Blog Archives
Sun 2 of a quiet phase, tomorrow is Ashram Sadhana day and on Sun 4 (Monday) Bodhinatha leaves for seven days to Vancouver and Edmonton, Canada.
At lunch today, Saravananathaswami shared news of travel plans to Canada and also his work on the schedule for the Guru Purnima schedule at the end of the month. Meanwhile Shanmuganathaswami continues to send us photos from the Atlanta trip and with a great report on the events there.
Bodhinatha’s next travel is to Vancouver and Edmonton, Canada. Please visit his travel page for more information.
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Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
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On the third day of Bodhinatha’s visit to the Hindu Temple of Atlanta he attended the opening of the Deities’ eyes ceremony. Here is another photo of the Balaji temple from the parking lot. This is what you see while you are driving by. The temple is an excellent example of the art and culture of Hinduism in the USA. The Hindu Temple of Atlanta sets a good pattern for other Hindu communities by building two separate temples for Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu side by side instead of having the Deities in one temple.
Here are all the granite Deities, vahanas and peedams waiting to be installed. The priests conducted the ceremony to open the eyes of the Deities and then brought forward a cow, a young girl, a saint (Bodhinatha) and an elderly couple as the first sight of the Shiva Lingam. For some reason this was the only photo we were able to take of the ceremony.
On the final day the yagnas outside the temple continued with a ceremony where some cloth was burned in each homa fire.
The priests prepared to carry the kumbhas into the temple.
The previous night, after the opening of the eyes ceremony, the priests installed all the granite Deities, their vahanas and peedams. On the last day, May 29th, the homa ceremonies were completed.
All through the yagna ceremonies the devotees were not allowed inside the tent. On the last day they were able to come in and receive blessings.
Each priest carried a kumbha on his head to take into the temple where the water would bless each Deity and the worship would begin.
The kumbhas were charged with spiritual energy, and it was obvious from the look on their faces that the priests felt the weight of that awesome power.
Bodhinatha is given some rice and grains to bless the priests and the kumbha pots prior to entering the temple. There were many times when you felt like you were in India and not in Georgia.
Outside the temple entrance a large pumpkin is used as an arati lamp and then taken and broken away from the temple to ward off any negative astral beings which may have been attracted to the temple.
The front of the temple is unfinished, and silpis from India will complete the ornamentation. While Bodhinatha was there he was impressed that the silpis built two shrines out of bricks and mortar inside the temple in a period of 48 hours.
Inside the temple the kumbhas are poured over the Shiva Lingam. It is an intense and emotional time and our photographer is barely able to focus the camera in all the excitement.
Bodhinatha and Shanmuganathaswami are invited into the inner shrine while Dr. Raghu, his wife Gita and others are just outside. The air was charged with prana you could literally see, and this magnetic energy made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The huge crowd packed the temple and everyone was beaming with joy and laughter. This was a moment in history as the worship began in one of a handful of Shiva temples in the USA. For Saivites in North America this temple in Georgia will certainly become a major pilgrimage spot.
Continuous chanting of Aum Nama Sivaya rang through the air. At this time the kumbhas were being poured over the other Deities in the temple including Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga.
The priests did a magnificent job and later Bodhinatha invited the crowd to congratulate and thank the priests and the trustees for their parts in making the opening of this Shiva temple a grand success.
On the previous night Bodhinatha had given a talk to a large crowd, and then the children gave a presentation of the Sanskrit chanting they had learned in their Sunday school classes.
The children and adults were impressed with the chanting which must have taken hours and hours to practice and memorize.
The inside of the temple is very large and holds at least 1000 people.
The children spelled out Nama Sivaya. There was no doubt that the children would grow up as strong Hindus with such a large community of Hindus as their support group.
They came forward one by one to worship Lord Shiva and His family.
The children begin classes at the age of four.
All the people came forward to prostrate to Bodhinatha.
Bodhinatha’s talks were very well received and appreciated for his practical advise for young and old alike. We were told that the temple would eventually build a community for elderly people next to the temple where they could walk each day to worship. Gurudeva had drawn up plans for such a community many years ago.
Several people asked for copies of Bodhinatha’s talks. At one point Bodhinatha simply handed his talk to someone who asked for it. You should have seen the look on her face!
Bodhinatha met with a young man, Rajappa Venkappa Subramaniam, his sister and mother at the hotel. He is studying The Master Course and is preparing to take his medical licensing exam.
Jutikadevi Sivaraja, on the left, was there to help Bodhinatha by providing water, fruits, teas, food and taking photos. She and the wife of one of the Vaishnava priests, Hema, (we don’t have a photo of Hema) were there to make sure Bodhinatha did not go hungry. Thank you very much Jutikadevi and Hema. On the right is Jayshree, one of the temple trustees who helped with the events in so many ways.
On Tuesday, June 8, Arumugaswami and Yoginathaswami took Dr. Virender Sodhi, the monastery’s ayurvedic physician visiting the island, on a tour of John and Nandanie Wooten’s organic farm in Anahola. Here is John’s outdoor temple, a Nepalese Ganesha with a Buddha and surrounded by rudraksha trees from the monastery. We began our tour greeting Ganesha and ringing the bell.
John has LOTS of avocado trees, most just coming into fruit.
Dr. Sodhi offered an ayurvedic treatment for John’s row of brocolli (center), which was suffering from a fungus. He thought neem leaves blended with water and a bit of soap injected in the stems would solve the problem. This was quite a revelation to John, because there is no organic or inorganic treatment for this fungus.
John Wooten, right, with Dr. Sodhi and Yoginathaswami.
John shows off a huge jackfruit in the tree.
Neat rows of lettuce mature in the Kauai sun. Lettuce is one of his money making crops.
Dr. Sodhi had a particular interest in tumeric, and John showed the harvest from last year when he planted a few pounds. Now with this hundred pounds or so of mature root, he’ll plant most of an acre this year.
After the tour, John’s wife Nandanie, who is from Colombo, Sri Lanka, prepared chai tea for her guests.
Today’s Inspired Talk |
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Title: Success and Happiness in Life, Part 2 Category: Good Conduct Duration: 9 minutes 7 seconds Date Given: June 11, 2004 Date Posted: June_12_2004 Given by: Bodhinatha |
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And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings
every day. Visit the Master Course site!
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 Sannyasin Saravananathaswami If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page and follow the directions there.
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
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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View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
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1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
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| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
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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.
