Blog Archives
Gurudeva signed thousands of books during the last three years of his life. Visitors to Kauai Aadheenam would bring their books to him and then he would answer their questions. Those autographs are now priceless treasures.
NOTE: This is the last day of the phase and tonight we are celebrating Maha Sivaratri. To all Siva Bhaktars the world over we wish you a profound and blissful communion with God Shiva tonite. This issue of TAKA will remain up until the evening of Thursday, March 14th. Note also that we seem to be having some trouble serving our Real Audio files… You will have no difficulty though with the MPG file which is the preferred format.
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
Click to read for Details.
Click here to read
Gurudeva’s statement on September 11th
Bodhinatha gave a Sun Five talk this morning on several different subjects. First he talked about “listening to the birds” and taking time to let the mind be quiet, stop thinking and enjoy the beauties of nature. He observed that some people are so wound up in their thinking that the don’t even hear birds. Then he gave a wonderful commentary on the lesson of the day,
Cybertalk: Parents are your first guru. Parental closeness, meaning
children’s closeness with their parents, needs to be developed through
hugging and verbalizing “I love you.” Distance develops from a threatening
atmosphere where the children don’t feel comfortable telling their parents
everything. Each secret they keep creates more distance. The ideal is for
them to be so comfortable, so loved, that they tell their parents everything
and don’t fear the consequences.
Cybertalk Ends”
For more information about listening to Gurudeva’s talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks.
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Bodhinatha will be happy to hold “Prasnottara Satsang” — “Questions and Answers” over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan
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The Master Course lesson of the day focused on Lord Ganesha and Bodhinatha explained the principle that through the worship of Lord Ganesha, He helps us close the door to the lower states of consciousness, thus providing stability on the path and in our life in general.
This is Nathan and Sulena Sivananda visiting from Mount Shasta, California. They are on a quiet vacation, and also met Gurudeva here four years ago. They recently finished carefully studying Merging with Siva for one year and practicing sadhanas therein.
Ram Arora and his son Amit. Ram runs a restaurant in Honolulu and every year he visits on Sivaratri day.
Just by chance another “Arora” visited today: Sunder Arora and his wife Rupinder from Ottawa Canada… They are both psychiatrists and consider themselves seekers on the path and are studying Merging with Siva. They made friends with Ram and Amit.
In preparation for the Sivaratri festival Deva and Amala Seyon are “polishing” all the brass images of Lord Siva in his 108 poses that adorn the mirrored walls of Kadavul Temple.
It so happens that tomorrow, March 12th, is the 29th anniversary of Kadavul Nataraja’s installation by Gurudeva.
These images become very dark over time and those who have been here and polished them know what a great amount of work it has been to polish them by hand.
But Deva Seyon put some traditional Indian folk wisdom to work: take tamarind paste and make a very strong solution and dip the images.
Let them soak for a few minutes and they come out bright and the copper/bronze finish has a beautiful soft patina finish.
Deva and Amala were working to do all 108, they got a “mass production” process going and finished all of them before the evening festivities began.
A “semi” miraculous occurance in the “microcosm” occurred this morning at a small water fountain in the Lambodara Kulam office. A series of tiny bubbles issued from the fountain and congregated together in the corner edge of the fountain. Sometimes they formed a perfect triangle other times they took different shapes like this. They always lined up in perfect symmetry. Maybe bubbles always do this and we never noticed before.
The little set of bubbles is that small grey area on the second “shelf” on the right edge. It was as if small devas where there managing them for mysterious reasons or just to play with us.
Various areas of the Aadheenam’s land property have been given names…. We call this pond that is formed by the water coming from the nearby reservoir our “Rishi Valley Lake.” It is dedicated to the line of Gurus and on one side is a series of shrines with the images of the Parampara and on the other side a hut for Gurudeva’s personal meditations and in which he gave darshan to devotees. We are planning to turn it into a special Gurudeva shrine.
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Date: March_07_2002
Title: Austerity – Part 3
Category: Change and Transformation
Duration: 8 min., 17 seconds
Date Given: March 01, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
We have some nice quotes from the Saivite Shastras also that we can refer to. “Tapas played an important part in the early Saivite monastery of the Sat Siva Yuga that was freely given from time to time by the Guru himself, seemingly for no particular reason. Therefore, each monastic kept his work in the service of Siva totally up to date, so that at any point in time within three suns he could make transition of worldly responsibilities and enter Mahatapas. Three suns were always given as a transition period into Maha tapas, which would last an indefinite length of time.” Three suns means three days.
