Blog Archives
It’s the last day of the phase and we have no more photos from Bodhinatha’s past mission… Which makes perfect sense as today, right here at Kauai Aadheenam things were very, very busy! We could hardly keep up with the flow of tour day visitors and pilgrims asking for darshan with Bodhinatha.
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END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
Over our coming three-day retreat,
Until Tritya Tithi, Sun One, Thursday, Sept 30th
You and your family and friends are warmly requested to attend a special function for a discourse, satsang and darshan with Bodhinatha on his next visit to San Francisco.
Date: Monday, 11th October 2004 (Columbus Day public holiday)
Time: 4 – 6pm
Venue: The Spinnaker Banquet Room
The Spinnaker Restaurant
100 Spinnaker Dr
Sausalito, CA 94965
Tel: (415)-332-1500
For directions visit www.thespinnaker.com
Bodhinatha will present the fascinating progress that has been taking place on the hand-carved granite San Marga Iraivan Temple, the latest issues addressed by Hinduism Today and the many other activities that have been taking place at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery. At the end of the afternoon, there will be an opportunity for you to personally meet with Bodhinatha and share your questions, thoughts and inspirations with him. Your presence is indispensable, and we look forward to seeing you there. Please RSVP to Sadhaka Dandapani (808-822-3012, Ext 239; danda@hindu.org)
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is October 8-12 in San Francisco Bay Area, California. See 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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Mahesh and Krithika are visiting from southern California. To plan their visit to Kauai, they searched on the Web for things to do on Kauai and discovered our monastery website! Krithika started scanning all the pages and felt mesmerized by all the information and resolved to definitely visit and if possible have darshan of Bodhinatha. So they did, and asked some very practical questions about what kind of feelings are healthy feelings to cultivate, and how to maintain peace in their home and with relatives.
The weather devas were taking care to watch over our schedule and brought a bright sunny day for all our tour day visitors.
Our silpis have taken an interest in the tour day and prepare a stone and chisels for guests to have a hand at carving the temple.
A bright family….
As the sanctum nears completion, roof beams extending outward are soon to be placed and our silpis are working on these. Our guests are amazed at the huge stones.
Hugging a Rudraksha tree. A practice Gurudeva recommended, beloved by all.
After the tour, visitors are allowed to enter Kadavul Temple. Many have never been in a Hindu temple in their lives. They sit totally captivated by the power of the shakti.
Sivakatirswami happened to meet these young men from New York. It seems another famous East coast travel guide has a write up on Kauai and our temple. They are in the software industry, working for big enterprise companies and banks. Their father on the right is visiting from Punjab.
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transcription begins
Date: January051999
Title: Gurudeva Jayanthi
Category: Festivals and Sacraments
Duration: 7 min., 22 seconds
Date Given: January O5, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam, January 5th. Happy Birthday to me! Seventy-three birthday parties. That’s a lot!
The most embarrassing one was when I was born. That was embarrassing. Getting slapped on the behind. That started an ongoing campaign that we have against child abuse. What a way to enter a physical consciousness, with a pat on the butt that didn’t feel very good. Can almost remember it to this day. Hanging upside down there, somebody holding my feet, and whap! That’s unfair, to beat a little kid. But it is being done to little kids all over the world and laws are being passed and laws are being enforced.
Another memorable birthday was 21 years of age, arriving and walking through the Gateway to India. Stepping off a freighter boat, the first one to leave for India after the war. Stepping off on India’s soil. What a fantastic ‘Happy Birthday’ present that was for a twenty-one year old looking for his Guru.
Quite a few birthday parties. I wish I could have attended them all; are going on right now- Denmark, Sri Lanka in Batticoloa at our Tirunavakarasu Gurukulam. It is an orphanage that we support through Hindu Heritage Endowment.
Myself, also being an orphan at a very early age, about 9 or 10 years of age, know exactly how those young men feel. This orphanage was told that a sizable endowment was set up for them and they are going to get megabucks of rupees, every year to add on buildings, to buy books and they are celebrating Gurudeva’s Jayanthi, which is the Sanskrit word for birthday, in appreciation.
They were told that unless they stop corporal punishment to keep the kids in line, the endowment would not get even one rupee. This had a magical effect, believe it or not. All the teachers, all the instructors sent us letters pledging that they would not pinch a kid, twist his ear, hit him with a ruler on his hands or whip him on his legs if he were a naughty boy. They printed pamphlets in English and the Tamil language and distributed them throughout the city. They are still doing that, telling people that there are better ways of raising children than to throw them into the state of mind of fear, the state of mind of resentment, the state of mind of locking themselves in and shuting off their intelligence simply because they are afraid of their teacher. They are afraid of their elders. They are afraid of their parents. These young people and their instructors hope to make a difference in Batticoloa, Sri Lanka. To me, that is a wonderful birthday gift.
Another wonderful birthday gift was, and is, six young men from the age eight years old to twelve, who have been enrolled in the Vedic-Agamic Gurukulam under the aegis of Sri Sri Sri Tiruchi Swamigal of the Kailasa Ashram in Bangalore, close to where we are building the Iraivan Temple. These young men are going to be the priests of Iraivan Temple. They are going through a five-year training, in learning all of the necessary Sanskrit slokas, the ways of performing puja. A thorough training to turn them out as authentic priests, well educated in the Agamas, the Vedas. We are very proud of them, all given to me by their parents with love and devotion. Today is the day when their parents are there, and the head of our temple site, Jiva Rajasankara, Sri Sri Sri Balagangadaranathaswami, Sri Sri Sri Tiruchiswami, Sri Jayendrapuriswami and all the other Swamis, devotees and disciples of this great state of India. Tiruchiswami, Sivaratnapuriswamigal, heads a very very large ashram called Kailasa Ashram, with a fantastically beautiful temple, a Rajarajeshwari temple.
What a wonderful gift to be given, these six young men! We accept them with love in our hearts and believe you me, we will take care of them extremely well.
Well, that is my birthday testimony. It is nice to hear myself saying these things but, another thing is that we are very happy that you have tuned into our Cyber Ashram and that you are living in cyberspace with us. It is like the Akashic world. We can look out through the computer and see you through cyberspace, and you are looking good today, many of you.
I see one sad face. Realize all that you have gone through in this life has brought you to the point where you can say, “I want to change. I want to be happy.” Be happy by making someone else smile. The reaction to that will make you smile. Life is too unsure, and life is too short to experience unhappiness for too long a time. So cheer up, out there.
I’ll see you tomorrow through cyberspace at ‘Today at Kauai Aadheenam’, tomorrow.
transcription ends
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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. | |
|
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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Blog Archives
“Devotion in Hinduism is known as bhakti. It is an entire realm of knowledge and practice unto itself, ranging from the child-like wonder of the unknown and the mysterious to the deep reverence which comes with understanding of the esoteric interworkings of the three worlds. Hinduism views existence as composed of three worlds. The First World is the physical universe, the Second World is the subtle astral or mental plane of existence in which the devas, or angels, and spirits live, and the Third World is the spiritual sphere of the Mahadevas, the Deities and the Gods. Hinduism is the harmonious working together of these three worlds. Religion blossoms for the Hindu as he awakens to the existence of the Second and Third Worlds. These inner worlds naturally inspire in man responses of love and devotion and even awe. They are that wonderful.”
–Gurudeva
Bodhinatha is back now and having darshan as usual with the Chandrasekharans, from Chennai.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is October 8-12 in San Francisco Bay Area, California. See 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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The parents actually live in Chennai. They always wanted to come here.
So when they visited their son Shankar on the mainland US, they took the opportunity to come to Kauai Aadheenam.
They are subscribers to Hinduism Today, and also receive the Master Course by email.
Bodhinatha listens intently to their questions.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
In Mauritius
More photos from Mauritius. You will forgive us if there is some repetition from photos before, but we have collections coming in from different sources, and sometimes they took similar shots. It is easier just to use them all. Here are Saravanathaswami’s last set from the final days in Mauritius:
~~~~~
Here, Bodhinatha is meeting Mr. Narainen and family. Narainen was the brainstormer of a plan to develop the former sand quarry next to our Spiritual Park/dharmasala into an eco-tourism waterfront area, which will create jobs for the local community. The Mauritius government has started the work.
Kulapati SK Moorghen receiving vibhuti just after the Mauritius Council on Missions (COM) meeting
Group photo of COM after meeting with Bodhinatha to discuss various facets of our Saiva Siddhanta Church life in Mauritius.
Church sishyas Logadassen, Pakion Vedee and Kirtideva Peruman
Kulapati Souria Kumaren and Kulamata Moilavadee Moorghen, a Church sishya family, with sons Bhaveshan, Shanda Kumaran and Udeyadeva
Bodhinatha meets with Sir Anerood Jugnauth, President of Mauritius. He was Prime Minister for 20 years before power finally changed hands. When he was head of the country in 1991, he met Gurudeva. Today he meets with Gurudeva’s successor.
In the meeting, Bodhinatha and Kulapati Manon Mardemootoo updated him on progress of our Spiritual Park development including the successful Ganesha Chaturti festival held a couple days earlier.
Preparing for photo opportunities at Kulapati Siven Koothen’s home in Chemin Grenier, Mauritius
Kulapati Siven and Kulamata Poospawadee Koothan’s extended family in the south, Chemin Grenier…
Tiru Paramaseeven and Tirumati Maga Devi Canagasaby with daughter Gayavatee and son Dayananda
Tiru Kartikeyen and Tirumati Kannigai Manick family. The couple received samaya diksha from Bodhinatha a few days earlier.
Tirumati Meeravadee Koothan and her husband
Tirumati Jayaluxmee Mooroogen with her husband and children. She received samaya diksha from Bodhinatha a few days earlier.
Mauritius parliament’s Deputy Speaker of the House, The Honorable Minister Prithviraj Putten. He has been a devotee of Gurudeva from the early days when he was still a young man, now in his capacity in the government, he tries his best to put Gurudeva’s teachings and the Tirukural verses into practice in his profession. He came to seek blessings from Bodhinatha to maintain the forces of dharma in politics, which is a challenge at times.
After Mauritius, Bodhinatha stopped in Singapore for one night before the long flight home to Hawaii. This is Changi Point… an unusual experience in the otherwise highly urban environment of Singapore.
