After years of study and preparation, Saiva Siddhanta Church vratasishyas Tina Desai and Sahadevi Param received their samaya(mantra) diksha this morning, which means receiving spiritiual initiation from the Satguru to chant Aum Namah Sivaya 108 times daily on rudraksha japa mala. Prior to this, they were chanting Aum Saravanabhava Aum, and before that, mantras to Ganesha. Tina is from Ontario, Canada, and Sahanadevi is from California, USA.

This week's tour day brought a huge crowed of visitors.

Mr. and Mrs. P. Nathan made their first visit from new Jersey. From Sri Lanka originally, Nathan met Satguru Yogaswami as a young boy.
In the second photo is Rama and Jeeva Kolinjivadi on their first visit from Florida, celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary. They really enjoyed the monastery grounds.

Yogini Ratnasabapathy and her uncle Dr. Jega Pasupati visited briefly from Auckland, New Zealand, on their way to attend a stroke conference in Honolulu. Their familys were very close to Satguru Yogaswami. Dr. Pasupati's brother took two of the rare photos of Yogaswami. Yogini helped organize our Innersearch activity at the Murugan temple in Auckland in 2006.

Anil Badhwar is a Saiva Siddhanta Church sishya living in Norway. His niece Ingvild visited today for the first time with her husband David and friend Triana, who lives in north shore of Kauai and showed them around the island.