There is a related verse. “A good Saivite monastery was always in readiness for time of departure. No monastics were behind in any of their duties or responsibilities for more than three days. If they were, it was considered worldliness, tapas was given to correct the situation.”
If you notice, this is a can’t-seem-to-win situation. If you are current three days, then you are ready to receive Mahatapas. But if you are not current three days, then you are ready to be put on tapas also. It doesn’t seem you can avoid it.
It is a very interesting principle in monastic life, being three days current and it is different than family life. In other words, in family life you settle down to a certain occupation, a certain job, certain routine. That is what you do and it keeps going and going. You expect to do it next week, you expect to do it the week after and your whole life is built around the fact that you are doing it and you are expecting to continue doing the same thing.
Monastic life is not like that. You need to be flexible, you need to be movable. It is part of the discipline, you cannot settle down. You cannot identify so much with one task that you cannot see yourself in another task. The idea is that, within three days you could be replaced and go do something else. It is part of the monastic discipline which means, of course, at least one other person needs to know everything you do. Otherwise, you are not replaceable. So what you do needs to be well documented and other people need to be trained in it. Then, we are living in this state of three days current in terms of people having knowledge of what we do.
The other aspect, of course, is we have to be organized enough and current enough that in three days we can actually transfer what we are doing. We can’t be weeks and weeks behind in our tasks. Otherwise, within three days we couldn’t do it.
It has a second element as well, which is not being behind in our duties. Going on in the Saivite Shastras, “Yogis preparing themselves for sannyasa are always on tapas during this time. They were tried and tested by the Guru through the senior minority of each monastery. The Guru worked especially with the yogis for the growth of his order. We see the yellow mathavasis unleashing worldliness of themselves or from accumulated kammaba absorbed from others. We see them turned inward. These are the model monastics.”
That is bringing up a very interesting point that as a monk working with other people, the karma that is there can be someone else’s that you have taken on, either fully or partially. Particularly, you go out on a teaching mission, traveling for long periods of time, things like that. You are working with lots of different people. You can come back with a sense of being some what burdened. Why are you burdened? Not because of your karma but because you took on fully or partially the karma of others. So, consequently tapas can be used to burn up that karma as well.
Commenting on tapas in a general way, the monastery itself is such a protected environment versus living elsewhere, that it allows for much greater clarity in terms of one’s inner life. Living elsewhere, there are lots of people around and lots of situations around, going out in the world everyday. Consequently, there is less clarity as to where you stop and someone else begins. It is all kind-of mixed together. So the monastery helps you separate yourself from others, work with yourself and
adjust yourself with more clarity.
Tapas is taking that a step further. It is like a monastery within a monastery, because you are on stricter disciplines. If someone is on tapas, they don’t watch television, they don’t read magazines, they drop off contact with the world. When a yogi goes on tapas, he goes on a two-year retreat from family and friends, which maybe the longest time they have ever been away from family and friends. Usually it is. So it creates greater distance between them and their family than they experience before in their life as well. Spend more time in mediation, more time on vigils, all of which is like a monastery within a monastery in that, it is a stricter discipline than the normal monastery is upholding. But, it is not a permanent discipline. It is just for a period of time that results in even greater clarity as to what is inside you, who you are.
In the first instance, the monastery is like holding up a mirror in front of you so you can see yourself fairly clearly. This is like holding up a microscopic mirror, something that can magnify. Everything looks bigger than it really is. But you can see things that are so small that you might not see them otherwise.
Tapas magnifies yourself to yourself in a new way so you can adjust yourself. Tapas is also a time for intense meditation and a good time to deepen one’s psychic ties to the Deities, because you kind-of have greater continuity on a day to day basis than you have otherwise, less distractions. So, it is a wonderful opportunity in that sense to deepen one’s inner life.
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Innersearch 2002 in Hawaii!
Our next Innersearch Travel-Study program will be held right here on the island of Kauai in the summer of 2002. It’s the first such program on the Garden Island since 1974! From July 17 to July 22 we will enjoy daily classes with the swamis, join in the annual Guru Purnima festival, be inspired by local culture, explore the lush tropical island in exciting and non-touristy ways, and more. Be prepared for a wonderful spiritual experience in paradise with meditations, seminars and sacred ceremonies at the Siva temple of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. Many have applied already, and there is a limit of 50 participants, so we recommend everyone apply as soon as possible. Interested? Please request an application from pilgrim@searchbeyond.com |
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1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
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3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