Taking a walk on the beautiful Changi Point Beach boardwalk..
And just about ready to fly home…
No Audio Today
|
Take this opportunity for an adventure. Close your eyes and click to get a message picked at random from the vast audio archives of our Satgurus’ discourses |
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site! |
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS
 |
|
Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
|
transcription begins
Date: January041999
Title: Gurukula Priest Training
Category: Hinduism and Tradition
Duration: 7 min., 29 second
Date Given: January O4, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. This is Gurudeva. This is January 4th, the day before ‘Happy Birthday to me’ day.
Well, this is a very important day because this is an important message to our 75 silpis, expert stone carvers in Bangalore India, at our Iraivan Temple site there and very importantly, six young men from the age eight to twelve, who came from Singapore and Malaysia with their mothers and fathers to enrol in the Vedic-Agamic Gurukulam. This is a training school that has been going from ten to twelve years producing many, many priests who are now serving in temples throughout the world. These young men were dedicated at birth, or better still, at conception to helping me with this wonderful spiritual mission that so many others are helping with and they are going to be trained in this Gurukulam, a school for training priests in Bangalore.
Under the loving guidance and protection of Sri Sri Sri Tiruchiswami Maharaj and his entourage of Swamis, his other Swamis and many, many helpers, these boys are going to be well-trained in five languages. Karnataka language Kannada, Tamil language, Sanskrit, English of course, and Hindi. They will be trained to become a priest in any temple throughout the world but most importantly, they will be the priests of the beautiful Iraivan temple, the first ever stone temple brought from India to the United States of America and nestled in on this beautiful garden Island of Kauai. They will become the priests. Some will become ministers of the religion, known as Swamis and others will become married men, most probably and run a Gurukulam or priest training school right on this island to train priests, as we have been doing occasionally. Like, we trained the priests for Fiji temples and we trained another priest who is serving in Vancouver, Canada. They will train young men here on Kauai, say fifteen years from now. We plan ahead. We look way ahead. It is a five-year course of training and if they do very, very well, they will also get another certificate from Mysore University.
Also, ‘Hinduism Today’ is being interviewed today by our correspondent reporter, Choodie Sivaram. We are interviewing the Prime Minister of India who is visiting Bangalore today, and we are talking to him about backing up the proposal of teaching Hinduism in the schools throughout the entire country of India. Christianity is taught in schools. Islam is taught in schools. Hinduism is not, at this particular time when it is most needed.
Now my message to the silpis, the tireless stone-carvers who are creating this beautiful Iraivan Temple. Surely, you all will have a wonderful birth in your next life; for being so loyal, year after year after year after year. Some of us have been working together about five or six years, one stone after another. The temple is half-finished now and you are to be praised. You are running a training school for other young men to become professional artisans in this ancient art, which we are keeping alive by building this temple. We hope beyond hope, that there will be stone temples coming out of India in Europe, and Australia, New Zealand, many of the countries of the world, where art like this that you all are doing, has never been seen before. You are to be praised and we praise you on this most auspicious day, Gurudeva’s seventy-third Jayanthi, which is his ‘birthday’. We bless each and everyone of you and your families. Also Sri Sri Sri Balagangadaranathaswami Maharaj, who has so generously made available 11 acres of land for us to build a village, with water, electricity, a retirement program, medical benefits, religious services daily and a happy life for each and everyone of you.
If we can do more, please let us know. We are here to help you, each and every one of you silpis, expert stone-carvers, as you are helping the world by creating an edifice for Lord Siva, who is timeless, formless, spaceless, who is all-pervasive and pervades the Universe as energy, prana and also is a personal God, with a human-like form that has been seen in visions by mystics and depicted more than often by artists in paintings and sculpture.
So, carry on with your work under the skillful guidance of Jiva Rajashankara, his lovely wife and two sons. We praise you, we bless you, and we wish you well on your way. Let’s finish up this temple and bring it to the Garden Island of Kauai. It will take over one hundred containers. Each container will be sponsored by an extended family in one country or another throughout the world.
Aum Namah Sivaya, everyone. Think of us tomorrow, and our Ashram doors are open again tomorrow and we will tell you what happened on this beautiful Jayanthi day.
transcription ends
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||
Blog Archives
“In contrast, children who are born into Earth consciousness from the Devaloka do respond to meditation, yoga and all kinds of methods of self-control. These are the gentle people. Self-control and personal advancement are the reasons they have taken a birth. There are ways to tell the difference between these two types of people. The mere fact that someone becomes penitent would show us that he is really a Devaloka person. This is because Narakaloka people don’t become penitent. There is another way to tell the difference, and that is by looking into the eyes of the person. Narakaloka people generally have dull or sullen eyes, whereas Devaloka people have bright, clear, wide-open eyes.”
–Gurudeva
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
We have another set of photos that were taken by Saravananathaswami from the day of initiations at the Pudu Pillaiyar temple in Malaysia… Here the priest of the temple presenting Bodhinatha with a picture of the Deity of the temple.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is October 8-12 in San Francisco Bay Area, California. See 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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At home at the Aadheenam… today.. Mr. and Mrs Chandrasekaran are here on pilgrimage from Chennai. They had always longed to come to Kauai Aadheenam and took this opportunity while visiting their son, Shankar, in California to pilgrimage to Kauai.
It’s a bright day for us because Shanmugam Sthapati is arriving back from his break in India and will be back on the job at Iraivan soon…
Now we are at the Kotu Malai Pillaiyar Temple in Pudo district, downtown Kuala Lumpur where Bodhinatha is about to bestow samaya diksha, or mantra diksha, on four Saiva Siddhanta Church sishyas. This diksha is the initiation into daily chanting of the Namasivaya mantra. A crowd is packed tightly around, watching the proceedings intently.
Though the temple and Ganesha murthi are small, the vibration is strong. Bodhinatha commented that it feels like Ganesha is really large here, enveloping the whole temple and beyond
Balu Devado receiving diksha, just after Gunasegaran Chitravelloo who is third from left in the photo
Next diksha recipients eagerly awaiting their turn–Annapoorani Ganesan on far right, and Sarkunavathy Sockanathan second from right.
Sarkunavathy Sockanathan receiving her diksha
Blessing at the end of diksha
Bodhinatha signs their official diksha booklet, noting the date and place of the samaya diksha
Vibhuti blessings for all other devotees present on that special occasion at the Pillaiyar temple
During this time of blessings, a young man approached us, asking for more information about our monastic life…always refreshing to hear of this rare interest.
Gurudeva wrote:
“All must always remember that it is a family’s greatest blessing for a son to become a sannyasin. But a word of caution must follow. Though a young man may be raised and trained to one day become a monastic, it is he himself who must have the burning desire for ultimate, transcendent realization of Parasiva. It is he who must have a heart full of selfless service and vairagya, the spirit of renunciation. It is he who must have the prarabdha karmas that would allow him to be the ideal sannyasin his parents would hope for. Becoming a monk is not simply a matter of moving from his family home into a monastery. Various tests must be met and passed. The entire monastic community has to be convinced of the young man’s sincerity and strengthened by his presence. Such potential sannyasins are watched closely and expected to dissociate themselves from grihastha impulses such as claiming “my things, my space, my career, my advancement and my exclusive duties.” They are examined for the qualities of true sannyasa, tested often as to their flexibility, their ability to instantly renounce attachment to position and job security without residual resentments, the fluidness to release awareness and move transparently from one area to the next as needs arise.”
–Gurudeva
A group lunch afterwards at a nice Chinese restaurant in Petaling Jaya town
Sishyas gather at various tables to mix and mingle
These are members of our dynamic “Core Youth Committee”, or CYC, of Saiva Siddhanta Church who have recently begun a series of official seminars on the Master Course trilogy. Here, they have just finished updating Bodhinatha on the retreat in December where Bodhinatha will teach for five days at a resort area in Malaysia. They already have about 80 participants registered, with many more clamoring to join in. It will be our first teaching retreat in Malaysia in quite some time.
Saiva Siddhanta Church sishyas, Kulapati Selladurai family visiting Bodhinatha with Kulamata Vasanthy’s mother.
Newlywed couple Sivanathan and Puvana Batumalai reading their comprehensive marriage vows to Bodhinatha.
Sivanathan is becoming an Arulsishya (one step before official membership in Saiva Siddhanta Church) and signing the special vows of vegetarianism, tithing, ahimsa and loyalty to our guru lineage.
Bodhinatha signs a copy of their marriage vows.
The very happy couple
Bodhinatha displays a copy of the new Panchakshara Mantra booklet, wherein he assembled all of Gurudeva’s teachings about the Namasivaya mantra, including how, where, when and why to chant it. A copy of this booklet is being given on this trip to every sishya who has received samaya diksha.
Another recently wed couple, sishyas Aravindraj and Renu from India.
Bodhinatha visits the Gasing Hill Sivan Temple in the evening. It’s a powerful temple, on top of a nice hill overlooking the Klang town below.
The crowd eagerly listening to Bodhinatha’s talk about the nature of God Siva. Bodhinatha made a point to clarify common misconceptions about God Siva, especially stressing that Siva is a God of love, never angering or being wrathful.
Vibhuti blessings for a local swami
Bodhinatha signing the official guestbook of the Gasing Sivan temple
Farewell at Kuala Lumpur airport, leaving for Singapore.
No Audio Today
|
Take this opportunity for an adventure. Close your eyes and click to get a message picked at random from the vast audio archives of our Satgurus’ discourses |
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site! |
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS
 |
|
Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
|
transcription begins
Date: March051999
Title: Making a House a Home
Category: Family
Duration: 3 min., 45 seconds
Date Given: March_05_1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. March 5.
Yesterday we talked about a home, a house, a hotel lobby and people’s lives. We discussed what makes up a home. People in it that love each other, people in it that are harmonious, people in the home that are closer to one another than they are to people in the work-place, people in the University, or in any kind of a school.
Home is a place of companionship. Home is a place that is so magnetic, you want to go back to it again and again and again. That is a home and everything else is just a house or a hotel lobby.
Everybody is thinking now, “We have to have two incomes, three incomes. We have to become wealthy.” Money is gained and lost, sometimes rather quickly. It is quickly gained and it is quickly lost.
