Blog Archives
“Think today about the personal experiences in your lifetime and clearly view just how often you cling to the banks of life’s river by attaching yourself to personalities and possessions. Have you ever stopped to think that we even become attached to things that we do not like and to the things that we have done against our better judgment? We are attached to objects, values, schedules, habits, memories, even likes and dislikes. We become attached because we do not stop to understand that each of those experiences that conceived the attachment was just a boulder, a waterfall or an old tree trunk blocking one of the little rivulets as it tried to merge with the great stream ever merging itself into the ocean.” –Gurudeva
Today we conclude our “Innersearch documentary” photos-with-captions series today. Here is Sadhaka Dandapani and his whole family from Australia. Amma on the right came with us as an Innersearch and it was great that Innersearch was able to bring together the whole family in a re-union in Chennai at the end.
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Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
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Today was tour day, the last day of this phase and we had quite a large group. Our presence in the “Ultimate Kauai Guide Book.” is certainly drawing a big crowd!
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End of Phase Notice:
This edition will remain posted
through our coming two-day retreat
Until the evening of
Dvitya Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, April 20th.
On the way back after the tour of Iraivan temple, our guest take time in the Banyan Mandapam to view the exhibits and pick up free literature.
And then a stop in our Mini-mela shop, where sales are always brisk.
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Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
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Other TAKA pages with recent Iraivan images.
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Our team in green, the three members of the Siddhidata Kulam doing what is a constant job: managing logistics, set-up and back up for the Silpis and the assembly of the temple. Today they are preparing for the next hoist of 5 roof beams next week. moving and setting up scaffolding is the order of the day.
Sadhaka Adinatha goes aloft to make sure everything is safe and stable.
Sadhaka Nilakanta on top already.
Sthapati and Yoginathaswami look on… Sthapati will give all his need in Tamil and then Yoginathaswami has the translation job to get the vision of what is going to happen next and direct the team accordingly. He also personally moves the stones on site if any forklifting has to be done.
Two pillars.
The five beams are layed out under the tent. The spans between pillars have been carefully measured.
the ends of the beams have then to be precisely cut to make a perfect fit.
They have been working on these for some time now.
It was a great day sunny day site.
Here is the end position of one of the beams.
The pillar designs look super…
Sthapati climbs up for one last inspection of the scaffolding set up.
The East side of the temple. You can see the tops of the pillars which are pieces with “wings.”
Here are more pillar tops, upside down…
Close up of roof beam joint.
Small pieces that waiting to go up to the upper levels in the weeks ahead.
There is some exquisite work here… hard to capture with a camera.
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Images from the Recent 2004 Indian OdysseyJanuary 19, 2004 – February 5, 2004 Bangalore, Madurai, Tanjavur, Chennai and |
Not pictured with Bodhinatha at the last closing dinner event because they could not attend that night, we want to acknowledge
Evan Reese, his wife Karen and son Matthew, who stayed back that night at the hotel to take care of their son. They are veteran travelers in India, having come many times before to be with and tour with Sant Keshavadas. The love in this family and the incredible tenderness and patience with which they raise Matthew is a blessing to behold and Matthew’s good nature under trying circumstances is a testimony to what good parenting can be. We look forward to seeing Matthew here on Kauai one day when he’s a grown boy.
Christa Sheler from Germany, who goes to the Tamil temples there and studies the Master course and has a deep connection with Hinduism. Christa’s flight back to Germany was departed shortly from Chennai after dinner and she had to leave before the photo shoot with Bodhinatha
This was her first trip to India and also first personal contact with the Parampara. Her calm grace, childlike wonder and sincere questions helped bring out the best in us all. Thank you for coming Christa! Come to Kauai soon!
While we end our captioned documentary, we are getting a lot of feedback that our audience loves photos of India. We will continue to post the best of third party photos taken by the innersearchers themselves in the days and weeks ahead, but without a running narrative. We will let the photos speak for themselves. Plan to join Bodhinatha for the next innersearch!
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transcription begins
Date: February_23_2004
Title: The Virtues of Hinduism Today
Category: Travels, Pilgrimage and Missions Abroad
Duration: 10 min. 30 seconds
Date Given: February 15, 2004
Given by: Bodhinatha
I was reminded this morning of our trip in India, there were two things that were omnipresent in India. One was Siva and the other a bottle of water. We got used to drinking water from a bottle on the trip. Eight glasses a days, right?
I thought this morning I would share the talk I gave in Chennai at the end of the trip. We had a gathering at a Hotel with the Innersearchers and staff, which is 90. I think about 150 guests came, we had about 250 in the room. It was a very nice group, lots of them were people that are helping us with artwork and various other projects over the years, writing for ‘Hinduism Today’. Priest Pandit Sambamurthy’s eldest son was there, Shanmugam. All our various contacts in the different areas we work in were present and represented.
The event had two themes. One was Iraivan Temple and for that we played the video which shows about Gurudeva and the temple. I guess you don’t called them videos anymore. You call them … what? DVDs? It was beautifully done, wonderful scenes of Gurudeva dancing and so forth besides the temple. It really gives it nice life. It is about 20 minutes, just long enough. It doesn’t go into great detail. It just has a few shots in the end, a virtual temple come alive. So that was the Iraivan portion.
