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This song of Siva Yogaswami describes the spirit and activity of the “Siva Thondan” the servant and devotee of Lord Siva. The second paragraph is interesting in that it describes in many ways the life and activities of Gurudeva and now Bodhinatha:
“The procession thus moves on. It can never halt. In the timeless era of His Grace, the light that is once kindled can never be quenched. The forces of nature and the world’s discordant notes will yield their pressure before the peaceful march of the Siva Thondan. Integral wisdom–Jnana-will be the priceless experience of the worshipful, pure and peace loving devotee of Siva.”
“He will sing and move from shrine to shrine in all four directions, as did St. Manicavasagar or St. Appar, and his beatitudes will echo far and near. He will meet people of various races and creeds and salute them as co-workers in the realm of Lord Siva. He shall part from them all, but the fund of good-will shall remain wherever his feet shalt have trod. In Love, he shall abide; Love, he shall give in plenty, and Love, he shall receive too. Love will be his panoply. He will remain a witness to the beauteous Feet of Siva–Long Live Sivathondon!”
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
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Bodhinatha at Satsang at the home of Kulapati and Kulamata Easvan and Devi Param. Yoginathaswami said thiat this was the thickest garland he had ever seen.
Cybertalk: In part one of a more detailed talk on anger, Bodhinatha shares with us the effectiveness of some advice he recently gave to someone about the effect of angry episodes on the accumulated power of sadhana. He reviews the eight steps on the ladder of anger and dives into the first rung on the ladder in detail, “sneaky anger.”
Cybertalk Ends”
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We step back a few days in time with photos that Yoginathaswami brought home from events in Pittsburg. Here is Bodhinatha giving his talk on “Hindu Megatrends”.
The symposium was attended by about 150 “devotees”, to the extent that they stayed for all the speeches, panel discussions and question and answer periods.
The question and answer period that followed was supposed to last for 15 minutes, but Bodhinatha’s concise and trenchant answers stimulated the audience to ask more and more questions until the organizers had to ask everyone to stop for the subsequent speakers. Members of the audience then later requested for another question and answer session later in the evening with Bodhinatha. Yoginathaswami said that the majority of the questions revolved around the issue of educating Hindus and Hindu youth about their religion.
Bodhinatha poses with devotees of the temple who came to the symposium.
This is Professor M.G. Prasad, PhD, one of the panel speakers. He is a professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey. He presented a paper on the subject of “Multi-Faceted Vedic Hinduism.” He ingeniously inter-related modern science with Hinduism, showing the scientific basis behind many Hindu practices.
Dr. Seshagiri Rao, PhD, and Dr. S. Yegnasubramanian, PhD. Dr. Rao is a Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia. Dr. Rao is a long time associate and friend of Hinduism Today and is the lead force behind the Encyclopedia of Hinduism Project. Dr. S. Yegnasubramanian, a top Lucent technologies scientist is also a leading religious figure in the New Jersey area. A devotee of the Sringeri Shankaracharya, India, key officer of the Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation, USA, teacher of Sanskrit and priest for the Hindu temple in Bridgewater, N.J., Dr. Yegnasubramanian is a champion of Vedic culture, which was the subject of his paper at the symposium in which he focused on the importance of Hindu samskaras in our lives (Upanayana, Weddings, Name-giving, Ear-boring etc.)
In the back (barely visible) left to right: Sarah Caldwell, PhD. aka “Amba” from Harvard Divinity school, Cambridge, who received Samaya Diksha in India recently from Sri Samburthi Sivachariar; Dr. M.G. Prasad, (info above); Dr. S. S. Ramarao Pappu, PhD, Professor Miami University, Ohio; Dr. Vasudha Narayanan, PhD, Professor of Religion, University of Florida, and current president of the American Academy of Religion, and the first to Hindu to ever hold this position.
After the symposium, the evening of the first day, in the long standing tradition of Gurudeva, Bodhinatha held “Hotel Satsang” with readers of Merging with Siva and Himalayan Academy students who all were given advance notice of his arrival.
This is Sivakami, with her husband and children. She is daughter of our long time sishya of Gurudeva and trustee of San Marga Trust, India, Lakshmanan Nellaiappan who lives in Chennai and has served Saiva Siddhanta Church for several decades. They drove all the way from Michigan to Pittsburg to have darshan of Bodhinatha. And what a wonderful family they were!
Many came from long distances: this whole group came together from the Bethesda Murugan temple, Washington D.C.
And, earlier in the day, Dr. Pemmaraju Rao came all the way from Birmingham, Alabama and presented an official letter of invitation to Bodhinatha to come to the temple in Birmingham.
After two days in Pennsylvania, Bodhinatha and Yoginathaswami flew to California. They met with Choladeva who is aspiring to one day become a monk. Choladeva has been spending his weekends at the Concord Palaniswami Sivan temple where he helps the priest with all the temple chores — a good preparation for a young man hoping for a religious life and certainly not the usual weekend occupation of young men in California!
A wonderful satsang of the Golden Gate Mission of Saiva Siddhanta Church was held in Concord. Our young people there showed very impressive cultural advancement in the music arena. Here Devika Ajaya sings a beautiful song in Carnatic style.
Everyone is enthralled by Jothi Param’s singing of Natchintanai in beautiful Tamil and with his bhava (feeling).
The mission invited an accomplished veena player, Raja Sivamani. Raja is a graduate student at UC Berkeley. He came to the satsang with his mother and father from Sunnyvale. Raja is much sought after and will even fly off to other temples in the US to play at special events and weddings. Kartik Katir, son of Kulapati and Kulamata Easan and Sundari Katir, is taking Veena lessons from him.
A relative of the Easan Katir family, this is Anandi Nagalingam, elder sister to Sundari Katir visting from London. Many years ago their father, Sanmugasundaram, a staunch devotee of Siva Yogaswami who lived in Columbo, sent his daughters Sundari and Anandi to Jaffna to meet Yogaswami who was then living in his small hut in Columbuthurai. Anandi sang a song to Yogaswami and Yogaswami told her: “You will always be happy and a very good singer and homemaker.” She took this as a blessing for her life and indeed turned out to be the best singer in the family and enjoys singing Natchintanai as she does here at the satsang.
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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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3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
