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Day Before Maha Sivaratri

It is the day before Maha Sivaratri and anticipation is mounting as we approach the most sacred Saivite festival of the year.

Maruthu Pandian

Maruthu Pandian has been working in the Ganapati this phase on various projects. He is also contributing an article for the next issue of Hinduism Today, in which he describes his experience of “Friendship Evangelism” by a fellow Christian student in Malaysia who tried to convert him. It’s quite a story. Stay tuned for the July issue to find out more.

Pilgrims

Mohan and Shanthi Thiagarajah arrived from Edmonton, Canada for Mahasivaratri. Originally from Sri Lanka, they are Tamil speaking so they were very pleased to meet Yoginatha Swami who also speaks Tamil. Amit Arora (right) is also visiting for Mahasivaratri and is from Oahu, a neighboring Island.

A special baby blessing was given in the Kadavul Temple this morning for Kamala and her husband Bodhichitta who have recently moved to Kauai. They pose for a photo in front of the temple tank with baby Emilia who was born on January 12th. They observed the tradition of keeping mother and child sequestered for 30 days and today was the little Emilia’s first trip out in the world. They came to Kadavul for blessings with all their friends.

Iraivan Temple

Iraivan is looking very much like a completed temple. It shine in the morning sun.

A picture of Iraivan’s roof. The stones have disappeared below the concrete.

One of the silpis sprays the concrete to keep it cool and wet so that it will cure slowly.

Annapurna Garden Ganesha Shrine Progress

Yesterday’s cement work saw the team move from Iraivan to other areas of the Aadheenam with extra cement to do a few other jobs.

One of these was the footings that are going around the beautiful image of Pancha Ganapati that has been installed in the middle of our ve

Br. Shama and her selfless service

We are blessed to have a vigilant Sivathondar, Shama Kumaran. She is retired from the working world and daily offers her depth of understanding of Gurudeva's teachings to our guests arriving from all parts of the globe.

The beautiful turquoise "Andara Crystal" set in the flower bowl at the entrance to Kadaval temple.

The love birds are sweet pets carefully attended to by Bramacharini Shama Kumaran.

Shama working in the Mini-Mela book and gift shop. Through her expertise on the content of all of Gurudeva's writings and other mystical knowlege, Shama guides guests by answering their sometimes deep philosophical questions.

Here is Shama taking care of her dear charges, the seven love birds.

A guest originally from Latvia, asks questions about karma, reincarnation, the Kailasa Paramparai, vegetarianism and the differences between Buddhism and Hinduism. She seemed enthralled with Shama's in depth answers.

Youth Retreat 2009 – Johor, Malaysia

26th January, 2009, 8.00am – The day was bright and plenty of sunshine.Youth Retreat kicked-off with registration of participants for youths between the ages of 6 and above. However,elders(parents)joined together with their children too.(Mrs Madhu and Devakumar mending at the registration booth).A total of 60 participants and 20 adults(youth at heart, nevertheless)registered.

Sharp at 9.00am, activitity started with an hour of Yoga exercise. Master Umamahesan conducted this session with explanation, after a brief welcoming speech.

Sun salutation posture!…inhale, pull your front body up, back body straight..

Breakfast being served after Yoga session.

Next, performing simple Ganesha Pooja.Youth brought their own little Ganesha from home and they were taught how to conduct Ganesha home pooja. A step by step explaination with mantra chanting and their meanings.

"Let anne show you how to do" this youth guides the younger kids while their parents watched enthusiastically.

The next game – Youth were divided into three groups and puzzle game relating to Ganesha were given to them to be completed as group effort.They enjoyed this game very much. The younger kids were given a less challenging work of connecting fixed dots outlining Ganesha's figure.

"Can uncle repeat the question?"

Greeting's in our traditional way! An interesting adaptation from Saivite Hindu Lesson book. Different group kids greets and says vannakam to each other. They're taught why we greet in this way and its significance.

2 members from each group were selected to memorise all the 16 names of Ganesha murthis surrounding inside the temple and will join their group to match-up the names with pictures given to them. A memory game and team effort work!

"We have done it''. All smiles and a happy picture after correctly identifying all the 16 Ganesha's murthi names in the temple.

Listening to talk on rudraksha and vibuthi. An enlightening session with slide show presentation. Number of questions were asked about rudraksha and one of the questions was, "Can girls wear rudraksha?" Of course they got a positive answer from Master Umamahesan, "Yes! You can"

Lets go to temple! Another interesting game, where number human cicles are formed with Ganesha in the center. Giving an idea of how temple outflows positive shaktis to devotees. Here the 5 shaktis of Ganesha rushes towards the devotee when he/she visits a Ganesah temple.

Temple Chairman,Dato Balakrishnan Sinniah gave away momentos to the youths, Ganesha sticker and Rudraksha beads at end of the Youth Retreat program. A lively non-stop activities that had really moved the youths hearts to come to temple and appreciate our religion and culture better and for a change, the program is an eye opener for many, in that they realized this was far better way to get them involved in our religion – a paradigm shift!

The religiously educational, joyful and funfilled day comes to an end at 3.30pm.A group picture as a memory. All of them wanted to have more of this, as at the end, many of the youths requested,"Can we have this once a month?" Indeed a rousing success. Jai Ganesha!

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

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