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Cybertalk: This is part 12 of a radio interview conducted by Loni Petranek with Gurudeva. The interview gives an overview of Gurudeva's worldwide mission.Today Gurudeva shares with Loni how before the second world war women stayed at home and did not work. They looked after the children and cared for the home. They then talk about how women working has changed society.

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 Sivadevanathaswami

Click here if you have a question Gurudeva answers questions from CyberCadets, and welcomes your spiritual queries. However, he responds only to matters of general interest and not to personal or intimate matters.

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Date: March_12_2001
Title: Gurudeva Interviewed by Loni Petranek Part 6
Category: The Guru
Duration: 3 min., 18 seconds
Date Given: August 20, 2000

Loni: It is a very special temple. It is really going to be quite beautiful.

Gurudeva: It is going to be really beautiful! It is going to have five golden domes, real gold leaf, at thirty-five feet tall, beautifully hand-carved in India. It is half-finished now. We have set up a village for the last nine years in India, where we have had nearly a hundred workers, working daily creating this temple. It is the largest temple that has been made in India this century. It will be shipped stone by stone here, starting this year. Next year in July, we will be putting the stones on to the temple. The building department calls it 'the gravity building', because it is held together by gravity.

Loni: Is that right? How interesting! Now, who designed this particular temple?

Gurudeva: A very famous architect called Sri Ganapati Sthapati from Chennai, that used to be called Madras, in South India. He designed it. But it is of an ancient design, about a thousand years old from the Chola dynasty. So, just to look at the temple is a spiritual experience. You don't have to understand anything about it and the accomplishment of bringing it here is a spiritual experience also for us.

Loni: The journey. Yes, it is not the destination, but the journey.

Gurudeva: We found out this, the tons and tons of cement that we have recently poured, without any cracks at all, is 18% crystal.

Loni: Wow!

Gurudeva: Been mined here on the island. We were really surprised at that.

Loni: Down on south shore.

Gurudeva: Yes, on the south shore.

Loni: That is wonderful. Speaking about crystals, you have a very special one here. Also, I know a lot of people come to Kauai to actually see this.

Gurudeva: Actually, it came to us on the day of the 'Harmonic Convergence', years and years ago and brought its own congregation from many countries to see it. It is seven hundred pounds, about three and a half feet tall, six-sided, a perfectly formed crystal. Probably the largest one in the world. We haven't seen a larger one. Nobody has told us there is a larger one. So, as of today, it is the largest. It is going to be the central icon in the new temple.

Loni: Now, people that may not be familiar with gem stones, crystals etc. It does play a special significance in Hinduism?

Gurudeva: Yes. This particular one is a wish-fulfilling crystal. You make a wish. The crystal amplifies the wish, takes it into the inner world, the devonic beings in the inner world help fulfill the wish. Of course, it has to be a good wish because, they don't do bad things.

Loni: Not on Kauai, that's for sure!

Gurudeva: Not on Kauai, or anywhere.

Loni: We won't allow that.

Gurudeva: We won't allow that.
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Martine Thom Productions was on hand to film Gurudeva with the guests, an opportunity they have been waiting for, for two weeks. Today is the last day of their filming and the two Zacks are going back to Vancouver tomorrow.

Here we have Mr. Haridoss (on the right in the photo). Originally from Chennai, he lived 30 years in Thailand. Today he came to the temple and met some Thai ladies who now live on Kauai and was surprised to find them here. His wife is Thai and he spoke fluent Thai with them.

On the left is Vickneswaran Sukumaran.

Gurudeva blesses Mr. Haridoss with vibhuti.

And Darshani and her baby.

Sadhaka Thondunatha with our "Thai delegation."

An intense meeting of the Kauai Aloha Endowment advisory board. Gurudeva, Acharya Bodhinatha and Skandanathaswami attended. It was a dynamic beginning to a vision Gurudeva has been working on for several years: to endow the island of Kauai.

Here is the advisory board. From left, is Charlie King, Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, Roberta Haas, Gurudeva, Allan Smith, Barbara Curl, Mel Ventura.

Our 11-acre village in India is home to 75 Indian master craftsmen who live there and work each day on the carving of the sacred white granite Siva Temple which will soon be shipped soon to Kauai and assembled. See our latest February 2001 Building Fund Progress Report and join our family of contributors today!

More retrospective shots from India. Here we see the stone for the temple being extracted from the quarry outside of Bangalore. This stone may have been removed about 5 years ago. Today it is being carved and this year or next year it will arrive on Kauai.

Gurudeva's other monastery in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa

This is Preetam from Quartier Militaire. He is an inspector for the Agricultural Research and Extention Unit. He gives technical advice and records statistics from farmers who care for cattle and goats. (The Ag Extention also gives loans to small farmers for construction of buildings
related to animal care.) He's in La Pointe des Lascars today to visit the family whose cow supplies milk for our monastery and the family whose goats feast on grass and plants near Muruga's feet. He stopped by on he way back to the office to offer a prayer to "the wish-fulfilling Ganesha."

Forestry Department officials were here again to collect more information on
our proposed water system that will tap spring water upriver and deliver it
to the Spiritual Park for drip irrigation of the trees.

Mr Greedharrye from from Carreau Laliane of Vacoas. He's the advance man for
a group that will be touring temples on Hanuman Jayanthi April 8th. They
plan to come by bus to four temples in the north part of Mauritius. We'll be
the last stop of the day.

Anba Valayten (right) has brought the Indian priest from the tiny Plaine des
Roches Siva Soopramaniar Temple on an excursion to the Spiritual Park.

Sivacharya speaks only Tamil, but his wife speaks English quite well.
They've been in Mauritius for almost one year. They really loved their visit
to Ganesha. "Very nice!" he said.

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