Blog Archives
Speaking of Lord Siva, Yogaswami said:
“Infinitely glorious in His Transcendence
And yet unsurpassing in the beauty of Immanence,
Those who see Him thus in gracious forms
As their Beloved, they triumph in bliss eternal.”
–Natchintanai. 93.
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
Click to read for Details.
Click here to read
Gurudeva’s statement on September 11th
Bodhinatha takes a photo break from his busy day. Having ascended the peedam as Gurudeva’s successor he still carries many of the administrative duties he had before and has a lot on his shoulders. Recently he has been reviewing our children’s course materials as we are seeing more and more classes developing. Stay tuned in the months ahead for release of more things for young people… an oft’ stated request to the monastics.
[Note: all images for today no longer exist]
Cybertalk: The beginning of Bhakti is our understanding of the temple and
Deities and the three worlds. The goal is to become good friends with the
Gods. You open up to the blessings of the Gods by always bringing Them a
gift then being attentive to the puja, or bhajans. Coming to the temple on
festival days is important for getting acquainted with the Deities.
Prapatti, or surrender is central to the practice of bhakti yoga. Surrender
of something small to something larger. Prapatti is like being a candle and
giving up being that small light to become the Sun.
Cybertalk Ends”
For more information about listening to Gurudeva’s talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks.
Study Gurudeva’s teachings
every day. Visit the Master Course site!
Bodhinatha 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 Sadhaka Mahadevan
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Meanwhile our camera was a little people shy today, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening… The Pilliyar Kulam has been working the past few days on getting out the distribution orders for the global circulation of the fabulous new issue of Hinduism Today which is a Memorial issue on Gurudeva. Extra copies have been printed and are held in reserve. Once you get your copy you can order more if you need them. The magazine goes to press tonight in Liberty, Missouri (that’s just a few miles north of Kansas City, but half way ’round the world from Kauai.)
Since September 11th, there has been a major slow down in the US postal system, so be patient, you may not get your copy until the middle of March.
Living With Siva is now available! And my goodnessssss! what a beautiful book it is. Go to the new home page and read what people have to say about the book:
FYI: our archive and email list server is offline for a day or so… those of you who get the Master Course by email can read it here on the web, as you may not be getting the daily lesson right now.
/books/lws/
 The Remarkable Vision |
Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
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We bring you more photos of the beautiful carving work being done on the pillars of Iraivan Temple in Bangalore.
“Chandra” the moon…
A sacred plant/flower….
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We are featuring our “sevaks” from time to time. Each member of Saiva Siddhanta Church is “tithing time” which means they do some kind of karma yoga 4 hours each week, or 16 hours in a month. This can be helping to do fund raising for Iraivan, web work, database entry, promotion of Hinduism Today. taking care of our lands and grounds, hosting guests, etc. Here is Mrs. Bhavani Param who lives with her husband Janaka Param in California. They are the recipients of memos to “webmaster@hindu.org” and “filter” all the requests, only sending on to the monks those queries they cannot handle. This is a huge task. Bhavani enjoys the work, as she will be in touch with people from all over the world. Young people write in asking about definitions for their school homework. People want to know how Hindus feel about abortion, what is that red dot on your forehead… and much, much more. She has developed a lot of answers and excerpts from Gurudeva’s books and is performing a great service for everyone.
Thank you, Bhavani and Janaka!
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Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
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transcription begins
Date: February_09_2002
Title: Effective Karma Management Part 3
Category: Karma
Duration: 8 min., 34 seconds
Date Given: January 31, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
Seventh principle: Accelerate karma.
I was looking through the Saivite Shastras this morning to see what it said about karma. I stuck in ‘karma’ through my search in the Shastras and it popped up all entries. One of them which I had forgotten about, was about accelerating karma and the monastic pattern. The 36-year pattern, remember we talked about that before? The monastic training pattern is thirty-six years long. It says right in the Saivite Shastras themselves, “When the monks were first told this, which was in 1973 or 74, it seemed to many of them a long, long, long time, thirty-six years of training.”
But the other point the verse was making is: Within a monastic’s life, he goes through four lifetimes of karma. Specifically, that is what it said. I hadn’t recalled that, four lifetimes. It said one lifetime is in the first 12 years, one lifetime is in the second 24 years and another lifetime is after the 36 years. It didn’t specify where the fourth one was. I imagine that it was before he became a monk. So, he goes through four lifetimes. That is a perfect example of accelerating karma. We skipped three lives. This is pretty good. We are obviously getting to moksha more quickly. That is the idea, accelerating. In that spirit why wait twenty more births to achieve spiritual maturity when you can achieve in it only five? This is the idea of accelerating karma.