What is wealth? Wealth is a diamond with many facets. One, of course, is money. But that is not the only one. Happy family, family that enjoys each other – that is a great wealth. Doing things together and enjoy doing things together is another great wealth. Rushing home to be with one another, if you can create that in your family, you are wealthy.
Another great wealth is living within your income. Even multi-millionaires are poor if they do not live within their income. They are always worried about debt, payments, responsibilities and are often very lonely people because in all the effort to gain those millions, they have to sacrifice their family, their children, and their own happiness. Many content themselves, building great, big multi-million dollar homes. To benefit whom? A gardener, maybe a cook, a maid or two, who get to live there all the time, while they are traveling around the world, coming in late and leaving early.
That is not wealth. That is also not wisdom. That is a good way to die young.
Well, everybody in cyberspace, I don’t know how we got on this subject. But it did start with some questions about home, family and togetherness. We’ll be back with you tomorrow in cyberspace, having darshan in our beautiful Ashram.
Think about your home and see if it compares to the ideal that we talked about today.
Aum Namah Sivaya!
transcription ends
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||
Blog Archives
Welcome to a new phase at Kauai Aadheenam. At home we had our Sun One Homa today and Bodhinatha and Saravananathaswami arrived this morning after a very long 18 hours of transit-night flights…
We will continue for a few days catching up with news and photos from their mission.
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Here is Bodhinatha at the Gasing Temple in Kuala Lumpur for a public gathering there.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See 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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Here’s one picture from our Ganesha Chaturthi celebration, the milk abhishekam of the beautiful Maha Ganapati murthi in Kadavul….
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami on Mission
Malaysia –September 12th
Here we are back in Malaysia on Day Five of the mission, September 12th. Afternoon and evening.
At 4:00 PM in the afternoon, Back at the hotel…Satguru has a meeting with the youths on the plans for future activities
He also met with a lot of young couples on his journey.
A future Addition to Saiva Siddhanta Church family, Sivanathan Batumalai is welcomed as the new Arulshishya, takes the 3 vratas in presence of Satguru.
Then off to the Dakshinamurthi installation at Gasing Shivan Temple at the top of the hill in the middle of KL.
Satguru arrives, filled with energy and joy…. The temple priest garlands Satguru
and escorts Satguru into the temple….
Satguru at the Siva altar…
and hands the Dakshinamurthi to Satguru to be installed…
Puja is done on the vimanam of the new shrine and the installation takes place..
Get ready everyone…its time for Upadesha!!! Kulapathi introduces Satguru to the devotees who were present there…
Thevaram recital by the temple youths…
Satguru speaks on how we are a part of Lord Siva and
cannot be separated from Him…
The crowd were impressed by his talk…and rushed for
his darshan once the Upadesha was over…
Kailasam and his group sang Natchintanai while
devotees takes their turn for Satguru’s darshan…
Meanwhile, the sales team was doing a great job
propagating Gurudeva’s teaching outside the temple, selling a wide variety of items.
It was almost 11 o’clock when Satguru left the temple…Aloha for the day!
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
In Mauritius — September 21st
On the evening following the wonderful public Ganesha Chaturthi event at the Spiritual Park, Bodhinatha had a COM meeting with all the Mauritius kulapatis at the bungalow at Trou aux Biches. Bodhinatha share with them his plan for the 2005 visit.
While the kulapaties were inside for the COM, our kulamatas were enjoying a nice talk on the terrace overlooking the beach.
Bodhinatha and swami were invited for dinner with all the kulapatis and Kulamatas. Kul. Sivakuman was the host on that evening. It was a rare moment to sit with the Guru and share a meal together.
Kulapati Sivakumaren and Kulamata Kavita….
On Tuesday 21st, Bodhinatha had a last meeting with all the Mauritius sishyas at the residence of Brahm. Vel Mahalingum in Mahebourg. Everyone joyfully attended that farewell meeting. Here Satguru Bodhinatha arrives at Mahebourg.
The sishyas squeezed in to sit and listen to the Guru….
While Bodhinatha was taking his seat the group sang a guru song of Sivayogaswami…
Outside a cold rain is falling, but inside everyone can feel the warmth of the Guru’s darshan.
Bodhinatha’s farewell talk was mainly about His 2005 visit to the island where the Guru wishes to spend some more time on teaching and to organize seminar sessions with different groups in a conference hall environment with overhead projectors etc… Bodhinatha looks forward, too, for more teaching sessions with enrolled Himalayan Academy students.
A nice fancy cake lovingly prepared and offered to Bodhinatha by one new HA student, Krishna from Flacq.
Little Dayananda Canagasaby asks Bodhinatha to sign a Living With Siva for his parents…
Sivarathna Manick has his personal murthi blessed by Bodhinatha. It is a little Ganesha playing the mrdangam. Sivarathna himself is learning mrdangam and prays Ganesha be always by his side…
Moorghen Caremben coming forward for the Guru’s Blessings…
The farewell meeting is over now..Bodhinatha gets into the car and leaves for the airport. Au Revoir Ile Maurice! see you all now in 2005!
=====
Bodhinatha himself writes, about his final days in Mauritius:
Sept. 20th:
Morning was a satsang at Kulapati SK Moorghen’s home. Then we went to “State House” and spent about half an hour with the President of Mauritius, Sir Jaugnauth, at 2 PM. Manon and SK Moorghen were there also and we presented some information about the Spiritual Park, our talk on Hindu Unity and information on the granite signs that are being carved in Bangalore. He was quite receptive.
We had an unplanned meeting with the Chief Justice at 5:30 PM. He visited Kauai and met Gurudeva some ten years ago and still remembers all the details. He talked a lot about Gurudeva and his greatness, asked philosophical questions and said he hoped next year to join us at the Spiritual Park for Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations.
Then we continued south to our new location for our last night at Point Esny which is near the airport and Vel’s house.
Sept 21st:
This morning we drove south to Koothan’s home for satsang with members, students and devotees in that area. Saw Minister Pritviraj Putten at our bungalow in Point d’Esny and then to Vel’s home in Mahebourgh for a farewell gathering with a large group of members, satsang and departure talk. To the airport and the VIP lounge and VIP check in and then off on the 10:50 PM flight to Singapore.
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transcription begins
Date: May031999
Title: Importance of Samskaras
Category: Festivals and Sacraments
Duration: 5 min, 08 seconds
Date Given: May 03, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam, it is May 3rd and the doors of our Cyberspace Ashram are open to you. Wonderful to have your darshan and to see you looking at us.
The question has come up about, “What is the value of sacrament in the Hindu religion?”
Well, there are four denominations within the Hindu religion. The Vaishnava denomination, the Smarta, the Sakta and of course the Saivite denomination, which is the oldest.
Sacraments are very important. For a little child, the name-giving sacrament is the first one that it would have, approximately one month after birth. Now, it is true maybe the child doesn’t remember the name given to it until it is reminded later on in life. But, all the ceremony that goes along with the name-giving, deeply impresses the child’s subconscious mind. Children are smarter than you think. A little child one month old may have been an old, wise pundit a few years before. Think about it. Children are smarter than you think.
The first-feeding sacrament means solid food is fed to the child for the very first time. The family gets together and they go to the temple, or hire a priest to come to their home. A grand ceremony happens. The Gods are invoked, the child is blessed. This also adds to the first samskara, within the subconscious mind. Then, the ones that follow are numerous. The ear-boring, the coming-of-age and finally, the marriage sacrament after path-choosing.
What is path-choosing? Choosing the path to be a sannyasin or a family man. Now, we might wonder how many sannyasins are there in the world? Estimates tells us about 3 million, mostly in India. The Swami Narayana order has 652 sadhus or sannyasins, last count. The Ramakrishna Mission over a 1000. In our order, we only have 15, but a good number in-training.
The sacraments given from birth to death – and the last one is called the antyeshti samskara – are very important, all through the life of a Hindu.
What happens if the families neglect to give a samskara or a sacrament to a child? The child may wander off at 20 or 30 thirty years of age into another religion. Because, there are no lasting impressions within the mind of a child, to keep him on the straight and narrow of the Sanatana Dharma, the oldest religion in the world. During teenage years, children forget all the sacraments and all the samskaras, which mean deep impressions in the mind, and are often investigating life and feeling themselves to be more adult than perhaps, they actually are. They are testing their limits, seeing how far they can go, how far they can push. They are learning about life. Nevertheless, vibrating within the subconscious mind are the original, religious impressions. When a young person becomes a little older, and settles down in life, those memories surface, creating him into a very religious person.
Now, we are going to hear the same thing again in the beautiful Tamil language, exquisite French language and the lovely Malay language. We’ll talk again on this tomorrow.
transcription ends
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Blog Archives
Today is the last day of a six-day phase… we had our tour day but no photos, as our photographer is traveling. At home the Aadheenam is deep in renovation karma… a new roof going on top of the main Aadheenam building and the Pilliyar Kulam office is being completely renovated on the inside… so here there is lots of carpentry and painting going on… Meanwhile the big news is with Bodhinatha in Asia and we bring you more pictures from the Ganesha Chaturthi in Mauritius and step back in time to Malaysia to catch up on important events there…
~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our phase
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
Over our coming two-day retreat,
Until Dasami Tithi, Sun One, Thursday, Sept 23th
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Ganesha Chaturthi is public holiday in the island of Mauritius and Hindus of all denominations worship Lord Ganesha with a special puja at the various temples on that day. Local radio would be airing songs on Lord Ganesh… This festival is looked forward to every year at the Spiritual Park by devout Hindus all over Mauritius. It is also an opportunity for the whole family to pilgrimage to the Park.
The presence of the enlightened Satguru at the homa is really a great event!
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
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Bodhinatha welcomes all those devotees who are present at the Ganesha Mandapam..
The Mandapam hall is packed to capacity and visitors are queuing up outside to make their offerings to Lord Ganapati
Hundreds of notes from devotees have been burnt to the inner worlds on that day through the holy hands of Beloved Bodhinatha. Burning prayers in the homa to the devas is one of the major spiritual practices at the Park.
The children are singing devotional songs which they have been rehearsing for several weeks.
