Kauai Aadheenam

Lord Panchamukha Ganapati, known by nearly all Mauritians as simply “The Big Ganesha”

Arrival at the Spiritual Park on the morning of the homa

Parading to the main mandapam

Vel lights the camphor arati

The homa is then lit

Kulapatis tend the flame while Swami burns the prayers

Next, a silent meditation with all present

Paramacharya gives an upadesha

Rajen translates to creol

An award from the Mauritian Department of Health

Final offerings

Pancha Arati. Jai!

Some wonderful bhajans to end the event

Our deep gratitude to everyone in Mauritius for the increadible stay! Aum.

Jai Ganesha!

On October 5th, the final day of Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami’s and Sannyasin TIllainathaswami’s journey in Mauritius, the two had a wonderful time attending the monthly Ganesha Homa at the Spiritual Park. The day happened to coincide with a massive event at Ganga Talao, the island’s sacred hilltop lake, so only the staunchest Ganesha bhaktars were in attendance. This reduced the morning’s usual crowd of several thousand. When our swamis arrived they were greeted and garlanded at the entrance to the park, then paraded to the feet of Lord Panchamukha Ganapati. An arati was performed by Vel Mahalingam, the homa was kindled, and thousands of paper prayers were added to the flames. Following the homa was a silent meditation and then a talk by Paramacharya about the joys of Hinduism. An award was also presented to the Spiritual Park by the country’s Minister of Health, for the massive success of the blood donations that take place just outside the park during most monthly Ganesha homa days. Next was a final arati, followed by bhajans, and a loving farewell to our traveling monastics. Aum.

Beginning the evening ascent up to the hillside temple

A view of the temple (in the background behind the hall) just before dusk

Shishaya wait at the base of the steps to warmly greet our swamis

Greeting Shivacharya at the top

The view of the town from the temple at night is quite lovely

Paramacharya is seated to give an upadesha to everyone

The temple’s hereditary manager introduces the monks

Aum Saravanabhavaya Namah

Vel Muruga!

Recently while in Mauritius, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami traveled to Quatre Bornes for an evening event at the Mayil Kovil there, which resides upon the nearby Corps-de-Garde hillside. Arriving in the evening, our swamis led the march up the nearly 300 steps stairway to the temple. Several hundred people were in attendance. After being greeted by the resident Shivacharya, the group circumambulated the temple and then stepped inside for worship at the main shrines, concluding with an arati to Lord Murugan. Paramacharya was then asked to give an upadesha to everyone. He discussed many of the joys and strengths of Hinduism, as well as provided advice for handling the encroachment from other religions, while including some stories about the advice that Gurudeva had given many years ago to crowds in Sri Lanka. Aum.

A group photo at the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon

Exploring the lotus and lily pond at Kew Gardens

The glass structure is the palm green house, which is well over 100 years old. They will soon rebuild it in the same style.

Inside reminds us of Kauai. Our tour guide talks palms with Paramacharya

Outside are many varieties of happy roses

some amazing trees here as well

Off to the cacti and succulent greenhouse

there’s even a baobab tree in the middle

easy to miss all the amazing little life forms

Satsang at the Santhirapala home

The following day’s visit to the British Museum’s special India exhibit

An explanation from one of the exhibit’s creators

The next day’s visit to the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon

Some expertly sung natchintanai from the temple’s oduvar

London was the next stop for Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami on their way to Mauritius. They had a wonderful time there, hosted by members and enjoying a few of London’s unique experiences. On their first full day there, they went on an outing to Kew Gardens, exploring the many plants. They got some good ideas for small additions and improvements to our sacred gardens around Iraivan Temple on Kauai. In the evening was a satsang at the Santhirapala home. After natchintanai singing from members, Paramacharya gave an inspiring presentation on managing one’s karma and on the mystical insights of Tayumanivar, while presenting some of the Tayumanivar songs that we’ve had recorded for our website.