Then, there is a quote from Gurudeva, “When meditation begins our individual karma is intensified. So just the practice of beginning meditation causes our karma to accelerate. Practicing it regularly, not just meditating once. But beginning the regular practice of meditation, sustaining it, causes our karma to accelerate. In our first four or five years of striving on the path, we face the karmic patterns that we would have never faced in this life had we not consciously sought enlightenment. In a few months we experience what would have, otherwise, taken a few lifetimes. Of course, the duties of our normal life do not allow much time for meditation. Thus this principle best fits in to Sannyasa, both those following the path of the monk, as well as, everyone after the age of seventy two, when in the sannyasa ashrama of life. So, retirement can be more than playing golf, hanging around the house. It is an opportunity to intensify our spiritual practices and thus accelerate our karma.”
That is a natural part of Hindu dharma for the householder, the sannyasa ashrama. It is not understood in the West, it may seem a little strange. But is totally understood in Asia and it is common to find those in the sannyas ashrama, over the age of seventy two pilgrimaging in India, spending time in ashrams, living in Varanasi. They are following this practice of
accelerating their karma through intensifying meditation and other sadhanas.
The last principle we have developed, the eighth principle is: Incinerate karma.
I was meditating on that this morning. Homa fire was there, thinking about incineration, the practice of incinerating karma. Gurudeva says, “In the practice of yoga, the negative seed karmas can actually be burned up without ever having to be lived through. What we have to do is dissolve them in intense inner light.” He goes on to say, “It is the held-back force of sanchita karma that the yogi seeks to burn out with his kundalini flame to disempower it within the karmic reservoir of anandamaya kosa, the soul body.”
The idea is when the kundalini is very intense, then one of the consequences is that karmic seeds are burned. If you heat a seed to a certain degree, it won’t sprout. I was thinking, you know alfalfa sprouts Normally, you get your alfalfa and you get it moist and put it in a jar or bag and it sprouts. Right? So it sprouts, that is like karma manifesting in your life. The seed karma when it sprouts is something you experience, it manifests an experience in the first world. That is what sprouting means. But if you take those seeds, heat them to a certain temperature, I don’t know exactly how hot, then you try to sprout them and they won’t sprout.
That is the idea of burning up a seed karma. You are taking the karma which is in seed form, sitting there but it is not going to cause anything to happen. You are getting it up to a temperature where the ability to sprout goes away. So it is incinerated. It won’t manifest an experience anymore. That is the intensity of the kundalini. It causes that to happen, incinerates karma.
That is a pretty advanced practice and there is a beautiful explanation of it, even poetic, by Gurudeva. It says, “In the heart chakra, in bhakti, karmas are in a molten state blended together. The throat chakra molds the karmas through sadhana. Third eye chakra sees the karmas, past, present and future as a singular oneness. The crown chakra absorbs, burns clean enough of the karmas to open the gate, door of Brahman revealing the straight path to merging with Siva.”
This adds the idea that it is the crown chakra, sahasrara chakra, that incinerates the karmas, when the kundalini has activated that up to a certain intensity.
That is our process. In review, we have eight principles so far.
1. Forego retaliation. Unless you do that, the whole thing doesn’t work.
2. Accept responsibility.
3. Forgive the offender.
4. Consider the consequences.
5. Create no negative karma.
6. Mitigate past karma.
7. Accelerate karma.
8. Incinerate karma.
You can all get a certificate for having passed our seminar on, ‘Effective Karma Management’!
Aum Namah Sivaya.
transcription ends
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
Innersearch 2002 in Hawaii!
Our next Innersearch Travel-Study program will be held right here on the island of Kauai in the summer of 2002. It’s the first such program on the Garden Island since 1974! From July 17 to July 22 we will enjoy daily classes with the swamis, join in the annual Guru Purnima festival, be inspired by local culture, explore the lush tropical island in exciting and non-touristy ways, and more. Be prepared for a wonderful spiritual experience in paradise with meditations, seminars and sacred ceremonies at the Siva temple of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. Many have applied already, and there is a limit of 50 participants, so we recommend everyone apply as soon as possible. Interested? Please request an application from pilgrim@searchbeyond.com |
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Check our children and youth section for new items for the young and young at heart! | |
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1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
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| 2. Newest Book: LIVING WITH SIVA | ||
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3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
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4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
