Today at Kauai Aadheenam

Our May 2012 news video covers events in April 2012, including: the Hindu Mandir Priests’ Conference, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s talk at the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Pittsburgh, the visit to the monastery by the Kapaa Middle School sixth grade class and the arrival of our new calf, Leili.

Our April 2012 news video covers events in March 2012, including: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami’s retreat with the Hindu Students Association in Austin, Texas; our monthly chitra pada puja for Gurudeva; Bodhinatha’s work on Gurudeva’s Shum language of meditation and a Character Building workbook; the visit by the Kauai Interfaith Roundtable; and footage from the interfaith event held in West Texas.

Here it is: the long-awaited videocast of the Second Interfaith Dialogue of the Permian Basin, held on February 28, 2012, at the First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas.

Emcee: Russell Meyers, CEO, Midland Memorial Hospital
Speaking for First Baptist Church: Dr. Randel Everett
Speaking for Temple Beth El, Odessa: Rabbi Holly Levin Cohn
Speaking for Kauai’s Hindu Monastery: Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Speaking for St. Stephens Catholic Church, Midland: Monsignor James Bridges
Speaking for Masjid Al-Qur’an and Masjid Al-Islam, Houston: Imam Wazir Ali

This year’s panelists each spoke on the perspective of their faith on questions regarding the singular non-negotiable truth of their faith, the role of women in their faith, the practices that members of their faith perform in the home, their personal view on capital punishment and how their faith values diversity and looks at the idea that the whole world is one family.

When a Sivabhaktar in India recently received a gifted mala made of Kauai-grown Rudraksha seeds, she was moved to wonder, “Siva, why are you crying those fabled tears?” She wrote a poem we share today:

Beads Wet, Beads Sweet

“Why do You cry?”
I asked Him
“Why are there tears in Your eye?”

The Lord of lords
the Life of our lives
the Word in sound
the Dance in movement
the Everything in nothing
the All in all
looked at me and in Silence said -

“I gave you all everything
all of you hold all of me
and yet something makes you forget
who you are
where you come from
and, where you are going.

You choose to suffer when you could celebrate
You choose to resent when you could rejoice
You choose to resist when you could accept
And then you complain incoherently
beg and plead for liberation!
Who ties you down? Where are your bonds?
Who created the shackles that hold you back?

I feel your pain even before you sense it
It hurts me so
I cry to see my gifts wasted and thrown away!
My Third Eye flashes and I see your future misery
should you hold to your habits of yore
Open your eyes, awake
Let your senses do what they were given to do
Step away and stand aside, out of your own way
Align your will with Mine
All will be well, as it always is
Let my tears wash away
the debris collected from births before
Stand fresh and clean in the moment
and you will see the smile,
the smile in my Other eye!”

Aum Namah Sivaya
Sivaya Namah Aum!

Our March 2012 news video covers events in February 2012, including the festivals of Thai Pusam and Mahasivaratri, progress on Iraivan Temple carving in India, an interfaith event Bodhinatha spoke at in West Texas, and the translation of Lemurian Scrolls into Russian.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami reads his editorial from the Apr/May/Jun 2012 edition of Hinduism Today magazine. Progressing from our instinctive to intellectual to spiritual nature, our soul unfolds to resplendence like a beautiful lotus.

Our December 2011 news video covers events in November, including progress on the giant Hanuman statue to be placed near the San Marga Iraivan Temple, events with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami in Malaysia and Mauritius, development of ebook editions of the monastery’s publications and the visit of one of the senior priests from Chidambaram Temple in Tamil Nadu, India.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami reads his editorial from the Jan/Feb/Mar 2012 edition of Hinduism Today magazine. If we start at the beginning and work systematically, we can replace undesirable qualities with their opposites. Watch the video below.