Bodhinatha’s talk of the day was entitled: ‘Places of Peace’. Talking about the Spiritual Park, Bodhinatha said:
“Our Mauritius Spiritual Park is humble in appearance compared to this exquisite marble mandir ( Houston Temple) but it still accomplishes the same inner purpose of inspiring those who visit to uplift themselves and experience some of that inner peace that is within each of us, that is our soul nature, that is our very essence. Individuals who experience peace at a temple carry it back into their home and make their home a more harmonious place. They also carry it out into the community and help the community be more tolerant of one another and be more united.”
Here devotees are lined up near the Mini Mela waiting to have their books signed by Bodhinatha. Visitors were able to buy their books inside the Mini Mela as well as at a special stall set outside by Selvaraj Sanjeevee.
Here is the Nathoo family who have been lovingly supporting the Muruga Mandapam project at the Park.
Book signing was one of the main activities for Bodhinatha on that day. Here Bodhinatha is signing a Loving Ganesha book. Bodhinatha said in His talk:
“Besides being an excellent place of spiritual peace, our Mauritius Spiritual Park also provides regular satsang. Participating in satsang, a gathering of “good souls”, on a regular basis is very stablizing to our religious life. We are influenced more than we realize by those we associate with at work, at school and elsewhere. As Tiruvalluvar says in the Kural, “As water changes according to the soil through which it flows, so a man assimilates the character of his associates.” “Even perfect men, possessing the mind’s full goodness, are fortified by pious fellowship.”
A view of the crowd inside the main tent where food was being served.
Many volunteers from Rempart village mainly from member Paramasiven Canagasaby family volunteered to help in the preparation of food on that day. Here is one food station.
All through the day people kept coming to the Mandapam to worship Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapati, over 3,000 people or more. The Spiritual Park is one of the main island centres for Ganesha worship. The message of Bodhinatha reminds us of another objective of the Park:
“Our Mauritius Spiritual Park is also influencing this and future generations of children. With most schools focusing solely on secular studies, there is a need for children to learn traditional values in a religious setting such as this. In other words, it is not enough to simply learn to read and write, children also need to learn what to read and write.
And the concept of what it means to be a successful adult needs to include not only wealth and family but also the principles of a pious life of virtuous conduct, fulfillment of duty to family, community and country and regular worship of God and Guru at the temple and in the home shrine.”
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Gives Initiations in Malaysia
Priest performs archana under Satguru’s name for Lord Ganesha at the Pudo Kottu Malai Pillaiyar Ganesha Temple. A small but famous and powerful shrine, known throughout Malaysia as a place where Lord Ganesha has granted the prayers of many in miraculous ways. Innersearchers may recall our visit there in January this year.
Satguru takes the Arati then.
The priest garlands Satguru after the archana and hands him the archana prasadam.
Satguru is then escorted around the temple…
Bodhinatha takes his seat and gives an upadesha on Lord Ganesha.
Kulapati Appasamy translated Satguru’s Upadesha into Tamil
Everyone listens intently….
Four Shishya’s received their first Diksha today
Brother Gunasegaran was one of them…Bodhinatha give the mantra in the right ear, then blesses the devotee with his hands on their head and then gives vibhuti.
Bodhinatha also signs the Diksha booklet that was prepared for them.
Next came Brother Balu Devadoo…
Satguru Initiates him..
Signing his Diksha document.
Sarkuna was the third one to go…Placing the garland on
Satguru
Uttering the Panchanchara Mantra into her ears…
Initiating her …..
She signs the booklet, just like others…
Last Shishya, Annapoorani receives her Diksha
and is blessed by Satguru
The ceremony is over and the other devotees come forward
for Satguru’s Darshan..
Satguru is presented with a Ganesha portrait as a token of
appreciation by the temple committee.
Satguru, ever ready to pose for us, Just like Gurudeva!..
Adjourning for lunch with members a local restaurant.
And here we are at the restaurant…Smile Satguru, another
photo for Taka!
Satguru seems to be enjoying the company of his devotees. It was a truly blessed day…
As one of the new initiates said:
“Satguru, I feel so uplifted and energized after the initiation. Its beyond words, the experience.
It was so beautiful at the Kottu Malai Pillaiyar temple. I am still visualizing the experience and its still fresh in my mind. I have gone through the booklet and it is wonderful. I will try all steps and lessons given.”
No Audio Today
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Take this opportunity for an adventure. Close your eyes and click to get a message picked at random from the vast audio archives of our Satgurus’ discourses |
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site! |
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||
Blog Archives
Someone who meditates well also thinks well. He can flow through that thinking area of the mind and work out things through the thought processes. Someone who meditates has confidence in all departments of life. You can build that confidence. If you sit down to meditate, meditate! Don’t get side-tracked on anything else, no matter how attractive it may be. If the power builds within you, sit for a long time afterwards and let the energy absorb into the cells of your external body. Great energy is released from within. Don’t get up after your meditation and immediately run off to do something. Sit in silent stillness until that power subsides in a gradual and refined way.
— Gurudeva
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Bothinatha arriving at the Spiritual Park for Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations… the 19th in Mauritius…
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
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Stepping back to finish up events of September 18th. …
The newly built Muruga Mandapam was inaugurated by HH Bodhinatha Veylanswami on Saturday 18th September. It was a memorable event for all those who attended. Despite the hot sun, the Mandapam was very cooling inside with the sea breeze blowing in.
The ceremony was short and simple. Devotees sang a few devotional songs to Lord Muruga and Bodhinatha was delighted to see that the Government was developing a waterfront a few meters from the Mandapam.
After the Muruga Mandapam opening, Bodhinatha had a meeting with those Mauritian students who have enrolled themselves with the Himalayan Academy to study through the Master Course.
It was an animated meeting when the students started to ask questions about the course and religious concepts therein. Bodhinatha is planning to focus more on teaching on his next visit to Mauritius.
Back to today’s event at the Spiritual Park. Today is Ganesha Chaturthi: Ganesha’s Birthday …. and a very large crowd is expected at the Ganesha Mandapam as from early morning… The members are already there to welcome the visitors. Everyone who comes worships at the little shrine at the entrance.
It is 9.00 am and an important guest is expected too. Here comes Bodhinatha…
Bodhinatha walked down to the Mandapam with the traditional musicians leading the way. …
At the steps of the Mandapam, everything is ready and the children are lined up with their basket of flowers.
When Bodhinatha arrives, the Satguru is being welcomed by a simple pada puja while the sounds of bells echo inside the Mandapam.
A special elaborated homa is conducted by a Sivacharya from India on this Ganesha Chaturthi celebration. Bodhinatha is invited to sit at the Homa. …more photos of this event in next TAKA.
Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sadhaka Dandapani
Mission to Mainland USA
Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sadhaka Dandapani spent two days in Arizona for Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations and one day with our members in California and are already on their way home…. we have a few photos from their trip that arrived just today… Sadhaka Dandapani writes:
~~~~~~~~~
This morning we toured a couple of nurseries and saw many exotic cactuses
and other unusual desert plants. Here is Paramacharya Palaniswami with
Chellappa Deva, a long time sishya of Gurudeva who lives in Arizona.
Sadhaka Dandapani stands in front of a giant cactus. Many of these big
cactuses are 30 to 40 years old.
We had a wonderful meeting this afternoon in the hotel with a few ardent
readers of Hinduism Today. They shared with us their love for Hinduism Today
and Gurudeva, and the impact Gurudeva has had on their lives.
Mr. Mahadevan, a lifetime subscriber to Hinduism Today, poses with
Palaniswami. Mr. Mahadevan reads Gurudeva’s Master Course daily and shared
with us his gratitude to Gurudeva for beginning a temple in Arizona. He had
many insightful questions to ask Palaniswami and all present enjoyed the
ensuing discussion.
Ashok and Sudha Chandrasekar joined us at the hotel this afternoon as well.
They last visited Kauai almost 14 years ago but have kept up with the progress at Kauai Aadheenam through TAKA and the monthly Iraivan newsletters. They shared with us that Gurudeva’s message to Hindus around the world to make the home shrine the most beautiful room in the house inspired them to do exactly that.
Chellappa Deva and his wife Banu Devi have been living in Arizona for quite a few years now. Long time devotees of Gurudeva, they were instrumental in getting the Maha Ganapati Temple of Arizona started. They cared for the two traveling monks from Kauai Aadheenam with much love and kindness. Thank you very much to you both!
Later that evening we attended an abhishekam, homa and puja at the temple.
After a 45 minute drive into the desert from our hotel we arrived at the Maha Ganapati Temple of Arizona. Besides the hills that could be see on the horizon there was nothing around for as far as the eye can see except sand and Ganesha. A very quiet and peaceful setting indeed.
Inside a small temporary structure sat one of the most beautiful Ganesha’s we have both ever seen. 4 feet tall and most elaborately decorated by the resident priest, Sri Visvanatha Sivachariar, Maha Ganapati has decided to make this another one of His homes.
The morning started off with a homa which was beautifully conducted by Sri Visvanatha Sivachariar with about 15 men chanting along with him.
Next came an elaborate abhishekam to the utsava murthi of Maha Ganapati which Sri Visvanatha Sivachariar invited Palaniswami to conduct.
While Ganesha was being decorated Palaniswami addressed the crowd sharing with them Gurudeva’s message of “Hinduism – the greatest religion in the world”, building temples and a few other topics. The beautifully decorated Ganesha was then paraded around the temple to the site on the new temple.
There was much joy, chanting and singing amongst the crowd as the young men carried Ganesha.
Ganesha makes his way to the new temple site for the Bhumi Puja ceremony.
Sri Visvanatha Sivachariar does a special puja to bless the site where the new traditional style temple will be erected. About 500 people attended this sacred ceremony.
A late afternoon flight and late night arrival in San Francisco and our team was up for satsang held this morning at Jothi and Deepa Param’s home.
Kulapati Easan Katir performs and arathi to Gurudeva.
Members and students singing Natchintanai.
Kartikeya and his sister, Venita, offered a beautiful instrumental piece to Gurudeva.
Casey Collins, a young man who lives in San Francisco, who has been reading
Gurudeva’s books for sometime now came to meet Palaniswami and share his
interest for monastic life.
Siva Markandu writes from Toronto
Jai Ganesha Vinayagaar Chathurti was celebrated as a grand festival in Toronto.
