Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami are on the move. Yesterday they stopped to visit devotees in Colorado and today Bodhinatha reports: we visited the home of Vel and Valli, then took a gondola ride to the top of a mountain near Lionshead Village which has a spectacular view of the entire Vail Valley. Afterwards we had lunch in Vail Village, which is an impressive high-end tourist town. As Rajkumar said, all of the shops sell what you want, none of them sell what you need! Then a flight back to Denver.

Yogaswami would often unexpectedly arrive at the homes of his devotees, as depicted in this artwork by S. Rajam.

Some of you know that we are working on a new Yogaswami Natchintanai song book. Seventy songs have been selected, the Tamil was entered and transliterations completed and we are in Phase Three: translation. Many of the songs have translations done already by Siva Yogaswami’s senior disciples in an English version of the Natchintanai, published by the Sivathondan Society in Sri Lanka. In fact we are just now in the process of clearing a new shipment of these books for sale at www.minimela.com. During our work on this project we are frequently awed by the power and beauty of Yogaswami’s words. Here is one short and famous song “Arumaiyaana Theyvam”

Wondrous Gods Are We!

Elder brothers, younger brothers, mothers –listen!
Wondrous gods are we! Know this and live!

Can anyone describe our nature?
What fear is there for us? Are not all things Siva?

Can we forget the perfect saying uttered by sages long ago,
“Not an atom moves but by His will”?

It is good to live with calmness in the world,
Not thinking that God is here or there, but knowing that He is everywhere.

Servants of Siva state a truth that He is the Eye within the eye.
Service to Siva is to know its meaning and thus live free from sorrow.

This small self has crowned his head with the holy feet of
those great souls, who realize that everything is One.