Mr. Rajnikant B. Acharya and his wife, to Bodhinatha’s left, are visiting from Nairobi, Kenya. Rajnikant is on the building committee of a Siva Temple now under construction in Nairobi. He invited Bodhinatha to be present for the opening ceremonies at the end of next year. He is here with his daughters, grandchildren and son in law who are all living in the USA.

Today ends our phase. The Ganapati Kulam gave their report. The team is 100% focused on completing the October issue of Hinduism Today.

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming two-day retreat,
until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Monday, July 19th.

After eight years Bodhinatha felt it was time to upgrade our two primary monastery vehicles. His personal car, which we call our guru vahana, is a new Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid that gets 50 miles/gallon, replacing the Honda Civic Hybrid we had since 2002. The vehicle used for town trips and other monks’ needs is a new Toyota Sienna minivan, replacing an older Dodge minivan.

This afternoon we had the traditional car blessing.

Siddhanathaswami performs the puja, first to Bodhinatha’s new Prius.

Then to the van.

Limes were placed under the wheels. Then Paramacharya Palaniswami drove the car over them.

Squish!

Break a coconut, final arati, and we are ready to roll. With gas prices continuing to rise, it’s good to get vehicles with better mileage.

Jonathan has been doing a really marvelous job on our walkways upgrade. Every day he does another 10-foot section and is now working on the path from the temple to the drinking fountain.

The stone is beautiful and sparkles in the sunlight. It has the added boon of never becoming dangerously slippery