The local newspaper published a photo with Ceasar the elephant leading the chariot of Lord Ganesh around the temple.
Thousands of devotees attended the festival. The Lt.Governor of Ontario (Queen’s representative) was present and delivered a speech to all Lord Ganesh devotees.
The front page article appears in the Saturday’s edition of the Toronto Star. Swami, I couriered the prints as you requested but I am going to courier the Chaturthi photos to you.
What a feeling to wake up and see Kurukkal and Lord Ganesh in Canada’s main newspaper.
Pillaiyar powers at work.
Om NamaSivaya
Siva Markandu
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Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
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transcription begins
Date: February131999
Title: Mahasivaratri
Category: Festivals and Sacraments
Duration: 6 min., 5 seconds
Date Given: February 13, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. It is February 13th. Happy Mahasivaratri to each and everyone! We are so happy today. It is a fast day here. That doesn’t mean the day is going to go by fast, it is going to go by very slowly because everybody will be up until after midnight. It means that we are not going to eat very much.
We have another group of Japanese devotees from Tokyo that just flew in. About fifty coming today to have an inspiring talk from me, answering all their many, many questions. This is the third group that has been here from Tokyo in the last three weeks. We’ll be very happy to see them.
We were talking yesterday about karma. There is a big confusion about fate and karma. Karma is not fate and fate is not karma. Fate is pre-destined action caused by something else. You have no control of it. It actually comes from the Abrahamic religions, not from Sanatana Dharma. Karma you do have control of. You actually do because dharma is the controlling element of karma. Right action, right speech, right thought controls karma. Even the worst kinds of karma that you have created in the past and are now facing in the future can be mitigated. That means, not actually eliminated, but eliminated enough so that they are gentle karmas rather than rough karmas as they could have been if they were not mitigated through prayaschitta, which is penance and through sadhana, which is performing a religious practice at the same time everyday.
Right action, that means doing kindly things, not mean things. Right speech, that means no back-biting. Right thought, no sexual fantasies, no mental arguments, no plans to hurt somebody behind their back or to their face. Because, what you think you might like to do to somebody else, you are doing that to yourself through somebody else at some future time. That is the way it works, and that is the way it works. Most importantly, daily sadhana harnesses the instinctive-intellectual mind and opens the door to superconsciousness. The key of proper sadhana is that, and you only have to remember one thing; one thing only. That it is performed at the same time. The exact time. No fudging. No telling yourself, “I can’t do my sadhana, it is six o’clock. I have to do it at seven.” It doesn’t work that way. The same time every day creates a habit pattern within the sub-conscious mind that is indelibly impressed there and that offers great control of the instinctive mind. Great control of the intellectual mind. Your instinctive mind and your intellectual mind are your tools of the soul to function on planet Earth and as you sleep at night on the astral plane.
If all of you in cyberspace who have been tuning in, in over 59 countries, if you are performing sadhana, and if you are performing sadhana now and again, here and there, at different times during the day, get it regulated so that it is a daily practice at the same time every day. Preferably in the early morning. I mean, you have nothing to do in the early morning. Get out of bed, take a bath, perform your sadhana. You’ve got the alarm clock to tell you to get out of bed. You’ve got your willpower to get out of that bed and take a bath and perform the sadhana. No excuses in the morning. Be sure that it is the same time every morning without fail. Now, if you don’t want to do sadhana on Saturday and Sunday and sleep in, that is alright. But Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, same time every day. We’ll talk more about this in our Cyberspace Ashram communications tomorrow.
Aum Namah Sivaya.
transcription ends
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
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Blog Archives
“Meditation does not have to be prolonged to accomplish what you want to gain in unfoldment through your perceptive insights. Ten to thirty minutes is enough in the beginning. However, after you have finished with a dynamic meditation, you might sit for a longer time in the bliss of your being and really enjoy yourself as the pure life energy radiates through your nervous system. Meditation is essentially work, good hard work, and you should be willing to work and expend energy so that you can meditate. Karma yoga activity, the ability to serve in the temple selflessly, whole-heartedly and accurately, is a must if you want seriously to amalgamate the instinctive forces that demand reward for work and be able to meditate with full force, vim and vigor. “
–Gurudeva
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Of course the important news of the moment is Bodhinatha giving initiations in Mauritius. It’s Saturday, the 18th…. a day reserved for the members and sishya at the spiritual park.
This is a rare and precious moment: receiving the sacred Panchakshara Mantra, Om Nama Sivaya, from the lips of the Satguru. This is the essence of Sampradaya, the preservation and passage of the power of Saivism from one generation to the next. For the individual sishiya, it is the receiving the spark, the seed, the key to a new beginning on the path of raja yoga and spiritual unfoldment.
This is Kartigeyen Manick
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
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Bodhinatha is meeting Church members of the different regions of the island on different days. The members living in the north, mainly from the Mardemootoo and Manick kutumbas all met at the residence of Kulapati Manon for a satsang with the Guru last night, Friday evening. Here Kulapati Manon is doing the puja assisted by Brahmachari Vel Mahalingum.
After the puja everyone was invited to prostrate to the Holy Feet of the Guru.
Kulamata Sornumbal receiving vibhuti…Bodhinatha gave a very nice speech on that evening stressing on japa and anger management.
The devotees singing Natchintanai while others are prostrating to the Guru.
The next day, Saturday morning, Bodhinatha was at the Spiritual Park with the Church members and Himalayan Academy students. It turned into a sunny day despite the rainy weather at night on the eve. Children are lined up on both sides of the path leading to the Ganesha Mandapam throwing flowers at Bodhinatha’s Feet.
Kulapati Amba Valayten traditionally washes the Feet of the Guru at the lava rock steps of the Mandapam.
On that day the devotees present had the privilege of having Sannyasin Saravananathaswami performing the homa at the Ganesha Mandapam.
Bodhinatha in meditation while the spiritual vibration is building up…After the chanting and burning of notes to the devas, four sishyas were called forward to receive their samaya diksha.
Jayalaksmee from the south receiving samaya diksha from Bodhinatha…
Tirumati Kannigai Manick, wife of Kartigeyen
Selvaraj Sanjeevee from Goodlands.
Bodhinatha’s Talk was on Mission satsanga and the satguru stressed on the concepts of japa and the Guru. Here is an extract:
“Certainly one very important concept in Gurudeva’s essential teachings is the need for a guru. Here is the example I usually give when asked the question “Is a guru necessary?” I reply by asking the question: Do you need a teacher to learn to sing devotional songs? And then answer the question by saying: Anyone can learn to sing simple devotional bhajans without a teacher. However, if you want to learn to sing the more difficult carnatic songs, a teacher is definitely needed. Is a Guru Needed? By worshipping regularly at a temple and reading scripture you can make some spiritual progress without a guru. But if you want to maximize your spiritual progress in this lifetime, you definitely need a guru.”
After the talk Bodhinatha certificates of completion for the Saivite Hindu Religion Book Two were awarded by Bodhinatha to many students, mostly children who are currently following Saivite Hindu Religion seminars every week at the Spiritual Park. Here is Ulasha receiving her certificate with a rudraksha bead from Bodhinatha.
….More photos of this Saturday Spiritual Park event in next TAKA… stay tuned…
Saravananathaswami also sends us more photos… with his captions:
Now we are visiting some Saiva Siddhanta Church member families at home of Kulapati Kulagan Moonesawmy’s home. This Kulapati Anba Valayten and family.
Kulapati Kulagan Moonesawmy and family. They hold the new Panchakshara Mantra booklet in their hands. This is the booklet Bodhinatha is giving to all sishyas who had diksha in past and those receiving diksha on this trip and into the future. Bodhinatha gave diksha to four sishyas in Mauritius on September 18. You will see photos taken by Rajen Manick of that event
Tiru Youdananda Munian and family. Many bright, young children in our sishya families right now.
Tiru Soobhlall Jeetunsiv
Group photo with Bodhinatha at the end
And then it’s off to Kulapati Mougam Pareatumbee’s Pizza & Tandoori restaurant for a fancy lunch prepared by his expert staff of chefs, shown here afterwards
The children very much enjoying their lunch
This is Inderjeet and Ashwini Munohur visiting Bodhinatha for a few minutes at the bungalow. They are longtime friends of our “Spiritual Park”, or Saiva Dharmasala at La Pointe in the far north. They met Gurudeva in the past
More meetings at the bungalow. This is Dr. Pillay who publishes a newspaper called Vanakkam and regularly includes HPI articles and lessons from Gurudeva’s Master Course trilogy. He really admires Gurudeva’s writings and is very eager for our help to educate Hindus so they become strong enough to withstand enticements to convert to Christianity and other religions
Kulapati Rajen and Kulamata Premila Manick. They are very active in teaching the Saivite Hindu Religion children’s course to young children at the Saiva Dharmasala Spiritual Park
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, who recently visited us in Hawaii, flew to Mauritius all the way from Adelaide, Australia, when they saw on our website that Bodhinatha was coming for Ganesha Chaturti celebrations. They are both retired from their professions and now eager to deepen their spiritual life and take Bodhinatha as their Satguru to guide them. At this meeting at our bungalow, they signed up to follow our Master Course Correspondence Study. We will be arranging to ship the Master Course trilogy to them, and prepare personal study folders, so they can begin
This is the national flower of Mauritius which we photographed outside the Mahatma Gandhi Institute while on our way to a temple event in the town of Rose Hill. Sorry, we don’t remember the name of the flower at the moment.
A full sun shot of the beach outside our bungalow
Here are some photos showing where Bodhinatha is residing most of the days in Mauritius. A family generously donated the use of their beachfront bungalow.
Early morning scene outside the bungalow. Because there is a reef some ways out, the water close by is very calm and clear.
Many little fishing boats and glass-bottomed tour boats. We are on northwest side of the island, which is part of the drier side of the island. The southern areas are more rainy.
Bougainvillea grows well on the island
A nice tree base outside our bungalow
Mr. and Mrs. Perumal, whose bungalow Bodhinatha stayed at the previous two years. Bodhinatha also spoke at his temple last year
Bodhinatha taking his morning walk on the beach…
At Home At Kauai Aadheenam
Back home at the Aadheenam… lot’s of visitors this morning coming for this mornings puja as they thought it was Ganesha Chaturthi…they must have been using an Indian calendar for the date and not the USA/Hawaii panchangam.
