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Several of our Kulapatis joined us to greet the home coming team.

We are all overjoyed to have everyone back home together.

It is traditional for devotees to throw flower petals in the path of the holy man as he walks into the temple. Kulapati Deva Seyon and Kulapati Shyamadeva Dandapani do the honors.

All the silpis came forward to greet Gurudeva. They all love him for taking such good care of them and their families through the years during the work on the Iraivan Temple project.

Natarajnathaswami plays a powerful Tavil drum and Sadhaka Tejadeva and Sadhaka Adinatha blow the conch.

The traditional puja to the arriving swami is performed by Sadhaka Tyaganatha.

This was an extra special pada puja for our beloved Gurudeva.

How fortunate we are to have a living preceptor and to be in the satsang of his devotees.

Gurudeva gave a short run down on the trip with emphasis on the theme of his teaching during the innersearch which was: "Maintenance, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Physical maintenance of course you know, proper exercise and diet. Mental maintenance through settling things before bedtime and emational maintenance through the Vasana Daha Tantra and spiritual maintenance through daily sadhana, going to the temple every week, making a pilgrimage once a year."

At our Bangalore carving site a young cobra was found:

Our intrepid photographer there, Thuraisingam, took photos and reports:

"This is an interesting baby Cobra that we had caught yesterday. It was below one of the stones which were being moved for the next shipment. Its about 1. 5 ft long. That is him posing for TAKA."

This is just one among the hundreds of snakes that roam around Iraivan Worksite. All types of snakes move around the place. Snake pits are all over the carving site.

We had no plans of killing the snake. So Ravi, our gardener caught it with a cloth wrapped around his hand. Quite courageous to do that when usually people turn with a 6-7 feet long stick to chase them. Its said that the baby snakes are more poisonous than the the big ones as they do not know how much venom to release when they attack some person.

This is a closeup of the little snake. See the hood at the top.

Another closeup of the little snake. After the photography session, it was taken to the SPCA and later sent to The Bannerghtaa National Park, about 30 kms from the site where it will be released in the wild. It was a lucky day for that snake. Anywhere else, it would have been buried by now!

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to the THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND

Cybertalk: A cyberspace devotee from Bowie, Maryland, asks about the cycle
of karma, how karma seems to be an unending chain of related events.
Gurudeva explains the inner nature of karma, and how even a negative karma
is eventually dissipated.

Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Gurudeva will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan

Click to send Gurudeva a spiritual question he will later answer for all to benefit. Study Gurudeva's teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

transcription begins

Date: October_10_1998
Topic: Secrets, Relationships
Category:
Duration: 9 minutes

On our Vedic calendar, it is Sun 4. Today, we called the beautiful garden island of Mauritius. It is just as beautiful, if not more so, than the garden island of Kauai. It was a video-conferencing call to a Satguru Siva Yogaswami Youth Retreat, that we are holding with 50 or 100 young people. Don't know quite how many were there. Our video conferencing is at the beginning stages. Very small screen, but it works. We are happy about that.

We are also happy that the youth of this country, are being inspired by the 2 swamis there. Sannyasin Murugaswami and Sannyasin Sivadevanathaswami are spreading the teachings of the Sanatana Dharma and the great wisdom of the Vedas, planting seeds in these young minds. No one is allowed to attend, who is over 25 years of age and these wonderful children are having the time of their lives. Many of them from very poor villages are taken into a very large 5-star hotel, who gives us the use of their multi-million dollar facility, to benefit the youth of this beautiful country. Congratulations, one and all in Mauritius.

Rajkumar has been here on the Task Force program, for 3 months and is taking off on a plane. In fact, he already did this morning. Good luck, Rajkumar. We know that your life in the future will be extremely successful, maybe because of what you have learnt here at Kauai Aadheenam.

Some lovely guests - Mr. and Mrs. Balu, President of Buffalo Hindu Temple, in New York visited yesterday. They are such an inspiring couple. His participation as President in the temple, basically allows many others, who built this wonderful temple.

Well, that's about all the news and now, about you. I see you in cyberspace and you are looking very beautiful, today. But, have you ever kept a secret? If I told you a secret, will you keep the secret? If I told you to keep a secret from everybody on earth, would you keep that secret?

Probably not. You would tell those who are closest to you, those who you love and who love you. Many of you are young people, some in the teens, early twenties, who we are seeing in cyberspace today. Our audience is increasing day after day, visiting this particular page, among all of our thousands of pages on our website. You may be young. But, you should be wise.

Have you ever kept a secret from your mother and your father? If you have, have you noticed a distance, in your relationship? 1 secret, 2 secrets, 3 secrets, 4 secrets - builds a fence between you and your parents. Now you know what I am talking about. That fence has to come down. The flow of energy between you and your mother, you and your father, cannot be inhibited by secrets. Now, I am talking about a secret, this is a pun, not a { }, which is a { } thing. A secret - something that you know that they should know. But you are not telling them. This is very important. Specially if you are a minor. This does not mean that you work in a mine! Another pun. But if you are under 21, don't keep secrets from your parents.

