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Our beloved Satguru Bodhnatha Veylanswami returned home from India today with his team, Sannyasins Arumugaswami, Shanmuganathaswami and Yoginathaswami after 24 hours in transit from New Delhi.

Monks are on hand at the front to greet him...

All the monks were there to greet him...

Arumugaswami

Shanmuganathaswami and Yoginathaswami...

Arati at the temple door. It was just 9 am and the temple was full with a group of Japanese visitors who were blessed to have darshan of Bodhinatha at this auspicious moment...

Our team in Bangalore has done a beautiful job of documenting Bodhinatha's visit there.. Thuraisingam sends these photos and captions... we have so many we will them over several days....

"Bodhinathaswami and three swamis visited the worksite on the 5th of November. We received Bodhinathaswami, Yoginathaswami, Arumugaswami and Shanmuganathaswami in the airport at about 1.30 pm. After checking in at the hotel and taking a short rest, the swamis arrived at the worksite sharp at 4.30 in the late afternoon.

Swamis were received by the devotees who had come from Singapore-Malaysia. Then a simple arati to the gurus feet and they are welcomed into the house.

Bodhinatha speaks with devotees in the house.

.... as Arumugaswami looks on ...

...and thats Shanmuganathaswami with his digital camera capturing important moments for the archives.

And of course Yoginathaswami ... the mighty six-footer who made all of us tiny in front of him.

Sri Uma Maheswaran from Singapore as well as guests receive blessings from Satguru before we take the team for a walk around the worksite.

First they were taken to the chinnagopuram upper level course assembly which is arranged at the front as you enter from the gate.

Bodhinatha posing in front of the monolithic Jalakam which the team of carvers at the site are working on now.

And another shot of the same........this time a full length shot of the stone with Bodhinatha!

Jiva Rajasankara discussing details of the jalakom as the swamis look on. There are four of the giant "stone windows" in Iraivan. They are very difficult to carve and delicate to move and ship once they are carved. These are among the Iraivan wonderments we all look forward to.

Then the team moves down to the small shed where the two Yali pillars are being carved.

The Yali pillars come at the sides of the Raja Gopuram entrance. We have been working on them since the last year or so and still the process continues.

Bodhinatha seemed happy with the progress of the pillars.

More of the Yalis ..

And then we take a look at the hand rails, also the set of stones currently worked on by the silpis here at Bangalore.

These are the stone steps which will be sitting beautifully at the entrance of the garbagudi or the main sanctum where the linga will be placed. They are the famous NA MA SI VA YA steps.

Then we head on to the the Artha Enterprise worksite just next to Iraivan maintained by Senthil Rajasankara.

Just a brief discussion on the current works ....a blessing to have Bodhinatha.

Another view of the site.

That's Senthil describing about the pergola to the swamis.

Next the swamis take a drive to the Vanilla farm of the Rajasankara's which is an adjacent land near the silpis quarters.

We have about 3500 plus Vanilla vines growing here .... and having the blessings of the Satguru is a great gift to the plants.

That's a vanilla vines and they flower after a two and half years of growing ...producing beans which when processed turns into vanilla essence .... the yummy flavour and fragrance that comes from biscuits, chocolates and cakes etc.

Back at the worksite and the swamis taking a look at some of the pillars Artha Enterprise has carved for the Sri Raja Rajeshwari Temple of Sri Kailash Ashram outer Rajagopuram construction which is currently taking shape.

Now we present the highlight of the day ... Bodhinatha and the swamis at the mini stage setup at the work shed. We took almost a week to really clean up the place and finish the decorations.

As Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami was coming in November, all the silpis had a simple Ayudha Puja celebration in October and we saved all our time and budget for this day .... that includes their annual bonus and gifts.

Of special was the idea to honour our long time workers, souls who have stood with us for long years. Awards of gold was distributed to the workers.

This is one such gold coin.

Also certificates were distributed along with the gifts. This is the certificate that was given to Iraivan Workers ..... a good quality laminated certificate which they can carry happily home as a mark of respect we have for them.

We started the ceremony with the awards presented to the workers who have workerd for over five years. They received a Titan watch with a certificate -- a total of 8 of them fitting in this category.

We take this opportunity to present these workers to the entire globe.

This is Silpi Marimuthu from Thuthukudi Tamil Nadu.

This is Rahmathullah a Muslim fondly called as Ragu by our workers. He is a devoted worker higly accomplished in ornamentation work.

AL Pandy, a deaf worker but a skilled person.

Silpi Ganesan from the hills of Ooty Kodaikanal.

and that's is Palaniappan, our cook. He is a very clean and disciplined chef.

[more picture and story with tomorrow's TAKA...]