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Darshan with Singh Family

Vir Amarjit Singh and his wife Harkiran have lived in Honolulu for 15 years but only visited us for the first time a few days ago. He is a professor at the University of Hawaii. They both asked some wonderful philosophical questions of Bodhinatha, making very good use of their darshan with him.

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Now, take a deep breath and don’t be in a hurry, we are trying to make up for our one day off line so 50 photos follow!

Garland making in the Aadhenam

These flowers were sponsored by Selvanathan Jothiswarar and family from Ulu Behrang, Perak, Malaysia. This is an on-going sponsorship for garlands for the temple deities in the memory of his late wife Tirumati Rani Jothiswarar. Mikka Nandri! Thank you very much!

These are “Thai orchids” from our local flower shop.

The garlands are made with strings made out of long fibers from the inner layer of the banana plant.

By not using any man made material, we were able to compost the garlands in our Annapurna garden after they have been removed from the deities.

The weaving has begun.

Finished garland

These garlands will adorn Lord Nataraja in the Kadavul Temple.

Yesterdays Pilgrims and Visitors

Kumu Kamakanika’ilialoha Santos brought a portion of her Hula Halau to Kauai for a Spiritual Hula Retreat. Twenty-one students and assistants, ages ranging from 5 years to 49 years. All are originally from the Hawaiian Islands and now live in Fremont, California.

They wore uniform outfits with “Na Mamo O Ke Anvenue A Kamakani” printed on their shirts. Aunty Punna Kalamu Dawson, who is well known to the Aadeenam, was the Kauai Hostess along with Gus Baldorama and Olana Flores.

After visiting the Iraivan Temple, Aunty Punna and Olana Flores brought out their ukulales and our visiting Hula Halau began a beautiful Hawaiian dance in front of the silpis. This unexpected moment caught them all by surprise as they gathered to watch the dancers from their roof-top position, applauding and graciously thanking them for this unexpected break in an otherwise routine morning’s work.

Here is two year old Jessalyn with her dad, too young to perform; she makes up for it as the cheering section for the Hula Halau.

There were several other visitors on this beautiful Spring day.

Anthony Litwinski, Rector and Jana L. Johnsen, Pastor of the St. James’ Episcopal Church in Waimea, Hawaii (Big Island) are acting as host parents in the “Youth Exchange and Study Program.” They are currently hosting these two young men for one year – (far left) Nabil Chahban, originally from Jordan, he now lives in Morocco. Also Saikat Mitra from Bangladesh. Saikat is a devout Hindu and wished to visit the Hindu Temple on Kauai, which he had heard so much about, so his ‘hosting parents’ graciously brought him to Kauai today.

Also visiting today was Lynn Muramoto (left), Karen Dartley, and Gloria Nakea from the Lawaii International Center which is famous for the eighty-eight Buddhist Shrines on the side of a mountain on the West side of the Island of Kauai.

Innersearch Asian Odyssey 2008 Retrospective

January 27th, Rameswaram Island: We continue with photos from our evening visit to the famed Ramanathaswamy temple.

We worship at one of the shrines. The Nataraja here is in a shrine covered with rudraksha beads.

After our worship we sit for a while in meditation, as is tradition, in one of the mandapams.

Then we are off to Kailas Ashram.

The group sits silently in meditation.

Today is Jeffrey Thomas’s birthday and Bodhinatha presents him with a shawl and few small gifts. Happy Birthday Jeffrey!

Mayuresh and Arathi Rahavendran in a deep philosophical discussion with Saravananatahswami, at least we think it is.

January 28th: The day we’ve been waiting for. The 22 well bathing in Rameswaram. Here’s Shailesh Trivedi ready to begin this amazing experience.

We all gather outside the hotel.

Innersearchers get blessings from Bodhinatha.

Looks like everyone is here….

Off we go to the first well, which is the ocean.

Aran and Valli Sendan with their grandson, Chidambaram.

The ocean is about a 5-minute walk or so from the temple.

Many pilgrims come from all over India to experience this well-bathing sadhana.

22 wells in total. The first being the ocean itself and the rest are located within the temple.

Bodhinatha offers a small pot of Ganges water into the sea.

And leads the group in to the water.

Worshipping surya before submerging himself in the ocean.

In he goes….

….and appearing again….

Everyone follows his lead.

It truly is a special experience and the group is totally emersed in this sacred ritual.

Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.

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