"Every belief creates certain attitudes. Attitudes govern our actions. Our actions can thus be traced to our inmost beliefs about ourself and the world around us.
"
Gurudeva
Gurudeva, Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Founder of Kauai's Hindu Monastery
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Today was an auspicious one for the Kailasa Paramapara, Rudiren Carpanen Pillay and Uma Sivanathan. They both received their Samaya Diksha and the precious and magical gift of Panchakshara mantra was passed on from preceptor to sishya in the simple ancient initiation into mantra japa yoga given by Bodhinatha to each of them.
This is the first and foundational step onto the Saiva Neri, the Path to Siva. The daily contemplation on Lord Siva, Siva Dhyanam, begins with this practice and deepens through the years, as we repeat the Sacred Letters Five and let our hearts and minds melt in Divine Love for the One God of All.
Yogaswami sang:
"Thou who art non-pareil,
The consort of UmaDevi,
Whose temple is thy devotee's heart.
Hail Namasivaya.
'Ye art not the body', said he
And gave me strength divine
To purge me of my fearful bonds,
Oh Primal One, Namasivaya
That Tattvas ninety six are unreal,
I realised through thy grace,
And transcended their barriers,
Oh Siva, Namasivaya.
To those who have crossed
The six centres of consciousness,
Thou did'st grant thy Lotus Feet
Thou great God, Namasivaya
In the void of silence, that I may
Attain peace thou willeth.
Thou source of Vedas and God of Devas,
Thou sovereign ruler, Namasivaya.
Thou pursued me that I may turn to thee,
Thy beauteous form I saw,
In rapt synthesis I was thine for ever,
Oh Source of Grace and Power! Namasivaya.
Those who behold the sight
Of thy dance with raised legs-
Will they perish in this world
Full of toils? Namasivaya.
Art thou not the support
Of those who seek thee
In the temple of the body?
Oh Sankara, Namasivaya."
Our January 2012 news video covers events in December 2011, including the Pancha Ganapati holiday festival, progress on the Iraivan Temple and other carving projects, our Digital Dharma Drive and the massive influx of visitors that came to the monastery during the holiday season.
To view in higher quality, after clicking the play button, select another option in the right side of the control bar above, such as 480p, 720p or 1080p.
The Thanigasalam family returned today. Appa was interviewed by Senthilnathaswami who took video of him sharing his experiences as a young man with Yogaswami. The family also was introduced to Sivakatirswami's work on the teaching of Natchintanai and offer to help with getting more recordings for our collection. Later Saravananathswami took them out to see Iraivan
Yoginathaswami and SadhakaTejadevanatha flew over to the Big Island to take care of some business and to visit Kawamata Farms in Hilo.
The farm manager David Oshiro gave us a very informative tour of the farm.
Farm was started in the Mid 60s. Today they have 14 workers, 6 trainee's and 3 managers. They started growing field veggies and ran into challenges with controlling bugs that would eat the crops. Then the farm transitioned into flowers. The challenge with flowers is the high competition from other countries that have lower labor cost. Now they grow 3 Acres of hydroponic tomatoes and 3/4 of an acre of cucumbers. The tomatoes have a higher profit margin and the bugs can be controlled in a green hose
Stats of the Farm:
Tomato production: 1 million lbs a year. Cucumbers: 400,000 lbs a year
Tomatoes and Cucumbers are grown in : Coconut husk media that is imported from Sri Lanka.
Liquid fertilizer is fed to the plants through drip irrigation. The system is closely monitored by the Farm Manager. Tomatoes are spaced 5 ft apart by 12 inches
Any bugs that do find the plants are controlled organically with Neem oil. The oil is purchased from India in 55 gallon drums.
After our Maha Ardra day festival Kulapati Satya Palani stayed on to help the monks. He is currently a top project manager for a construction firm but in his younger days he was a master tile craftsman. He kindly offered to help the Siddhidata Kulam tile their new office floor. Thanks to his amazing expertise and the team work they finished the whole job in two days. These photos are from day two and the floor is almost done.
Sadhaka Haranandinatha went for a stroll this morning, catching our monks at their seva here and there. Senthilnathaswami is working on an article for the April Hinduism Today special Bali issue. This article is about animal sacrifice. "It's not an easy article to write," he says. Sivakatirswami is reviewing the iPad app "British Library; Historical Collection" for the April issue of Hinduism Today Arumuganathaswami holds a preliminary, editing copy of Growing Up Hindu, Book One of a series called Modern Stories for Hindu Youth. Santosh and Karuna Krinsky owners of New Leaf Distributors are here today.
Brahmachari Jaya is shrink-wrapping a variety pack of incense for the Minimela. Sadhaka Mayurnatha also using our laser etcher to creating wooden signs for the mini mela.
Rudiren Carpanen Pillay, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University Of KwaZulu-Natal Durban, South Africa, is here on task force for nine days- He will be receiving his Samaya Diksha before he goes home.
Some news from our nursery department with recent plant acquisitions and improvements. These new plants will be planted in the ground shortly and allowed to grow into large clumps for sale.
And on the practical side, we created a prototype of a nursery bench to solve two problems: both metal and wood benches rot out in a few years in Hawaii, and we have 1,500 feet of used 4" PVC pipe with no other use.... Having the pots up on the benches is both better for the plant and easier on the gardener who doesn't have to stoop to care for them.
Inspired Talk: Title: Niyama Ten: Tapas
Category: Soul Duration: 15 min, 4 secs
Date Given: 2012-01-11
Given by: Bodhinatha
Description:
Tapas is to practice austerity, serious disciplines, penance and sacrifice which increases the speed at which we are moving forward on the spiritual path. Daily sadhanas and penance to atone for misdeeds are obligatory. Austerities, assigned and overseen by a guru, give a great sense of release from the past, a profounder understanding of the path and deepening of one's worship and meditation. Meditation on Ishana and Tatpurusha: veiling and revealing grace. All along we are Siva and finally that dawns on us.
