Blog Archives
January 12, 2001 
Jai Gurudeva! Up and Walking and Sitting On My Own!. . .Here is Gurudeva at this ocean with today's "lunch team", that is the group of monks who drive down from the monastery to take him lunch. He is taking some fresh air and sunshine. Sadhaka Mahadevan on the left, Thambynathan Nutanaya in the back and Sadhaka Dandapani in the right front. Getting better day by day! And the good news is that Gurudeva spoke to the monks over the speaker phone today saying: "Today I started my editing again. I just had to get back to work. You know when you have a problem like this your brain takes a break. . .but today was the day to start work again and we are back on task focusing on the next book "Living with Siva." I want to thank all the monks for taking such good care of me and coming twice a day. Remember all of you during the unstable times, that is the time to really work, to put your goal of Self-Realization in the forefront of your consciousness, to strive and work within yourself. That is after all what you came here to do!"
|
Title: 2001, 75th Jayanthi Talk, Part 4 |
In this final part of Gurudeva's 75th birthday talk he tells the secret 6 word mantra that came from Lord Muruga, how to use it and the magic that it does.
Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.
Do you have questions for Gurudeva? Send to questions@hindu.org.
Please note: Gurudeva only responds to questions from the general public on matters that are suitable for our public cyber audience. Personal or intimate questions sent to this address are not answered.
A detailed index of past inspired talks is available here.
transcription begins
Transcription of One of Gurudeva's CyberTalks
Date: January_05_2001
Title: 2001, 75th Jayanthi Talk, Part 1
Category: The Spiritual Path
Duration: 3 min., 51 sec.
Date Given: January 05, 2001
Vanakkam, Vanakkam, Vanakkam! Aloha from the beautiful garden island of Kauai, the divine retreat for all the Jaffna Tamil people throughout the world. When you want to come to worship Siva, to worship Lord Ganesha and to worship Lord Murugan, come to Kauai Aadheenam. We will talk, we will understand each other, bless each other and proceed into a positive future.
There is a wonderful mantra in English. All my Tamil devotees understand English or at least a little bit of English. It is six words, came from Lord Muruga and they are in English. But, our Natyam Thondunathan put them into the beautiful Tamil language. We are to say this mantra mentally not verbally. You can say it to yourself verbally. But it is a mental mantra.
Would you like to know what it is? Before I tell you the six magical words, I want to mention a few things about Lord Murugan. He is so strong on the planet Earth. He is working day and night for the peace and happiness of the next generation of the beautiful Tamil people, worldwide.
This is a very auspicious day for Gurudeva, 75th Jayanthi, January 5th the year 2001. A very auspicious day. I am feeling stronger day by day, after having gone through a great kavadi, of great pain for over thirty-one days.
There are Tamilians on the beautiful garden island of Mauritius, who often sleep on a bed of nails for three nights and three days. Our Tamilian devotees in Malaysia, Canada, Singapore and Sri Lanka have spears and hooks in their back, to smooth out the karmas of the future.
We are born into this life, myself seventy-five years ago, counting the year within the womb of the mother that bore this physical body. We were born into this life, with certain karmas called prarabdha karma, that we must live through in this life. But we make new karmas on the way, sometimes unknowingly.
What are these karmas we create in this life? They are happenings in life, experiences in this life that contain emotion attached to the memory of the experience, that keeps vibrating within our internal subconscious, subjective mind. As we become older and the years go by, more of these memories - good, bad, happy, sad - with the emotions vibrating, causes us to think more of the past than the future.
So, we want to quiet the mind of the past, so that the future becomes big and long to us and we live a long, long time.
transcription ends
Sannyasin Arumugaswami in the temple during a 3 hour vigil. This is a time alone, when we can focus on spiritual studies, inner life and sadhanas. . .
This wonderful picture of our latest monastic aspirant, Thambynathan Sivaram. . .he has been helping in the subscription department of Hinduism Today, doing a great job.
This is a good shot of the entrance ot the Kadavul Shiva temple. On the right under the roof is a ten ton statue of Nandi the bull. Our "monastic shrine" temple here has often been likened in style to the temples of Kerala. We have added a mixture of polynesian lava rock and Japanese roof tiles. Deep inside the temple is the famed and not-to-be-photographed, six-foot statue of Lord Nataraja. The temple is noted for its "diamond dust darshan" having the power to cut through to the heart of things, making devotees come face-to-face with themselves all in an instant, sometimes an emotionally overwhelming but always wonderfully uplifting experience. People call it the "Chidambaram of the West."
Our TAKA photographer, Sadhaka Jivanandanatha (left) takes a break from behind the shutter to pose with Sadhaka Thondunatha.
Most Hindu temples have an outside shrine called the "Navagraha" shrine. . .this is a pedestal with the images of nine planets and is famous for being worshipped by people trying to propitiate the forces of the stars for the great benefit of their lives.