Well, parents today, help children keep secrets from them because they beat their kids, they yell at their kids, they swear at their kids. They put their kids down, they embarrass their children. They talk about them behind their backs, to their friends and relatives, saying how stupid they are. You know it is a tough world, it is a tough life. But, still, the parents are paying all the bills, putting a roof over their heads, providing clothing, transportation, education. Well then, don't do anything that is a secret or that you will have to keep secret from them. Behave yourself, because you need your parents and your parents need you. They need you to be an upright citizen, a person for them to be proud of. Maybe, they are not so proud of themselves and the secrets that they kept from their parents, which divided the family. We don't want to divide the family.

The New Age is going to come. But, it is going to come with harmony in the family, with closeness in the family, and no fences between any one of the family or another. Did I hit the nail on the head or what? Am I talking straight talk? Yes, it is very straight talk, very necessary talk, because there is a New Age movement, that draws on Hinduism, draws on Buddhism, draws on the various pagan thoughts of the world. But, nothing will ever work out. There will never be a New Age until love and trust exists in every New Age home. That means, sharing information, trusting that everything will be alright if you share that information. Working together, loving together, living together, being spiritual together, not hiding information from each other. Eventually, you won't be able to look each other in the face, any more. You can't look at your face any more, and really see yourself even when looking in the mirror.

Mothers and fathers, be compassionate when your young people explain that they have been keeping secrets. Encourage them. Tell some of your secrets, too. Make a family. A family is drawing a circle and taking everyone in. Not making a square and cutting some out. Don't show favoritism to any of the children. Accept them all for who they are. Love them all for what they are - beautiful souls, shining souls, perfect souls, living on this planet and deserving all the good that you can give, so that they can give much good to their children and hold their family together.

Well, I'll be seeing you in our familiar cyberspace tomorrow, October 11.

transcription ends

At the Aadheenam we had our usual small but steady stream of guests today.

Sadhaka Adinatha with Sudhir and Pallavi Mehta and Jayant and Jyoti Sheth. The Mehtas and Sheths are close friends from Chicago.

This is Timory Koch, one of our neighbors in Kapaa, with her god-daughter Meghan Mepham. Meghan's enjoying her last few days of summer break from school on the Big Island of Hawaii and wanted to see the Hindu temple.

Carol Finger from Koloa, Kauai is showing Martha and Stan Collier the best places on the island. The Colliers live in the dry desert country in Albuquerque, New Mexico so they don't mind the rain at all. Looking out over the Wailua River Carol says "If you close your eyes and try to imagine the most magical place, it would probably look like this!"

More pictures from the Bay Area, California. Deva Rajan greets Gurudeva with a Giant Marigold garland.

Nathan Sendan with his wife Kathy and their first born child. Gurudeva blesses the little one.

A Tamil family came for the event. Amma comes forward to prostrate.

The whole Ramanbhai Patel family with Gurudeva and Acharya Ceyonswami.

Acharya Palaniswami and Sadhaka Thondunatha talk with Surya Kumar. Surya is a strong supporter of Iraivan temple and has been very helpful with our art work by doing large format posters of the commissioned art for use on walls and displays.

Surya speaks with Gurudeva.

Gurudeva talked about the Master Course and Iraivan temple to the group.

About 60 people came. Ashish Chitnis flew all the way from Pennsylvania!

A lot of "touching base" happens as Gurudeva travels and devotees connect with him and the monks at transit points.

A quiet moment with Kulapati Easan Katir. He and many of the others here today have been devotees of Gurudeva for 30 years or more.

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to the THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND

Cybertalk: A cyberspace devotee from the US asks about the nature of bad
money. Gurudeva explains that there are two kinds of bad money.

Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Gurudeva will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan

Click to send Gurudeva a spiritual question he will later answer for all to benefit. Study Gurudeva's teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

transcription begins

Date: October_07_1998
Topic: Preparation for Transition
Category: Death and Dying
Duration: 8 min., 24 seconds

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. October 7. Sun 1 which is our Monday, might not be yours. But, here we are. We finished a 3-day retreat, where we have reflected upon what we did, what we are going to do, and if it is the right thing that we want to remember in our past.

Beautiful Homa today, invoking Lord Hanuman to carry Iraivan Temple - 3,200,000 tons of stone - from Bangalore, India to the garden island of Kauai, and to place it gently down on the foundation, which we hope to be built next April or May.