Thanks to some generous benefactors we have a new bird aviary out front in the Banyan Mandapam where visitors can enjoy them. The Aadheenam has always kept birds. Gurudeva loved them, but our big aviary that has cockatails, parakeets and finches is in the cloistered area of the monastery, so out of sight of guests.
Paramacharya Ceyonswami has been coordinating the new cage made from a garden gazebo frame… These young Love Birds are stunning in their varied colors (which can’t clearly be seen here) and very sweet and tame.
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And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site! |
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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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
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Blog Archives
Happy Ganesha Chaturthi!
Ganapati Bapa!…. Moriya!
~~~~~~~~~
“Siva’s followers all believe in the Mahadeva Lord Ganesha, son of Siva-Shakti, to whom they must first supplicate before beginning any worship or task. His rule is compassionate. His law is just. Justice is His mind. Aum.”
–Gurudeva
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Bodhinatha is greeted by the priests of the Draupadee Ammen Temple in Rose Hill in Mauritius… Our TAKA reporter from Mauritius writes:
“The priests of the temples, Sivacharyas from India, were very enthusiastic about the visit of Bodhinatha to the temple. Bodhinatha is greeted traditionally with a kumbham.”
We have more from Mauritius and Singapore but Ganesha First! (of course)
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See 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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At the Aadheenam we held a quiet but blissful Ganesha puja in the temple this afternoon. A small group of devotees joined us. Dr. Bala Aiyer from Houston, Texas with his wife and some friends, our Kauai sishya and Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar his wife Manisha and son Manas, daughter Sonita and all the silpis who were given the afternoon off from their work…
Sadhaka Jivanandanatha is our pujari today. Yogi Japendranatha helping… we will give you excerpts from Gurudeva’s teachings on Lord Ganesha..
“Worship of Lord Ganesha sets the path of dharma. Go to His Feet. He alone can perform this miracle for you. He will release the mental and emotional obstructions to spiritual progress. He will remove the burdens of worldliness.”
Lord Ganesha is the first God a Hindu comes to know. As the Lord of Categories, His first objective is to bring order into the devotee’s life, to settle him into the correct and proper flow of his dharma–the pattern of duties, responsibilities and expectations suited to the maturity of his soul.
“As the Lord of Obstacles, He deftly wields His noose and mace, dislodging impediments and holding avenues open until the individual is set in a good pattern, one that will fulfill his spiritual needs rather than frustrate them. “
Lord Ganesha is also known as the Gatekeeper. Access to all the other Gods comes through Him. It is not that He would want to keep anyone from another God, but He prepares you to meet them and makes the meeting an auspicious one. This preparation can mean lifetimes. There is no hurry. It is not a race. Ganesha will faithfully bar access to those who do not merit a divine audience and an ensuing relationship with the other Deities whose darshans are faster. Should a devotee gain unearned access and invoke the powers of other Deities before all preparations were concluded, karma would accelerate beyond the individual’s control. Worship of Lord Ganesha, however, may begin at any time.
Ganesha is the ubiquitous God. There are more shrines, altars and temples for Lord Ganesha than for any other God. Ganesha bhakti is the most spontaneous worship and the simplest to perform. It requires little ritual. Just the ringing of a small bell at the outset of a project before His picture or the burning of camphor or the offering of a flower is enough to invoke His presence and protection.
Manas Kshirsagar and Tandu Sivanathan carry the palanquin of clay Ganeshas in the procession to the river.
“Throughout India and Sri Lanka, there are small, unadorned shrines to Ganapati under shaded trees, along country roads, at bus terminals, along footpaths and in the city streets. His blessings are indeed everywhere. Helping Ganesha, whose powers of mind outreach the most advanced computers we can conceive, are His ganas, or devonic helpers. These ministering spirits collect the prayers of those in need, ferret out and procure the necessary information and bring it before Lord Ganesha’s wisdom.”
If you want to get acquainted with the Gods, first get to know Lord Ganesha. Take a picture and look at it. Put a picture of Lord Ganesha in your car or in your kitchen. Get acquainted through sight. Then come to know Him through sound by chanting His names and hymns. This is how you get acquainted with your personal Deity. You will get to know Him just as you know your best friend, but in a more intimate way, for Ganesha is within you and there ahead of you to guide your soul’s evolution.
As you get acquainted with Him, Ganesha then knows that you’re coming up on the spinal climb of the kundalini. He will work with you and work out your karma. Your whole life will begin to smooth out.
We can see that coming up through the lower chakras is quite an ordeal. But once the individual goes through the fear chakra, he comes to Lord Ganesha’s feet and enters the realms of memory and reason, clarity and understanding. It is at this point in the unfoldment through the chakras, which is a journey of consciousness, that he would begin thinking of others and seek to benefit them more than himself. From here on, the path of spiritual unfoldment is not as ominous as it was before. There are no threatening areas, except that it is possible to fall back into lower consciousness.
The Gods are the controllers of these force centers within man. They live in the innermost areas of form. To enter the muladhara chakra, the aspirant must go through Lord Ganesha. And when the aspirant progresses to the manipura chakra, Ganesha will introduce him to Lord Muruga.
When the devotee has proven himself, the Gods begin to take notice. We meet a God as we go up through the chakras above the muladhara. We meet an asura as we go down through the chakras below the muladhara. A God appears as each higher chakra breaks open. As the muladhara opens and awareness comes through it, we encounter Ganesha. When we experience fear and anger, we meet and are influenced by the asuras of fear and anger. In the chakra that governs confused and selfish thinking, we meet and are influenced by the asura who rules this realm. Descending to the still lower chakras of petty theft, fraud and stealing, grand larceny, murder and violence, we would meet professionals in these areas.
When you meet the God or asura of a particular realm, it would always be a conscious meeting, but you may not always see the God or the asura. His presence would certainly be felt. Some symbol would appear, such as an image of Lord Ganesha, or of Lord Siva. A lot of people are open to Sivaness now and see Him through His images.
If you are in the temple worshiping Lord Muruga, the mantra Aum Saravanabhava obviously has a total overall effect. If you say “Aum, Aum, Aum” in front of Ganesha, Ganesha becomes conscious of your presence.
Manas swims out into the pool with the palanquin of Ganesha’s and then overturns it and they all return to the source.
The sweet auspiciousness of this moment must be experienced to be known and understood, and even then you cannot tell what it is… Lord Ganesha’s blessings through all manifest form….
Gurudeva’s spiritual center in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
We now take you to the events of the first day, September 16th, in Mauritius. With captions from our reporter there.
“Bodhinatha was invited to give a talk at the Draupadee Ammen Temple in the town centre of Rose Hill. It is one of the oldest temples of the island and has been innovated with tall gopuram. HH Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami gave samaya diksha to his first group of Mauritian devotees in this temple years ago…”
Bodhinatha arrives at the temple around 6.30 pm. and is greeted by the priests (picture at top).
Then Bodhinatha led the procession around the temple with musicians playing the nageswaram and tavil.
Bodhinatha and the devotees went into the temple where a brief arthi is performed by the priests to the temple deities. There is one swami from the Divine Life Society, from India who stayed close to Bodhinatha in the temple.
After the arthi, Bodhinatha is invited into the temple Mandapam where His Holiness is introduced to the devotees by Kulapati SK Moorghen who coordinated the whole event with the Temple committee. His kutumba too did a wonderful seva on that day.
The two young boys, Vamadeva and kirtideva in short sketch based on the story of the Saint Nambi Nandi who had a miraculous encounter with Lord Ganesha at the temple when he was a child.
The children in a dance during the sketch…
Bodhinatha’s talk on that evening was on Hindu Unity. Here is an extract:
” The nature of this Hindu unity is that it is based on solidarity rather than sameness. It cannot be based on sameness as the followers of the four denominations do not hold identical beliefs and follow identical practices. On many points they differ. Therefore, the unity is based on solidarity, coming together on the beliefs and practices common to all Hindus while acknowledging that in many ways we differ. This is why Hindu Solidarity is called a unity in diversity.
There is an ancient Greek proverb which says: “United we stand; divided we fall.” The point this proverb is making is that a group, any group, is stronger when it is united and therefore better able to handle the challenges that face it.”
After the talk devotees came up to prostrate at the Feet of Bodhinatha for His Blessings…
There was quite a good number and they had to line up in the Mandapam…
This couple are unexpected guests from Australia at the Rose Hill Temple. They learned from TAKA about Bodhinatha visiting Mauritius and immediately took the flight to this island. Venkataraman and Prema Iyer are from Adelaide, South Australia and they have been on pilgrimage to Kauai Adheenam. They are attending the Ganesha Chaturthi celebration at the Spiritual Park.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
With Singapore Sishya
We step back in time to Bodhinatha’s stay in Singapore…
Bodhinatha gives this short report for his day of September 14th.
“Lunch with members and devotees on the top of the hotel, the 8th floor Italian restaurant, a newly opened restaurant with a great view of the ocean, islands and passing freight ships.
Afternoon meetings with Hindu Centre teaching staff, first with Sivakumar Saravan who is coordinating it all and then with three of the teachers.
Evening program at the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple (Sri Lanka Ganesha Temple). It was a day for a special programme so there was a great deal of youth singing and dancing first and then my talk. Excellent quality cultural programme.
Om Namasivaya,
Bodhinatha
Sivakumar Saravan write from Singapore:
“In the evening, amidst a light drizzle, Bodhinatha arrived at the Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple. This temple which is largely managed by the Sri Lankan Tamil community always make it a point to host Bodhinatha when he travels to Singapore. The
temple has a very dynamic youth committee that is working very hard to strengthen the Saiva faith among the Hindu youth community in Singapore. Another interesting point to note is that the temple has an oduvar (temple singer) who sings the Natchintanai
very well.
The temple is successfully running many programs for the children. Here the
children are performing a dance for Bodhinatha. This was part of a half an hour
cultural program specially dedicated to Bodhinatha.
After the cultural show, Bodhinatha gave a talk on how to encourage the youth to attend the temple. The talk was very well received and some of the youth present
told us that they felt inspired.
After the talk, Bodhinatha presented tokens of appreciation to all the participants of the cultural show.
