December 21, Yellow
Nurturing Harmony Among Family Members

Learn all about Lord Ganesha’s Holiday celebration here: panchaganapati.com/

Please also enjoy this introductory video from fellow Ganesha Bhaktars at the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in London:

An Alternative to Christmas for Hindu Children: Pancha Ganapati Festival (21st-25th December)
Day 1 – Pancha Ganapati Festival (21st Dec)

Another Skanda Shashti festival has come and gone. Dancing with Siva defines the festival as "A six-day festival in October-November celebrating Lord Karttikeya's, or Skanda's, victory over the forces of darkness." After two years of no visitors, we once again have a contingent of pilgrims from off-island. Because the six days of this festival immediately follow our late Gurudeva's annual Mahasamadhi puja, most pilgrims who come for that puja tend to stay on for this festival. Every day they were attending the 6am Muruga puja performed by Muruganathaswami, offering soulful singing while the curtain was closed, building the vibration towards the final afternoon puja shown in these photos.

Jai Gurudeva!

We hope you enjoy this large collection of slightly belated photos from Kauai Aadheenam's recent Mahasamadhi Celebrations. On the second to last day of the festivities, pilgrims spent time at Iraivan Temple, learning about the project from Yoginathswami. Later they worked to set up for the next day's final event along with the installation of a stone stand for the installation of a granite murti of Gurudeva near the monastery entrance. On the final day, pilgrims had a class with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami. Following class everyone paraded to Kadavul Temple and then to the entrance area with the granite statue of Gurudeva. Gurukkal performed the installation puja. That afternoon was the final homa. The kumbha, blessed with divine energies from the homa, was then paraded to Gurudeva's shrine in Kadavul Temple for the final abhishekam. Aum.

Jai Gurudeva! Following four days of events and classes at Kauai Aadheenam for our visiting pilgrims, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, the monks and devotees all gather together for a homa and then a final abhishekam to Gurudeva to conclude our 2022 Mahasamadhi festivities. Kumar Gurukkal performes the ceremony with the help from the monks and Satguru. "The Self God is within all of this. It is beyond all bodies. It is beyond all form. It is beyond all intellect, beyond time, beyond space. That is the big realization on this planet, the thing that should be yearned for, sought for; all desires should be pointed in that direction. And then, once realized, you live out the life of the physical body and do what you can do in service to your fellow man, who is also coming along the same path that you have walked on before. All knowing also is right within you." - Gurudeva

Photos from Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswamis 80th Jayanti celebration. The day began with a homa, invoking divine energies into several kumbhas. These blessed water pots were then poured over Satguru in a once-in-80-years guru abhishekam. Following that there was a very short padapuaja and vibhuti blessing for those present. Speaking of presents, Satguru was also given many wonderful gifts by devotees. Next everyone sat to enjoy a Bharatanatyam dance by Priyanka Raghuraman. The day's events concluded with lunch and cake! Our thanks to Rajkumar Manickam for these wonderful images. Jai Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami! Aum Namah Shivaya

On October 5th we were blessed with a double rainbow. Days later, preparations are in full swing for Satguru Bodhinatha's Jayanti event. It is elaborate this year, being his 80th birthday, which means a special homa and abhishekam to the Satguru tomorrow. A Sivacharya priest is coming to perform the pujas.

Today, We celebrated Kadaitswami's 131st Guru Puja in Jaffna. Here with I'm enclosing a few pictures for you to enjoy. Thank you so much for your love and blessings.

Love, Thondunathan

A book of Natchintanai by Siva Yogaswami: Seventy-three songs full of the wisdom of the Sanatana Dharma and the enlightened vision of one of the most evolved siddha yogis of modern times, Siva Yogaswami.

Since 2009, Natchintanai - 73 Spiritual Songs was available with MylaiSri text for the Tamil. It was not possible to put it online, because that Tamil font would have rendered as gibberish. But now that Tamil has been re-entered in Arial Unicode! Now that it is in unicode, it can be copied and pasted across any web platform or in your email. The publication is also available in the EPUB:

https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/natchintanai-73-spiritual-songs

Dedication:

This song book is dedicated to Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately known as Gurudeva. He gave us these instructions regarding the heritage of songs from his guru, Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka:

"All my followers shall revere as sacred scripture the songs of Sage Yogaswami, called Natchintanai, which entirely embody the teachings of our lineage and command one and all to 'Know thy Self by thy self.' Aum.

They and my noble mathavasis all follow the path of service so vigorously hailed by Asan (spiritual master) Yogaswami in his many Natchintanai hymns which embody our philosophy."

A few days ago we posted about the Bala Alaya events to transfer energy from Kadavul Temple Nandi, Balipeedam and Dhvajastambha flagpole to a miniature wood replica so that craftsmen can soon do upgrade stone work around the bases. Here we present photos of the final event when the shakti was transferred from the kumbha pots into the replicas, just after the priests, Satguru and monks paraded all the kumbhas from the yagasala in Banyan Mandapam into Kadavul Temple in front of the Iraivan Sivalingam.
The shakti is contained in the water inside the kumbha pot, so a small amount of water from each kumbha was poured over each replica accompanied by powerful chanting, followed by decoration, dhupa, deepa, naivedyam. Toward the end, the priests chanted selections from all four Vedas, as is traditional at an event like this. Finally, they honored Satguru and he gave them the traditional tray of gifts and dakshina for their efforts.