During the first weekend in March, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami held a Senior Leadership Spiritual Weekend with the board of directors and national officers of the Hindu Students Association. The leaders of the HSA came from New York, Boston, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas to be a part of this special retreat.

Bodhinatha led classes on topics the HSA leaders themselves proposed: Hinduism and spiritual unfoldment, Hindu scriptures, God, Gods and the soul. In these sessions, our young leaders strove to gain a better understanding of their religion for their own personal spiritual unfoldment and to pass on to up and coming leaders in their branches at universities around the country.

Senthilnathaswami guided morning hatha yoga and meditation sessions and led classes on a variety of leadership topics proposed by the group: improving focus, clarity, direction and motivation; staying motivated when the going gets tough; effective communication on organizational and personal levels; listening and feedback; trust in a group dynamic; imparting leadership skills to new leaders; and more.

Thanks to this dedicated group, many Hindu college students in the US, many of whom have not learned much about Hinduism in their lives so far, are being educated about their religion and encouraged to put it into practice in their lives in practical, concrete ways that are sustainable. Bodhinatha's hope, and that of the Hindu Students Association senior leadership, is that Hindu students will grow up proud of their tradition and have the resources available to them to learn more as they progress through life.

(Thanks to Jiger Patel and Kushal Mehta for additional artistic photos.)

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One day while Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami were in Austin, our hosts Ravi and Kumaridevi, and their little daughter Bhuma, took us nature sightseeing. First was a beautiful forest trail by the Colorado River, rich with green grasses, mustards, ferns, the first few flowers of the season and butterflies. Next we went to Mayfield Park, near Mount Bonnell (Texas's only… well… mountain), to see the beautiful gardens, but most of all the gorgeous peacocks. The males' tale feathers were bright and fresh. There were about a dozen peacocks hanging out in the trees and wandering the park paths. It was a real treat.

On Wednesday, Bodhinatha and Senthilnathaswami drove from Midland to Austin, Texas. In the evening, Bodhinatha gave a presentation on The Guru Chronicles, our latest book, sharing stories from the book about the lives of the spiritual masters of our Kailasa Parampara, including Gurudeva, Yogaswami and the Rishi from the Himalayas. The beautiful presentation was met with rapt attention by the 15 or so people who attended at Casa de Luz, a macrobiotic vegetarian restaurant and book shop with event rooms that are frequently used for yoga classes, spiritual teachers, healers and others. At the end of the presentation, Bodhinatha took questions and signed books.

On Tuesday, February 28, the First Baptist Church of Midland hosted the Permian Basin's second interfaith dialogue event. Participants this time included Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami from Kauai's Hindu Monastery, Rabbi Holly Levin Cohn from Temple Beth El in Odessa, Pastor Dr. Randell Everett from First Baptist Church in Midland, Monsignor James Bridges from St. Stephens Catholic Church in Midland and Imam Wazir Ali from Masjid Al Islam and Masjid Al Qur'an in Houston. The questions that each of the panelists answered in turn were: What is the role of women in your faith community including leadership and worship? What is the central nonnegotiable truth on which your faith is built? What are some of the important practices done in the home in your faith? The morality of capital punishment? How does your faith acknowledge, value, teach and promote diversity? Is the humanity considered one family? Each of the speakers was eloquent and clear in his and her responses. This educational style of interfaith panel, repeating the pattern from last year's event, worked extremely well. The well received two-hour event, arranged by Dr. Padmaja Patel, one of our latest Saiva Siddhanta Church arulsishyas, was attended by around 500 members of the Midland-Odessa community. It was webcast live, and in the coming weeks it will be available on YouTube for those who were unable to attend in person or live online. Stay tuned! Read the full report by Sara Higgins at mywesttexas.com here.

After the interfaith event on Tuesday, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami was hosted by Nathan and Madu Medi in their beautiful home in Midland. There was even a sign in the foyer welcoming Bodhinatha!

On Sunday in Midland, Texas, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gave a talk accompanied by a Keynote presentation at the Shri Radha Krishna Temple of the Hindu Association of West Texas. Around 80-90 members of this tight-knit community attended the event, emceed by Kulapati Easan Katir, visiting from Davis, California. Afterward, the members performed arati at the beautiful white marble shrines for Radha and Krishna, Ram Pariwar, Venkateswara, Ayyappan, Siva Pariwar and others.

Later in the afternoon we took the two-hour drive north to Lubbock, where Texas Tech University is located. The small Hindu community in this town has a small building that they call the Lubbock Satsang Mandal, donated by a local hotel owner. Bodhinatha gave his presentation again, but tailored for this particular satsang, which contained a contingent from the local interfaith group that was inspired to hear Bodhinatha speak. Here again about 80 people attended, which is excellent as a turn-out for a lecture by a swami at a Hindu temple in the US. The question and answer session here was intense and informative, and the "Ten Questions People Ask About Hinduism" pamphlet was a big hit. It never fails to give Hindus much-needed answers to questions they are often asked (or accused), and non-Hindus the background they find useful to understand their Hindu friends. In places such as West Texas, which has a strong evangelical Christian majority, this knowledge is crucial.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami are in West Texas. The first event was a satsang at the home of Mrunal and Padmaja Patel in Midland, attended by around 50 devotees from the tight-knit Hindu community here. Mrunal and Kulapati Easan Katir performed a beautiful pada puja to Bodhinatha, followed by a beautiful rendering of Yogaswami's Natchintanai, "Engal Gurunathan." An upadesha followed, including a rich question-and-answer session.

As attendees were enjoying prasadam, the swamis, the Patel family and Easan Katir, who is visiting from Davis, California, for this event, retired to the family's beautiful shrine room for a special ceremony. Following a powerful Mahaganapati puja by Senthilnathaswami, Mrunal, Padmaja and Mrunal's mother, Hansa, read and signed the four vows--Ahimsa, Shakahara, Kailasa Parampara and Dashama Bhaga. These vows bring them into a status of probationary membership in Saiva Siddhanta Church called arulsishya, literally "disciples by grace." They are joining the extended family of Kulapati Easan and Kulamata Sundari Katir; thus Easan was here to sign as witness to their vows. It was a special and auspicious moment for the family, who has been studying the Master Course and preparing for about five years.

In the evening, Bodhinatha was hosted at the home of Dr. Chittur and Mala Ramanathan in Odessa. The Ramanathans are originally from the village of Vaitheeswarankoyil in Tamil Nadu, in Kumbakonam district. The Vaitheeswarar Temple is a famous, powerful temple where Siva resides as the Healer, and many miracles are associated with the temple, including modern-day. The family knew Gurudeva in San Francisco in the early 1980s; their son Karthik's head was personally shaven by Gurudeva in a chudakarana samskara at our temple there. Fond memories of Gurudeva, stories about Vaitheeswarankoyil and another rich (two-hour!) discussion ensued before prasadam was offered in their shrine room and served.

We just received photos taken during Bodhinatha's February visit to the old folks home run by the Yogeeswar community in Kerala.

It is interesting to see how some roofs, originally thatched, are now covered with metal.