A Deer Friend in Swamimalai
No, it's not a spelling mistake. I do mean a deer friend. Two years ago we stayed at the Anandham Eco hotel in the village of Swamimalai during one of our spiritual adventures. A day before we had…
The Blog — 1037 posts since 2008
Timeless wisdom for a focused life.
Teachings on awareness, energy, and purpose — alongside the retreats, talks, and travels that fill the rest of the journey. Drawn from ten years as a Hindu monk and decades of teaching, written to be applied to your life today.
Inside the sanctum of Chidambaram
Through our close connections with the priests of Chidambaram, we were able to go into parts of the vast temple that are rarely seen by outsiders.
Lunch with a priest's family
The only way to taste true Tamil cuisine is to be fortunate enough to be invited for lunch with a family. We had that pleasure yesterday when we dined at the home of Kailas Deeksitar, a priest at the…
Labor of Love at Chidambaram's Orphanage
Just a few minutes outside of Chidambaram town is an orphanage built to house, care and educate special needs persons. All of the residents of this orphanage have challenges with mental development.…
Visit to Chidambaram
At Chidambaram temple, the group pauses for a portrait with the priest who performed the ceremony in which the ancient statue of the elephant-headed Ganesha is bathed with oil, milk, yogurt, honey,…
Chidambaram's Temple of Love
This afternoon we made our way further south leaving behind the French colonial town of Pondicherry and arriving a couple of hours later in the temple town of Chidambaram. Chidambaram is most well…
Eating with your hands
Eating with your hand is something that is common in Asia especially in India. The right hand is used and all meals are eaten with it. Today for lunch as part of our culinary journey we visited Sri…
More on Chidambaram's Siva Nataraja Temple
Sacred to Saivite Hindus the world over, this majestic temple complex sprawls over 40 acres and is dedicated to the Hindu god Siva. Here Siva manifests as Lord Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. Although…
Relaxed cows of Pondicherry
Pondicherry is a beautiful seaside French colonial town. Beautiful 19th century architecture and contented cows (although maybe not as Ben and Jerry envisioned them.)
Shopping excursion to FabIndia
One of the great shopping experiences in India is FabIndia. People got very excited.
Exploring antique stores in Pondicherry
We drove down to Pondicherry from Mamallapuram along the east coast road which took about 2 hours. Just outside Pondicherry town, about 5kms or so, there are a bunch of great antique stores. We…
Exploring the Basic Beliefs of Hinduism
We had an hour long class this afternoon sitting in the lovely courtyard of our hotel facing the Bay of Bengal across from the Promenade in Pondicherry. Today's topic was to explore the basic beliefs…
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