“This entire issue of the magazine is dedicated to Gurudeva, a contemporary rishi, each feature focusing on another color in his vivid rainbow of deeds. The world map on the gatefold hints at his global impact. Letters to the Editor carries personal tributes culled from hundreds of epistles received in the weeks surrounding his transition. In “Making of a Master” you will read Gurudeva’s own account of the training that prepared him for his mission, along with a biographical timeline. In three feature sections we attempt to capture diverse aspects of his genius. “Mystical Master” explores his inner side, profound realizations, visions and yogic teachings. “Renaissance Rishi” focuses on his transforming impact on the Hindu world, reviving tradition, rekindling pride and dispelling misconceptions and misunderstandings. “Gracious Guru” takes you into his tropical ashram, capturing his monastic order and the lives of his congregation.

As you might imagine, it was a rich and enriching experience for those of us who had the privilege of creating this special issue of Hinduism Today. Not just a few tears were quietly shed as we perused thousands of photos and recalled our many years, almost 40, with a being who was our preceptor, mother, father and best friend all rolled into one. ….”

Assistant Managing Editor is here checking and assembling the final galleys into what we call “The Book,” which is a complete issue of Hinduism Today as it will be, assembled before press time. Jivanandanatha is also our ace photographer, part of our network and server management team, makes fantastic pizza, plants fruit trees and has recently been inspired to learn how to use our bandsaw to “harvest” tropical wood for fine carpentry work. He is also at the forefront of our new initiative to put Hinduism Today into articles on the internet, making it an ever more valuable resource. All this is now done on Apples fabulous little Titanium laptop computers that have a small foot print but the computing power of what a few years ago might have been called a “super computer.”

On the right is James K. Uyeda who resides on Oahu, not far from Honolulu. James is a Systems Engineer for the K-12 Education group. Paramacharya Palaniswami shares with them what we do in our microcosm under the mango tree in paradise and the extent of our publishing work which then goes out to the macrocosm in a big way. Sadhaka Japendranatha and some of the other monks “pick their brains,” for useful advice, of which Carl and James have in plenty. Years ago, Palaniswami noted that the real meaning of “DHARMA” was “Drive Hinduism Forward by Required MacIntosh Acquisition.” We still feel the same way today… with the new Mac OSX and OSX servers powered with UNIX we are on the cutting edge and sometimes way over our heads! Carl and James offered to help… Thank you Carl and James! And a big hello to all the school admnistrators out there… stick with Apple, you won’t regret it!

Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

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Date: January_15_2002
Title: Karma is not destiny
Category: Karma
Duration: 4 min. 27 seconds
Date Given: January 04, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha

We have got lots of e-mails coming in and they are wonderful sources of stories and insights.

One e-mail came in recently from a young man, who asked a very good question. He said, “Well, we have a certain karma and that karma is going to manifest. So, what is the point of our parents trying to change our behavior? We are going to do what we are destined to do, so why bother with us? You know, just let us express our karma and why all this discipline and this and that. What is going on here anyway? Isn’t it inevitable that I am just going to do what I am going to do? That is karma, right?”

What an interesting thought! This is a young man, about sixteen or seventeen and he is throwing out this idea, which is a very philosophical concept for someone that age.

I thought about it and came up with an answer that Gurudeva often gave when he wanted to show how karma could manifest. Karma doesn’t manifest in a specific way. A karma can manifest in a number of different ways.

The example he gave was something about getting injured. So the way I am going to express it this morning is:
Suppose you have the karma to break a leg because of some actions in your past. The reaction is going to come back to you in this life in breaking a leg. Okay, so what happens? Well, how that karma manifests depends on how you live. It doesn’t manifest in exactly the same way necessarily.

As Gurudeva would say, if you live an ordinary life, you know selfish life, you are not religious, you are just going along thinking about yourself, not really helping other people, just interested in yourself, then the karma will manifest in its grossest form, which means you are going to break your leg.

But, if your lifestyle is more refined, if you are not always thinking about yourself, if now and then you do things for other people, if you are kindly on occasion, you are living not just an ordinary life, but some generous unselfish qualities are manifesting, then the karma will come in a more refined way. For example, you might just bruise your leg. Almost broke it but thank goodness, just at the last minute something happened and you just got major bruises on your leg. That is better than breaking it, right? But the karma has fulfilled itself.

The third example is, if you are living a religious life, doing your sadhana everyday, really helping other people, care about other people, are generous, then the karma can come in a very refined way. For example, you are watching television news and for some reason some famous person has broken their leg. You see the story and you take on the emotion of it. It feels for a minute just like you broke your leg. You identify with it so intensely. So, you have gone through the karma of breaking your leg but in a very subtle way. You experience the emotion of it. Your leg didn’t even get bruised.

So, that was the example Gurudeva gave on a number of occasions about how a karma will manifest. Therefore, to answer this young man’s question, definitely the good advise of parents and of religious elders is important because it changes the way you live. It is according to how you live, that your karma will manifest.

That is a good answer for this young man. We are going to send that out today. We sent him one yesterday but this is an even better one! I remembered it this morning. I got up early this morning, got up at 3 o’clock to think about my talk. I thought, “Oh, that is a wonderful story for this young man. He will really understand.”
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		Innersearch 2002 in Hawaii! Plans are in the works for a wonderful innersearch program located right here on the island of Kauai in the summer (July/August) of 2002. Be prepared for a wonderful spiritual experience in paradise with classes, meditations, seminars and wonderful ceremonies at the Siva temple of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. Details are being worked on and we will be informing prospective participants in the new future of the exact dates. If you would like to be on the mailing list to be informed, please send your full contact information, name, address, phone and email to innersearch@hindu.org
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