Blog Archives

Bodhinatha is in transit today (September 9th) on his way back to Singapore for a one night stay before going on to Malaysia. We have a long series of photos today from the events of September 7-8 in Perth Australia. Here is Bodhinatah give a shawl to one of the priests at the end of the Kumbhabhishekam...

It was tour day 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 Navami Tithi, Sun One, Monday, September 12th.

.the crowd... watching a stone being carved...

A peek inside our Mini-Mela gift store... We want to thank especially Kulamata Isani Alahan for all the hard work and hours she puts into taking care of our guest needs here.

A portrait of Siva Yogaswami by Inder Sharma...

He sang:

"In the harmony of universal Oneness, realise that You and I--myself and Thyself--are knit in indissoluble union with the infinite Reality":

"There is nothing wonderful nor irrelevant nor even discordant":

"In bliss of harmony, in the supreme felicity of His will lies our Peace"

On the second day in Perth we had some darshan meetings with Bodhinatha. Here is the Satgunasingham family, who we have an extra special connection with because one of their three sons is Sadhaka Dandapani. His two brothers, Dharmaguhan and Arunachala, are on the right. Special thanks, by the way, to Arun, who thoughtfully shot TAKA photos of the temple events for us using our camera.

Krishnarajah family, also very involved in the temple from the beginning

Mrs. N Velupillay on the left is Sadhaka Dandapani's grandmother. She has eight children.

Mrs. P. Rajendra on the left in this photo had the good fortune of meeting Yogaswami many times

Mr. P Sivapatham

We think this is Mrs. Uma Rajeswaran, however we might be incorrect...

This is one if Mrs. Velupillay's eight children

Ramani and Prema Iyer, formal Master Course Correspondence students from Melbourne who flew in to meet Bodhinatha and attend the kumbhabhishekam

Outside the Annalakshmi restaurant on the riverfront with Mr. Satgunasingam. Another windy and rainy day...

The final big day has arrived! The Maha Kumbhabhishekam, when the kumbha water is poured over the vimanam of each shrine. Sri Sankaran Sivacharya explaining to us what is happening

First the priests are doing a homa in the yagnasala, during which they have to go back and forth three times between the yagnasala and Siva shrine. They explained this is because the Sivalingam contains Brahma, Vishnu and Rudra in three levels, so they enliven each section separately.

Chief kumbhabhishekam priest, from the Kandaswamy Temple in Kuala Lumpur, leads the way to carry the homa ghee offering into the Siva shrine to enliven one of the three sections of Sivalingam

Here they are offering the ghee from the homa to the Sivalingam

Sri Sankaran Sivacharya explaining more

The ladies created a beatiful rice flour kolam design at the entrance

Entering through the brick skeleton of future 14-meter-tall rajagopuram

Now the priests are coming back for the last time. You can't see it in this photo, but there is a silver thread running from the yagnasala all the way to the Siva shrine. The chief priest is touching the thread all the way, to carry the power, and the thread is being wound up behind him

Here they are nearly finished winding the thread all the way

Various offerings are required during the final kumbhabhishekam morning, all leading up to the final pouring of kumbhas. Here is a short dance performance.

The time has come! There is lots of excitement in the air and the temple is packed with devotees, probably over 1000. Here the first kumbha is poured from a lift over the Vaishnava shrine

Now pouring kumbha water over Hanuman shrine, followed by the same over the Muruga shrine, the Navagraha shrine...

and the utsava murti shrine

And the big big moment has arrived, to go outside and climb up on the roof to pour kumbha water on the central shrine vimanams. The weather is an amazing story about this kumbhabhishekam. All the preceding days have been very cloudy and raining. However just for this morning, the clouds parted and we had beautiful sunlight, punctuated with a couple short drizzle blessings! You could see the dark clouds brewing all around, but the sunlight held just for this morning's activities. Everyone could feel it was a really good sign of blessings being effected. Then after all that was over, the rain and clouds came back!

Getting ready to be hoisted up to the roof. The lift company was very strict and would only allow one priest to go up at a time

Here we are, up at the main sanctum vimanams, beautiful sunlit sky above.

And the long awaited moment...the kumbhas are poured simultaneously over all three towers for Ganesha, Siva and Devi

Here is a beautiful photo of kumbha water being poured over the vimanam tower for another Sivalingam in a side shrine. This is a Sivalingam at which devotees will be able to offer their own worship-abhishekam. In fact it is the original Sivalingam of the temple which Gurudeva gifted many years ago

We came back in evening for the kalyanam, or divine wedding, of Siva and Sakti which is traditionally done on the evening of the kumbhabhishekam day and during festivals

Musicians playing so well, uplifting the crowds

Beautiful images of Siva and Sakti

Watching the final ceremonies.

At the end, Bodhinatha blessed and honored each priest with a special shawl

Another priest...

It was the finale of a grand and auspicious series of events, something we could never imagined would happen. We want to thank all the devotees of Perth for inviting Bodhinatha and congratulate them all for this great achievement. Another Hindu holy center, planted in a far off country!

Another

The big excitement at the Aadheenam these past few days has been the long awaited heat treatment for termite control.

We thought about this for many years, as the termites continued to take up residence here and there, to the point of endangering the future of some of the structure.

Using toxic gases was out of the question, so we put if off, year after year. But then recently a new option was found: heat treatment. The buildings are tented and then hot air is blown into the building. The new technique was developed by scientist in California in the late 1980's and patented as the "Thermal Pest Eradication" system.

At the end of the day there is no noxious, dangerous chemicals to cause any illness or long term side effects. The process also destroys molds, fungus, bacteria, mites, even anthrax! Some doctors are prescribing the system for asthma patients whose homes may have microbes that may trigger an attack. See http://www.thermpure.com for more info.

Hawaii home owners can contact the recently licensed Bob Madamba President of Fil-Am Termite Service on Oahu, ph 808-843-0884 or cell: 808-330-3440, for ThermPureHeat treatments in Hawaii. And Michael Linden, one of the originators of the TPE, is right here at the Aadheenam to make sure the job is properly done.

It is a bit of an adventure and commotion as these giant heaters and their fans are roaring all the day long. and we have to move out any and all items that might be affected by the heat and then move them all back in again..

Things get really "toasty" as temperatures rise to 160 degrees in order to make sure that even in the center of the largest wooden beams, temperatures rise to at least 120 degrees. One Giant Sauna...Bob Madamba and his team going inside until they are certain the entire structure has reached the correct temperatures.

But, the technology is very benign... it is after all, just a lot of hot air!

It was indeed like a sauna inside the temple for those vigilees on duty when the temple was being done...that was yesterday afternoon's Ganesha puja and the evening Muruga puja. Kadavul was a sweat lodge for sure. But we maintaine
d our sacred vrata (vow) as we have done for over 30 years and the pujas went on, even inside the hot house!