There was a long queue to receive vibuthi blessings from Bodhinatha. This is
usually the highlight of the day as many of the devotees cherish the opportunity to
have darshan of our Satguru.
A group photo with the participants of the cultural show and their teachers. The Hindu culture continues to be preserved in Singapore by many dedicated teachers.
A nice ‘Free Literature’ booth was setup at the back of the temple hall.
More than 100 people visited our booth to take away some free literature. Some of them left their names behind so that we can mail them more literature in the near future.
More photos and captions from this day from Saravananathaswami…
Reviewing student/teacher Hindu religion lesson plans with sishya Sivakumar Saravan in the afternoon. Sivakumar teaches children at the Hindu Center.
The other children’s class teachers from the Hindu Center in Singapore arrive to meet Bodhinatha for the first time and receive his counsel. They face the challenge of keeping the kids’ calm and attentive, and sometimes get a little frustrated. Bodhinatha assured them that their teaching is definitely sinking into the childrens’ subconscious minds even if they do not pay full attention consciously, and the teachings will provide a pattern of dharma for the children to rely on once they’re grown up.
A light dinner at the end of the evening, chatting with Kulapati Dohadeva (second from left) and the temple Secretary (far right) about the current and future activities of the temple.
Easan Saravan, son of sishyas Sivakumar and Lavanya. A new generation of Hindus is on its way, guided by the Kailasa Parampara! Jai Ganesha!
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| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS
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Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
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transcription begins
Date: March281999
Title: Friends and How to Choose Them
Category: Relationships
Duration: 5 min., 49 seconds
Date Given: March_28_1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. It is the 28th of March. Greetings, everyone! We are very happy in cyberspace to speak with you in our ashram in the air.
We have a question here from Chitravelu Gunasekaran in Kuala Lumpur. “We have a picture of Lord Siva meditating and many are asking, “What is Lord Siva meditating upon?””
Well, Lord Siva is the Creator, Preserver and Absorber of the entire Universe. Sometimes, we say Destroyer of the Universe. Mahapralaya, that is when Lord Siva brings everything into Himself. So, He sustains the Universe as Ishwara, absorbs it as Rudra and creates it as Maheswara. It takes a lot of meditation to do that!
Siva has created all the Gods, Krishna and Radha, Goddesses Lakshmi and everybody and all the souls of all the people. Your soul, Chitravelu, is created by Lord Siva. It is a shining ball of light, living within a physical body, astral body, mental body. It is right there. It is superconscious.
You can explain this to all of your friends or tune them in to our Cyberspace Ashram.
Gloria, from Oregon, asks “I would like a Hindu name. I want to convert to Hinduism but I am not of any religion.”
Therefore, you cannot convert to Hinduism. You have to adopt Hinduism as your religion and you would be very, very welcome. Please send us your address and we will send you a beautiful Hindu name. What we need is your exact time and date of birth, and place of birth to choose just the proper, astrological name for you. Everybody has a tone and that tone is the exact time and place of their birth. There is a Sanskrit name for you, which we will look up. We are very happy that you are interested to go to a Hindu Temple and we will try to find one for you. So, please communicate with us. We do need your name and address so that we can send you beautiful things through the mail. We call it snail-mail because it goes so slow now.
Another question has come up about choosing friends. You want to choose friends that you are intellectually, spiritually able to communicate with. Not people who are attractive physically or emotionally exciting. Those friends will come and go throughout your life. They are really not friends, they are acquaintances.
Friends should help one another, uplift one another, stand by one another and you do not need a lot of friends. If you are a popular person, you could have a lot of acquaintances and a few friends. If you are a student, you are going to school to study and not to make friends. You want to come out the other end as a professional, a good educated person. Then you can make lifetime friends. Socializing too much interferes with study and often making lots of good friends can lead you astray. There are many things in the world today that you can stray off into and wind up without an education and therefore, no career.
We want to encourage everyone to get on the big boat and come to Anchorage Alaska, with me. We are leaving in June from Vancouver and going to Anchorage, Alaska. We are going to be together, we are going to do seminars, have classes, study meditation and we are going to install a beautiful Ganesha deity in the first Hindu Temple in Anchorage, Alaska, and even in the state of Alaska. It is coming up at the end of this voyage. Just a little bit time left to enroll, it is coming up very fast. It is called ‘Innersearch Alaska’.
What is ‘Innersearch’? What does that mean? It means searching within yourself for your true nature, for your true identity, for your true roots. Innersearch Alaska. Come on board!
We will be talking to you again tomorrow and then after that a 3-day retreat this time. During this time, we take time to reflect on what we did and what we are going to do, endeavoring to purify our lives, live in the moment of the eternal Now. When we are living Now, that is a wonderful place to be. No worries about the future and no regrets about the past. We’ll be seeing you in the gnana.
Aum Namah Sivaya!
transcription ends
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||
Blog Archives
Today was Chitra Puja and our minds were with Gurudeva more than ever…. early this morning Paramacharya Palaniswami and Sadhaka Dandapani flew off to Arizona for Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations. At the Aadheenam renovation work continues and stones have arrived from India…
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Bodhinatha is in Mauritius and but we have no photos from there today, so we will step back in time to Bodhinatha’s arrival in Malaysia and the events in Penang. Here he is at the temple event on the evening of his arrival in Malaysia.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See 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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Back at the Aadheenam, this morning we held Chitra Guru puja… Yogi Japendranatha does the puja.
Jai Gurudeva!
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The final two of three containers that have arrived on Kauai were unloaded today. Another huge lion pillar is being extract with the professional assistance of one of Kauai Commercial’s drivers and the silpis deft handling…
Yoginathaswami guides the operation carefully, translating for the silpis to the driver.
Almost out….
Now over here…
And, ready for uncrating…
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
Visits Malaysia — Penang
For those of you who may not know, Penang is a small island off the coast of Northwest Malaysia, connected to the mainland by a bridge… It’s a high-tech city with one of Malaysia’s most important Universities.
Kulapati Ananda Sivanesan, being the older Kulapati there, garlands Bodhinatha at the Penang airport.
All the devotees of northern Malaysia are overjoyed to be with their Satguru…
A big banner greets Bodhinatha at the Nattukottai Chettiar Sri Thandayuthapani temple.
A look inside to the highly decorated hall and throne for the arriving holy man.
Everyone is waiting…
Kulapati Ananda garlands at the entrance.
Kulamata Thamaraiveni Sivanesan, Kulamata Kunawathy Sivaceyon and Kulamata Ahila Ganesan showing arathi.
Temple priest invites Bodhinatha with kumbha.
A big crowd is on hand inside the temple.
Bodhinatha paraded around the temple.
Worshipping before Lord Murugan in the form of Thandayuthapani.
Archana being done for Bodhinatha.
Bodhinatha looks like a King seated upon the golden throne.
View of Gurudeva, Bodhinatha and Saravananatha swami
Crowd listening to Nutanaya Sivaceyon giving a biography on Bodhinatha in English and Devala Sivaceyon translating it in Tamil. These two teenagers did a wonderful job !
New arrival in Malaysia, Devika Ajaya, now married to Sivaram, giving a short explanation prior her dance.
The crowd is very impressed by the high standard of this young lady from America.
Bodhinatha gives a talk on Lord Murugan. Kulapati Bala Sivaceyon translated it in Tamil.
Bodhinatha’s talk.
Thanabalan Ganesan gives a short Thank You speech in English
Kulamata Ahila Ganesan translated the Thank You speech in Tamil.
Devotees coming forward in perfect discipline to receive vibhuti prasadam from Bodhinatha.
Next Bodhinatha goes to the home of the new Sivaram family. Amma and aunty showing arathi to Bodhinatha.
Bodhinatha takes his seat…
Followed by pada puja… the pictures speak for themselves!
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transcription begins
Date: March041999
Title: Achieving Forgiveness
Category: Self Improvement
Duration: 3 min., 18 seconds
Date Given: March_04_1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. It is March 4, already! The month is well on its way!
We want to welcome everybody tuning in to Cyberspace Ashram. We are very happy that you came in today. Today, I have been asked to talk about ‘Forgiveness,
One of the most difficult accomplishments for most humans is to forgive. It is so easy to hold resentment. It is so easy to take offense. It is almost habitual, it is almost a habit.
When we take offense, when we hold against other people things that we think that they didn’t have the heart to do but they did do, all we are doing is burdening ourselves. When we breathe and lift our energies into our heart chakra, we begin to feel more mellowed and more understanding about what happened, why it happened. We don’t even have to know why because it is our own karma. Whatever is done to us, we did to somebody else.
Forgiveness takes humility. Humility is not a weakness. Humility is a power. It takes great strength to be humble and even greater strength to remain humble because by being humble, we go within ourselves. By being proud, arrogant and self-centered, we go inside other people. That is where we get into trouble.
So, forgiveness is an art. It is a yoga. Better still , it is samayama. It is a Raja yoga, a lifting up of instinctive energies into the heart chakra until we become mellow and humble. Then we can say in our heart, “I forgive” and by doing so release the burden of remembering everything we hate and everything we dislike, all of our resentments and all of our criticisms to those around us, especially our loved ones. Many people are closer to people they are working with in offices and hospitals than they are to their own family.
Forgiveness softens the heart, I’ve heard that. But, reverse that. Soften your heart, then we are able to forgive.
Well, I hope this meant something to somebody out there in cyberspace tuning in to our ashram.
We want to welcome Carole Kahn and the whole Kahn family online. We are very happy that you are tuning in to Kauai Aadheenam today. We will be back again tomorrow.
transcription ends
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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. | |
|
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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Blog Archives
With Bodhinatha traveling… this excerpt from yesterday’s transcript of Gurudeva’ answer to a cyberspace question is very relevant:
~~~~~~~
Oh, here’s a wonderful question! “Is it true that the Satguru must reincarnate over and over and over and over and over until all of his disciples reach the portals of liberation and are liberated?
Ours and all satgurus is a successorship. It is my duty to turn over all of my disciples, whether they have realized it or not, to my successor, and then to his successor and then to his successor. Because the guru doesn’t do it for you. You have got to do it for yourself. The Guru points the way. The Guru guides you. The Guru protects you. The Guru keeps you on the right path but he is not a magic pill. You have to live. You have to work. You have to encounter your karmas. If you’ve been a very bad boy, you have to learn to be a very good boy by learning how bad you were, correcting the matter through what we call penance or prayaschitta, and then get on with your life.
