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We had a visit from the Kilauea Senior Center today and these words from Gurudeva’s latest book, Living with Siva are useful thoughts for us all:
Society in the Western world has no tolerance for the aged, only for the young. Therefore, the aged and the aging must look out for themselves and guide society into a new and mature outlook as to their value to society as senior citizens within society. In the Western world, the elderly are not respected. They are shoved aside, considered useless, as they interfere with the pursuit of the life and liberty of the younger people by giving advice and direction based on their experience. That’s why Western people have to learn by their own experiences, because they have relegated the older generation to obscurity. It has become part of the culture. Not so in Asia. In Asian cultures traditionally the aged are venerated more and more each year for their knowledge, their guidance, their wisdom, their compassion, their existence. So much are they venerated in life, that when they have given up their Earth suit they are still venerated and invoked for their guidance, because of their accumulated wisdom and their new-found powers in the inner world, so that the family, which makes up society, moves forward uninterrupted by chaos or contention, wars and famine. These ancestors in the inner world guide and correct and hopefully are born again into the same family as a fresh, knowledgeable influence. This is how Asian families progress as institutions from one stage of development to another because of ancestor worship.”
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
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We have no photos from Mauritius today but an excellent email report has arrived. For those who are not members of Saiva Siddhanta Church, in the following report the word “kutumba” means an extended family made up of a Kulapati (man) Kulamata (his wife) who are the head family of a number of other families, not necessarily related by blood, but by their association with our Guru lineage and the geographical proximity. One of the main activities of the visit was having families come to personally meet with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami to renew their connection with the Kailasa Parampara. Many of the members and students of Mauritius only met Gurudeva a few times and some never… so this is a joyous opportunity for them to be in touch with the present Satguru.
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Cybertalk: Responsiveness is important on the spiritual path, both in the monastery and in the family home. Bodhinatha talks about feelings of rebellion when approached with a suggestion and the importance of overcoming them. He also speaks on why everyone in Saiva Siddhanta Church follows an Indian ayurvedic vegetarian diet.
Cybertalk Ends”
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We just recently received fresh new art from the wonderul S. Rajam for Dancing with Siva. Here-to-fore we had been using selections from his lifetime work collection that he sold to us. But many of the themes in Dancing with Siva were not covered in his previous artwork and so we commissioned specific paintings be done for 23 23 of the chapters of Dancing with Siva. And they are superbly done.
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BODHINATHA’S MAURITIUS MISSION
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Wednesday September11th
This was the grand event at our Spiritual Park, the Saiva Siddhanta Church Dharmasala at Riviere-du-Rempart: a public event 10 AM � 2 PM. Flower parade from car to Ganesha Mandapam, welcoming remarks, Sadhaka Tyaganatha give a super powerful Ganesha homa assisted by Thambynathan Nutanaya from Malaysia, who is traveling with the group. Yogi Mahadevan chanted Rudram and chamakas.
Then followed Bodhinatha’s talk translated into Creole by Kulapati S.K. Moorghen, adjourned to tent area for cultural performances including a number of dances by Vennila Mardemootoo, hatha yoga by children, a drama, Vennila’s class of girls showing all the hand mudras of bharata natyam as a group in unison, Veena performance by student and teacher (Premila), singing by Adi Shankara and company. A rough count was two thousand present with lots of coming and going so probably three thousand people had participated from 10-2. They expected another two thousand to drop in during the rest of the day, five thousand total. Three current ministers, three former ministers and the current India High Commissioner, who has been to Kauai, �attended.
This piece illustrates Sutra 102 from Dancing with Siva:
How are Hindu temples founded?
An illumined sage, arms held wide in his enstatic state, is experiencing a vision of a Siva temple, with its gopuram and golden cupola. This vision is the grace of Lord Siva, whose hair surrounds and embraces the sage. A temple so mystically begun is regarded as particularly holy by Hindus.
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BODHINATHA’S MAURITIUS MISSION
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Here is a detailed program listing for the public event:
Cultural Program September 11
11.25 am: Talk by Bodhinatha Veylanswami on Lord Ganesha
12.00 pm: Ganesha Invocation dance by Venilla Mardemootoo.
12.05 pm: Vina recital by Premila Manick accompanied by Rajesh Marday, Mayevan Murden and Sivarathna.
12.22 pm: Children’s program �(Venilla) on Bharat Natyam dance theory
12.26 pm: Hatha yoga by Dharmasala Himalayan Academy students
12.30 pm: Drama Sketch on Semmana Selvi �story fromSaivite Hindu Children’s Course Book 1 by Dharmasala Himalayan Academy students.
12.42 pm: Dance on Natchintanaii by Venilla
12.50 pm: Speech by Chief Guest �Minister Anil Baichoo
13.00 pm: Classical Song by Padmasree Ramsamy
13.05 pm: Tillahna Dance by Venilla
13.15. pm: Songs recital by Adi Sankara.
Our members did a superlative job orchestrating the whole visit which has been so smooth and full of love and joy.
Today we were visited by 16 members of the Kilauea Senior Center. They had a great time taking a short People Mover tour out to the Iraivan Temple site, where they were each given a piece of granite stone as a memento.
