We are back after a three day retreat. Tonight Satguru Bodhinatha spoke at the Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden, near London. There was a Sunday night satsang from 5 to 7pm, and he gave a wonderful talk, recounting some of Gurudeva’s history with Prahmukhswami Maharaj, the head of this remarkable Hindu institution. We thought you would enjoy the talk, given only hours ago!

“Our namaskars to His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj for allowing us to speak to the Swaminarayan Hindu Mission satsang. We also wish to acknowledge Sadhu Atmaswarupdas and all the other dedicated sadhus present this evening.

Our relationship with the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha began some nine years ago in 1995 when our founder and Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately known as Gurudeva, gave a speech to over 30,000 devotees gathered under a mammoth tent to celebrate the 75th Jayanthi of His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj in Mumbai. Also at that time he visited the temple complex and exhibition halls at Akshardam and spent a full day at your monastic training center in Sarangpur where he spoke to the young sadhus there on the importance of obeying the Guru.

In 1995 our magazine, Hinduism Today, chose His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj as the recipient of our Hindu Renaissance Award. This award honors one eminent Hindu each year who has most impacted the faith and spread its values, compassion and profundity across the globe.

In July 2004, we had the privilege of being present at the opening of the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir in Houston, Texas and I thought you would enjoy hearing the short talk I was honored to give on that occasion. The various points made in the talk, of course, are all equally applicable to your Mandir here in Neasden.

“We are very pleased to be participating in these historic inauguration ceremonies for the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir of Greater Houston. The outer architecture of this temple is exquisite and indeed a rare accomplishment worthy of wide recognition and praise and will certainly elevate the opinion of many about the greatness and sophistication of Hindu traditions. However, more important is the inner, spiritual significance of the temple to the devotees who will worship here for generations to come.

This inner significance is captured quite profoundly in the words of His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj when he says that a mandir:

is a center for realizing God
is where the mind becomes still
is a place of paramount peace
inspires a higher way of life
teaches us to respect one another
preserves our cultural values
and sustains our unique identity

In today’s troubled world, many thoughtful individuals are concerned about bringing greater peace into the world. A temple such as the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir helps individuals find more peace within themselves, which in turn brings greater harmony into their homes, which in turn creates greater tolerance and unity within the community.

Another important aspect of Shree Swaminarayan Mandir is how it will influence this and future generations of children. With most schools focusing solely on secular studies, there is a need for children to learn traditional values in a religious setting such as this. In other words, it is not enough to simply learn to read and write, children also need to learn what to read and write. And the concept of what it means to be a successful adult needs to include not only wealth and family but also the principles of a pious life of virtuous conduct, fulfillment of duty to family, community and country and regular worship of God and Guru at the mandir and in the home shrine.”

In Houston we enjoined meeting a number of the devotees. One father had an interesting story. He described how his two sons were devoting their entire summer to helping in the construction of the Houston Mandir. They would rise early every morning and leave for the Mandir and only return home about midnight to sleep for a few hours. Then the next morning they would leave early to go back to the Mandir to continue with the construction efforts. The father was rightfully proud of the strong religious spirit of service in his sons, and we were quite impressed as well at the extent of their dedication.

Though our Order of sadhus is less than sixty years old, small and of course worshippers of Lord Siva, still we feel there are number of strong similarities between our sangam of devotees and yours. Let me mention a few of them.

The first similarity is that both sangams have a living satguru and a tradition for perpetuating the guru lineage for future generations. Truly the divine blessings of a living satguru help us to make much greater spiritual progress in our lifetime than is otherwise possible. Of course this acceleration of spiritual progress is not automatic–rather it happens because we are obedient. That is we follow the general principles taught by the Guru as well as–if we are fortunate enough–any personal advise the Guru has given to us. Obedience is indeed the key.

Our founder and Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately known as Gurudeva, attained Mahasamadhi in November, 2001. On that occasion, His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj sent us a message we would like to share which contains insights into the continuity of the spiritual power of a guru lineage. Swamishri said:

“The first duty of all the disciples and monks of Gurudeva would be to follow every command of Gurudeva and keep on doing the great work he has been doing in letter and spirit. In Hinduism’s tradition the body dies but the spirit and consciousness of the person who has left the body will continue to guide. I will do special prayers personally for Gurudeva who has done great work. Gurudeva’s spirit will continue to guide his successor. Gurudeva’s saintliness and spiritual values will continue to guide the whole lineage. This has been the tradition of Hinduism.”

A second similarity between our sangams is that in your and our mandirs the ceremonies are conducted by the sadhus themselves and not by a married priest or priests. Therefore, in the mandir you are joining the sadhus in their worship. This provides a distinct kind of experience. Your sadhus are wonderful examples of purity and devotion and you are quite fortunate to be able to worship with them. Be ever grateful and appreciate for their holy presence.

A third similarity is that your and our mandir have active teaching programs in which the sadhus systematically present the teachings of the lineage. There is no lack of teachings or confusion as to what teachings the organization believes. It is all crystal clear thanks again to the presence of the sadhus.

