Kauai Aadheenam

Under a beautifully crafted wooden ceiling, good souls pose for a family portrait following the jayanthi celebrations

Rajen Manick sent news from one island to another:

Mauritius sishyas met at the Spiritual Park on Sunday 13th to celebrate Guru Jayanthi in a very devotional spirit enhanced by Natchintanai singing, pada puja and cake cutting for Bodhinatha. Everyone present felt uplifted. Bodhinatha sent the following message to be read to the shishyas:  “Certain times of the year cause us to be more reflective about our lives. For some, it could be the new year and the idea of a new year’s resolution. For others, it could be their birthday. For married couples, it could be their anniversary.”

Bodhinatha’s Message: I often mention the importance of practice for making spiritual progress. Patanjali uses the term abyasa for consistent daily practice. Gurudeva, of course, prefers the term sadhana and stressed we are on the sadhana marga which our lexicon defines as: “Coined by Siva Yogaswami to describe the way he urged serious aspirants to follow—a path of intense effort, spiritual discipline and consistent inner transformation, as opposed to theoretical and intellectual learning.”

In Hindu organizations that focus on spiritual advancement, a trend for devotees is to be dynamic in their practice at the beginning but over the years to put less and less effort in their inner work until they reach the point where the organization is more a social group of like-minded individuals. Gurudeva strove to offset this trend by the practice of an annual rededication to the sadhana marga.
A second trend again, for those who have been with an organization for many years, is to maintain their current level of attainment without an effort to deepen it. For example, you see the inner light as a faint glow in our head and that is good enough. There is no effort to go more deeply into it.

This is where the idea I mentioned at the beginning comes into play—taking advantage of the days of the year we are more reflective about our life. On such a day, it is good to think about where we are on the spiritual path and choose one or more areas to improve during the coming year.

This is taking the idea of regular practice once step deeper. Not only are we practicing regularly, we are working on our nature. We are changing who we are. We are refining ourselves. We are committed to the serious process of becoming a more spiritual person. As Gurudeva said, even if you are a guru, even Chellappaswami, Yogaswami, they never stopped becoming a more spiritual person. Even Gurudeva kept becoming a more and more spiritual person, developing new abilities.

Have a wonderful Jayanti celebration. Om Namasivaya.”

Enter Siva’s Garden

The garden changes day to day, hour to hour, it is never the same. Walk along the paths today and it won’t be like it was last month. This is the garden now, October 12, 2024. Did you know that plants can communicate with each other and with insects through chemical signals. When under attack by pests, some plants release volatile organic compounds into the air. These signals can warn neighboring plants to preemptively strengthen their own defenses and can also attract the predators of the pests attacking them, effectively calling for backup. And there is this: Some plants exhibit incredible adaptability to extreme environments. For instance, Welwitschia mirabilis, found in the Namib Desert, survives with only the moisture from fog and dew; it can live for over a thousand years in one of the harshest environments on Earth.

The Sugar Palm seeds are about 3/4″ long and a most delightful purple/green gradient

Each one a palm tree of the future.

Birds are drawn to the dark purple “seeds” and in the process brush up against the orange flower structure and pollinate the flowers.

False Fruit Tree, such architectural structure.

Grammataphyllum scriptum “Citronum” on the way to Iraivan Temple on a palm tree

This hydechium is blooming for the first time in 7 years!
Over by Gurudeva’s murti on the Path of the Saiva Satgurus.

Queen’s Wreath or Sandpaper Vine in lush bloom

The flowers are so dense. No wonder it is named Petrea volubus.

Once we create, edit, design, print and post the 86-page magazine, we move on to other monk chores. But not everyone is content with that. One young man recently decided to put the new Notebook LM AI service to the test. He fed a PDF of the entire issue into the beast, and asked it to create a podcast. What came out is nothing short of astonishing. He sent it to us and we were floored. The resulting podcast, created in minutes, was better than most professional (think National Public Radio) audio casts.

So good in fact, we want to share it, and we are thinking we should do this for all future editions of Hinduism Today. It is 17 minutes long and covers several of the major articles in such a spontaneous and informative way. You will think two professional journalists are in a studio conversing about it. Click the small arrow below to start the podcast and prepare to be a bit gobsmacked as they say in London.