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Gurudeva says: "The Hindu looks at nothing as intrinsically evil. To him the ground is sacred. The sky is sacred. The sun is sacred. His wife is a Goddess. Her husband is a God. Their children are devas. Their home is a shrine. Life is a pilgrimage to mukti, or liberation from rebirth, which once attained is the end to reincarnation in a physical body. When on a holy pilgrimage, one would not want to hurt anyone along the way, knowing full well the experiences on this path are of one's own creation, though maybe acted out through others."
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Pilgrims gathered for lunch in the Himalayan Academy gallery with Acharya Palaniswami.

The local Thai restaurant was generous enough to feed today, not only the monks, but also about 50 pilgrims.

We are honored to have a surprise contingent of nine new pilgrims from Singapore.

Our silpis join the group... Chinnu the silpi cook is asking about the delicious chewy things he finds in the Thai food and has discovered tofu! On the left is our "Navagraha" display, with the Indian style astrological chart laid out on the floor with the massive brass figures of the planets placed in their proper positions.

Our Singapore team responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to do some karma yoga: weeding mondo grass.

They say their coming was a "miracle in a way..." as normally it is impossible to get leave from their jobs in Singapore where corporations "own" their employees. But they all decided to come, and everyone was granted leave by their different companies, and despite the airlines being overbooked, nine seats came free just in time. "It was as if Gurudeva wanted us all to be here."

Garland making continues in the temple.

Hundreds and hundreds of plumerias are strung together.

One of the wonderful blessings of pilgrimage is to make friends with like-minded souls in the spirit of satsang "truth gathering"... all under the darshan of Lord Nataraja in the temple.

Three PM: Sadhaka Haranandinatha begins the late afternoon vigil with the afternoon Ganesha puja.

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We bring you more photos from India.... around the temple porticos and outer edge are small pillars... here is the "Mahapadmam" stone for a pillar. This stone will actually be placed up against the ceiling. i.e. the broad part that is down to the ground in this photo will be against the ceiling and the pillar itself will be joined at the central hexagon. This "great lotus" will have a lot more detail when it is completed.

The base of each pillar is a large block of stone called the "upapanam" or base...

More work on one of the upopanams.

Master architect (seated in the chair) is V. Ganapathi Sthapati. Here he is reviewing pillar positions on the newly revised floor plan of the temple.

Sthapati has always had a mystical understanding of the temple, its geometry and numerology, which are critical to the spiritual power of an Agamic temple. He says originally there were planned only 18 of the smaller outer wall pillars.

Slowly the plan was improved on and 3
porticos were added and now we have 24 pillars.

Twenty four denotes the
Gayathri mantra. It looks accidental, but that is the creation of Siva.

He discovered this today after counting the pillars.

Sthapati reviews the red stone flooring layout.

Study Gurudeva's teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

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Date: December_24_1998
Title: The Fourth Day of Pancha Ganapati
Category:
Duration: 6 min., 27 seconds
Date Given: December 24, 1998

Today at Kauai Aadheenam. Greetings to each and everyone, who are tuning into Cyberspace Ashram, an Ashram called 'Kauai Aadheenam' on the Garden Island of Kauai, in the Hawaiian island chain. Today is December 24th and it is the fourth day of the Hindu festival at this season of the year called 'Pancha Ganapati'. This means, Ganesha has 5 heads, 10 arms and is standing and blessing each and everyone. There are five days in this festival, it is a home festival. This fourth day, devotees of Lord Ganesha all over the world are bringing fourth joy and happiness in the home, music, art, drama, dance. The children are dancing. The older children have created plays, mothers are singing, friends and relatives gather for satsanga. They bring individual artistic gifts that they made by hand and they enjoy each other's company. Plans are made for the year ahead by the family and relatives to bring more harmony, culture and refinement into the home.

Hinduism is a home religion, as well as a mass festival religion. Culture as we know, comes from worship. We worship the God and Gods and we relate to God, Gods and Guru in a special way. We carry that out from the Temple into the home. The more one goes to a Hindu Temple, the more refined the home becomes. Those who don't go to the Hindu Temple often, or sit home and watch TV, their home is like a hotel. It is chaotic and anger reigns. Culture is forgotten. Shoes are worn inside the house and all those naughty, naughty things that people should not do who call themselves Hindus.

Here we have a question from California. "When someone who has a Guru is out of harmony with his Guru, he then works within himself to correct that situation. Is this all that's necessary to do?"

That is right, because harmony with your Guru is harmony with your own soul. Harmony with your mother and father, who are the first Guru, is harmony with your own soul. That means your values are correct. You are a soul living in a astral body, living in a physical body having various tools, one of which are emotions. Another is an intellect and another is ignorance. This is ignorance of things you should not understand. Sometimes, the things you should not understand get in the way of your understanding.

So, give up all your bad habits and you will be in harmony with your soul and in harmony with your Guru.

The Guru is like a barometer, not like a commander. You balance yourself off against your Guru or a statue in a temple. On some days, "Ganesha looks not too well at me because of what I have been thinking and what I have been doing behind the backs of others, whom I love". On other days, "Ganesha in the temple is smiling at me!'.

Now, how does that stone deity frown and smile? It is your own mind warning you. Your own soul is warning you that you should be a little wiser, live your life a little better because all the good that you do in this life you can carry over into the next life. All the bad that you do in this life you can carry that over too if you want that kind of baggage! So, the motto is, "Travel lightly".

Well, that was a very good question and thank you very much.

We have now a two-day retreat. We will be seeing you after that is over. You can take a retreat too. You can reflect on what you did in the last five or six days and what you are going to do in the next. Improve, improve, improve. That is why we are here on earth -to improve. No other reason. We are not here to make money, we cannot take it with us. We are not here to remain healthy all the time, we can't take that with us either. We are not here to become a professional, or become an engineer, a doctor, or computer expert. That will all go when we die. The improvements that we make in our character - that will last forever. How we subdue the instinctive mind, and how we perfect right thought, right speech, and right actions and get our happiness from putting a smile on other people's faces, that you will take into your next life. You don't want to take the garbage into your next life. Take all the good stuff.

We will be seeing each other again at darshan time, at Cyberspace ashram in just a few days.

Aum Namah Sivaya!
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		Innersearch postponed Due to the horrific tragedies of September 11th, Himalayan Academy has indefinitely postponed the Canadian Innersearch scheduled to leave next July. Please be assured, we will re-schedule the Innersearch, but only when the present insecurity around the world settles down. Until then, if you are planning to go on a future Innersearch program with Gurudeva, continue to set aside a little income each month in a special fund. www.innersearch.org
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