Today at Kauai Aadheenam

A group photo at the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon

Exploring the lotus and lily pond at Kew Gardens

The glass structure is the palm green house, which is well over 100 years old. They will soon rebuild it in the same style.

Inside reminds us of Kauai. Our tour guide talks palms with Paramacharya

Outside are many varieties of happy roses

some amazing trees here as well

Off to the cacti and succulent greenhouse

there’s even a baobab tree in the middle

easy to miss all the amazing little life forms

Satsang at the Santhirapala home

The following day’s visit to the British Museum’s special India exhibit

An explanation from one of the exhibit’s creators

The next day’s visit to the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon

Some expertly sung natchintanai from the temple’s oduvar

London was the next stop for Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami on their way to Mauritius. They had a wonderful time there, hosted by members and enjoying a few of London’s unique experiences. On their first full day there, they went on an outing to Kew Gardens, exploring the many plants. They got some good ideas for small additions and improvements to our sacred gardens around Iraivan Temple on Kauai. In the evening was a satsang at the Santhirapala home. After natchintanai singing from members, Paramacharya gave an inspiring presentation on managing one’s karma and on the mystical insights of Tayumanivar, while presenting some of the Tayumanivar songs that we’ve had recorded for our website.

The following day, members brought our monks into central London to enjoy a special exhibit at the British museum, featuring artwork, architecture and ancient murtis from all across the Indian subcontinent. One of the exhibits creators kindly gave a special introduction to our monks, explaining a bit about the informative experience they were trying to achieve. On the final day in London, our monks visited the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon. They enjoyed brief worship followed by a satsang at the temple’s Yogaswami shrine. The group included several staunch Yogaswami devotees, most of whom had met the Lion of Lanka when they were young. Aum.

Jai Ganesha!

A few days ago, the same roofing team that worked on Kadavul Temple completed the roofing for the side shrines of Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga. Both roofs were previously in poor condition, but they now look significantly improved—cleaner, neater, and much more presentable. Aum.

Our swamis enjoying some artwork (a Van Gogh to be precise) in New York

Manhattan skyline as seen from our plane

Walking trough the Indian section with the Tanzi family

Jai!

Sekhmet, the Egyptian Durga, as far as we can tell

We noticed these conches, as we’re currently editing an article about conch carving in Hinduism Today

Must be a Chinese Muruga right?

Off into the forests the next day for a walk

fairy houses everywhere

Aum Namah Sivaya

Our traveling monks have been making several stops along the way to Mauritius. After they left the Bay Area, they spent a few nights on the East Coast and took a quick journey over to Manhattan to enjoy some of the classic New York experience. The Tanzi family met them at the MET, and everyone enjoyed exploring the towering marbled halls of this world-renowned museum. Apart from the 3000 year old Greek statues, Egyptian sarcophagi and some of the world’s most famous paintings (including a few of Monet’s water lilies!), there was a wonderful display of ancient Indian murtis in both metal and stone. Some of them still had some notable shakti to them, especially Ganesha.

The next day, while waiting for their evening flight to the UK, our monks went to a nearby trail outside of the Newark area to get some much-appreciated time in nature. The trail is known as the Fairy Trail, and features countless little fairy houses to be discovered around every turn. It seems to be a place that families love to bring their young children, as well as a place artists enjoy. There must have been about 20 painters around the trail, each settled down to canvas a different fairy abode. Aum.

Jai Ganesha!

For the past few months, we have been actively posting on Instagram, including the Path to Siva carousel series and Gurudeva’s quotes in Stories. Recently, we launched a new series based on one of our publications, Gurudeva’s Spiritual Toolbox. It is an illustrated booklet that compiles key spiritual “tools” or practices taught by Gurudeva over his many decades of spiritual service. We have condensed each chapter into a 4-slide carousel format. We will be posting a new chapter every Sunday at 9 AM. Above is Chapter 2, titled “Worried About the Future,” which we shared last Sunday. Below is the link to the post. Aum!

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