter is in Tamil and we have captured that as well.

Yogaswami’s message, written during one of his few journeys to India, is roughly translated as: “Things are going on in the world that are not all good, but they are all Siva’s will and it will always be so.”

It is Sun Three, Ardra Abhishekam of Lord Nataraja for this month…

The exciting news of the day is the raising of Lord Shanmuga.. .Here we are under the banyan tree.

The silpis have prepared square indentation in the large cement slab…finishing touches are being made…

Yoginathaswami points to the chain hoist that he and his team have carefully installed on a metal girder cross beam about 14 feet above the ground…

Sweeping out the base area….

Next it’s time to bring in the white granite peedam especially prepared here by our team…

This piece of granite has a round indentation to accept the base of the statue of Murugan

The lift begins… the chain hoist slowly rising the murthi up… sand bags have been prepared to place in the back…

The strap is around Muruga’s chest, under the arms. He slides forward unexpectedly, just about 4 inches…

The hoist, beam and staging above appears strong and safe…

up… up… up…

Now the action begins… moving the base back ….

up… up .. up.. each pull on the chain only give about 1/4 inch of lift…. Two silpis in the back on the sides, hold ropes to prevent lateral swing…

Almost upright, the silpis rig up in front to pull him forward.

Working the statue backward into it’s opening on the white granite peedam.

Murugan’s center of gravity eases forward and the statue gently tips upright.

He is now standing on his own. The statue will be epoxied onto the white granite base and then the whole thing will be level on the slab…

Yoginathaswami changes the rigging, moving the straps underneath Murugan’s arms…

Now we have straight up lift… worked continued on through the morning… stay tuned…

Meanwhile Isani Alahan and Shaila Pushpa Sendan arrive at the Minimela for Sivathondu.

The Wailua Mission worked on Rudraksha beads on Family Home evening the other night and this morning Isani and Shaila will prepare some items for sale in the Minimela.

Shaila is growing up fast……

Today we bring you images from Innersearch by Dharmalingam Siddhan who offers a series of wide angle views….

Dharmalingam writes the captions today:

“A view from the back of our cabin at the Dooralong resort north of Sydney, Australia”

Flying off to New Zealand…

Here is another shot of the gorgeous mountain peaks of New Zealand from the airplane.

Even the views getting off of the airplane are jaw dropping and spectacular.

“Part of the rugged pass as we exit a long tunnel on the way to Milford Sound.”

A photo of one of the mountain glacier peaks on the way to Milford Sound.

A photo from the back of the boat cruise in Milford Sound.

Panoramic view from the Milford Sound boat trip.

A moving photo of the dramatic countryside from the bus ride to Lake Te Anu.

Another photo of a valley opening up during the bus ride.

Scenic view of the mountainside as we depart Queenstown in route to Lake Te Anu in New Zealand.

A calm photo of the reflection which managed to capture some nice detail of the mountain landscape.

It’s Sun Two at the Aadheenam. The Ekadanta Kulam shared news of their communications with prospective monastics and arriving pre-monastic aspirants… stay tuned for some new faces from Malaysia and Brazil on TAKA…

The big news is out under the Banyan tree where a huge scaffold has been built over Lord Muruga…

Because we cannot bring a crane into the banyan tree, this is all being done the old fashioned: Tall cross-beam and hoist…

Lord Shanmugam, the Six-Faced Murugan, will be lifted up on Thai Pusam day….

Sri Subramuniya Kottam of Sri Lanka celebrates Gurudeva’s Birthday in a Special Way.

As with every year the Sri Subramuniya Kottam celebrates Gurudeva’s Jayanthi or Birthday on January 5th with a Padapuja to Gurudeva’s Tiruvadi at the Tiruvadi shrine at the Kottam followed by cultural events for the Kottam’s children.

Apart from this, this year the Sri Subramuniya Kottam also sponsored celebration of Gurudeva’s Birthday at Jaffna’s first ever school for children with disability called Sivapumi. The Sri Subramuniya Kottam trustees and teachers also participated at the events and later presented the children there with presents.

Photo: Sivapumi students and teachers are dancing together.

When the clouds hover just above the edge of the mountains, and the sun sets behind and through the clear parting… it is always an amazing site….