Well, we have a lot to be grateful for. We are grateful for health, happiness, and sadness. Sadness, because, it teaches us a wonderful message - not to do over again what made us sad or to look at life in a different way. We understand reincarnation, if we understand the law of karma. We send out prana from ourselves, that manifests as good, bad, mixed. Then, it comes back to us, gets us involved with other people, comes back to us through other people. If it is involved with animals, it comes back through animals. If it is involved with situations, we create situations that we have to face in the future. If we accept karma and we accept reincarnation, we can rationalize many of the experiences of life.

Well, we have a wonderful invitation and I am sending our Acharya Palaniswami, to a conference on AIDS, sponsored by the Ford Foundation and he will collaborate with Ma Jaya Sati Bhagawati, a worker for AIDS patients, who has an Ashram of { } and helps AIDS patients.

But, we have a different look at AIDS, or any terminal disease, such as cancer or old age. Well, if you know the end is in view, you are blessed. We are all born with a terminal disease, and that's death. We don't know when it is going to happen. So, when your doctor tells you or when you intuitively know that it's going to happen, you are blessed. To know when the doors open to go into the next world. Therefore, you can prepare yourself, by thinking good thoughts, by mending old hurts and tears. No one who knows that they are going to die - and, that's the "d" word, dirty word - that they are going to make a transition into a new life, that is beyond this life. That's a happy life, that's a free life, because it is a life that has been prepared for.

How do you prepare to move on? Well, how do you prepare to move from an old house into a new house? There are a lot of things that you have to throw away. Maybe, it hurts to throw them away. But, they don't fit into the new house and you buy new furniture. You become nouveau riche, and you are not carrying the past behind you.

Everyone is blessed, who has a terminal illness. They know the day is drawing near, to move into a new house, with new furniture, and old friends. Who are the old friends? Those, who have gone on before you. They will be there to meet you. Mothers and fathers, grandfathers and grandmothers, aunts and uncles and friends of all kinds will be there to greet you.

So, we look at terminal illness, from the Hindu point of view, from the point of view of Sanatana Dharma, as a blessing, a great reward of some kind. A reward that you do not hang on the wall and barely look at, after you have hung it on the wall. But, an award that brings you the energy and brings you the inspiration to pass through that door, out of the old house into the new house. After all, we are not the physical body. We live in it, but we are not it.

We are a soul, that is pure, untouched, unfettered, unmarred, unscarred. We are pure souls, who are somehow or other - don't ask why - living in a physical body, surrounded by emotions, some of which we can control and others which we cannot control. With an intellect, maybe clouded with opinionated knowledge, opinions which say "it may be right or it may be wrong" - that's the intellect. But, the superconscious, the intuitive mind of the soul is released when we prepare for the transition, to move on into that new house.

So, anybody out there in cyberspace, who is with Ma Jaya Sati Bhagawati, great soul, dedicated her life to helping those make that transition, cross that bridge. That means, watching people clean up the past. Don't drag old things along with you, write everything down on a piece of paper, burn it up, and let it go. For some it might take only 5 pieces of paper, others 500. Maybe for others, who have lived a really promiscuous life, 5000 pieces of paper, 8 and 1/2 by 11, sentences very close together. But, do it anyway. Clear the emotion out of the experience.

We are here to have experiences. We are here to understand the experience of how to take the emotion of the experience out of the experience, so that we can understand the experience. That is called the Vasana Daha Tantra. Write the experience down, as many times as it takes, and burn it up. Watch the flame come up. You will know that you are released. Pretty soon you will write the same experience you cried about, or were angry about, or that frustrated you and you will have no frustration, no anger, no tears. You will look at you, as if you were reading somebody else's life. That is the way to unleash the baggage. Let the sandbags go out of the balloon, so that you can soar.

I'm seeing you in cyberspace, so many faces. There's Eileen from { }. Aloha, Eileen. And there is { } and Jiva in Bangalore and oh ... so many wonderful faces. I will be seeing you in cyberspace, in our very familiar place, through your computer screen. I love you and know that you love everyone.
transcription ends

Guest today go out to the temple site and watch the silpis at work.

Left to right: A family reunion in Hawaii. Mr B. Shivashankar from Ootacamund, South India,
Vishnu Kempraj from the San Francisco Bay area, Mr and Mrs B. Kenpraj from Tonota, Botswaana, Mrs Usha Shivashankar from Ooty and their new acquaintance from Los Angeles. Mrs. Kempraj and her son were here a couple years ago and brought the relatives to check in on the temple progress. She says she uses material from Hinduism Today in her teacher training classes
in Botswana.

The Remarkable Vision

Iraivan Temple Progress Update

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Our silpis are always delighted with guests and have a chance to speak Tamil with them. They are wonderful ambassadors for the temple building project. Here they pause a bit as Shanmuga Sthapati takes stock of some delicate work at a corner point of Course Number Four of the temple.

