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“Many have asked me whether everyone should worship Siva both inside and out. Yes, that is the ideal according to our Saiva Siddhanta philosophy, but which of these two comes more naturally depends on the nature of the disciple. The more introverted will meditate on Siva within through their yogas, and the more extroverted will be inclined to worship in a temple or through music or religious service. The most awakened of seekers will do both with equal joy and ease.”
–Gurudeva
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
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Mystic Mouse Coloring Book Now available
Today’s sample page. —– Click here to get your copy today!
Bodhinatha seated at the Dharmasala in Mauritius, the lovely river Rempart behind him flowing to the sea.
Cybertalk: Bodhinatha recalls a segment of his talk on Nalupada Saivam where he compared the Vedanta and Siddhanta paths. He also gives us a preview of his talk about God Siva, the fourth theme for his trip to Mauritius. Siva’s love is perfect, He does not punish us, and there is no reason to fear Him.
Cybertalk Ends”
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The Alahan family got a new car recently and brough it to the Aadheenam for a car blessing… Sadhaka Tyaganatha does a wonderful job as usual.
The moment of beginning is always a crucial one. And the keys to the vehicle are an important link to that moment, since these are turned at the moment of beginning any trip. They are blessed as well.
Driving over the limes is the last thing that closes the ceremony… and the family drives away with a happy spirit in their hearts and in their engine.
Pandit Rajendra Sharma from the Hindu Worship Society of Houston, Texas. Pandit has done some interesting things in his temple to make sure that young people are engaged. One of these was to set up the administration so that the youth would be in charge of the festival committee… He even had this written into the by-laws of the temple so that no adults could later take it over. The youth are in charge with adults helping in an advisory capacity.
Pandit with his wife Asha and on the right their friend and trustee of the temple, another Asha (Chakku). They will be ordering 20 copies of Mystic Mouse to give as gifts to the youth on Deepavali. That”s a great idea and we have great discounts at our children’s site. Click here to order bulk copies at fabulous prices.
Here is a great description the Mystic Mouse series written by Sannyasin Natarajanathaswam, our resident artist, who worked closely with Gurudeva to create this series for children:
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The purpose of Mystic Mouse
Mystic Mouse is not like usual coloring book cartoons which are generally designed for children under the age of ten. It is primarily a teacher’s aid. This means it is created for presentation to children by adults. There are two fundamental reasons Mystic Mouse was created in this way:
1. Its purpose is to teach metaphysical concepts (from Merging With Siva) through a media (a cartoon coloring book) which generally is not used for such teaching. This media was chosen to cater to the special needs of primarily two groups of children (and adults, secondarily): 1. Those who “think visually.” 2. Those for whom English is a second language. Surprisingly, highly educated adults already familiar with the teachings also enjoy this presentation as a different look at “old” material through the “new” eyes of a child. �
2. Sage Lion, one of the main characters in the story, represents Gurudeva. After some experimentation, it became apparent that Gurudeva’s teachings were best conveyed in his own words, or as nearly as possible. Therefore, the words Sage Lion speaks are for the most part Gurudeva’s, edited from Merging with Siva only into shorter, simpler sentences for better understanding by children. Although this turns out to be approximately high-school-level English, �the conceptual understanding required is often at college level. Hence, again, �the necessity for adult assistance, which is why in Trinidad Pandit Narendra and his wife Ashwinee, who have printed Mystic Mouse Volume One, have asked us to title it “Mystic Mouse, the Hindu Family Interactive Coloring Book.” because it leads to a positive interaction between children and adults.
Mystic Mouse can be used for teaching at home by mothers or in classrooms by qualifed adults. If capacity or interest has not yet surfaced in the child to understand the concepts of the teachings, it can by used as a simple coloring book for coloring until such time arises.
Asha Chakku considered Gurudeva to be her guru and was an avid student of his teachings. Here she looks at some photos with Paramacharya Palaniswami, hoping to take something home for her shrine room.
Looking back to our three-day full moon retreat: this is a time for our monthly “silpi outing.” They always enjoy stopping at various site-seeing locations. Favorite among them are the fancy hotels. Here they are at the Mariott.
From the Mariott, one can look south and see Kapalaki Bay and the all-important Nawiliwili harbour which is large enough to dock large ocean going vessels… Here is where the stones arrive after their long journey from India.
Shanmuga Sthapati relaxing in the hotel lobby. After a week of month of tense work with 2-ton stones, it is a relief for the silpis not to have a care in the world!
Sadhaka Nilakantha with Sthapati and Silpi Adaikalam standing next to a statue of a Chinese war lord.
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With no sand retaining wall to cover the stones we are able to see courses 9 through 13. The stones on course number 13 are nearly all in place. Every course goes another foot or more higher and the challenge of getting the stones up and in place grows.
Here we are at the top of the temple sanctum doorway, headstone in place. Please give generously to this historic project! Help manifest Gurudeva’s vision.
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transcription begins
Date: August_19_2002
Title: 2002 Kauai Innersearch Day 3, Part 1
Category: Karma
Duration: 10 min., 7 seconds
Date Given: July 20, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
This morning we had a mixture of both our practices. We had our worship, our puja and then afterwards, our meditation. In the terminology in ‘Dancing with Siva’, our worship is our theism, our meditation is our monism, which together creates monistic theism. Said another way, in theism God is separate from us, greater than us and we are seeking God’s blessings. In monism, if we go far enough inside ourselves we find God and we are identical with God. Usually, traditions are either monistic or theistic. But we are both, we do two things.
