Blog Archives
Gurudeva always taught the ancient principle that Sage Patanjali expressed in the Yoga Sutras:
“The expression of friendliness, compassion, gladness and equanimity toward anything that is joyful, sorrowful, meritorious or demeritorious, brings peace of mind.”
Giving is an overt expression of this attitude in daily life and we are thankful for all the recent giving that has been shown. Gurudeva is smiling on all of us. Let us pledge to never forget his magical and mystical teachings, and to live as purely and profoundly as he would expect us to.
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
Always discerning… was the reason Gurudeva gave him the name “Bodhinatha” “Master of Discrimination”
We have an unusual request today which came in response to yesterday’s TAKA where we featured a message sent to us by Sheila Evani who is in the middle of a special summer of seva or service in Malaysia. She lives in Canada but is spending time at Gurudeva’s orphanage near the border of Thailand. Another young Hindu student in the UK writes that he wants to do some seva for Hinduism in Singapore or Malaysia. If you are looking in from Malaysia or Singapore and know of a reputable and worthy institution that needs some volunteer help for a couple of months, please send contact information to: studyhall@hindu.org
Cybertalk: Bodhinatha speaks on vasudhaiva kutumbakam, “The whole world is one family,” in reference to the current problem in India. He discusses the problem of the “my people” concept, that of exclusion, and the division it creates in the world. Next is ahimsa, noninjury, as it relates to speech, and the problem with joking, teasing, gossiping and backbiting. Bodhinatha reiterates a caution Gurudeva gives to those practicing brahmacharya, total sexual abstinence, with regard to the power of their words and thoughts.
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.
Study Gurudeva’s teachings
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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
If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page for sound geeks and follow the directions there.
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On left is Savitri Kumaran, an accomplished Healing Touch practitioner who lives on Kauai, with her friends the Shukla family, Ramesh (father), Mira, (mother), and two sons Gaurav and Vaibhav (in kurtha).
Mira is also part of the Healing Touch group and
will be graduating soon.
Another giving soul is this local artist, originally from Australia, Derek Glaskin. Derek is deeply immersed in Polynesian culture on our island, and tells the monks stories of how, when he was a renegad youth surfing Down Under he and his mates would put white ash on their foreheads and yellow dots of clay between their brows (really).
Derek’s ancestors on one side of the family are from India, and he graciously offered to create three special paintings for Iraivan Temple.
This morning Palaniswami and Kumarswami went to his studio which is just a mile from the monastery and brought the works home, the fruits of many hundreds of hours of effort and meditation. Here the artist is holding one of his gifts. They are painted on rigid boards, and done not with paints but with enamels.
Derek uses a tropical “primitive” style of painting that is powerful in its ability to symbolically convey messages. Here he portrays three of the silpis at work. The artist is a mystical man and he says one day when he was at the Iraivan site he observed when the silpis returned to work on a stone, how they “get into the zone” of concentration and dedication, which he captures here. His work is full of symbology.
For instance, he explained to the monks that the petroglyphs shown in blue and yellow have many meanings and are taken from the rock carvings made by the ancient Kauaian artists. On the left is a flower, with a rainbow beneath it and a sail and outrigger canoe benath, to represent the navigators. A child comes next, on the shoulder of her mother, and another to the right. Then a bird which ascends toward the three men on the far right. These each represent a thousand years of human life, so three thousand in all are represented here, taking the silpis ancestry far into history. Derek worked hard to connect the many cultures and histories. Gurudeva appears in all three works.
Here we see Gurudeva presiding over Iraivan Temple, Lord Ganesha in the front, Lord Siva on the right with the Hawaiian petrogliphs (the series in the light blue starting in the middle on the bottom)… watch in the days ahead as we plan to unfold all the symbology in these remarkable works.
Here is third painting in which he has incorporated themes from art we commissioned for Gurudeva’s books into his own work…the depiction of Lord Hanuman carrying the temple to Kauai from India , originally rendered by our artist in Bali, is wonderful overlayed in the front with the foreground rendering of A. Manivelu’s wonderful painting called “Darshan, the Grace of the Satguru.” Go to your copy of Merging with Siva, page 717 and you will see the art there in black and white.
Derek spoke of how Muruga came to him in a vision during the execution of the art, and conveyed profound insights to him which he softly included somewhere in the art.
Now we will feature our TAKA photographer, Sadhaka Jivanandanatha doing what he does so well, capturing the events of the day here in paradise for all of you all over the globe so enjoy.
Oh, wait, if he is the TAKA photographer, who is taking this picture?
Our Nikon digital cameras are a real boon. Instant hi-resolution photos ready for use in seconds after being downloaded to our Macs. We have also saved thousands and thousands of dollars in the cost of film and developing. Faster, better and cheaper. Now that’s progress!
This is Sadhaka Jothinatha who is the Hinduism Today Advertising Manager and Subscription Manager under one hat (hmm, must have taken the hat off). He works tirelessly all day outreaching to the world. Oh, yes, and he reminds us:
“We still have 1000’s of copies of the Gurudeva’s memorial issue of Hinduism Today. If you want to get extra copies, please contact me for the cost to your location. at jothi@hindu.org
Jothinatha is also a wonderful landscape artist and takes care of the small gardens around our information center and the jungle areas that go along the Pali Path to the river.
He is one of Gurudeva’s most senior monks and a seasoned Raja Yogi… one can sense a palpable shakti in the atmosphere if you have to walk in the temple and he’s sitting there in samadhi.
Sannyasin Muruganathswami is also one of our senior monks and has the important responsibility for much of the financial management relating to the distribution of Gurudeva’s books and Hinduism Today magazine. He also is the “master of world travel,” taking care of travel arrangements for Bodhinatha and the monks. He too loves to work with plants outside (specializing in the family of begonias) and always has a wise word and a sly bit of humor to make everyone happy.
 The Remarkable Vision |
Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
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We bring you now the “Story of Loading Three Containers in India–Destination: Kauai, USA.”
Here you see the Parampara stone after crating…one of the most remarkable stones of all, soon to be on Kauai for all to enjoy. It will be placed just above the doorway to the central sanctum.
An empty container hitched to the lorry cab is waiting in the distance.
Here comes our crane driver.
Over to the stones.
Up he goes…
Then, off to the waiting container. This one stone weighs several tons.
The team turns the load, pointing it into the container.
Next we move it in as far as we can so the forklift can push it into place.
The forklift helps to nudge the crate further into the container.
Slowly, as the sun sets, the stone is urged into position. Carefully, for it took over a year of work for several men to carve and sculpt this masterpiece.
Now the forklift comes around and pushes straight from the back.
In he goes!
Now the crane is re-attached to the back end of the crate and assists in centering it. It is important to have the weight evenly distributed for safety. If this giant stone were to shift to one side…let’s not visualize that!
Additional smaller pieces are added to the bottom row.
More items are inserted into the second level.
Here is a look at the inner part of the next container.
Small items being loaded.
This is a heavy shipment. Each container cannot exceed about 34,000 pounds! That’s why they are not being packed completely full.
Bags of charcoal and other supplies are ready to be stuffed into the open areas.
Loading bags of charcoal for the forge at the Kauai site. The kind of charcoal the workers are accustomed to is not made anymore in the US. So it must be imported, along with the steel for the chisels, which is of a special grade, too.
Three containers, nearly completely loaded to maximum weight allowance and ready to go off to Chennai to board the ship to Kauai.
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
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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Check our children and youth section for new items for the young and young at heart! | |
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1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
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| 2. Newest Book: LIVING WITH SIVA | ||
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3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
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4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