The following day, members brought our monks into central London to enjoy a special exhibit at the British museum, featuring artwork, architecture and ancient murtis from all across the Indian subcontinent. One of the exhibits creators kindly gave a special introduction to our monks, explaining a bit about the informative experience they were trying to achieve. On the final day in London, our monks visited the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon. They enjoyed brief worship followed by a satsang at the temple’s Yogaswami shrine. The group included several staunch Yogaswami devotees, most of whom had met the Lion of Lanka when they were young. Aum.

Our swamis enjoying some artwork (a Van Gogh to be precise) in New York

Manhattan skyline as seen from our plane

Walking trough the Indian section with the Tanzi family

Jai!

Sekhmet, the Egyptian Durga, as far as we can tell

We noticed these conches, as we’re currently editing an article about conch carving in Hinduism Today

Must be a Chinese Muruga right?

Off into the forests the next day for a walk

fairy houses everywhere

Aum Namah Sivaya

Our traveling monks have been making several stops along the way to Mauritius. After they left the Bay Area, they spent a few nights on the East Coast and took a quick journey over to Manhattan to enjoy some of the classic New York experience. The Tanzi family met them at the MET, and everyone enjoyed exploring the towering marbled halls of this world-renowned museum. Apart from the 3000 year old Greek statues, Egyptian sarcophagi and some of the world’s most famous paintings (including a few of Monet’s water lilies!), there was a wonderful display of ancient Indian murtis in both metal and stone. Some of them still had some notable shakti to them, especially Ganesha.

The next day, while waiting for their evening flight to the UK, our monks went to a nearby trail outside of the Newark area to get some much-appreciated time in nature. The trail is known as the Fairy Trail, and features countless little fairy houses to be discovered around every turn. It seems to be a place that families love to bring their young children, as well as a place artists enjoy. There must have been about 20 painters around the trail, each settled down to canvas a different fairy abode. Aum.

Arrival at the Concord Shiva-Murugan Temple

The temple is looking wonderful!

A blessing before entering

Shivacharya brings our swamis around to the temple shrines

Starting with Ganesha of course

After darshan from Murugan, we sit down for a short satsang

The next day, a picnic under some California redwoods

A short hike in a nearby forest riverbed

Nice to be in nature again after airplanes and hotels

Evening dinner

Recently our traveling monks, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami, enjoyed a visit to the Bay Area for several days. The two are making their way across the globe to Mauritius. On their first day in the Bay Area they traveled to see the Concord Shiva-Murugan Temple which was recently completed. They were warmly welcomed and went around to visit each shrine, with a short worship at Muruga’s central shrine. They also took a brief tour of the still-under-construction community center nearby. One thousand copies of the October issue of Hinduism Today (which features the temple and Murugan on the cover) had been sponsored for the Temple to have and distribute. After some unexpected delays, the magazine copies finally arrived on the same day our monks did. Several were placed in the Muruga shrine for the blessing.

After the puja, our monks, members and students sat down in the temple for a simple satsang. Paramacharya gave some insightful information about Tayumanivar and played some of the recently recorded Oduvar work we’ve had done. He also covered some useful advice for our members there. Tillainathaswami gave a short presentation on self-discipline. 

The next day everyone headed up to the nearby redwoods for some nature time and a picnic, followed by a small evening dinner. The next day the monks flew to the East Coast in continuation of their journey. Aum

A collection of photos that Senthilathiban took while here at Kauai Aadheenam on our taskforce program

Senthilathiban takes a stroll through the rudraksha forest

One of his projects while here was to help clean this entry arch

He also enjoyed attending pujas at Iraivan Temple

Sadhaka performs the daily San Marga puja. Our wild chickens are very devoted to this daily event.

He got to see a wonderful event, the sea turtles coming to shore at the beach

Many islanders gather for this event

In another act of Seva, Senthilathiban cleaned these granite bonsai stands

It’s longan fruit season here, and the trees are loaded

Aran returns Senthilathiban to the airport

Aum Namah Śivaya

Aum Namah Śivaya

Yesterday, Senthilathiban Rajasankara finished his several week visit on our taskforce program. He has been doing some temple construction projects on the US mainland, and was able to take some time to come here. While at the Aadheenam he helped the monks of the Siddhidatta kulam with a variety of tasks, such as helping in the gardens, doing cleaning an maintenance projects, and much more. Aum.