While I was pondering that, I came up with another one. See if you can hear the difference, between a monist and a moanist. So, are you a monist or a moanist? It just came to me this morning. You cannot be both, definitely! The monist is someone who believes he is identical with God and a moanist is someone who is always complaining. So, if you are always complaining, you are definitely not thinking you are identical with God. Right? Because God is not a complainer. God doesn’t feel things aren’t the way they should be. God is happy with everything the way it is. Everything is always the way it should be. To be a monist, you have to stop being a moanist. Anyway, that was not on the schedule but it is always nice to start with something light.
So, if you wonder why I keep these at a distance, it is so I can read them. There is a certain range. If it gets too close, I cannot see it.
I found the brochure, the TM brochure. So we can look at that as a starter today. If any of you were not here when we talked about it, this is a Transcendental Meditation program on sponsoring a homa, called a Yagna, to fix your astrology, to appease Saturn. The term they use is ‘graha’. If you are not familiar with the word graha, it means planet. The word comes up a few times, quite often it is used in the phrase, the navagrahas, the nine planets. In many temples, you will see a shrine, which has all nine planets. You see all nine planets in our banyan mandapam but we don’t have them there to worship them. We have them there as a study, as a way of learning more about astrology.
We will read this to start. “How does the Maharishi Yagna Program create and influence peace? The word shanti, peace, describes the Maharishi Yagna Program. The term, ‘graha shanti’, refers to specific yagnas to bring individual life in tune with the natural law and create a more peaceful relationship with the grahas, the planets, the universal laws of nature which deliver the results of your past actions to you.”
So, that is close to what we are saying, but not exactly. But we won’t get into the nuances of how they differ slightly.
“Graha Shanti yagnas reduce negativity that is returning to you from the grahas. They undo the mistakes of the past. They maximize the grahas’ positive influence and improve your destiny. Fear and tension can be transformed into peaceful and productive tendencies, enemies can become friends. Every Maharishi Yagna performance operates from the all-powerful, silent level of unity at the basis of all creation which is an eternal state of peace and invincibility. Maharishi Yagna performance stirs cosmic intelligence, a unified field of natural law to create a specific effect such as an influence of peace and happiness. The yagna pundits recite Vedic sounds, those vibrations which structure the universe to actually awaken specific qualities of natural law capable of materializing our desires.”
Almost done. “How can personal Maharishi Yagna performances protect us from negativity and danger? The best protection is prevention, to avert the danger that has not yet come. It is important to be vigilant to make sure that the planetary influences coming to you are as positive and peaceful as possible, that they nourish and support your life. Planetary influences change with the cycles of time. The influence can be short or long, hidden or obvious, sudden or slowly developing. The planets continually affect you like a stream of water flowing through a pipe line. Maharishi yagnas act like water filters to purify that influence. If the water is quite polluted you need to change the filter more frequently. If you want an especially high quality of water, you must use a stronger filter. That is why Maharishi Vedic Astrology experts recommend Maharishi Yagna performances at least once a year, for every planet giving a strong influence. For the average situation, this will remove the sharp edge of danger so there is no lasting effect on your life. If great danger or strong negativity is predicted, more yagnas should be done, including special performance for specific problems. Those that desire an exceptional quality of life should repeat Maharishi Yagna performances quarterly or even monthly. However, even one Maharishi Yagna performance can begin to fulfill your desire for a secure and peaceful life.”
Okay, this is a good fund-raising program. So what is wrong? As we said, the sponsoring of homas is wonderful. We certainly support the idea of sponsoring a yagna or a homa. But we support the idea for a different reason, because it is a way of worshipping God and the Gods. We support it on that basis as a form of worship. But they are taking a different approach. To understand the difference, we have an analogy. They are talking about solving problems. So, we will use the analogy of a health problem. Let us say, we have chest pains. We are in our fifties and we have chest pains. So, we go to a doctor. In fact, we go to two doctors because we are going to see a comparison. One doctor says, “Chest pains? No problem! I have got a perfect remedy. It is this pill and all you have to do is take this pill three times a day. It is an old Ayurvedic remedy and your chest pains will go away.” Sounds good, right?
You go to another doctor and he says, “You have chest pains? You know why? You don’t exercise, your diet is a mess. You know you are overweight. You have to change how you live. You have to change your actions. You have to change your lifestyle. Cut out all fatty foods, exercise a half an hour a day and loose twenty pounds.” That is hard work!
Two approaches. One, you just take a pill and your chest pains will go away. The other is, you have to change your actions, you have to change the way you are living, what you are doing. Because, it is actually what you are doing that is creating the problem.
That is the approach we are taking. We are studying out what we are doing, what we have done in the past, what we are doing in the present and considering what we are doing in the future. We are looking at our actions in a precise way, understanding cause and effect, how what we do in the present creates what we experience in the future, how what we have done in the past creates what we experience in the present. So, we are looking at it like the second kind of doctor.
The Maharishi Yagna program is like the first kind of doctor. Just take a pill no problem. “Just do a sponsorship, just send us some money and everything will be okay. You don’t even have to attend, just send us the money and we will do everything, monthly is best.”
Anyway, you can see that this does not even talk about karma. It does not educate you in the principles of, well, these influence are coming, but why are they coming? It does not really let you look at that and say, ” Well, they are coming because of what you have done in the past. You have acted unwisely in the past. Otherwise you would not be experiencing something negative in the present.” It does not look at that but it should.
We want to follow the second way and change our diet, exercise a half hour and loose twenty pounds, which is harder to do.
transcription ends
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Innersearch 2003-4 in India!
We just completed the July 17-23 Kauai Innersearch, 2002. Bodhinatha will lead the next Innersearch to India, between Dec 2003 and Jan 2004. We will visit Bangalore and the Iraivan Carving Village, and settle in the South in Tamil Nadu, Click on the above for details on what will be an inspiring journey to our holy land of Bharat! |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