This giant revolving board is our modern day Navagraha shrine.
Each of the colored balls represents one of the planets and the moon. They are colored according to the gem connected with the planet. The earth is in the middle. The planets are positioned on the inner wheel according to their actual, real, astronomical positions in the sidereal zodic signs. On the outer side of the board are the numbered bhavas or houses, the 1st house equal to the eastern horizon. Every two hours through the day the inner wheel is turned so the next sign is lined up with the 1st house. . .thus giving us a "real' navagraha "yantra" for any hour of the day.
Gurudeva reminds us that the stars impel, they don't compel. Your karma is reflected in the positions of the stars at birth and the karmic seeds are triggered to manifest when the planets line up in the right positions through life. But the stars do not deliver some kind of "fate" other than the fate which you have yourself, created for yourself.
Low tide at the ocean reveal well worn reefs, the ocean's protecting buttress against in coming swells. A precious resource our reefs are one of the important elements in the global economy that we all want to conserve.
After millions of years these chunks of broken coral, continually dashed by a zillion waves, will slowly become countless grains of sand. . .just think for a minute the glory of the infinity of your soul, the eons of experiences and never forget the timeless journey you are on and that one day, the momentous experiences of this life will be nothing but sand in the beaches of your memory.
An eleven acre site in Bangalore, India, where 75 Indian families live and daily carve the sacred white granite edifice of Iraivan Temple which will soon begin to be assembled on the island of Kauai
U. Adaikalam holding the nearly completed chain ring. The rings are an inch in thickness.
A close up view of the rings. Just imagine the skill, patience and time it will take to complete a set. It takes 100 working days to complete one set.
Gurudeva's other monastery in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
Continued Reports from Jayanthi Celebrations in Mauritius:
Everyone had been supercharged by Gurudeva's talk (which he gave over the internet phone) about teaching Positive Discipline in Mauritius. He gave the assignment to everyone to focus on this for the next five years. Teaching the principles and methodology of Positive Discipline will be our way of thanking Mauritius for its support and a way of giving back to the community. Gurudeva encouraged everyone to begin classes for all the different religious, ethnic and language groups in Mauritius. The objective is to stop the war in the home and raise a new generation which has developed self-discipline, responsibility, cooperation and problem solving skills in a loving atmosphere.
After the puja Mrs Kavita Mardemootoo told of her experience at Jane Nelson's Positive Discipline teacher training seminar in Hawaii. Then everyone separated into four groups. Four leaders had practiced ahead of time to conduct "warm ups" and have everyone in all the groups do some of the role playing exercises recommended by Jane Nelsen. These exercises are meant to help absorb the Positive Discipline teachings on a feeling level. All four groups radiated happiness at being able to learn how to do these exercises. Everyone caught the spirit of how easily the Positive Discipline seminars could be facilitated. And how much fun it can be. In this photo Premila Manick, in green sari, listens and prepares to do role playing. Another of the four groups can be seen in the background
Mrs Meeravadee Koothan and Mougam Pareatumbee getting role playing instructions from Mrs Selvon Mardemootoo.
Everyone smiles in recognition that we're all in the same boat. Everyone has the same problems relating to their kids!!
Click here to view this day last year.
"How to Become A Hindu"! Gurudeva's latest book release is now available Hot Off the Press! Visit the Himalayan Academy Book Store Web Site get the book and read the incredible testimonies of the early pioneers from the west who chose to make a full and complete conversion to Hinduism, legally change both their first and last names to Hindu names, change their lifestyles, sever their formal connections to previous faiths and joyously face the challenges in joining the tribe of the Sanatana Dharma
Visiting Kauai's Hindu Monastery
If you are planning to visit Kauai, please go first to our our visitor's page. Thank you.
Click here for information about Gurudeva's travels. He is presently staying on Kauai and has not immediate travel plans.
And
12 Glorious Days, 8 Enchanting Countries
and One Chance in a Lifetime!
Imagine spending 12 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami will be leading this exotic educational and spiritual voyage himself combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat from it all.
Take advantage of this one chance to be in close proximity with a living master. Come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Northern Europe and Russia.
www.innersearch.org
SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK AND RECEIVE A FREE GIFT
Sign our guestbook and we will send you a free issue of our global full-color bi-monthly magazine, Hinduism Today.
THANK YOU, GURUDEVA
For those who have been touched spiritually by Gurudeva's work, his books, his guidance, his inspired life and example and even his website, the "Thank You, Gurudeva Fund" has been established within Hindu Heritage Endowment.
Proceeds from this fund last forever; they're not a one-time gift. So gifts to this fund have eternal gratitude built into them. They live on in perpetuity.
Each month Gurudeva receives the income from the fund to be used at his own discretion to promote his work and mission around the globe. He loves this, for he knows that it comes from all the good souls who have met him and studied with him, traveled with him or just talked with him over the years. A contribution to this fund is tax-deductible.