Pancha Ganapathi celebration at Malaysia was held at the residence of devotees.

Ganesha Puja was a part of the celebration..

The organizing team was ready with games....

The young ones as well as the elders participated in the games...

The first team to complete the first portion of the puzzle.....

The family sadhana for the first day of Pancha Ganapati is to create a vibration of love and harmony among immediate family members. We set up a shrine at our homes for our beloved Ganesha....

The shrine is decorate with traditional symbols, rangoli, lamps and more....

The family sits together for the purpose of easing any strained relationships that have arisen during the year.

A grand puja is performed invoking the spirit of Pancha Ganapati in the home.

As the family writes on the doorstep, they pray for well being in the house.....Jai Ganapathi....

Today was quite busy at the Aadheenam. Public tour day coupled with a large wedding party pushed the limits of our Mini Mela. Here Bodhinatha is giving advice to the newly weds about how to maintain a beautiful relationship by settling any disputes that arise before you go to sleep at night.

The Bride, Raakhi and her family are from Vancouver Canada. The groom, Ajay and his family are from the Los Angeles area. The Priest is Vinay Chaskar.

The Jonejas family with Shobha, nine years old and Lekha, six years old from San Ramon, Californina.

Mukesh & Seema Garg with their two daughters, Kriti and Nupur. They are from Cupertino, California and had a chance to meet with Bodhinatha personally after the tour.

Blessing a rudraksha mala for our inspired guests.

Ganesha worked his magic today and kept the rain clouds in check.

With the conclusion of Sadhu Paksha and Bodhinatha's return from Asia visitors are again blessed with personal darshan and book signing after our weekly tour.

George Bonaros is here from San Diego. He is originally from Ecuador and brought both his parents to Kauai Aadheenam. He had a vision of Gurudeva just before he came and asked Bodhinatha "How do I honor Lord Ganesha?" Bodhinatha is checking out the new bell he picked out for his puja along with his new book "Loving Ganesha". His mother was telling us that ancient icons have been unearthed close to her village that look like Siva Nataraja with his foot held high in a dance pose.

The holiday season will soon bring hundreds of guests to the Aadheenam. Wailua members are preparing for the many Hindu families which are free to travel with their children now as schools across the country begin to close.

Kauai sishya along with with Woody and Sadhaka Tejadevanatha (behnd the camera) joined Sivakatirswami yesterday for the bi-monthly singing/chanting workshop. We practiced our basic Tamil invocations, two Vedic chants and then we went around the room with everyone leading a bhajan. Swami is teaching everyone to develop "auditory memory." We sing out loud while looking at the book and then you try to "listen and hear it" inside your head with your eyes closed and just mouthing the words, but making no sound. The goal is to memorize the songs and to go deep into the meaning while we sing. So it requires both understanding what you are singing and also not being dependent on the song books. We practiced some of the Natchintanai we all know well and started learning a new one "Nalluran Thiruvadi," which is very popular among Yogaswami's devotees. We also practicing some basic vocal exercises as recommended by Adi Sankara: taking deep breaths and then doing long SAAA, RIII, GAAA notes.

Swami pointed out that after radio came record players and then CD's and now iPods and iTunes. This change in the our interaction with music has turned us all into "listeners of the professionals," but in the old days, everyone would sing. You can see some videos from Jaffna where an elder is singing. He may not be in perfect tune, but he knows the songs! So we want to get back to the "old ways" where we all sing and we are not just "listeners." This is one of the main cultural components of bhakti sadhana in Hinduism.