Our Bodhinatha is back from travels and joined us in the temple for Sun One homa. We are in the middle of a series of astrological “deep inner” days… as we approach the full moon of Thai Pusam and the vibration of the Aadheenam is very actinic.

Our special guests today, Dr. Shan Shanmugavadivel from Toronto – President of World Saiva Council, Canada Branch and the new Secretary General for the Saiva Council worldwide. He was in Sydney, Australia with Bodhinatha at the conference and is stopping by here at the Aadheenam on the way home with his wife. He is a dentist by profession with a keen dedication to Saivite culture and tradition.

Here he chats with Sivakatirswami about the Natchintanai song book project and Swami asks him about some interesting transliteration issues: “Some say “c” in Tamil is to be pronounced as “ch” and other say it should be pronounced as “s” … which is it?” Dr. Shan is from Sri Lankan and there is not question. “S” is correct…

A lifetime subscriber to Hinduism Today, he tells Arumugaswami that he feels the educational sections which convey the basics are very important….

A switch from the natural world of plants… we take you to our carpentry shop were we are beginning to utilize some lumber that was milled from a fallen tree years ago. This is a very beautiful blue gum mahogany “Rainbow Eucalyptus” … very, very hard wood, that has cured and is now going into use in the “Java Cafe…”

Taking raw lumber and turning it into finished boards is a big job and the first thing you do is plane both sides to a smooth finish.

Then next, you have to have a least one straight edge. Thanks to this simple but ingenious invention called the EZ Smart Guide System by “Dino the Carpenter” a wonderful Greek Craftsmen… it is doable.

You clamp on this long guide and you have a special face plate on a skill saw and away you go. It is a simple and innovative invention. In a few minutes, the heart of a tree has a perfect straight edge….

These fine planes are kept in a closed cabinet to reduce dust and moisture.

Sharp tools are a key to good wood working. This slow moving large radius grinding wheel gets you 95% of the way with just a minimum hollow grind. Then you finish off on a flat surface.

More pictures from Innersearch by Ganga Sivanathan.

On our way from Te Anau to Wellington, we stopped in Queenstown where we boarded a Skyline Gondola that took us to the top of a mountain with spectacular views over the city and surrounding areas. At the top of the mountain we all either shopped, went lugeing, admired the views, took photos or/and went bushwalking.

Bodhinatha, a keen walker, was able to fit in a tough 30 minute walk before our lunch.

After a lot of fun and a tremendous lunch in Queenstown, we flew to Wellington on the North Island. The next day we boarded a train bound for Aukland via a 13.5 hour trip through the mountains. It was a unique experience with excellent views and train staff that pointed out the many highlights on our journey.

Rudi talking to Saravananathaswami. Rudi looks so serious here he must have been talking to swami about a black rock.

In our discussions on meditation and concentration in Palaniswami’s classes we had decided to write a book called “50 thoughts on a black rock”. Many ideas were brainstormed and fleshed out over dinners. Just as Gurudeva liked to use every moment for something productive, to create reality out of dreams and to go above and beyond what we would normally expect, so this idea grew and grew, taking shape and form. Rudi was one of the leaders of our discussions and creator of ideas. It was also a lot of fun.

My notes from one of Bodhinatha’s classes say “Bring ideas; support ideas of others; make sure that everyone’s ideas are heard; end up with a better and greater idea based on all inputs.” We truly put that to work during our book discussions.

All aboard! Notice the early morning start! Yes this is am, not pm.

Chudika greets the day as every Innersearcher does, with a great smile.

All settled in. The train had a cafe carriage, an indoor observation area and an outdoor observation deck.

We had our own carriage, and being together for so long allowed us to finalize the organization of a present for Bodhinatha to demonstrate our appreciation for his wonderful teachings and discussions. Every Innersearcher was so generous that we soon achieved our goal, and the card was also signed during the afternoon. On the last day of Innersearch, we presented to Bodhinatha a picture of the latest, greatest and fastest Mac laptop. It will be purchased when he returns to Kauai, and we hope to see a photo of it on TAKA soon!

For lunch we were treated to a picnic high in the mountains where the view was fantastic.

