Bodhinatha Visits San Antonio

San Antonio, Texas, is home to some of the first Hindu families to have arrived in the US. Dr. Pemmaraju Narasimha Rao and his wife Rani migrated in 1958, when there was not another Hindu to be found for hundreds of miles in every direction. He was a prominent physician and professor in biomedical research, and she was a yoga instructor. They raised two sons and a daughter and generously cared for every other Hindu family that came to the area, a pattern that picked up pace in the 1970s. Meeting Swami Satchidananda and Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami numerous times in the 1970s and 80s, they received much encouragement to build a Hindu temple here. The Hindu Temple of San Antonio was founded by the Raos and several other families in the late 1980s. Gurudeva visited on several occasions, and Rani loves to tell stories about meeting him in the airport and mystical happenings that always seemed to take place around him. Bodhinatha has come to speak at the San Antonio temple several times in the last few years at the invitation of the group here.

With our hosts, Dr. P.N. Rao (left) and Dr. Bakthavatsalam and Jaysri Athreya

We arrived in San Antonio on Monday evening and went straight to the Athreyas\

home'

Jaysri greets Bodhinatha at the entrance to her home in the San Antonio hills

Dr. Athreya greets and performs pada puja for Bodhinatha, Swami and Brahmachari Girish Chaitanya, acharya of Chinmaya Mission in nearby Austin

Next, an impromptu satsang in Dr. Athreya\

s beautiful shrine room'

Beautiful bhajans

In the living room, Bodhinatha shared the monastery\

s new introductory video on his iPad'

Dr. Athreya, who is an initiate in the Sri Vidya tradition, asks Bodhinatha excellent metaphysical questions

Bodhinatha gave a copy of Self and Samadhi and some vibhuti from Mahasivaratri to Girishji

Tuesday afternoon we visited the home of Dr. P.N. and Rani Rao for tea before going to the temple

Senthilnathaswami, Dr. P.N. Rao, Rani Rao and Bodhinatha

Arriving at the Hindu Temple of San Antonio, up on a hill in the beautiful northern outskirts of the city

Lord Venkateswara is the main Deity here

The Uma-Maheshwara-Dandayuthapani sannadhi is also quite powerful

A small but attentive group on a weeknight

Mangalarati

The temple\

s rajagopuram is a beacon atop the hill, a Western analog of Tirupati-Tirumala'
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