After nudging the next stone into place, an assessment is made of the "fit." The ideal joint will be perfectly vertical as should be the face of the stone being placed. For this he uses a string and pendulum. Then Sthapati will make a determination of any smoothing or further cutting that is required to make the joint as perfect as the dimensions of the stones will allow.

Sri Abhirami Upasaki is the title Gurudeva gave to the priestess of the temple a number of years ago. Here she is with her mother. She has a 20-acre parcel of land in the Danish countryside where she is building her new Agamic style Abhirami Amman Temple.

The following photos are from the foundation stone laying ceremony.

The ladies spent the day preparing a wonderful feast of prasadam for the ceremony that took place that evening.

This is Abhirami Upasaki's husband, Sivabalan, who performs the pujas in the temple. He is the nephew of Sivabalasingam from Alaveddy, Sri Lanka.

Red velvet and flower petals were laid out for Gurudeva to walk on in the traditional way.

Here Abhirami Upasaki performed a homa invoking the Goddess Abhirami at the site of the upcoming temple.

Gurudeva placed the first stones and sacred items in the pit.

Gurudeva then poured water from the kumbha into the crypt where the sacred items were placed.

Traditional nadaswaram and tavil players from Germany graced the occasion with their sacred temple music.

Innersearchers helped carry the Abhirami Amman utsava murti (festival parade Deity) from the new temple site back into the currently operating temple which is located in a small barn.

Sivabalan and his son, Ashwin, performed pada puja for Gurudeva.

Devika Ajaya took her brahmacharya vrata during the final ceremonies before Gurudeva gave a rousing talk.

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to the THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND

Cybertalk: A cyberspace devotee from Tamil Nadu, India, asks about karma
yoga. Gurudeva explains the voluntary, selfless nature of karma yoga and how
it effects future lives.

Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Gurudeva will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan

Click to send Gurudeva a spiritual question he will later answer for all to benefit. Study Gurudeva's teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

transcription begins

Date: November_17_1998
Topic: Creation of a Home
Category:
Duration: 10 min., 16 seconds

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. It is November 17. By our Vedic calendar it's Sun 6.

Today, our pilgrims from Kashi Ashram in Florida, departed. 3 brahmacharis and 2 swamis, came all the way across the United States, across the Pacific Ocean to the Hawaiian island to observe how our ashram here manages to reach out to so many people worldwide, from the little garden island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They observed our 5 schools within the ashram. The school of temple cooking and taking care of the animals. The school of maintenance, growing food and taking care of the lands. The school of publication. The school of finance, purchasing and selling. The school of managing Saiva Siddhanta Church and the Himalayan Academy Correspondence Course. They went back with their head full of new knowledge, to make their ashram more like our ashram.

Ashrams around the world share information, with each other. We are also working with an ashram in Bangalore, India, that is taking 5 of our young men, from ages 7 to 12, for a 5-year training course, training them to be the temple priests of our new temple here on the garden island of Kauai.

Today, we are going to share with you a talk, given on November 11, to a group of about 15 Hindu pilgrims, in our Kadavul Hindu temple, here at Kauai Aadheenam. The subject that they needed to hear was -the creation of a home, a real home, raising of children. It explains how with mother and father working, the children are basically street children. Nobody to talk to, nobody to guide them. Everyone too tired, and they just get yelled at.

We gave some very potent examples of how this is working, how in the United States of America, we would like to turn the situation around. There are newspaper articles, magazine articles and you see it on television occasionally. America is waking up that a woman's place is in the home. A mother's place is in the home. A full-time mother taking care of her husband, and her children is what is needed for the next generation. They say mothers like to work, because they like to express themselves. A home has so much of intrinsic values for the next generation, plenty of room for self-expression. I think you will enjoy this inspired talk.

Today with 'Living with Siva', we have cultural accomplishments. I am going to read you a few of these scriptures.

"Lovers of Siva shall learn a skill or craft regarding the use of the hands, such as pottery, sowing, knitting, weaving, painting, gardening, taking on a building of arts, to manifest creative benefits for the family and the community."

All over the world, even in our organization, The Saiva Siddhanta Church, young girls are all going to men's occupations. You ask them what they are going to do?
They say,,"Oh, I am going to be a lawyer."
You ask them, "Can you cook?"
"No."
"What can you actually do, around the house?"
"When I am a lawyer, I'll hire somebody." "Can you raise children?"
They don't know anything about that either.

Therefore, children are basically, raised up on the streets, with no father, no mother, nothing to guide them, except other children. Children are being raised today, by other children. Parents rarely talk to their children today. Husband is an engineer, wife is a doctor. They have nothing in common. Doesn't even go along with the Hindu caste system. It is only the worker caste, the shudra caste, where both men and women work. And then when there is all this money, what good is it going to do? The children will squander it after you die. They won't be involved in the family tradition, because there is no family tradition.

