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Cybertalk: This is a radio interview conducted by Loni Petranek with Gurudeva. The interview gives an overview of Gurudeva's worldwide mission. In the fourteenth and final part today Loni and Gurudeva end the show by finishing up their discussion on women's rights.

Cybertalk Ends"
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Date: March_13_2001
Title: Gurudeva Interviewed by Loni Petranek Part 7
Category: The Guru
Duration: 3 min., 47 seconds
Date Given: August 20, 2000

Loni: Now you also are situated in a very sacred area for Hawaiians and that is the Wailua.

Gurudeva: It is the 'Pihana-kalani' area and that means, 'Where Heaven touches the Earth'. There has been a temple there, for a couple of thousand years. The hereditary priestess lives on Oahu and her great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather established the six temples going right up the mountain to number seven, at the top of Waialeale.

Loni: And you are situated in?

Gurudeva: Temple number five.

Loni: Temple number five. That is very apropos, if you look at the chakras.

Gurudeva: If you look at the chakras, it is the communication chakra. So, when we are doing books and magazines and CDs and videos, we do communicate. Everybody at the monastery has a computer and an e-mail. We get hundreds of e-mails everyday. In fact, they are forwarded on to families of our Church on the mainland, who also answer them. Questions all the time. We have a beautiful internet site, one of the largest ones in Hawaii. So, we manage to keep busy.

Loni: I think it is really wonderful. Barbara Marx Hubbard, who came with the 'Women of Vision and Action' conference is a futurist.

Gurudeva: I am waiting for the men of vision and action too, to come up one day. They haven't arrived yet.

Loni: And we will have you as a futurist, then!

Gurudeva: Okay!

Loni: But she mentioned when she came here, how in this day and age, with communications as it is in technology, it really represents the nervous system of the planet. That is quite profound if you look at it that way, that you can move right through the body of the planet with this capability to affect and to communicate with everyone.

Gurudeva: Definitely.

Loni: Now, this magazine 'Hinduism Today' goes out to many, many people around the world.

Gurudeva: It goes out to many countries. It is a leadership magazine too, because Hindu leaders in many small countries use it on the radio and on television, in their lectures in the temples. So we work very hard to put it out every month. We have a staff of permanent writers and also part-time writers, over one hundred and fifty working with us in major countries, that Hindus are living in. But there is something in it for everybody. It is not only preaching Hinduism. In fact, it really doesn't preach Hinduism. It gives a broad perspective of what one-sixth of humanity is doing. Over a billion people live this faith.

Loni: It is translated in different languages?

Gurudeva: Actually, it is not translated unless somebody would get on the radio and translate it, being inspired. It is only in English.

Loni: Well, I am going to take a music break and when we come back, I would like to speak about the 'Lemurian Scrolls.' That particularly intrigues me.

Gurudeva: Okay.

Loni: We are in conversation with Gurudeva and he is a spiritual leader of the Hindu temple. Actually Gurudeva, the temple has a name?

Gurudeva: It is called the 'San Marga Iraivan Temple'.

Loni: Okay, I wanted to be sure that I put that out. And, we will be back after this music break.
transcription ends

Darshani Sukumaran and her husband Vignesh and baby girl Abhirami have spent several days here at the Aadheenam, talking with the monks and Gurudeva. The couple has been studying Gurudeva's teachings for several years and are very active in the new Ganesha temple society in Arizona.

Today was very special. They both took their three vratas:

1. The vow to tithe ten percent of their income.
2. The vow to be pure vegetarians
3. The vow of committment to Gurudeva's spiritual lineage, the Kailasa Parampara of the Nandinatha Sampradaya.

In our Himalayan Academy study program, this makes them both "Vidyarthi" students.

Vignesh Sukumaran told us a wonderful true story today. His grandfather was a hunter in the Tanjavore district of Tamil Nadu. One day he was out hunting birds and a sadhu passed by and asked him "What are you doing?" and Vignesh's great grandfather sat and listened to the sadhu for several hours. After that he stopped hunting, became a complete vegetarian and a Siva bhakta and started going around to all the Saivite temples in the area; one of these was particularly important to him and this was the Abhirami Goddess temple. So when he and Darshani had their first baby girl, they named her "Abhirami" after the goddess at that temple.

