To attend worship at Kadavul Hindu Temple make a reservation here
FRONT GROUNDS ARE OPEN DAILY FROM 9AM to 12PM WITHOUT A RESERVATION

All Knowing is Within You, Part One

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

“As soon as we start on the path to enlightenment, we begin to wonder about our own personal life, and that becomes very important to us, even to the point where sometimes it could make an aspirant rather selfish, because he becomes more interested in himself, his own personal life, than people around him. This is one of the things on the path that really should be avoided, and again a complete change of perspective is needed. We have to change our perspective and begin to realize that beautiful body of the soul which has been growing through the many, many lifetimes that we have spent on the Earth. It’s an indestructible body, and each lifetime it grows a little bit stronger in its inner nerve system. That is called the soul, or the psyche.”

An Update to the Gurudeva App

Long ago, the first mobile app Himalayan Academy produced was a rather simple concept: random photos and quotes from Gurudeva to keep you inspired. Long had this little app been enjoyed by those who knew about it, and long has it been in need of some updates to its code and interface. Over the last few weeks our team has been rebuilding it and yesterday we released the version for Apple iOS, with Android coming very soon.

You can get it for iPhone here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gurudeva/id1031437551

Or if you already have it installed, simply update the app.

Happy Birthday!

A few days ago our "Aadheenam Protector-in-Training," Bhairava, celebrated his first birthday. Right now he's living in a small walled-off corner of the new Siddhidata Kulam machine shop building, but soon he'll move into a larger home right next to the building which has been dubbed Bhairava Mandapam.

Lion Sage on YouTube

If you have a young child or know someone who does, our highly-illustrated "Lion Sage" book has now been turned into 19 short videos with simple animation and character narration. This is a great teaching tool for young ones, being the mystical teachings found in Gurudeva's "Merging with Siva" brought into language for 3-8 year olds by the monks. The narrated and animated videos are a great achievement, accomplished by Venkatesh in Australia. Now you can have bedtime stories with spiritual content for the little ones, bringing children and their parents together in a spiritual way. Some think it's better to wait until they are older to hear some of the profound ideas, but Gurudeva felt they are never too young to hear of the deeper ideas in life. You can access the videos using this Playlist link. No kids? Forward the link to those who have little ones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEp57jcBSjpbmfg1gmrvOsmEhfh3v_ml


Venkatesh has a six-year-old son, and the two of them have been sharing these stories nightly for several weeks. Their experience is worth sharing:

"Every night when I play the "Lion Sage" bedtime stories for my son, more than him, Im learning more from the stories nowadays. Even as I type this email on my phone, I finished listening to 3 chapters. Though I now feel it could have been done better (after listening to the audio podcasts at bedtime almost three times a week, repeating again and again), I think it is one of the most valuable lessons every kid must listen to.

"Thank you so much for having given me a chance to work on this great book. It was a magical experience for me. The learnings are too deep. I have to pause at times to really get the full message in silence while listening, and then I resume the clips. They are amazing!"


The Evolution of Consciousness, Part Four

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"Gaining stability in any of the chakras above the mūlādhāra avails a certain control over the related chakras below the mūlādhāra. For example, the mūlādhāra has power over the second, fourth and sixth chakras below the base of the spine, the centers of anger, confusion and absence of conscience. Maṇipūra, the third chakra, has power over the mūlādhāra and the same Narakaloka centers in an even more expansive way. The reason center, svādhishṭhāna, chakra two, controls the centers of fear, jealousy and so on. The cognition, seeing-through-worldliness chakra—anāhata—the fourth center above the mūlādhāra, controls the reason chakra and the centers of fear, jealousy, egotistic self-preservation and so on."

Happy Mahasivaratri!

Iraivan Temple celebrated Mahasivaratri for the very first time on March 7th evening into the next morning.

From Dancing with Siva--
"Mahivartri is the night before the new-moon day in February-March. We observe it both as a discipline and a festivity, keeping a strict fast and all-night vigil, meditating, intoning iva's 1,008 names, singing His praise, chanting r Rudram, bathing the ivaliga and being near thevairgsas they strive to realize Paraiva."

We began with singing by devotees, then chanting Sri Rudram, followed by Satguru's upadesha on spiritual unfoldment through the four purusharthas, goals of life. The Pravin Kumar Gurukal performed homa, followed by the first kala abhishekam which ended about midnight.

After midnight, Gurukal continued with three more kala abhishekams, decorating Mahalingesvara sphatikalinga in a different manner each time, ending around 5am.

We Hope You Have an Insightful 2024 Mahasivaratri!

Tonight is Siva's Great Night. While our observance of Ardra Darshanam is a celebration of Siva as infinite creation, Mahasivaratri is much the opposite—an introspective dive into the perfectly still source of all that is.

Gurudeva describes Nirvikalapa Samadhi thus: “The inmost center of consciousness–located only after the actinic forces dissolve concepts of form and even consciousness being conscious of itself–is found to be within the center of an energy-spinning force field. This center–intense in its existence, consciousness only on the perimeter of the inside hub of this energy field–vitalizes all externalized form.” “Losing consciousness into the center of this energy field catalyzes one beyond form, time, space. The spinning hub of actinic energy recreating, preserving and dissipating form quickly establishes consciousness again. However, this is then a new consciousness, the continuity of consciousness having been broken in the nirvikalpa samadhi experience. Essentially, the first total conscious break in the evolution of man is the first nirvikalpa samadhi experience. Hence, a new evolution begins anew after each such experience. The evolutional patterns overlap and settle down like rings of light, one layer upon another, causing intrinsic changes in the entire nature and experiential pattern of the experiencer.”

Path to Siva

Work continues today (and every day) on the upgrade to San Marga, the Straight Path to God that Gurudeva created back in 1975. Once Iraivan was completed, we could turn our attention, and resources/funds/time, to the future visitor experience, which will be a ten-minute walk from the Rudraksha Forest to the now-functioning Iraivan Siva Temple.
The path is roughly 3,700 feet long and required hundreds of truckloads of materials to lift the height so rains would shed off and not create potholes and swampy areas. First came an 8" layer of 6-inch rock as a base; once that was compacted, we added a special compactable gravel and compacted that as well. Next, we laid down a special polyurethane grid, which we call Geo Grid, and filled that with sand, compacting the sand. The final step, just beginning, is sowing grass seed. When complete, the 8-foot-wide Pilgrims' Path will be flat and dry and soft so the most devout can walk barefoot to Siva's Feet. Check out progress in the slideshow.

The Evolution of Consciousness, Part Three

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"The seven chakras, or talas, below the spine down to the feet are all seats of instinctive consciousness, the origin of fear, anger, jealousy, confusion, selfishness, absence of conscience and malice. ¶The first chakra below the mūlādhāra, called atala and located in the hips, governs the state of mind called fear. When someone is in this consciousness, he fears God as well as other people—even himself at times. In the chakra below that, called vitala and located in the thighs, anger predominates. Anger comes from despair or the threatening of one’s self-will. When people are in the consciousness of this chakra, they are even angry at God. With their wrath, they often strike out at those around them, leaving a trail of hurt feelings behind them. From sustained anger arises a persistent, even burning, sense of resentment."

Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.

Subscribe to RSS Feed