So, the system is that I have to be on a lower level plane, until my successor appoints a successor and finishes his tenure on Earth. Then he has to be on that lower level plane until his successor finishes his tenure on Earth and so forth like that. Therefore, it is an ever building, ever passing on of the information, ever passing on of the siddhis, ever passing on of the wonderful life of the Guru-disciple relationship. But nobody is going to do it for you, if that is what your thinking. You have to do it for yourself.
–Gurudeva
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Bodhinatha has been covered by garlands many times during his recent travels.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
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But we go back in time to the 13th, in Singapore… where Bodhinatha has just arrived from malaysia. Sivakumar Saravan writes:
Our beloved Satguru arrived in Singapore on 13 September 2004 at about 1 pm. As always, there was tremendous excitement in the air as everyone eagerly awaited Bodhinatha’s arrival. At the airport Bodhinatha is discussing some details of the day’s program
with Kulapathi Dohadeva. Kulapathi has been busy for the past few days making all the necessary arrangements. Here Mrs. Sakuntala and her nephew Selvan Sivakumaran spend a few minutes with
Bodhinatha.
After getting settled and a short rest at the hotel, in the evening Bodhinatha arrives at Kulapathi Dohadeva’s home which is our mission home. Kulamata Nagavathy and Mrs Bhani perform the arati for Bodhinatha.
The padapuja for our beloved Satguru commences with the abhishekam with pure water. The padapuja was performed by Sivakumar and assisted by Girish.
Abhishekam with sandal paste and arati. The Kularnava Tantra says “There is no mantram higher than that of His (Guru’s) feet, no merit higher than His worship”.
Bodhinatha goes into deep meditation as the padapuja progresses. The room is filled with a strong and peaceful vibration. During these moments of intense devotion we truly see Lord Sadasiva seated before us.
The final arati is performed to conclude the padapuja. Everyone in the room chants the Guru mantra with great fervor. The conch is blown loudly. The vibration in
the room was so strong….it is difficult to explain in words the feeling.
Bodhinatha gave a short wonderful talk sharing some nice stories about the Gurus of our parampara. We got to hear the original story behind Satguru Yogaswami’s
saying “There is one thing Lord Siva cannot do – He cannot separate Himself from us even for a moment.”
After the talk, Bodhinatha gave vibuthi blessings. Here is Himalayan Academy student, Bhani Karthegesu.
Here Girish is presenting Bodhinatha with a vase that he had crafted. Girish has been studying pottery for a while and the beautiful vase speaks of his excellent
craftsmanship. Well done Girish.
Gurudeva’s spiritual center in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
Meanwhile in Mauritius devotees were working hard to get the Saiva Dharmasala in top shape for Satguru’s arrival.
The Spiritual Park has now a new nicely made wooden sign board at the main gate. Visitors can visit the Park as from 7.00 am.
Preparations are going on for the forthcoming celebration of Ganesha Chaturthi at the Park on which H.H Bodhinatha Veylanswami will be present. A very large crowd, as in previous years is being expected on the 19th September. A big tent is being erected…
This Sunday a big karma yoga (selfless service to God) was organised at the Spiritual Park. many Siva thondars turned up. Early morning Kulapati Kulagen arrived with a few roses plants. Siven and Sivarathna Manick are helped him to load other flowering plants in his car. He is bringing them to the Muruga Mandapam down the property.
The Karma yogis at the Muruga Mandapam had the chance to meet Swami Chitsivananda from the Divine Life Society. The swami is from the Sri Santi Ashram, Hyderabad, India and said the spot at the Muruga Mandapam is wonderful for meditation.
New flowering plants are being planted around the Muruga Mandapam. Kulapati. Kulagan and little Sivarathna are busy with this task…
New tiles have now been laid on the floor of the Muruga Mandapam. The base at the large granite murthi is beautiful and cooling with the sea breeze constantly blowing over it.
Lord Arumuga looks splendid…
More karma yogis turned up at the Mandapam. Kulapati manon and Adi Sankara sets to work immediately… The summer sun overhead is hot!
Elsewhere on th property, near the second gate, Kul. Anba Valaytan, Ravind Doorgiat and Bhram. Vel are putting new coconut plants into the soil. They had to dig large holes for this.
Selvaraj Sanjeevee is polishing the brass letters on the main wooden signpost at the Spiritual Park entrance.
Here is Karthigeyan Manick. His main responsibility was to freshly repaint the main iron gate.
While our team of karma yogis were busy outside, a crew from the MBC, the national TV station were making a few video recordings inside the Mini Mela for a documentary on Ganesha Chaturthi.
The ladies are cleaning the dharmasala building, polishing brass puja items, washing and sweeping clean all the rooms.
Anjeenee Devi cleaning the steps…
Mrs Canagasaby and Mrs Sanjeevee polishing the homa kundam…
Then came the long anticipated day. It is 4.30 pm on the 15th and the plane coming from Singapore is about to land at the SSR International Airport. Today’s flight is a special one because there is on board an enlightened soul whom everyone is waiting ….
Bodhinatha is just arriving from the VIP lounge. When alighting from the car His Holiness is garlanded by Kulapaties Koothan and Valaytan…. Welcome to Mauritius Beloved Bodhinatha! Everyone then comes forward to offer flowers and welcome Bodhinatha and swami. The sishyas are so happy to be in the midst of their Guru…
Everyone is looking at his watch. Then someone said: “Bodhinatha is here!”
Everyone is also happy to see Sannyasin Saravananathaswami. Swami who has been regularly communicating with the island’s sishyas over the past is visiting Mauritius for the first time.
After having said a few words to the group, Bodhinatha gets into the car to go to Trou aux Biches in the northern coastal region. It is about an hour drive from the airport.
There is a feeling of contentment in the eyes of everyone as the car drives off. This first meeting with the Guru lasted a few minutes but was like an eternity to all those present. The children are happy too to have met Bodhinatha, but a little sad that the event is now over…
At the Aadheenam Today
Sadhaka Dandapani takes a moment to brush his helper’s fur coat… He’s off to Arizona tomorrow to be at the inauguration of the Ganesha temple there.
The Ganesha at the new temple in Arizona had been gifted by Gurudeva years ago and the devotees there feel very close to the Aadheenam. They extended and invitation to Bodhinatha, but since he was in Asia, Paramacharya Palaniswami is going in his stead to represent the Aadheenam. Here he is getting together some gifts for the temple.
Our Pilliyar Kulam building at the front of 107 Kaholalele Road is undergoing major renovation and the monks serving there have moved into the other kulam offices for a while.. .Here is Sadhaka Jivananandanatha in the Ekadanta Kulam…
Sadhaka packs us bags for Arizona.
An uplifting moment for the blind of the world from Aunti Damara Shanmugam:
These first 5 volumes are propped up on my mother’s player piano. The picture was taken by Uncle Sadhu at our annual meeting of the Board of Directors of The SHIVA Braille Foundation held on September 11, 2004, in my home.
I wanted to thank you and the other members of the HHE Trustees for your generous offer to help with the cost of producing The Master Course in Braille and perhaps another braille embosser. These enlightened lessons, which have made such a tremendous difference in our lives through print, are the only transcriptions of their kind available to the blind.
Aum Namasivaya!
Damara Shanmugan
The SHIVA Braille Foundation
No Audio Today
|
Take this opportunity for an adventure. Close your eyes and click to get a message picked at random from the vast audio archives of our Satgurus’ discourses |
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site! |
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS
 |
|
Study Gurudeva’s teachings.
|
transcription begins
Date: March221999
Title: ‘Time Out’ for Adults
Category: Relationships
Duration: 4 min., 31 seconds
Date Given: March 22, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam, March 22nd.
It is a very busy day. We had about twenty business people from the Kapaa business community group come to visit Kauai Aadheenam. They had a wonderful time. They saw everything that we are doing – ‘Hinduism Today’, publishing books, building a temple.
Also, it was ‘Guest Day’. We had a lot of other very beautiful guests come to sit in front of the sphatika lingam. 700 hundred pound, perfect, crystal Sivalingam.
We have a question about maya and we want to thank you for sending this question.
Maya, the grand illusion when in higher consciousness, is very real when in lower consciousness. In higher consciousness, there are no good and there are no bad things. In lower consciousness, we see good and we see bad. It is our choice, where we want to be. I think just in the middle is a good place, between lower consciousness and higher consciousness and see things for what they are when in everyday life.
This was a very good question and you went on to answer the question yourself and you gave a very nice answer for me, and we want to thank you very, very much.
When things get tough in a home, a religious separation is very good. It is called ‘time out’. If a husband and wife are fighting, a religious separation is very good. If children and parents are fighting among themselves, a separation for time to cool off is also very good. But these kinds of separations should not be looked at as punishment. They should be mutually agreed upon. A cooling off time, a time of reflection, of talking to oneself or talking to one’s best friend so the mind can adjust itself to the responsibilities of living in a home, performing the duties that we have to perform while living in the home, and being a good citizen on planet Earth.
Many families are breaking up because of misunderstandings and unresolved problems, and they separate for good. But, I am talking about a religious separation. Going off to an ashram, performing sadhana, taking a pilgrimage to a far off temple, worshiping there, and then returning. That is a religious pilgrimage.
Just to go away with no particular purpose, just to get out of the home or away from another individual, serves no real purpose. So religion plays a very important part in a person’s life because that is higher consciousness and everything else other than religion, is lower consciousness.
Well, here we are again in Cyberspace Ashram and tomorrow and the next day are retreat. We had a film group come from Honolulu today to make a film on Kauai Aadheenam, what we do, how we live here. They were attracted to us and this was their second visit from the University of Honolulu to get to know us better, I guess, and take us in digital cameras over to Honolulu so others can get to know us better.
Aum Namah Sivaya.
transcription ends
|
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. |
|
|
View the fabulous full-color PDF’s of the latest edition of Island Temple Magazine, and order copies if you don’t have one. | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: DANCING WITH SIVA — Pocketbook | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI’S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||
From Our Gurus' Teachings
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