Darshani Sukumaran runs an active web site for young couples who are "half Asian, half American" and used to be a journalist. After having her baby she did the wise thing and stopped work to become a full-time mom and is now very happy. Congratulations to Darshani and what a lucky baby not to be sent off to day-care centers! She and her husband were featured in the January 2000 issue of Hinduism Today where you can read her wonderful testimony about meeting her husband and going to India.

Little Abhirami has a great big head, a sign of healthy development for a little baby (the brain is developing rapidly). Such a lucky child who has joined the "cross national" generation of those who will look beyond the bounds of ethnic background and skin color. And what a great karma for her to come to Kauai Aadheenam at such a young age!

Another happy couple came to visit us today, the Kolb family from Colorado.

The picture here shows Gurudeva conducting his daily class every morning in our very own private room onboard the MS Volendam during the 2000 Caribbean Innersearch. Here he is teaching Manipuri dancing by first getting the Innersearchers to feel the energy within their fingers. In his classes we also have the rare privilege of learning Gurudeva's own mystical language of meditation called Shum which maps in remarkable detail the landscape of inner consciousness. Visit www.innersearch.org to find out about this year's voyage to enchanting Europe and Russia.

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!

We are running our "mini-series" today on the "big rock."

Sadhaka Adinatha who knows the history here sends us this fascinating testimonial:

"This is actually a very special shot of the stone that was quarried for the capstone on the vimanam right after it had been broken loose from the surrounding stone.

Normally when they break a stone loose it will break at odd angles and be very irregular, but this particular stone was very unusual and broke into almost a perfect rectangle on all faces with no irregular angles. Right after this photo was taken they splashed water over the stone to make any defects or veins in the rock more visible, and there were none. It was really a fine piece of stone.

Here is the stone after being partially carved at the worksite. Sadhaka Adinatha continues:

"There is no road into this part of the quarry, and they had to break out many, many tons of stone just to get a lorry close enough to load the stone, and even then it was too heavy for the lorry, so they had to round off all the corners and hollow out the center before they could even move it."

And here is the final stone on Kauai, where it is on display. This is a Hindu couple from Georgia.

Another picture of Ketu, one of the Deities for the Navagraha pavillion in Kauai. Ketu is said to be an astral planet and in Vedic Astrology the ruler of moksha (liberation), internalized energy and past life karma. Ketu is astronomically the point where the orbit of the moon intersects with the ecliptic as it is moving into the southern hemisphere.

This is "Rahu", also an astral planet, and in Vedic Astrology rules dharma and energy directed outward to the world. Rahu is astronomically the point where the orbit of the moon intersects with the ecliptic as it is moving into the northern hemisphere.

These are two deities that are still open for sponsorship. Also available are Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon) and Budha (Mercury). Email Acharya Ceyonswami for details

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

Mr. Mougam Chetty and Mrs. Z. Suhootoorah of the Agricultural Department came
today to give us a seminar on the pruning of citrus and lichee trees.

Rajesh Boodhoo, (standing center) an orchardist from Brisee Verdiere, and a
several other people joined the sadhaka for the seminar.

Mrs. Z. Suhootoorah instructs Siven Veerasamy on how to remove certain
branches for maximum fruit production.

This is Mr. and Mrs. Ramrattansing (originally from Suriname) on holiday from Den Haag, Netherlands. Just by coincidence they met one of Gurudeva's devotees
in a little shop in Grand Baie. He's brought them here today.

They are long-time readers of the former Dutch edition of Hinduism Today
that was so lovingly translated and printed for several years by the Soven &
Amritha Sivanand family.

Hooray! A large shipment of 'Positive Discipline' books has arrived from the
USA. Here they are being blessed in the monastery shrine room. From
Ganesha's feet they will spread throughout the entire country of Mauritius.
The methods and ideas contained in these books will definitely bring joy
back into the homes and classrooms of those parents and teachers who buy
them and apply the teachings in their own personal life situations.

There are now three 'Positive Discipline' seminars being conducted for parents
in Mauritius: one in Chemin Grenier, one in Goodlands and one in Grand Baie.
We hope that classes will soon be started in the more populous central
section of the island.

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