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The monks paraded him up from the car to the temple. It was a short but successful mission.

Now we will share with you over a few days a pictorial review of the time in California.

Concord Yatra April 2002

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Date: [No Audio available]>
Title: Bodhinatha Speaks On Lord Muruga at Concord Temple
Category: God and Lords of Dharma
Duration:
Date Given: April 14, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha

Part of the Welcome Address by The President Thiru. Sadaiappan:

A lot of devotees are visiting the Temple to worship the powerful Lord Muruga. We are happy to acknowledge and appreciate the great work rendered by the great Subramuniyaswami and his successor Veylanswami. I thank you once again, for Swamiji’s visit.

Satguru Bodhinatha:

Thank you, President. We would like to thank the Board of Trustees for inviting us to the Temple today. We are very appreciative of this opportunity to be here, when our Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, is being honored for his participation in the Temple. Thank you again, for inviting us.

For those of you, who don’t know, we will give some history. The Murugan murthi here traveled. He used to live across the Bay, in San Francisco, in our temple there. I believe it was 25 years ago, He first became established in San Francisco Temple. So, this Deity has been worshipped now for some 25 years in the Bay Area. At first, He was just part of our monastery there in San Francisco. Then at the behest of several devout Hindu families in the Bay Area, we opened up the Temple, so that they can come and participate in the worship as well. So, that was the humble beginnings of what is now this wonderful Temple here in the Concord area.

Many of us were the priests in the Temple. In fact, I myself served as the priest at the San Francisco, I think approximately 1980-82, something like that. Many of us have enjoyed worshipping the Murugan murthi that is here in this Temple now. This is a very strong murthi and how do we know? Because, it brings visions. Many visions occurred when it was in our San Francisco Monastery. Gurudeva had visions of Lord Muruga. Even many of the monks who were living there had visions. This is such a wonderful, powerful murthi that we have with us.

You probably noticed when being introduced, Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Skandanathaswami. These are Swamis bearing the name of Lord Muruga. How unusual! Why is this? How many Swamis are there who bear the name of Lord Murugan proudly? Not that many. Well, it shows that the worship of Lord Muruga is very very important in our tradition. The type of Saivism that we practice focuses not only on Lord Siva, but worship of Lord Ganesha and particularly Lord Muruga, as well. We worship all three on a daily basis and we find that very, very potent in our particular practice of South Indian – Sri Lankan Saivism.

Many of us have had the opportunity to visit wonderful temples of Lord Murugan in South India, the Arupadai Veedu. Wonderful, traditional homes. Before the civil strife in Sri Lanka broke out, we had the opportunity to worship there at the Nallur Temple in Jaffna. A very strong Murugan Temple, which is central to our particular Guru Parampara. Also, in the south at Katirgamam. We have visited there and worshipped as well. So, all these traditional abodes of Lord Muruga in South India and Sri Lanka are very important to us. We had that in mind, in our worship of Lord Muruga when we first started out in our San Francisco Temple, many many years ago.

In our tradition, we particularly value the worship of Lord Muruga, in regards to meditation. We look at Muruga as the Deity which governs meditation. To be successful in meditation, we believe that you need blessings, the abundant blessings of Lord Muruga. That is what Gurudeva taught us. Consequently, particularly when we were younger monks and we were practicing our yoga very intensely, we focussed a lot on Lord Murugan. If we were lucky, we would get sent off to India to the traditional Arupadai Veedu. We love to worship Muruga in that way.

To say a few words about Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, since it is he that is actually being honored today for his participation in the Temple. To those who are not familiar with him, he is affectionately known as Gurudeva. He was instrumental in starting so many temples in the United States. In this area, the Livermore Temple for example. Before it began, he gifted the Ganesha murthi to Muthuraman Iyer. That began the Livermore Temple. Gurudeva’s approach to building a temple was, “You build a temple through worship.” So, often groups came and registered in building temples, discussing this and discussing that and Gurudeva said, “No, no. You need to start worshipping. Even if it someone’s garage, start worshipping.” So, he would give them a Ganesha murthi. Quite a big Ganesha murthi, usually, that tall and say, “Now, you go and worship this.”

So, worship of Ganesha murthis, in so many temples around the US, including large temples like the Chicago Temple all started because Gurudeva gave them a Ganesha murthi and gave them the authority to start worship. Temples are coming up. In fact, even recently, small groups in Utah and Arizona, who are worshipping a newly gifted Ganesha. In Alaska, Gurudeva has a temple group there, by gifting a Ganesha, to empower them to build temples in the local areas. It is so important to have the temple, near where you live. Temples at a distance are good, but it is nice to have one near as well. Hindus being spread out in the United States, it is important that we have temples nearby all the major cities. He was instrumental in starting a number of temples in North America. Even in Europe, he started a number of temples.

We are happy to see that this Temple is prospering, and continuing to grow in the number of devotees. It makes us very proud the trustees have carried on this tradition. Again , we are very, very pleased to be here. Thank you very much.

Aum Namah Sivaya!

The plaque reads:

Om Namah Sivaya

In memory of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, 1927 – 2001.

This plaque is installed in the memory of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Founder of the Saiva Siddhanta Church and Himalayan Academy. Swami also founded the Palaniswami Temple and transferred the operations to the current organization. The Temple Steering Committee and Board of Directors appreciate Swami’s spiritual guidance and his influence on Hinduism and Saivism all over the world.

Board of Directors
Shiva Murugan Temple
Concord, CA
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