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“Our nerve system is just like a harp. It can be played by other people. They can cause many tones to be heard in our nerve system. All styles of music can be played on a harp, but no matter what kind of music is played, the harp remains the same. People can do all sorts of things to our nervous system, and make patterns of tone and color appear. This does not hurt the nervous system. It, like the harp, remains the same. The same nervous system can be played by our superconscious or by our passions. We can experience beautiful knowledge from within, which is the outgrowth of good meditation abilities, or experience a mental argument with another person. All tones are played at different times through the same nervous system. We want our nervous system to be played from the inside out through the beautiful rhythm of superconsciousness. This is bliss. We do not want to allow other people to affect our nerve system in a negative way, only in a positive way. That is why it is imperative for those on the path to be in good company.” –Gurudeva
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Bodhinatha is in Houston Today … and for the next three days… we have the tentative schedule below… read about it on the web also at:
Sun 6, Friday, July 23 BAPS Pre-Temple Dedication Activities
6:00pm Kirtan Aradhana (Swaminarayan sadhus leading bhajans; we hear that 150 of them are here for these events)
7:30pm Presentation of key to the city by Mayor of Stafford, Texas
7:45pm His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s blessings
Star 1, Saturday, July 24 BAPS Pre-Temple Dedication Festivities
8:00am-12:30pm Vishvashanti Mahayagna (as far as we can tell from photos of previous temple dedications in the brochure for this temple’s opening festival, a very large homa puja, some of which may be conducted by Pramukh Swami himself, for the new temple)
6:30pm-8:30pm Shobha Yatra (a very grand parade)
Star 2, Sunday, July 25 BAPS Sadhu Initiation and Temple Dedication, a.k.a. The Big Day
7:00am-8:30am Diksha Vidhi (Pramukh Swami will initiate 6 or 7 new sadhus)
9:30am-12:30pm Murti Pratishtha (installation of the Deities, we believe)
5:00pm-8:00pm Satsang Sabha
Sun 1, Monday, July 26 Bodhinatha will have darshan meetings with friends and associates in the Houston area…
Sun 2 — Arrive back on Kauai in the afternoon.
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END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
Over our coming two-day retreat,
Until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Saturday, July 26th
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next visit is July 23-27 to Houston, Texas. See travel page for more information.
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Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
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Incoming photos from Texas… with no flash at the evening bhajan event and a report from Yogi Japendranatha:
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Aum Sivaya, everyone.
Bodhinatha is happy and healthy. It’s going really well here so far. We were taken to the Stafford Center, a big conference/auditorium style building where the Kirtan Aradhana event was being held. Some of the sadhus were up on stage singing for the group. They are totally professional bhajan singers. Very good on their tablas, mridangams, harmoniums, keyboards, etc. Great voices. About a dozen sadhus were on stage, and cameras were on them with simultaneous projection on gimungous screens to both sides of the stage. Another 50 or so sadhus were on the floor in front of the stage, and another 20-30 milling around here and there. They gave Bodhinatha a seat of honor up front, facing the stage, and we sat and listened for a while. There were about 2,000 grihastha devotees in attendance, on the floor behind the sadhus, men in front, women in the back. Huge crowd. Organized chaos.
The family people just love their swamis. They shower them with so much affection, it’s amazing. The sadhus… I don’t know what to say. They are awesome. They are just like us, every single one of them. They relate to each other like true brothers, and they feel like our brothers in the deepest sense. Did you know that we have 720 more brother monks than we thought we did?
Here’s why: During the event I was sitting behind Bodhinatha with some of the sadhus talking story. The sadhu I was speaking with turned to me and said that the time Gurudeva came to their sadhu training center in Sarangpur was very important to them. He said, “Obey your guru, obey your guru, obey your guru. It’s the essence of our entire sadhana. That’s what Gurudeva told us.” It’s so sweet that nine years and hundreds more sadhus later, Gurudeva’s statement to them is right on the tip of each of their tongues and at the core of each of their hearts, like they said, the essence of their sadhana. Gurudeva had a huge and lasting impact on their Order. Maybe that’s why they feel like our brothers.
I asked him, “Do all 700 of the sadhus know each other that well?” He said, “720 of us! And, yes, of course we do.” I told him there were only 21 of us. He nodded and said, “And puja every three hours” with a big smile on his face. They know so much about us.
He also told us how much they all love (all of them) Hinduism Today and read it all the time.
These men really respect Bodhinatha, and they’re really glad he’s here. You can tell they’re looking at Gurudeva in their eyes.
At home today some earth work going on — Keoke came today to man his excavator to work on clearing the perimeter of a wild hau bush area that has spread out of control over the years.
Keoke (George) was actually here 15 years ago and was the master craftsman who with his huge instrument cleared areas and helped open up ponds in the bog to create the areas we now see as we go over from the monastery to Iraivan…
We found 20 feet of flat area next to our fruit orchard that had been taken over by this wild growth.
Many of the ponds have filled up with silt and we would like to restore them again for another decade or more to grow lilies and lotuses…
During heavy torrential rains lots of water comes rushing into this area… Keoke opens up a new channel to feed the water back into the ponds.
It’s a bit of a mess right now, but with a little planting and some time, everything will be back to normal.
Ok, let’s just push this bit of jungle back to where it was 15 years ago…. that would be about 15-20 feet back from the current edge….
Today was tour day… no photos of guests, but news is that we had a lot of locals today, Kauaians who have come to see their island’s “famous” Hindu temple.
Here are three final images from the last trip to Cincinnati … a shot of the parade of Lord Murugan around the temple.
The Gopurams of the temple in the background look wonderful.
This was a particularly special moment. Devotees applying sandalwood oil to the Deities at the Cincinnati Hindu Temple On the night of July 3, the evening before the final ceremonies. This was the only time that devotees were allowed to touch the Deities.
 The Remarkable Vision |
Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
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| New Beautiful 2004 Calendar Now Available. Seeing out fast! | ||
Other TAKA pages with recent Iraivan images.
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Here we are in the Mukha Mandapam of the Iraivan Temple. Behind the wooden wall is the sand inside the main sanctum that reaches all the way up to the top of the temple.
Course 28 is in progress, the last one before the capstone…
Excitement is building as we are only two weeks away from the capstone being lifted up…
Outside view….
Work also continues on the Chinna Gopuram of the east side of the temple.
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
Color Trilogy Complete! We are happy to announce that the new edition of the enormously popular Dancing with Siva is now available in hard back with all new color artwork. It’s truly an amazing and beautiful work, with more art than any of the collection. This completes the fulfillment of the vision that Gurudeva had of his Master Course Trilogy being produced in full color. In addition, Bodhinatha is taking pro-active steps to bring Gurudeva’s teachings out in a new forms that can be broadly disseminated in the mass mind. With this in mind we, are also pleased to announce that the Dancing with Siva pocketbook is also available. Keep the three-pound book in your shrine room, and take the little one with you on the airplane or subway! How little? It’s just 3″ by 4.5″ — truly pocket-sized, and just over half an inch thick. Yet it is a full 375 pages, containing ALL of the 155 sutras. Available now at our online store. The complete Trilogy is being offered at a discount. |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