Shivani Rajan

Sheila Young, a person with fantastic depth and great stories.

Then back onto the train to arrive in Aukland later that evening.

Sadhaka Nilakantha

Sadhaka Jivanandanatha

Jnanideva Cevvel.

Here is Bodhinatha on the ship in Milford Sound, New Zealand…

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

A close up of the work just completed at the top of the West Chinna Gopuram of Iraivan…

Last day of this phase… tour day. Shanmugam Sthapati makes his weekly presentation to all the visitors. Another big crowd today. We thought traffic would “slow down” but not so… a continuing stream of guests….

We are grateful for more great shots with captions from Innersearch Ganga Sivanathan, who had her Namakarana in Australia. Along with Devi Tandavan Welcome to Devi and Ganga to our Saivite family!

Ganga writes:

“New Zealand has truly magnificent scenery. Today, the photos are from the bus rides to Te Anu, and from Te Anu to Milford Sound, and the cruise on the Sound. Most need no explanation. This one is at Mirror Lake.”

Carole and Josan enjoying the cruise. It was a cold, blustery day. We were told it is rarely clear, but the rain delayed long enough for us to enjoy the cruise from the decks.

Bodhinatha, Suselah Periasmy and Easan admiring the views

Clive Roberts, from the Netherlands

Shivani Rajan from California

Arjunan Subramaniam from Malaysia.

Puvaneswary Roberts from Holland.

Sadhaka Nilakantha, Innersearch staff. One of his duties was to be video camera man on the trip.

Bramacharini Lila Shaktidevi

Paramacharya Palaniswami

Dharmalingam Siddhan

Saravananathaswami

Arjunan with Raman Pumanian

Kailash

Arjunan and Raman with Marlene Carter and

Snow could be seen on the mountains.

At the Chasm, we had a chance to do Ganga Sadhana to the fast flowing river below us, and to marvel at the rock formations.

The wild flowers of NZ.

Bodhinatha received a lot of attention from the mainstream media in Australia. Here is the article that appear in the Sydney Morning Herald. Factoid: one-quarter of the population of Australians live in Sydney.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Linda Morris Religious Affairs Writer
January 28, 2006

HINDUISM is the predominant religion of India but in the global spread of eastern religions it has been Buddhism that has found a firm foothold in the spiritually barren lands of the West.

But as the revered American-born Hindu monk Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami likes to remind his students, Hinduism is far more pervasive in ordinary Australian life.

Hatha yoga, vedic astrology and ayurvedic healing are all practices borrowed from the Hindu faith, stripped of their religious ritual and reinvented respectively as a form of physical exercise, fortune-telling and healing. It is part of a phenomenon, the saffron-robed swami suggests, that others have labeled buffet spirituality.

“There is a general shopping for meaning,” he said, “of pulling out parts that are easily accepted and understood and avoid other parts that are harder to study but produce deeper results.

“Yoga is a series of postures that in its purest form prepares the body and mind for meditation. As a purely physical form of exercise it is good for overall health, but you are limiting its value to the physical. The Hindu concept is God is within and meditation trains you to look into the soul and see God.”

Hinduism does not have an organized hierarchy but to followers of the Saiva tradition of Hinduism Sri Bodhinatha is a pope-like figure. He is the head of the English-language Saiva Siddhanta Church, founded in 1957 with headquarters in Hawaii, and is the publisher of the magazine Hinduism Today.

He is leading a party of 45 pilgrims and monks on a tour of the east coast and of New Zealand, and will give the keynote address to the world Saiva conference in Sydney this weekend, focusing on the opportunities and challenges facing his religion.

As in every mainstream Christian denomination, Hindu leaders like the swami are wondering how to engage a new generation, many of them the children of Indian and Sri Lankan migrants, who hold little interest in Sanskrit chants and temple rituals.

The answer lies with parents and priests and their ability to draw Hinduism into family life.

“Religious routine needs to be integrated with family routine,” Sri Bodhinatha said.

Increasingly, the faith was dealing with marriages where one partner was not an adherent of Hinduism.

Sri Bodhinatha is a proponent of daily spiritualism – of spiritualizing everyday relationships at the office and home, and acting in service of others. By submitting to the law of karma, people could more easily deal with emotionally upsetting events. And rather than setting a day a week for worship or church attendance, they needed to treat each day as a holy day.