Gurudeva continues in Living with Siva:
“It might not surprise you to hear this, but everyone is getting older. A three-year-old will soon be a six-year-old; a twelve-year-old will soon be eighteen. There is a great difference between the eighteen-year-old and the six-year-old, and it all happened in twelve years. Society and parents are adjusted to the differences between a six-year-old and an eighteen-year-old. But Western society, and even modern Asian society, is dearth in adjustments to understand the differences between the forty-year-old and the eighty-year-old, their needs, their wants and their desires.”
They were also each given an Island Heart Aloha decal and poster describing the meaning of Aloha.
Gurudeva continues:
“Western psychology says the older you get, the less planning you should do for the future; you should make short-term plans. This philosophy does not take into account that no one is ever too young to die, no matter how long-term his plans have been. “Agedness” is a state of consciousness of settling down, giving up and having nothing ahead in the future more than six months or one year. Life is willpower. Life is not only physical. “
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Date: July_11_2002
Title: Vows (Tithing) Part 4 of 4
Category: Hinduism and Tradition
Duration: 6 min., 20 seconds
Date Given: July 4, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
The third vrata is Dasama Bhaga Vrata which, of course, relates to our finances. But the point Gurudeva makes is, it is also a way of controlling desire. Sakahara Vrata helps us control the instinctive mind. Parampara Vrata helps us control the intellectual mind and Dasama Bhaga Vrata helps us harness desire.
Why is that? Well, that is because lots of desires are fulfilled by spending money, right? We are desiring things, desiring physical objects and to get them we have to spend money. So the two go together. The measure of that is when you get a paycheck, what happens? What is the first thing that happens? What do we do when we get a paycheck? We rush to the store and buy this thing we have been dying to get for a couple of weeks, that we can’t live without! Or, do we do something else? Modern advertising being what it is and desire being what it is, sometimes that is what people do. Rush to the store with their paycheck and buy some things that they really think they can’t live without and a few months later they don’t use them anymore. They want to buy something new and use that for a few months and so forth. Frivolous desire.
Therefore, in fulfilling the Dasama Bhaga Vrata, the key is – What do we do first? Because that sets the tone for how we are handling the money. What do we do first with this money? So the idea is well, we give a portion of it to God. We spiritualize the whole process. We think about God, we don’t think about fulfilling some frivolous desire with it as our first action. We think about, well let us give a portion of this back to God because without God’s blessing, it would not come in the first place. We give a portion of it back and of course, that is ten percent, that is part of the vrata.
For those who are just starting this practice, it is good to do it in some kind of ceremony. It is a new habit that we want to establish and until the habit gets strong, it is easier to fulfill it all the time by sticking to it, in a ceremony. The ceremony we suggest is, taking your paycheck into the shrine room, do a little Ganesha arati seeking Ganesha’s blessing and write your tithing check. Give a portion to God as the first expense, as part of the ceremony. After you have done that for a few years, then it is automatic. You never think of doing anything with your income until you have written your tithing check. It will be a strongly ingrained habit. That is what we suggest to those who are just developing the practice and making it a habit in their life.
A further step in fulfilling the Dasama Bhaga Vrata is to spend the whole amount of your money in a wise way, not just give ten percent to God and waste the rest without any particular plan. That is not the goal. The goal is to spend it in a wise way and of course, Gurudeva suggests having a budget, a household budget that has been developed according to your income and future plans, to help you spend the money wisely to benefit all the members of the family in appropriate ways and to set aside money for long term goals such as childrens’ education and your own personal retirement. These should be part of the budget and ideally, you should be saving for those on a monthly basis.
That is the goal of Dasama Bhaga Vrata, to bring a spiritual perspective into our financial life and therefore, harness desire and end up spending our money as wisely as possible for the benefit of all the members of the family.
Gurudeva has some nice thoughts in conclusion which I will quote from him, they are so beautifully worded. “Accepting the three vows is essential to anyone aspiring to be a sishya. The devonic adepts,” meaning the devas, “take these vows very seriously. Knowing that once a vow is taken at an auspicious moment in life, the karmas yet to come, change slightly to the positive side so long as the vow is upheld.”
That is a very interesting statement, which is worth thinking about. The karmas yet to come change slightly to the positive side. So that is how we change our karma. But we don’t change it totally. It works out better than it would have otherwise. We change it slightly to the positive side by these kinds of disciplines.
“But when vows are neglected, the full force of the held back karmas not previously dissolved, mostly the bad ones, comes as a blow to individual family and friends.” We want to avoid that. “Upholding these three vows, three vratas builds discipline and character. All of this mastery of the forces of mind, body and emotion gives strength to face the future and perhaps, though there are no guarantees, to attain moksha, God Realization in this life. Aum.”
transcription ends
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Innersearch 2003-4 in India!
We just completed the July 17-23 Kauai Innersearch, 2002. Bodhinatha will lead the next Innersearch to India, between Dec 2003 and Jan 2004. We will visit Bangalore and the Iraivan Carving Village, and settle in the South in Tamil Nadu, Click on the above for details on what will be an inspiring journey to our holy land of Bharat! |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
