Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami arrived safe and sound in Singapore and will be off to Malaysia shortly. Bodhinatha has a number of Satsangs with the missions, a talk with leaders of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam and an all day retreat that is dedicated to members and students.

We began our phase today with Sun one Homa as usual. During the retreat, besides the initiation of Siddhanathswami we also had the annual Vaikasi Vishakam Muruga puja which we held in the evening of Vaikasi. Here is the beautiful image of Subramaniyam in Kadavul temple.

Sadhaka Nandinatha after several years of practice on his chanting and puja was the lead pujari for the puja. This is his first big puja/abhishekam.

The yogurt abhishekam is always an amazing sight.

The vibhuti abhishekam.

Alankara arati….

Vetri Vel Muruganukku!

Riccardo Morano, who is studying the Master Course and considering becoming a Hindu and possibly a monk one day, had little direct experience of our Saiva culture. He lives in upstate New York and we arranged for him to go to Toronto and spend a weekend with the Tamil community there and worship at the Sri Varasiththi Vinaayagar Kovil (Ganesha temple) managed by the Sri Lankan community.

Well, his prarabdha karmas were such that he ended up staying with the two priests from Pillaiyarpatti in the priest’s house. Something we had not planned. Here is Riccardo helping carry Ganesha during the weekly Friday “Vasanda Mandavam Puja.”

Riccardo with the priest Kumaran and Vignesh Markandu who helped facilitate his visit. A short but needed and intensive experience of Saivism.