All over the United States , it is being recognized that a mother's place is in the home. With her mind free from worldly affairs, teaching the children ritual worship, teaching the children the kalas of refinement, culture and art, taking the children to the temple, giving them a life, communicating with them, knowing who their friends are and what they are doing, knowing their parents, not losing contact with the children, normally, in Hindu society.

In today's world everybody follows everyone else. Everyone is following everyone else. Where is the individuality and who are the leaders? They are too few and far between. Just stop and think, "What about the next generation of Hindus?"

A young man contacted me from Houston, Texas. He started going to the Hindu temple at Houston, Texas. He was beaten so badly by his father and hated his father so much, that he totally turned away from Hinduism. He, along with thousands of other children, thought, "If the parents treated the children this way, for their benefit, not for ours, what is there in this religion that is worthwhile?

Now the psychiatrists are going over his past hates and fears about the corporal punishment, the whipping that he got at home. He joined a gang, went on drugs, stole, lied to his parents. With a lot of encouragement, he is back in school now, and hopefully one day, will graduate with an education. It is thanks to the temple, he is off drugs, leading a fairly decent life, but left with the scars in his mind, of being beaten, being pinched, being slapped, rather than being explained to, being raised with love.

Then, we have thousands of other testimonies from all over the world, of kids that are hurt and abused, in the upper class Hindu families. We hope that you will take a message back to your community that discipline means to teach, not to hurt and that ahimsa means not hurting anybody physically, mentally or emotionally.

We know a few Hindu families who have never beaten their children or disciplined them physically in any way.
We ask them "Why?"
They say, "Because we love them, we love them."
"So, how do you train them, how do you discipline them?"
"Well, we have them go into the shrine room and sit for 10 minutes and think over what they did wrong, and they come back and we talk to them. We communicate."
Then we say, "What about TV? Aren't you watching TV all the time?"
"No. We can't watch a lot of TV with children. They consume a lot of your time."

Of course, in most families, the mother was at home and the home wasn't just like a hotel lobby, with people coming in and going out.

I can't imagine why the desire in the Hindu community to buy and furnish big homes and never live in them. Mother is out early in the morning, back late. Father is out early in the morning, back late. The kids are out with other kids, on the street. Where is the vibration of the home? The vibration of the home is asuric. The demons live there and cause people to argue and to fight.

We would like to turn this around. We would like the Indian Hindu community, to become the model of all communities in the United States of America.

Well, I'll be seeing you in all of our familiar places, where we enjoy sitting together, looking at our computer screen. I am looking at you, you are looking at me. It is darshan time, again tomorrow, in cyberspace ashram. Tune in. We'll be looking at each other through cyberspace.
transcription ends

Today's Sun One Homa was a "fiery inspiration" as usual.

Paramacharya Bodhinathaswami gave a wonderful talk this morning, following from the lessons of the Innersearch study guide. The topic today was on "penance" and "remorse" and the Hindu understanding that we can in fact "erase" misdeeds by undergoing the proper penance. But, for this process to work, the individual must be truly remorseful. In other words, one should really feel that what they did was wrong. Only then will the penance work properly.

We had an esteemed guest today, Swami Ishwarananda, one of the Chinmaya Mission's 65 sannyasins. Swami has been serving for the past five years at the Chinmaya Mission in Anaheim, Southern California. Traveling with him are Mr. and Mrs. Manoj and Rashmi Patel and Mr. and Mrs. Shashi and Rekha Acharya.

We gave Swami an extended tour of the property. He will be returning to India to serve as a teacher of young monastic aspirants/brahmachari who stay for a two-and-a-half year program in the monastery of Sandapany, the headquarters of the Chinmaya Mission just outside of Mumbai.

According to the families traveling with him, Swami Ishwarananda has done a great work in the Los Angeles area, and today their "Bal Vihar" school for youth has over 500 students, due to his wonderful inspiration and leadership. We are always appreciative of the excellent work the Chinmaya Mission is doing and the way they implement a refined Hindu culture throughout all their activities and lifestyle.

Swami is an avid reader of Hinduism Today and we gave him a tour of our publications facility. Here the monks of the Ganapati Kulam introduce the group to the new book "Living with Siva." There on the table is the "blue line" which arrived from Malaysia a few days back and, with corrections and proof reading mark up, the book is being sent back to Malaysia and should go to press in a few weeks.

Meanwhile the Thai families on the island are celebrating a birthday in the family in the traditional Buddhist manner, where they feed the monks. Thai lunch today for everyone.

All the monks sit in the Himalayan Academy pavillion and are served.... our kitchen staff also gets a brief respite from cooking today.

Buddhist lay people feel that by feeding those who do sadhana and strive for liberation, some of the good merit that accrues through the monastic life will pass on to those who feed them.

Elders are well taken care of in this community.

Happy monks...yes, we think definitely a lot of good merit will be going to this family!

