On December 24, Day 4 of Pancha Ganapati, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami was hosted by our Saiva Siddhanta Church Southern California Mission at the home of Ravi and Sheela Visswanathan in Carlsbad. The satsang began with a Ganapati puja by Senthilnathaswami, followed by a talk by Bodhinatha (see below for links to a video of the talk taken by Nalini Kodpadi), then singing by the Kondapi daughters from Phoenix and tabla playing by Ravi and Sheela's son, Mayuresh, bhajans by the group and prasadam for everyone. It was a rare treat to celebrate Pancha Ganapati with Satguru Bodhinatha during his travels! Jai Ganapati.

Videos of Bodhinatha's talk:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Last week Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Senthilnathaswami visited the site of a new Chinmaya Mission center, to be called Chinmaya Jyoti, for which is just beginning construction in the beautiful hills of Poway, California, outside San Diego. Sukumar Srinivas took us on a tour of the muddy site. When the weather worsened, we all went to his nearby home for an impromptu satsang, including a delightful talk by Bodhinatha.

Bodhinatha and Muruganathswami arrived safely home during our three-day full moon retreat. Here are a few photos of their time in Arizona.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Muruganathaswami attended the Bhumi puja (land blessing) for the Hindu Temple of Greater Fort Worth in Texas this morning. The building committee members of this upcoming temple came to Bodhinatha seeking advice several years ago, asking him to perform the role that Gurudeva performed for three dozen temples around the world. Bodhinatha has been working closely with them, reviewing and commenting on their building plans, helping make important connections with reputable temple architects, answering questions about the mystical workings of the temple and settling difficult questions.

Bodhinatha reports: "The event started with Ganapati puja, then a homa for the eight protective Deities and all the Deities who will have shrines in the temple. Three priests were involved and did an excellent job. Some 600 devotees were in attendance. Next was a series of short talks: by me, Swami Sarveshananda from Chinmaya Mission Dallas and our congressperson-to-be Tulsi Gabbard. The pancha shilanyasa, brick laying ceremony, followed, and finally an hour of dancing and singing by the youth.

Today is a momentous and auspicious day for what will be a large, beautiful temple, and the only one on the far west side of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a 9,300-square-mile area encompassing twelve counties and over 6.5 million people.