At the Aadheenam we began the phase with a homa as usual. The past few days have been very powerful due to the full moon/Thai Pusam vibration. Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami presided over today's ceremony and told stories from his time in India at the Suttur Mutt. He was particularly impressed by how the devotees there have carried forward the memory of their founder, such that even after 1000 years, you can still feel the presence of the founder as if he were right there today. It was a good goal for us to achieve the same for our own beloved Gurudeva, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. [This slideshow has hi-res images you can view full screen or pan up and down on with your mouse.]

February 8 was dedicated to the Iraivan work site. We visited it in the morning, starting with a welcome and guru puja for Bodhinatha, then a tour of the work inspecting the Nandi Mandapam stones, the perimiter wall and being introduced to a new computerized carving machine that should speed certain aspects of the work.

On February 6th we visited Kapalishwara Temple in the morning, the most famous of all Siva temples in Chennai. Meetings occupied the rest of the day, especially a two hour session with Selvanathan Sthapati on Iraivan temple followed by another hour on our study of North Indian style temples.

February 7th was again a day for meetings, first with Srikanth, a Master Course student from Hyderabad who joined Bodhinatha last year for Girivalam at Tiruvannamalai. He is a professor of "strategic management." Next was Malathi, also a Master Course student and her parents. The major meeting of the day was with Dr. Sabharathanam, Dr. Abhiramasundaram and three of their students to discuss progress on the Saiva Agamas. Definitely been some challenges, but work is progressing in incorporating their study into the various Adisaiva Pathasalas in South India.