The Remarkable Vision

Iraivan Temple Progress Update

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Course number three is well underway now. Gurudeva will be home in a few days, so he will be able to see course number two still visible below. Later it will disappear below, covered by the sand of the retaining wall on the outside. Please give generously, consider the possiblity of sponsoring a whole course of the sanctum for $7,500.00. Email Iraivan@hindu.org for details.

Gurudeva's spiritual center in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa

Ganesha Chaturthi is a national holiday in the country of Mauritius where the majority Hindus include a large Marathi population for whom this celebration is the main one of the year. But, all the various Indian ethnic communities will also join in the festivities. The occasion draws large crowds to visit Pancha Mukha Ganapati at Gurudeva's spiritual park and Mauritius mission center. Rajen Manick writes:

"Ganesha Chaturthi is a public holiday on the island of Mauritius for the local Marathi community. However Hindus of all denominations now celebrate this festival with joy and make it a duty to leave home to worship Lord Ganesha on this special day. All through the day hundreds of devotees have been coming to the Saiva Dharmasala at La Pointe to worship Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati at the Mandapam. Here we have a group of devotees crossing the wooden Ganesha bridge."

Once they crossed the Ganesha bridge, devotees walk on a gravel path with bamboo railings on both sides. They then leave their sandals at the lava rocks steps before entering the Mandapam.

Sometimes devotees would have to patiently wait for their turn at the shrine to worship Lord Ganapati.

We had a large group of devotees from Flor�al who stayed at the Ganesha Mandapam for a long time singing bhajans in a very organised way. Other visitors who came sat down to listen to the beautiful devotional songs before leaving.

It was a memorable day for two young men who took their Arulsishya vows in front of the sacred fire while devotees were worshipping at the Feet of Pancha Mukha Ganapati.

Here we see Nuckiren Pyeneeandee who is actually right in the middle of his university studies in France and Selvaraj Sanjeevee who lives in Goodlands. They have both studied Gurudeva's teachings for a long time and are now beginning earnest preparation for membership in Gurudeva's Saiva Siddhanta Church.

Group photo of Innersearchers at Tallinn.

A majestic ship... for a majestic Master. Sadhaka Japendranatha and Sadhaka Mahadevan, who went to Europe just for the Innersearch portion of the trip, returned yesterday. They said that one of the special highlights of the journey was the wonderful way the ship's staff and crew take care of Gurudeva and the Innersearchers as something very special for them and the ship.

The city of Tallinn.

We celebrated one of many birthdays onboard the ship and this was the celebration of Stephanie Corgatelli's birthday.

A happy, harmonious group.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
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2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
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THE GATEWAY.

"Sri Sithi VinayagarThe two gates of breath I closed and lo,
The words of the Guru became my guide,
To cleave the bonds of birth asunder,
And in joy I beheld the gateway divine.
With bated breath, I held fast to God in thought.
In the storied house I saw the void serene.
The excellence of eternal glory was mine.
'Tis the secret of the conquest of Kaalan (Death).
From the fire in the Mulaadhara at the base,
The ghee from the crown did melt--alas!
Subdued is the primacy of the invincible ego,
And fully did I apprehend the ethics of Being.
Golden is his mien, flowing are his locks,
There is no one else like him in meekness.
Oh wielder of woes! That grief may not assail,
Come Thou as Love benign and succor me. "

--Natchintanai. 236.
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transcription begins

Date: May_25_1999
Title: Karma and Soul Power
Category:
Duration: 4 min., 09 seconds
Date Given: May 25, 1999

Today at Kauai Aadheenam, May 25th. This is Gurudeva greeting you in cyberspace. I am having your darshan, you are having mine. We are very, very happy, having completed the first book signing of 'Merging with Siva', here on the beautiful, garden island of Kauai. The very, very first time in thirty years, meeting the public on Kauai. Not only 'Merging with Siva' but, 'Lemurian Scrolls' was autographed, quite a few copies of each, at Borders Book store.

The questions that were asked were insightful. Many asked, "Are you going to have regular classes of study?" We said, "No, we are a theological seminary. Perhaps our families will have classes, if enough ask for them." We always believe in, 'you take one step, we take nine'. When we come to the end of our nine steps, you take another one and we will take another nine. That is a mystical rule of non-proselytization. Yes, we don't proselytize. I explained that very carefully to everyone. We do not proselytize.

We have beautiful books to study and each one can take a year or two to complete. For instance, if you do the 365 daily lessons in 'Merging with Siva', in three or four years - you have to be ready for this - your life is going to change. Are you ready to have your life change for the better? Well, it is going to happen.

Many people, as we were talking yesterday, are driven by arrogance power. But there are many people on the earth that are driven by soul power. Soul power has perfect timing, affectionately detached love, giving to others, finding happiness by making others happy. All those positive qualities, which on this beautiful garden island we call the Aloha Spirit.