‘Hinduism Today’ portion was basically my talk. The talk starts out with Hinduism Today and then goes a little broader at the end . So one of the statements I remember, because I hadn’t heard the phrase before. This was a long time ago maybe 20 years ago when ‘Hinduism Today’ was just getting going on a certain level. In Singapore we were talking to Mr. Giri, Giri Trading Company, a very large bookseller of Hindu books in Chennai, has a nice shop here, two shops-one near Kapaleeswarar Temple and the other somewhere else not to far away from there, it is more like an office.
So they were talking to us about ‘Hinduism Today’, who is printing ‘Hinduism Today’ in India and different possibilities. And he used the phrase for ‘Hinduism Today’ was like carrying coal to Newcastle, I had never heard that one before. It is a classic British statement. But carrying coal to Newcastle, had to find out what it meant first of all. What I found out is Newcastle is like where most of the coal in England is in Newcastle. So carrying coal to Newcastle, is ridiculous. They already have most of the coal than the rest of the country sitting there. It would be like bring water to Lake Tahoe, it has plenty of water already.
That is how it starts out. Why don’t I use that phrase to start the talk out?, I thought.
Many years ago a bookseller in Chennai made the comment to me, that distributing in India a magazine on Hinduism that was produced in Hawaii was comparable to carrying coal to Newcastle.
There is of course some truth to this. The comparison overlooks an important point that though there are many excellent Hindu magazines printed in India, most represent a specific organization and the articles in them only present that organization’s philosophy.
Possibly it is all but I didn’t want to say all, someone might pull one out, but that is not the case. I said most to be considerate, but it is probably all.
‘Hinduism Today’ was created on the other hand to present information on all of Hinduism major sects and lineage’s, not just one. Further more it first purpose is to foster Hindu solidarity as a unity and diversity among all sects and lineage’s. An illustration of the idea of Hindu solidarity is found in the problem of conversion, particularly to Christianity. The issues involved in conversion are quiet similar in all Countries, therefore if we read in ‘Hinduism Today’ the solutions that are successful, for example in Malaysia, we can apply many of them in our own Country. In conversion and many other issues as well, ‘Hinduism Today’ encourages all Hindus worldwide to stand together to face the common problems, which is the essence of the idea of Hindu solidarity.
‘Hinduism Today’ is also able to present information on all the major sects and denominations. This broad editorial policy enables it to produce articles that give more of an overview of Hinduism than is common.
For example in an article in the October 2003 issue presented an in-depth look at the four denominations of Hinduism – Saivism, Saktism, Vaishnavism, Smartism.
Understanding the existence of these four widely diverse viewpoints within Hinduism is central to holding a clear understanding of the religion. Yet often textbooks and displays on Hinduism leave out this core concept.
An example of that is producing a Museum display for Hinduism, as part of the Vishnu Mandir in Toronto. The Vishnu Mandir has its temple and next to it they are creating a hall, which is devoted to presenting information on Hinduism. There are displays. It is going to be quite nice with a fountain coming down with a big lotus and different things.
The person behind it all, Dr. Dubey, a very fine man, a medical Doctor by profession. He is really the force behind this temple, showed me the material that they were presenting in the exhibit and it left out the four denominations, it wasn’t there. It goes into all 6 Vedanta philosophies in great detail. It is more like a historical or academic exercise that is something useful. But the idea that there are four denominations wasn’ t present.
So we sent off our ‘Hinduism Today’ article on the four denominations, encouraging him to include it in the exhibit as a very useful statement. When we did it we had that in mind, that it could be sent off to various places and help this idea get presented. Because, Hinduism is so much clearer when you realize that there is four different points of view on it. Then, when something is said you begin to ask yourself, “What point of view was that?” Because quite often the Smarta point of view gets put forward as if it is the Hindu point of view. The Smarta point of view on the Deities, for example, all deities are aspect of the One Supreme Deity. This gets put forward as if that is the way all Hindus look at it and of course they don’t. That is the way the Smarta Hindus look at it.
We would like to say that Hinduism has a leadership rather than a readership. Meaning that many of those receiving the magazine are the heads of Hindu groups, the teachers within these groups.
Increased urbanization in India and diaspora outside of India has isolated many Hindus from their families, the traditional source of knowledge of Hinduism, such as grandparents or a nearby monk. ‘Hinduism Today’ helps fill this gap with articles that explain the reasons behind the traditional Hindu practices. This becomes more of an issue every year as more and more Hindus are outside of India and more and more Hindus in India are in the cities, outside of their traditional villages. The kids ask for answers and there are not any. The parents don’t know how to answer the question. They don’t have a resource person there to help them.
‘Hinduism Today’ can help fill that need.
transcription ends
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Color Trilogy Complete! We are happy to announce that the new edition of the enormously popular Dancing with Siva is now available in hard back with all new color artwork. It’s truly an amazing and beautiful work, with more art than any of the collection. This completes the fulfillment of the vision that Gurudeva had of his Master Course Trilogy being produced in full color. In addition, Bodhinatha is taking pro-active steps to bring Gurudeva’s teachings out in a new forms that can be broadly disseminated in the mass mind. With this in mind we, are also pleased to announce that the Dancing with Siva pocketbook is also available. Keep the three-pound book in your shrine room, and take the little one with you on the airplane or subway! How little? It’s just 3″ by 4.5″ — truly pocket-sized, and just over half an inch thick. Yet it is a full 375 pages, containing ALL of the 155 sutras. Available now at our online store. The complete Trilogy is being offered at a discount. |
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From Our Gurus' Teachings
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