The Innersearch is moving along and we are receiving images and stories by the day. Here is a small portion of the beginning days.

Satguru writes in, "Morning excursion to nearby Sigiriya. It is a giant rock that use to be a king's palace and also a Buddhist monastery. It is famous for its fresco paintings. We walked through the grounds and saw the ancient water gardens. Then we stopped in a shady place for my morning class. Next, more than half the group climbed to the top of it which was the equivalent of 42 stories of stairs!Quiet a view of the country side from there.

Afternoon at hotel; another class by me and then one by Sadasivanathaswami.

Link to Sigiriya on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigiriya"

The mighty Siddhidata Kulam are rounding up granite stones and moving them in place for the next batch of silpis who arrive in just a few weeks. The foundation of Iraivan is getting cleared for work, and that means moving some serious crate collections that have built up over the years. Luckily our monastic staff has forklifts, big-wheel trucks and gas-powered pressure washers to get the work done swiftly. Here's a small slideshow of their recent effort.

During the open hours of public worship, Kadavul Temple received an offering from Abhinav Ayalur who used a saxaphone to produce an Indian-style raga. Abhinav played Nadalo Ludai, Vaatapi Ganapati, Mahavyalakin and Siva Shambo.

In the January/February/March issue of Hinduism Today Sheela Venkatakrishnan shares an experience of being denied entry to one of her favorite temples. Not herself, but two monks she was with that day in July as they sought to worship God Siva at the Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore. That denial of entry to pure and wholehearted Hindus did not sit well with Sheela and she wrote passionately about it:

"In my hometown of Chennai, I was visiting an ancient Siva temple with two monks who had traveled thousands of miles to worship at this renowned pilgrimage destination. One, brown-skinned with Tamil features, was clad in the orange robes of a sannyasin. The other, wearing the yellow robes of a yogi, was white-skinned, light-eyed, obviously not Tamil or even Indian. A small group of us waited eagerly to have darshan of the Gods in this famous temple in the presence of these two monks from the Kauai Aadheenam in Hawaii. A special ticket can give access to the inner shrine, nearer to the Lord. But on this day no access would be permitted for the yogi. The priest denied him entrance. If he could not go in, how could any of us? So, we had our darshan from the outer mandapam. The priest took our offerings to the Lord, performed arati and brought out the flame for us.

"Who decides these things? Here I attempt to express my feelings and thoughts surrounding what occurred, hoping to find solace for my aching heart and, ideally, contribute to finding a resolution to what seems to me to be a critical issue in the Hindu community."

For the author's full appraisal of this happening, stay tuned to Hinduismtoday.com