Sri Bodhinatha acknowledged the thirst for spirituality in the West. Unlike some evangelical Christian denominations, Hinduism was not the kind of religion to stand on a street corner and proselytize. The path towards spirituality was an intensely personal experience, but having decided to “learn to dance, you need to select a dance and have a good teacher”.

The Pillaiyar Kulam at work: here are certificates that are prepared to send to charter contributors of Hindu Heritage Endowment funds. Each one who starts an endowment is given such a certificate. These are the most recent ones.

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The raising of the dome of the West Chinna Gopuram could be considered a small milestone for Iraivan, marking the completion of the main structural elements around the central sanctum..

Here is small time lapse video of this historic moment:

And from an earlier lift this month, on January 17th…

Dawn in Dooralong is heartbreakingly beautiful.

So quiet with only the sounds of birds greeting the sun to accompany us on our 5-minute walk to 6am yoga and meditation.

Each new day brings smiling faces – Gayatri Rajan and Eleanor McCarthy.

Lisa Marston

Sakuntalai Krishnan

One variety of grevillia – or Spider Plant – a native to Australia. Everywhere we went, Palaniswami sought information on local trees, ferns and bushes, thinking always of Gurudeva’s visions for the gardens of the Kauai Aadheenam. On the last day of Innersearch he met a breeder and collector of palms.

One morning was spent at a Reptile farm where we were able to come up close and personal with a variety of local animals – aligators, crocodiles, snakes and oh so much more.

This man actually had a snake stuffed inside his shirt.

Koalas look so cute! They eat only a few varieties of gum tree – eucalyptus – exactly the type grown in Kauai!! The leaves actually put the koalas to sleep so they are slow moving and sleep most of the time that they are not eating leaves. They look so cute, but if annoyed they scratch and bite.

Nilufer feeding the kangaroos.

REAL up close and personal with some of the animals.

Reptile Park that day saw more than its usual quota of men in orange. Also visiting were 3 sadhus from the Swami Narayan order with many local devotees. While we were taking photos one chanted a blessing for us.

The gardens of the park.

Shivani Rajan sits under a gum tree.

Hema Patel after feeding kangaroos.

But soon we were on the move again – Josan Feathers at Sydney airport. It was hard to leave the tranquil atmosphere of Dooralong with our daily classes of yoga and meditation with Saravananathaswami, and Karma Management with Bodhinatha. Palaniswami also gave a class on Monism and Dualism – advaita and dvaita – and the history of Gurudeva’s work in promoting the Monistic Theism reality of Saiva Siddhanta. He shared with us some early photos of Gurudeva discussing these points with various scholars and kartars in India.

Usha Shastri.

And then we were winging our way across the Tasman to New Zealand to Christchurch, and onto another plane to Queenstown.

Because both New Zealand and Australia are island countries, they are very particular about what you can bring into the country – particularly any food, wooden items, seeds or plant materials. Their strict regulations avoid any new pests or plant diseases being introduced into the countries. After experiencing the rigour of customs inspections in Australia, our guru and monks were ready in New Zealand.

Bodhinatha shows his Rudraksha beads to the official.

And then we were in New Zealand – a land where sheep outnumber the inhabitants. New Zealand has a population of 4 million people and 6 million sheep.

Bodhinatha in a quiet moment during the Yogaswami puja in Sydney….more pictures from Innersearcher camera of Ganga Sivanathan below….

Today big news at the Aadheenam was the dome lift for the West Chinna Gopuram….

Our camera man arrives just after the first segment has been placed…

The ground team, taking a moment to chat as the silpis above move the first stone into place.

The second piece is all set and hanging, ready to go.

Special padding to protect the gold leaf work from the straps…

It is a happy day for all when Iraivan make a big move forward like this.

We want to thank our crane company man and operator… the very expert and super-safety conscious, Larry Conklin. Larry loves working with the monks… every one works together so smoothly.

Our TAKA reporter from Mauritius, Kulapati Rajen Manick writes:

“The sixth year already! We are now name files from Mauritius photos for 2006. It has been a real experience serving the Guru this way.

