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The wait is over. The temple doors of the newly estalished Vedic Temple in Seattle will be open to all devotees on February 24th, 2008. Pratimas of Lord Nataraja, Ganesha, Navagrahas (nine planets), and Meenakshi, which were made under supervision of Paramahamsa Nithyananda, a 31 year old, revered Master from India, will be energized on that auspicious day. Over 50 volunteers have worked tirelessly for a few months to establish the Vedic Temple. The temple is located at 2877, 152nd Ave NE, Redmond, WA 98052.

On this occasion, Seattle Desi Network spoke to Swami Vimalananda of the Vedic Temple. A current Microsoft employee, Swami Vimalananda was initiated by Paramahamsa Nithyananda and has been working with Life Bliss organization for the last three years. Swami Vimalananda was educated in Indian Institute of Technology in India and completed his Masters in the USA before joining Microsoft.

For more information and program details, please visit http://vedictempleseattle.org.

- A Seattle Desi Network Report

Bellevue, Feb 10th, 2008 - 460 participants, 130 children, 15 programs, delicious food, and tremendous enthusiasm among participants and audience marked Seattle Tamil Sangam's Pongal 2008 program. The program offered a variety of cultural events including dances, songs, and presentations by various participants. Deepa Balasubramanian, an organizer of the event said, "in the last few years we used to have 50-60 people in the program, but this year we saw the number grow to 460+ and the tickets were sold one week early. Pongal is an important event for Tamilians and we celebrate it as our Thanksgiving day."

Pongal 2008 Program Highlights

The program also introduced the 2008 Board Members of Seattle Tamil Sangam. This year's board members are Archana B, Arun Kumaravel, Deepa Balasubramanian, Pradeep GanapathyRaj, and Sujatha Rajarajan. In addition to entertainment, the Pongal program also featured a humanitarian effort to help Maddie (HelpMaddie.com), an India born 7 year old girl suffering from cancer, and is in need of a bone marrow donor. Harish, a lead software engineer in Microsoft, drove the initiative to raise awareness and solicit donors in the program.

Children danced for a classical song on Lord Krishna

A group of 6 women performed a Tamil folk dance

For more information on Seattle Tamil Sangam, please visit seattletamilsangam.org.

- A Seattle Desi Network Report

Surya Namaskar Yagna, a two-week long initiative to perform 1 million Surya Namaskars or Sun Salutations, was completed by Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in Seattle on January 27th, 2008. HSS is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting Hindu cultural and religious values among Hindus in the USA. Several HSS members took part in the Yagna by performing Sun Salutations in both group setting as part of HSS programs and also in their homes. At a concluding event, dubbed Seattle Yoga Marathon, HSS Hindu Yuva group conducted a two-hour session with 35 participants, who collectively performed 4500 Sun Salutations.

Surya Namaskars are a series of Yoga postures or Asanas, each providing distinct benefit to the human body and mind. When done properly and on ongoing basis, Surya Namaskars are expected to have a profound impact on the people's lives. HSS volunteers say that with the Yagna, they aim to spread awareness on the benefits of Sun Salutations and hope that participants will cultivate a habit of doing Yoga everyday. Surya Namaskars are done in 10 postures, though there are multiple variations that have additional postures. Yogasanas (Yoga postures) are one of the eight elements of the ancient science of Yoga that originally came from the Hindu saint Patanjali.

This is the second year of the Yagna. Last year, more than 4500 participants performed over half-a-million Sun Salutations collectively all over the USA. The Yagna attracted the attention of various cities around the USA such as the City of Oklahoma, which proclaimed one of the days of Yagna to be the Yoga Day. Now, Yoga is a multi-billion dollar business in the USA and is practiced by millions of Americans irrespective of their religious faith.

Visit HSS website, http://www.hssus.org/sny for more information on Surya Namaskar Yagna and associated resources. Though the Yagna has completed, one can practice Sun Saluations everyday to stay fit and healthy in today's stressful environment.

- A Seattle Desi Network Report