Driven by arrogance is selfishness, leading to anger if you don't get what you want, jealously for those that have more than you. All kinds of negative qualities dressed up to look like positive qualities but they are not really, because it is not spiritual. With arrogance power, we make the karmas - bad, good and mixed. The selfish karmas in the many yesterdays, which we have to face in the many tomorrows to come. When we face those karmas, we fight our way through life, always blaming someone else. That is arrogance. "What did I do to deserve this or that?", we ask ourself the question. An unanswerable question, but we ask that question anyway, when we are in arrogance mood.

With soul power, we are able to bear our karma cheerfully, whether it is good, bad or mixed. Not getting too unhappy about the bad, not getting too happy about the good. Knowing all the time that what we experience today in the eternity of the moment, we created in those many yesterdays.

Now, we are going to hear the very same thing in Tamil language, in French language and in Malay. Just press those buttons and see if they got it right.
transcription ends

Today's tour day brought a rich array of souls as usual. We now have the wonderful opportunity to take everyone out to the temple site.

Among the group was this wonderful family, the Ramkissoon family from New York, originally from Guyana. Doodnauth on the right works on computer networks and his wife Bena on the left is a travel consultant. Their daughter Shivani is in her senior year of high school and nephew Keeshan Sayroo, is a strapping tall strong young man for only twelve years of age. Doodnauth and Bena were proud to say "We have been subscribing to Hinduism Today since 1979 and we have kept all the back issues!" They had pledged to visit one day and we were delighted to give them a tour of our publications facility.

It was a remarkable experience for the Innersearchers to find a Sri Lankan Tamil culture thriving intact in Denmark. Gurudeva and the staff and some of the Innersearchers stayed in Brande and visited on the first night the Sri Sithi Vinayagar Ganesha temple in a nearby city. Here are photos from Ganesha Chaturthi there.

Ladies making modaka for Ganesha

Oisin Thompson our youngest Innersearcher playing in the temple chariot

Innersearchers helped carry Ganesha around the main sanctum.

The parading of the Deity is always a joyous and uplifting experience as the Lord who is usually sequestered deep inside the temple sanctum, comes out to give darshan to the whole congregation.

The Deity will be paraded in the streets if possible...if not then it is paraded around inside the temple itself. It is always a special time and inner plane blessings are showered upon all who have the opportunity to witness the event.

Gurudeva with the temple priest

Sri Sithi Vinayagar in His sanctum. Who would ever have dreamed that Hindu culture would have come to Denmark in all its wonderful glory!

Innersearchers after the events.

Innersearchers having some prasadam at the Ganesha temple

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to the THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND

The last hours of Innersearch involve taking photos with Gurudeva and saying goodbye's to everyone. Here is Mrs. Nageswary Nagalingam and her two daughters, Dhanika and Meena, who will soon be back home with Dad in Kuala Lumpur. More pictures below.

Cybertalk: A cyberspace devotee from Boston asks about onions and garlic and
other diet issues. Gurudeva explains his view of holistic health and diet,
and cautions against village superstition.

Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Gurudeva will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan

Click to send Gurudeva a spiritual question he will later answer for all to benefit. Study the Master Course!

transcription begins

Date: November_02_1998
Topic: Want-to or want-to-want-to Person?
Category:
Duration: 7 min., 23 seconds

Today at Kauai Aadheenam, it is November 2. Sun 5 on our Vedic calendar. Tomorrow and the next day, are our retreat.

Paramacharya Bodhinatha arrives today, late evening with Nilakantha. Bodhinathaswami has been away for 2 months. We'll be very happy to receive him back and then the following 2 days, he will be debriefed. This will mean he will tell us all of the adventures, the ins-and-outs of everything, about the wonderful, worldwide congregation that he has been visiting in the homes of our missionary families in Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and India. We will get all the information and will be able to move Saiva Siddhanta Church forward.

Also, Sadhaka Thondunatha and Yogi Tapovana are doing very well in their fund-raising mission for the Iraivan Temple foundation. Now, that is a temple that's being made of stone in India, in Bangalore and then the stones are being brought to Hawaii. But, we have to build a $300,000 foundation. They already have pledges and cash, in their first day, of $75000. Congratulations to you both.

Well, on the spiritual path and I am looking out at my cyberspace congregation. I am looking out at cyberspace through yesterday and the day-before and I see your faces, because ... why? You still have what you saw at our cyberspace ashram in your mind. Therefore, your faces are floating in cyberspace, thinking about it.

Now, you may be one of two types of people. You can identify yourself. One type is - "I want to progress on the spiritual path. " Another type is, "I want to want to progress on the spiritual path."