Here in Mauritius we are starting the fasting for Thai Pusam. Most temples will start a special ceremony tomorrow. At the Park plans are ahead to repair the Ganesha Bridge and to build a small shelter to cover the small Pancha Ganapati murthi. Classes on the Saivite Hindu Religion and Saivite Trilogy have started for 2006 and this month we are sending our Spiritual Park 2006 Newsletter to the press for printing.

We are sending the first photos for 2006 of our January public Ganesha Homa at the Spiritual Park. We look forward to send our best shots for TAKA for 2006. Our thanks to Bodhinatha and the TAKA team.

Photo: The first day of January 2006 was blessed by the shakti of Lord Pancha Ganapati at the Spiritual Park through a Homa at the Spiritual Park. Many families from all parts of the island were there to attend this morning event.

Devotees dressed impeccably arrived early to secure a seat inside the Mandapam which is always overcrowded on these occasions.

The ceremony starts with devotional songs.

Here is Kulapati Manon Mardemootoo the eldest kulapati presiding over the Homa. Hundred of notes are being sent into the sacred fire.

Next seated is Kulapati Koothan followed by two other kulapaties which make up a team of four around the sacred fire.

The ceremony continues under the divine guidance of Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati

Everyone enjoys the darshan of Lord Ganapati ….

Outside the Mandapam looked radiant with the morning sun rays over the pine trees which are now growing tall near the pool… the Homa is over and devotees are coming out into the mango grove where food is being served.

Ravin Doorghiat and his sons from the south…

Prakash Gunesh with his newly wedded wife Saroja. Prakash and Saroja are leaving for Britain where they will stay for some time until Prakash completes his Law studies. He is studying to become a Barrister.

(from right) Kulamata S. Mardemootoo , Mrs. Veerapen and Kulamata Pallanee …

Bodhinatha greeted us each morning with a smile. Rumour had it that as we were very slowly getting out of bed early each morning, he was up even earlier and had already taken a long walk. Ganesha murthi

One of the beauties of Innersearch is that each day unfolds in a magical and mystical way, with a short “down time” scheduled each afternoon. While waiting for our next bus, Barney Lu continues to read Gurudeva’s books.Ganesha murthi

On our last day in Sydney we were privileged to attend a Yogaswami Puja at the Sivathondan Nilayam. It was a wonderful puja with beautiful energy and we were looked after magnificantly by the Yogaswami devotees. It was a wonderful way to connect into our lineage.Ganesha murthi

Ganesha murthi

Innersearcher Shivani Rajan was able to sing with the chior. Shivani and Priya Alahan both have beautiful voices and also sang at the Murugan Temple in Aukland on the last night of Innersearch.Ganesha murthi

Bodhinatha presented the Sivathondan Nilayam with a painting of Satguru Yogaswami.Ganesha murthi

Bodhinatha does the final arati.

Lynda McClanahan and Suselah Periasamy approach Bodhinatha for vibhuti blessings.

Then we had a 2 hour bus ride into the Hunter Valley just North of Sydney, arriving at the Dooralong Resort where we shared wonderful Bush Cabins.

Nilufer Clubwala, our Innersearch doctor.

Chudika Mahadevan, who had her birthday on Innersearch.

Ready for Bodhinatha’s next lesson – Usha Shastri, Monica Sewpaul, Hema Patel and Priya Alahan. In his lessons, Bodhinatha used a great mix of presentation, individual activity and group activity. In the activities, we could use the Dooralong gardens to reflect, experience and share. Our stories and the sharing of our experiences gave Bodhinatha examples that he could then incorporate into his materials. Bodhinatha wants to make sure that the examples that he uses in his talks are “down to earth” and not soley from the “ivory cave”.

Of course, we continued to eat well. We really appreciated the quality of the vegetarian food on the trip.

The Australian Bush at Dooralong was magnificent, and we were treated to a range of Australian wildlife – strange bird calls along with kookaburras and kangaroos. One of the beauties of the Australian bush is that it changes coloour as the light changes during the day.

Each afternoon, a group went horse riding, wandering through the trails at Dooralong.

Rudi and Dora using the bikes to explore Dooralong.

The local Dooralong dog in the horse stables.