Let me take a minute to express a few thoughts from our guru on the stability provided by communities of sadhus. “Families are blessed who share in and support the renunciation of their sons born through them to perform a greater dharma than the grihastha life could ever offer. It is the monastic communities worldwide, of all religions, that sustain sanity on this planet. It is the monks living up to their vows who sustain the vibration of law and order in the communities and nations of the world. This is how the inner worlds see each monastic community worldwide. This is how it is and should always be. This is how humanity balances out its experiential karmas and avoids destroying itself as it passes through the darkness of the Kali Yuga. The monastic communities that surround the planet, fulfilling their dharma, compensate for the adharma that is so prevalent, thus ensuring that humanity does not self-destruct in these trying times.”

The forth and last similarity between our sangams that I would
like to point out is a respect and tolerance for each other’s traditions. Unfortunately such respect and tolerance does not always exist between Vaishnatives and Saivites, between worshippers of Vishnu and worshippers of Siva.

In the Shikshapatri, Bhagwan Swaminarayan states: “The Vedas proclaim Narayan and Shiv as one and as Brahmaswarup, God’s true nature, and, therefore, they should be known accordingly. Bhagwan Swaminarayan also enjoins his devotees: “In the month of Shravan, they shall worship or engage the services of pious Brahmin devotees to worship Shiv with Bilva-patras and the like.” And finally he indicates his devotees shall fast on Shivratri and celebrate this festival with great reverence.” And of course, on the physical and visible side there is also a side shrine to Shiv in your Mandir.

Our Gurudeva’s statement on religious tolerance is “Saivites profoundly know that God Siva is the same Supreme Being in whom peoples of all faiths find solace, peace and liberation.” He also says, “Siva’s devotees, with hearts as big as the sky, love and accept Smarta, Sakta and Vaishnava Hindus as brothers and sisters, even if not accepted by them, and keep harmony by not discussing differences.” In our mandir we have a side shrine with the image of Shankaranarayana, half Shiva, half Vishnu, which of course symbolizes the unity of Siva and Vishnu.

As a result of our July 2004 attendance at the opening of your mandir in Houston, Texas we were able to produce a major article on BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha and your Houston Mandir in the January 2005 issue of our magazine Hinduism Today. An important part of our mission is promoting all the major Hindu denominations and organizations and we utilize our magazine Hinduism Today for that purpose.

His Divine Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj after being shown the article and hearing it translated into Gujarati, asked one of his sadhus to convey a special word of appreciation and prayers for the encouraging and inspiring works Hinduism Today is doing in promoting Sanatan Dharma. The message from Swamishree states: “The various articles, tidbits of relevant information and news are inspiring and gladdening. It infuses and strengthens pride in all Hindus. The glory of Hindu Dharma and its universal appeal is elegantly displayed through Hinduism Today.”

Many Hindus around the world feel there is a need to stand together as a united group to advance the image of Hinduism and protect the rights of Hindus in their country. However, often times those involved feel this can only be achieved if Hindus adopt a unified set of beliefs and practices. Our approach as formulated by Gurudeva is that Hindus can be unified and achieve the benefits of standing strong together for Hinduism while maintaining our multiplicity of great traditions. We express this in our magazines first purpose: “To foster Hindu solidarity as a unity in diversity among all sects and lineages.”

We are pleased to be able to be here today and have this opportunity to speak to you all, and look forward to our relationship with the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha continuing to be a close one over the years to come. Thank you. Om Shanti.

On last Thursday evening Bodhinatha meets with Sivayogam family.

Mrs. Sivayogam has coordinated all the arrangements for the next several days.

Today was Chitra Nakshatra day for this month.

A blissful, profound pada puja was performed instead of the regular Sun One homa.

Gurudeva was powerfully present, filling the room with the fragrance of his perfected being…

We have several sevaks on the island from the mainland. Dasan Mahadevan from Southern California here pictured with Tandu Sivanathan…

Aditya Vinadhara from Utah also here with us but not in today’s photos. We’ll capture him tomorrow, Linda.

This morning, following the puja, Tandu Sivanathan and his wife Uma completed the gold leaf work on the ninth of 108 Tandavas. They look so golden when standing beside the more bronze ones. It’s a special gift from Tandu and family to Kadavul temple, one that every visitor appreciates!

It was an exciting morning at the temple with a crane lift underway.

The two remaining lion pillars for the west Chinna Gopuram were picked up and placed in position.

After that our team huddles to discuss moving the giant scaffolding that the Siddhidata Kulam built so strong.

They designed to to be “modular” so that it could be detached and moved to the next area and re-used without having to be rebuilt.

It’s not a big problem for Larry’s giant crane.

The scaffold was placed on the North Gopuram by day’s end.

Larry will need to set the scaffold down and relocate his crane.

“down… easy!”

With all the scaffolding removed the temple stand free and looks glorious…

One can hardly believe one’s eyes that such a thing could have manifested in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Gurudeva’s vision manifested…

Small glitch! A hydraulic hose in one of the four stabilizers seems to have sprung a leak… we will have to prop up the scaffolding until Larry fixes it.

Our team has ropes on the scaffolding to keep it in position…

And our tractor is commandeered to serve as a temporary support until they repaired the hose and continued the crane work into the afternoon.

Someone has thrown out some old rice… our doves are very happy…

Mimi, our giant Holstein Amma, finally gave birth, and it was another little heifer… (on the left) Anuradha who is a few months older is happy to have a friend…

She has been named “Nandini…” Just three days old, but she is BIG