We saw a program on the richest person in the world, Bill Gates of Microsoft. He didn't say, "I want to want to be the richest man in the world." He said,"I want to be the richest person in the world." and, he did it.

There is a small dividing line, so small you can't see it, between "I want to want to" and "I want to". Think about it. If you want to want to do things and then just go ahead and proceed with confidence and don't do them. Are you the kind of person that says to yourself, "I can't", then, " ... but I'll try", and then you proceed and find out that you can't, but you did try.

Look in the mirror. When you turn away from this screen and from my voice, go into the bathroom or your bedroom. Look into the mirror, and ask yourself, "Am I a want-to person? Or, am I a want-to-want-to person?" This is a good sadhana. This is a good test to get to know yourself a little bit better.

Over the past 50 years of my spiritual ministry in the Saiva Siddhanta Church and we are celebrating our 50th Anniversary in 1999, I have seen every kind of a person and listened to every kind of a problem. You know, there only about 50, less than a 100 problems that humankind goes through. They all have a solution. The people who want to find a solution, find the solution and move on through life. The people who want to want to find a solution, find a solution and they want to put it into action, they really, really do. They want to want to do that, but they never do. They don't move on through life. They live with their problems as their closest, dearest friend.

The spiritual path is a razor-edge path. As my Satguru Yogaswami said, "It is at times like walking on a hair, over a river of fire." But also it is a beautiful path, full of bliss and happiness, contentment and well-being, as we work through the karmas and understand the karmas, that we brought with us in this life. There are 3 kinds of karmas - the karmas that we make in this life, that action and reaction are experiences; the karmas that we bring with us in this birth; and the karmas we can't do much about, that we leave in the inner world to be brought forward to another birth.

This might seem like a play upon words to you. "I want to" and "I want to want to". But, it is really, really true. Let's take smoking, for instance. "I want to give up smoking," people say. "I want to want to give up smoking." Well, you talk to people like that. Those who want-to-want-to still smoke and are probably going to die pretty soon. Those who want to and did are probably going to live, a long time.

That's the sadhana for today - November 2. Thank you for coming into cyberspace ashram at Kauai Aadheenam on the beautiful garden island of Kauai. I'll be seeing you in about 3 days, after our retreat. Adios. Ciao. Auf weidersein. Aum Namah Sivaya.
transcription ends

At the Aadheenam two days ago we had a beautiful ceremony in the temple at 3:00 PM. The marvelous and gigantic Maha Ganapati image in Kadavul Hindu temple looked magnificent after the vibhuti abhishekam.

Arati in the sanctum of Ganesha.

After the puja some small Ganeshas were brought out of the sanctum and put on a small palanquin to be taken to the river.

Jothi Sendan and Deva Katir carry the Lord of Categories of to Merge in the Waters.

Out from the temple ....

and down the path to the river.

This ceremony is called "Ganesha Visarjana" or "Farewell to Ganesha", celebrated widely in many Hindu communities and is a Hindu solidarity day, bringing together Hindus of differing denominations to join in the mystic merger of Lord Ganesha back into the Ocean of Consciousness.

The path to the river is steep and our duo had to be very careful...

Sadhaka Tyaganatha performs one final arati and then the murthis were taken out to the middle of the pool and offered into the depths.

Meanwhile we have a touching photo from Gurudeva's devotees in Phoenix, Arizona. Vignesh Sukumaran, his wife, Darshani, and their daughter, here pictured: Abhirami. Darshani writes:

"Vignesh's Amma sent the mold for the Ganesha last summer. Now a man from our temple is making the Ganeshas as karma yoga to make money for the temple. They turned out very nicely I think. Ours has yet to be painted. It was a team effort to figure out how they do it in India and try to reproduce it here and now the mold will be used for many more years to come. The man is so dedicated, he's a new immigrant from India here with his wife and two young daughters. They live in a humble apartment and he made the Ganeshas on the back patio of their place in his spare time.

Innersearchers taking a break in the Java Cafe. Most of the Innersearchers have never met one another before and have now made some very special
friends.

Dhanika (from Malaysia) and Devika (from California)

Kamala Srinivasan (from Toronto) and Yatrikadevi Shivam (from California)

Loganathan and Yatrika Shivam from Los Angeles.

Hotranatha Ajaya and the Innersearchers made a clay Ganesha over the 12 days which they placed in the ocean on Ganesha Chaturthi in a wonderful ceremony
conducted by our Mauritian Innersearch priest.

World's 2nd longest bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		One Chance in a Lifetime! Imagine spending 10 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami personally leads his annual Innersearch Travel Study programs combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat and joyous satsang with Hindu communities in far off locations. If you couldn't make it on the European Innersearch now in progress, make your plans today to come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Canada and New England in October 2002! www.innersearch.org
	Join Gurudeva on Innersearch 2002 to Canada
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: HOW TO BECOME A HINDU
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to the THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND