Blog Archives
“All Hindus without exception believe in reincarnation. In each birth we must fulfill more goals leading to the one ultimate goal which after many births well lived will loom before us as the only goal worthy of striving for in this lifetime. All other desires, all other aims and ambitions pale under the brilliance of even the thought of realization of Satchidananda and Parasiva. “
–Gurudeva
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Bodhinatha in Toronto….
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
|||||
A family from Los Angeles came today. Here they are at the Swayambu Lingam on the San Marga path.
Children doing vasana daha tantra in the Orchid Mandapam.
More Pictures From Canada Mission
Bodhinatha’s traveling shrine he keeps in the hotel room. A picture of Gurudeva and offerings from the devotees.
Hotel room conference. Local leaders and teachers come to talk to Bodhinatha and discuss issues.
One for TAKA…
Guru Puja…
Youth performers…
And senior Ammas…
And Mom’s, Dad’s and little ones.
In longtime devotee, originally from Mauritius, now living in Montreal, Rohini Shanmugam brings a friend to meet Bodhinatha. Rohini does a lot of Sivathondu in Canada.
Festival of India, California
Himalayan Academy Publications Booth
An incredibly huge attendance for the Festival of India, California. An estimate 50,000 or more came during the day. Our members stationed at the Himalayan Academy Publications booth were busy all day long.
Here Kulamata Gayatri Rajan shows a visitor some of our books and Hinduism Today and various “Jnana Dana” pieces of literature.
Everyone is given the opportunity to receive some free literature…. Our booth was well received..all day long. It was a very successful “outreach” event.
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: October301998
Title: Teenagers, Tough Love
Category: Drugs
Duration:8 min., 37 seconds
Date Given: October301998
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam. It is October 30, Sun 2 by our Vedic calendar. It is beautiful here on the Garden Island of Kauai. The five Talaivars or co-ordinators of our five schools all meet to co-ordinate their activities. There is one for publication, one for garden and grounds maintenance. Another is for cooking and temple, fundraising for the Iraivan Temple, the other for finance, buying and selling, and another for managing Saiva Siddhanta Church, the international congregation of extended families.
The beautiful ‘Island Temple’ brochure arrived, It is absolutely beautiful and it is going out to thousands and thousands of people around the world. We are sending two mathavasi monks to California. Sadhaka Thondunatha and Yogi Tapodana are going to raise money to build the foundation for Iraivan Temple. It is very important that the foundation go up this next year. So they are going on a fund-raising mission. They will be meeting devotees who have been supporters of the Temple for many years. Let us get the job done. Why wait?
I have here, from a concerned parent, a question. “My husband and I both work. We have two teenaged youth. Gurudeva, what happens when young people in their teens start taking drugs?”
Well, you must come from a generation that should be knowing these things. It is a good way for them to ruin their lives.
First of all, where do the children get the money to buy drugs? They don’t have jobs. Drugs cost a lot, more than their allowance. So, they can do one of two things. Steal from their parents or someone else, or deal drugs to pay for them.
This is very, very dangerous and you should be very, very careful as a concerned mother and father to watch what is in their closet that you did not buy for them and have them buy for themselves.
Now, a teenager dealing drugs is obviously very very dangerous. Young people don’t appreciate how dangerous. They might think, that they are just selling to their friends, saving on money by buying in bulk, just like you do in stores. But, you should sit down and explain to them, what might happen if one of their friends get caught by the police. Will he stand by his friendship with you or will he turn state evidence? He will get off a life sentence by turning in your child, your young adult, as his pusher. How much punishment will he take just to save you? He is not thinking of friends, not when it comes to something like this. If your children are not thinking this way, guide them. Children basically don’t think. Parents are supposed to think for teenagers and guide them. That is your job.
Shall I go on just a little bit? I think that I might.
Dealing drugs makes money for children. I have personally heard that young people dealing drugs make half as much as their parents do in honest jobs. In Los Angeles, a twelve-year old can earn $100 by doing just one drug drop for a pusher. Somebody told me that and I don’t doubt it. He can also get shot by a rival pusher. That has happened.
Yes, your boys can make a lot of money and can spend ten years in jail for it, too. Of course, that is free room and board, if you think of that. It is very difficult when the mothers work and the fathers work. There is nobody home. The home is like a hotel or even worse. Watch your kids. If they are in the realm of dealing, they are on the wrong side of the law. They always have to watch their back, worry about the police, worry about rival pushers, worry about getting caught.
Well, you have a lot to talk about. Your children to your husband, your husband to wife and, husband and wife to the children. Make it real in their minds, a good high school diploma and graduating with better grades. Like on this island, children have two choices. They can either make good grades and graduate from Kauai Community College, KCC or they can go into the lower world and land up in Kauai Community Correction Center, KCCC, the County Jail. We don’t want that. It is for the mother and father to protect them from themselves.
I don’t know if you can convince them of this or not, at this age when hormones are bouncing around in their bodies. But, drugs are specially dangerous for growing young adults, youth just coming into puberty, experiencing all sorts of major body changes. Science has only begun to understand the impact. It is believed that drugs, and these are the illegal ones, have a serious permanent impact on the natural growth process, especially on the development of the brain, from all sorts of chemicals and also the emotions.
I have personally seen these young people on drugs from eight, ten, twelve years of age and they are just not normal. They haven’t developed physically, mentally or emotionally into normal people. Don’t risk it. Give your time, your spare time if you work. If you are a mom and go to work, try to adjust your budget so you don’t really have to work. You don’t want your teenagers to spend the rest of their life paying for it and you spend the rest of your life remembering that maybe, you could have made a difference in their lives.
Well, this is a tough talk. It is tough love. Not everybody talks like this but not everybody loves like this. Take care of the next generation and they will take care of you as you become older. They will love you more because you loved them then.
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
We have some pictures from Sri Lanka below today… one of them of the remarkable sage that Gurudeva speaks of here:
“There is a Saivite hermit, the venerable Markanduswami, living in a humble mud hut in Sri Lanka. He is very old, and was for many years a disciple of Jnanaguru Yogaswami. In fact, his every utterance is a quote from his guru. One afternoon at his hut he described Yogaswami’s approach to dealing with thought during meditation. He said, “Yogaswami said, ‘Realize Self by self. You want to read this book, that book and all these books. The Book of Infinite Knowledge is here (pointing to his chest). You’d better open your own book.’ The prescription he gave me to open that book is this: ‘When you are in meditation, you watch the mind. Here and there the mind is hopping. One, two, three, a hundred. In a few seconds the mind goes to a hundred places. Let him be. You also watch very carefully. Here and there this mind is running. Don’t forget Self for a second. Let him go anywhere, but if he goes to a hundred places, you must follow him to a hundred places. You must not miss even a single one. Follow him and note, He is going here. Now he is going there.’ You must not miss even a single one. That is the prescription Satguru Yogaswami gave me to open this inner book. He said, ‘Watch very attentively and learn to pick up things coming from within. Those messages are very valuable. You can’t value them. Realize Self by self and open this inner book. Why don’t you open your own book? Why don’t you make use of it? Why don’t you open your own book? What an easy path I am prescribing for you!’ “
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Bodhinatha in Montreal at the Kandasamy temple, which still seems to be under construction…
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
|||||
Mr & Mrs Narayana Rao were here again today continuing their week long pilgrimage/engineering conference. Today they toured the grounds and Iraivan Temple after attending the 9am Siva puja.
Mr. Rao who is attending an engineering conference on the island invited another gentleman and his wife who were also at the conference to come visit the monastery. Here they are in front of Dakshinamurthi.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
in Montreal
Bodhinatha arrived home this afternoon after a comfortable flight from California… we bring the last of the photos from his journey.. this time from Montreal…
He wrote yesterday from Canada:
Naga LingesvaraM
An aside. At the first two temples we visited, the Siva murthi was in the form of Nagalingesvara, a Siva Lingam with a multi headed cobra over it. It struck me that this is what will be in Iraivan which is an interesting form of Siva to meditate upon the significance.
Montreal Murugan Temple
it was a Nallur festival regular night with small palanquin going around the temple with Muruga utsava murthi, at the end of the evening.
A few hundred people attending, more than I expected. Talk went well, a few youth gave excellent speeches in Tamil and English. Happy we were there in Montreal, Gurudeva only went there in 1991.
They have Tamil and Saivism classes for about 150 children each Sunday, so another potential group to use our material.
Saiva Siddhanta Church
Sri Lanka Mission
We take you now to our beloved land of Paramagurus–Sri Lanka, from where we have received photos which we scanned to share with you.
Sivayogaswamigal’s Ashram is now named as Yogaswamigal
Samadhi Temple which is managed/administrated by Sivathondan Nilayam, Jaffna.
His Holiness Chellathurai Swamigal, 92 years of age, still performing “Sivathondu” with spiritual power, for the last 48 years. Administrating Sivathondan Nilayam, Jaffna and Chengaladdy (east of Sri Lanka). Mr. Sivagnanam (80), a long standing devotee of Sivayogaswamigal helps Chellathuraiswamigal in Sivathondu
Chellappaswamigal’s temple shrine
Chellappaswamigal’s temple shrine with devotees (family-in-charge) for the temple. Living opposite to the entrance of the temple. Mr & Mrs. S. Kanagasabapathy of Nallur, Jaffna
Sivayogaswamigal’s Columbuturai Ashram, the original area of the small hut. The white tiled area, where the flowers are on top of, is the place where swami use to sit and also sleep on a wooden plank for many years.
After the mahasamadhi of Sivayogaswamigal, the body was cremated and some of the holy ash from the cremation area was taken and placed underneath of the shrine at the Columbuthurai ashram.
Sivayogaswamigal’s statue was cast in Tamil Nadu, India, with
the idea given by his Holiness Chellathuraiswamigal. It is now placed at the “Purana Mandapam” at Sivathondan Nilayam, Jaffna.
In the later stage of life Sivayogaswamigal resided at Sivathondan Nilayam, Jaffna, for few days and gave some spiritual vibration to Sivathondan Nilayam. This is the bed he used at Sivathondan Nilayam. An oil lamp is lit continuously day and night in the room from the day of his mahasamadhi to date.
Tiruvadi shrine of the meditation hall of Sivathondan Nilayam. The pair of tiruvadi was carved and fixed with silver fifty years ago as per cherishable memory of T. Sivayogapathy
Nallur temple chariot area, in Tamil “Therraddi”. Chellappaswami spent his golden days of his lifetime and also gave his first blessings to Sivayogaswamigal here.
Nallur Kanthan Temple – Jaffna, Sri Lanka
The wheel chair used by Sivayogaswamigal during the later stage of his life.
A picture of another sage of Lanka and disciple of Siva Yogaswami: Markanduswami, who followed the strict discipline of never uttering a word of his own. He only quoted what his Guru Sivayogaswami said.
Back in Hawaii:
A couple of our island friends, Sherwin and Theresa, came for a visit this morning to see the progress on Iraivan Temple.
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: September021998
Title: Live as Pure Souls
Category: Soul
Duration: 4 min., 25 seconds
Date Given: September021998
Given By: Gurudeva
September 2, everyone, here on this beautiful Garden Island of Kauai, home of our island temple.
As I mentioned yesterday, Swami Pragyanand Maharaj arrived today. All the younger Mathavasis washed his feet, as he entered the Kadavul Hindu Temple. He worshipped, was seated and gave a beautiful talk, on ‘The Power of Faith’. He commended them for being mathavasis in our Aadheenam, which is the South Indian word for ashram. He told them how fortunate they were. This inspired each and every one. Then, ‘Hinduism Today’ created a home page for Sri Sri Sri Swamiji and this home page is on the internet. If you look at hindu.org and then go to spiritual leaders, you will find Swami Pragyanand Maharaj and click there, you will see him. This is really wonderful.
Well, yesterday, we talked about liking everyone equally, because God is in everyone equally. Looking out through cyberspace, we have nearly 200 of you, and it is building, growing everyday. We have a counter on Today at Kauai Aadheenam. I found that 30 or 40 of you actually took that seriously and are benefitting. Looking out through cyberspace on the astral plane, seeing your soul and seeing you respond to treating everyone alike, having no likes and dislikes, being affectionately detached, with a lot of love in your heart, accepting everyone as they are, not wanting or trying to change them, not asking unanswerable questions such as, “Why didn’t he say that to me? Why did he say that to me? What is he thinking?”
Are you a mind-reader? Why are you asking, “What is he thinking?” Let him think and say, let her think and say, what they think and say. Pay no attention. Be bigger than all that because your soul is greater than all that. Don’t get down into the mish-mash of the lower consciousness where the rest of the world is at this time of the Kali Yuga. Be a New Age leader. Be higher than the masses. Your soul is higher than the masses, who don’t know that they are a divine soul, that they are living in a physical body. They think they are their intellectual mind. They put down others in order to rise up. You are greater than that and I notice that a lot of you have taken this advice and put it into action in your own life. Congratulations! Congratulations! Congratulations! I am proud of you.
Soon we will have 300, as they call it, hits on the Internet and then four and then five and it is an ever-growing situation. We will keep you in touch with ‘Today at Kauai Aadheenam’. Live in the Ashram with us as a pure soul, untouched, untarnished by anything. Shining light, that is who you are!
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
This is a strong theme on Bodhinatha’s current trip to Canada. Gurudeva wrote:
“The youth must be taught that Saivism is not only the oldest religion in the world, but a vibrant and dynamic religion in this technological age. They must come to know its wisdom is for the farmer as well as for the computer programmer, for our ancestors and for our descendants. Saivism is the Eternal Path, the Sanatana Dharma. The youth working in science, working in space exploration, working in electronics, working in business, working closely with members of different religions, will encounter many challenges. They must be carefully taught how to remain within the bounds of their religion and their beliefs without being dissuaded, without accepting ridicule from those who have yet to comprehend Saivism. We must teach the Saivite youth who are now growing up around the world about the Hindu festivals and holy days, making these auspicious days vibrant and alive in their memories. We must explain to them the meanings behind every observance so they are not just following blindly.”
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Giving out vibhuti in one of the temples in Toronto.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
|||||
At the Aadheenam today: Sarojini Rao (seated right) and talks with Shakti Mahadevan in Kadavul
temple. Both are here on Kauai on pilgrimage. Sarojini arrived yesterday
with her husband Narayana and has been spending all her time in the temple
doing as much karma yoga as possible. Narayana said yesterday: “When in
India you go to Kasi, when in America you go to Kauai”.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami
In Toronto
Parade at the Ganesha temple….
Bodhinatha received in traditions style at the Thiruvadi Niliyam…
[Note our captions are from “news reports” from Bodhinatha and do not necessarily match photos.]
Sivayogar Padasalai
Bodhinatha writes:
They have over 100 children in their program, learning Natchintanai, Tamil, Saiva Siddhanta. Maybe half were there during our visit. The gentlemen who introduced us gave the story of Gurudeva’s first meeting with Yogaswami as part of his introduction. He met me in 1972-74 in Jaffna. They enjoyed the Yogaswami story I told on God not being able to separate himself from you. The Padasalai is certainly doing good work.
Thiruvadi Nillayam
Excellent singing of Natchintanai and Saivite bhajans, long guru puja to me, talk and translation. Certainly a sincere group.
Canada Kanthaswamy Temple
This was the chariot festival day with some two to three thousand in attendance. Quite a spectacle with Kavadi, large chariots, multiple nathaswarams and tavils and all. They had me stand on the mound next to the Temple to be seen, so a few thousand heard the short, five minute message, while Satkunendran passed out literature to many of the crowd. Example of the thirty year cycle of experiencing everything in North America that was experienced in Sri Lanka thirty years ago.
Tamil Caregiver Project
Met with ten who are being trained through a course to become Tamil Hindu-Saivite Spiritual Workers. They will visit elderly in long term care and palliative treatment programs. I gave them a triology and shared some of Gurudeva’s wisdom on working with the terminally ill from the sutras (five of them). They are in training, so didn’t have a lot of questions.
World Outreach Mission
Heritage of India Festival
Washington, D.C.
Our monastery and its publications were represented here in Maryland, just outside of Washington, DC several weeks back at the Heritage of India festival. That is our booth on the right, “Free Hindu Literature.” It is still morning and things are just about to pick up.
“We were visited by several hundred families, interestingly enough, almost all young couples,” reported Dr. Nigel Siva, on the right here. He organized our participation in this festival along with help from Vayudeva Varadan, left.
A team of some 12 volunteers helped manage the booth and answer people’s questions over the two days of the festival. Thanks to their efforts, many appreciative families received helpful material on Hinduism and learned of countless other resources available via various media, including our website.
Dr. Nigel is a mathematician, but also a mystic and an artist, he and his team set up a pleasant and welcoming booth and an attractive table, with lots of Vastu principles, paper weights with semiprecious stones, flowers, a lighted oil lamp and several images of Ganesha. Feels wonderful just looking at the photo.
Mrs. Inpah Siva, Dr. Nigel’s inspired spouse and tireless helper, is seen here ready to go from early morning. “It is inspiring to help people in this way,” she said, “and so many thanked us for making this knowledge available.”
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! |
|
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, August 16th, 2004, is a very special day. Consider the following:
- It is the beginning of the Jivana Ritau on our Aadheenam Calendar.
- It’s is also a special day on the regular Indian Calendar.
- On this day in 1987, the Maha Spatika Lingam was installed in Kadavul Hindu temple on the occasion of “Harmonic Convergence.”
- August 16th, 1998 was the first day of this TAKA series which the monks have been posting now regularly for six years!
It was one of Gurudeva’s gifts to outline the change of seasons as a structure for sadhana and religious life. As is traditional on TAKA we take bring you excerpts from the Saiva Dharma Shastras for the Jivana Ritau.
112 Introduction
Beginning with Hindu New Year in mid-April, three seasons of the year divide our activities into three great needs of humankind�the learning of scripture in the first season, Nartana Ritau; the living of culture in the second season, Jivana Ritau; and the meditating on Siva in the third season, Moksha Ritau. Thus we are constantly reminded that our life is Siva’s life and our path to Him is through study, sadhana and realization. In ritau one, we teach the philosophy; in ritau two, we teach the culture; and in ritau three, we teach meditation.
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
We have photos also from Toronto without captions, though we have some notes from Sannyasin Yoginathaswami which you can read below… as we write today, Bodhinatha has finished his last day in Canada, in Montreal.
“Aum Sivaya, we arrived safely in Montreal. Tiru Nataraja and two other devotees came to pick us up (including one Nigerian man named Roland …) One of the ammas here brought full blown Lanka rice and curry lunch for five. One of the best lunches we had in recent times. Will be meeting devotees in the hotel lobby in couple hours and then head out to the Murugan temple with Tiru. Aum Sivaya.”
Sannyasin Yoginathaswami
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
|||||
It was Sun One following Sadhu Paksha and we had a wonderful Home and Jivana Ritau flag raising. We will share with you the significance of the Jivana Ritau as our captions for photos today…
117 The Second Season: Jivana Ritau
During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December, Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture is the primary text. The key word of this season is work. The colors are rust, copper-maroon and all shades of red�rust for earthy preservation, copper-maroon for fulfillment and red for physical energy.
The Aadheenam’s 60-foot flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags. This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life’s elder advisor stage.
The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past. Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world.
Practicality is a word much used this season. In the monasteries and the missions, there is a big push on studying the sutras of Living with Siva and these Saiva Dharma Shastras. The format of the mission satsanga changes into one that in fact helps everyone live and breathe with Lord Siva through personal adjustment to the aphorisms of Living with Siva, which define tradition, culture and protocol.
Gurukulams are established or renewed to teach the 64 kalas for boys and girls.
All work hard to perfect and strengthen Saivite culture in the life of each member. Kulamatas, grihinis and their daughters should think ahead and make plans to send talented children to dancing, singing and art schools for special courses, and ponder ways to make this possible through scholarships and special funds.
It is a time of building and repairing and caring for what has been built, planted or created in any realm of life. It is a physical time, of exercise and exertion in the Bhuloka, a magnetic time for action and willpower, of finishing all jobs started since the first ritau.
On the farm, there is harvesting of the land’s fruits as we celebrate abundance. In the missions during Jivana Ritau, the shishyas can form tirukuttams, and thereby visit students’ homes, see how they live and meet their families.
119 Festivals, Realms of the Second Season
Krittika Dipa is the major festival of Jivana Ritau. This grand event, conducted by the family missions, is open to members, Academy students and to special guests by invitation, including honored dignitaries of the island, neighbors and friends of the Church.
Ganesha Chaturthi and Skanda Shashthi are also conducted by shishyas on the Island.
The Aadheenam Realms of this period are: 1) San Marga, the straight path to God, with its rudraksha, neem, konrai and bilva forests, and Agni Mandapam. 2) The Wailua River, with its Nani Kaua Waterfall and Pond, Bali Hai Falls and Ganga Sadhana Ghats. 3) Pihanakalani Trail�legendary Hawaiian path toward the volcano, beginning at the Aadheenam and continuing past the Orchid Pavilion of Religions to the Teak Tree Turnaround at the edge of Rainbow Amphitheater.
–Saiva Dharma Shastras
The flag raising is always a joyous, uplifting moment for us all.
Pilgrims from Illinois. They are spending a week here on a pilgrimage. The recently received a shipment of two Ganesha’s, sent by Bodhinatha, but magically, it turned out to be three!
Chidambaram Sendan is here from California… He’s a bright and growing lad.
Bodhinatha in Toronto
Day One in Toronto Swami’s visit was real Shakti.
It was Lord Amman Thirvala at the Varasiththi Vinayagaar and it was as if Lord Siva from Iraivan was here. So much energy. So blessed to be with our great Saivite Swami’s
–Siva Markandu
Bodhinatha wrote the other day:
Nagapooshani Amman Temple
We attended the 10 Am Friday pooja. Kandasamy Kurukkal, who came to Kauai and conducted the first stone ceremony for Iraivan, runs the temple.
About 150 devotees in attendance who came forward afterwards for vibhuti. He was assisted by a young priest who chanted for us at Pillaiyarpati Pathasala for the Innersearch. The young priest also gave an introduction in Tamil for us which was well done. He said he is a nephew of Sambamurthi.
TVI TV Interview
The interview was taped, a half-hour long with translation, and went well. It will air in a week or two and there is a good chance we can get a copy to play at the Aadheenam.
Varasithi Vinayagar Temple
The evening was the first day of a special evening chariot festival for Nagapooshani Amman and Nagalingesvara (Siva lingam). There was a Ganesha Puja, a few introductory speeches, the chariot going around, inside with three each nathaswaram and tavil, and then my talk at 9:30. The group was over 300 and quite attentive. The temple had printed the talk in English and Tamil and handed it out to the devotees to take home. We distributed lots of literature and vibhuti!
Bodhinatha’s report from August 15th activities:
Vishnu Mandir
This is a successful temple under the guidance of Dr. Dubay. He is running it in the Caribbean style where he is the pundit/minister. Officially, we were coming to see the progress on the temple’s Hindu museum, which is opening in October. However, we arrived a bit early so attended the end of their puja, gave a ten-minute talk which was recorded as part of their weekly TV program on teaching Hinduism to your children in the home. The talk was quite well received by a large crowd. Their talks are in English so everyone understood what was being said. The Mayor was there also as it was India Independence Day and we both raised a flag, we the Canadian and he the Indian (fulfilling our flag raising day a few days early). Dr. Dubay suggested next time we are in Toronto to give a half day seminar at the temple with questions and answers, etc.
Sivathondan Society
They had a larger group than expected, quite elaborate program of talks, songs by children, singing by the “best” Devaram singer of Natchitanai, Ponsundaralingam, guru puja for Yogaswami on Aslesha and my talk with translation and a long vibhuti line for Yoginathaswami and I to give vibhuti, fruits and our CD for Iraivan fundraising. They also have a children’s school called Saiva Thamil School for teaching Tamil, Natchitanai and Saivism. Some interest in the ten questions which were mentioned in my talk Mr. Nalliah who use to have a home across the street from Pasupateesvara Temple in Alaveddy was there with one daughter. He was quite happy to see us again.
Richmond Hill Temple
This was primarily the Yogaswami devotees that work with Ma Navaratnam’s nieces, plus some others who were attending the temple pujas. Excellent Natchintanai singing by the children that they are teaching. It was a day for “relative” reality. We met a man to whom Kandiah Chettiar is his great uncle, all four nieces and their mother of Ma Navaratnam, Sundari Katir’s niece and family etc. The temple has Ganesha in the middle , Siva Parvati shrines on the left and Durga and on the right the Vaishnava Shrines, so my talk on the four denominations was well suited.
Dharmalingam Siddhan flew up from Pennsylvania to Toronto with his mother. He wrote that they had a wonderful philosophical discussion and felt very blessed to have a Satguru with whom to discuss the deeper issues of life.
Satsang in Mauritius
at the home of the Mardemootoo Kutumbha
Some of the ladies of the Mardemootoo Kutumbha…
Brahmachari Vel Mahalingam performs the pada puja…
Some of our youth and children.
An excellent photo of the new Mandapam for Six-Faced Murugan at our Saiva Dharmasala in Mauritius. It is nearly complete.
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! |
|
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
Sadhu Paksha Day Eleven (last day)
“Dreams have been a mystery and a puzzle to people of all ages throughout time. The wonderment of dreams has been apparent in history, philosophy and now even in science. This leads us to assume that the dream state is not unlike the waking state, for especially in this technological age of communication, we live more in our mind than in our physical body. Millions are computer-literate and deal in concepts far beyond the normal state anyone would have found himself in one hundred years ago. The mind never sleeps–only the physical body experiences this indulgence–and the physical brain perceives and records what passes through the mind, but the astral brain perceives and records & oh-so-much more! Therefore, keeping this in mind, there is a continuity of consciousness twenty-four hours a day, but not all of it is perceived or recorded by the physical brain, either through the day or through the night. This is why it is difficult to remember all the details of one’s life and experience, even as short a time as forty-eight hours ago. It is only the important things, those which make the strongest impression within the physical brain’s memory patterns, that are remembered.” –Gurudeva
~~~~~~~~
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 Prathama Tithi, Sun One, Monday, August 16th
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Yoginathaswami writes of yesterday’s events in Toronto:
~~~~~~~~
“Aum sivaya, we went to Nagaposhani Amman temple this morning and greeted by priests, Sambamurti’s nephew and several others and one young priest that just arrived from Pillaiyarpatti who chanted for Bodhinatha during Innersearch. He also knows our future priest. Nice event and about 150 people attended.
“Then we went to TVI Tamil Canadian TV where Bodhinatha addressed the Tamil community (about 250K) here and translated by the local elder. It was a very good talk, excellent translation with a very good ( and long) introduction of Bodhinatha, that he is Gurudeva’s successor, his work such as openings of several Hindu temples in US, Innersearch, our publications HT, HA books and Bodhinatha’s help for local Kauai community to fight drug etc. Even few of the TV station crew gathered outside listening to the talk as it happened. It is mid-day break time here right now, we will heading out to the Varasiddhi Vinayagar Temple in couple hours.”
–Sannyasin Yoginathaswami
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
Gurudeva’s spiritual center in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
It’s another quiet Sadhu Paksha day at the Aadheenam… so we take you to the beautiful Republic of Mauritius…
~~~~~~~~
The Ganesha Homa is not only the busy activity going on at the Spiritual Park. On Saturdays classes in music and religion are organized for children there. Here is a group of children following the Saivite Hindu Religion class doing Hatha Yoga under the supervision of kulamata Premila Manick.
The Spiritual Park main private office building looks beautiful tucked away high in the trees.
Here in Mauritius we do not have to make great efforts to get a banyan tree, ficus indicus, so sacred to God Siva. The birds, hovering like devas, bring them to you. Here is one growing on its own on the lava rocks wall separating the office buildings and the Ganesha Mandapam. We see a few more of these plants further ahead.
Some new visitors just going through the main entrance. Most of them are Hindus from South Africa.
We had a large group of some 108 young people from the Curepipe Sai Centre Balvikas (youth group) accompanied by their teachers and parents who came for a one day seminar on their own at the Park. Sangeeta Bobeechurn, one of the leaders of the group said that the Park was chosen for their seminar because of its beauty and spiritual atmosphere.
Now back to our ongoing Muruga Pavilion construction project. Works are almost finished now. We are sending the photos just when the Mandapam was freshly painted.
The Muruga Pavilion looks very beautiful with its orange painted roof and white pillars…
Now our karma yogis are doing their best to make the Muruga murthi look beautiful. They are applying oil on the black granite murthi
Brahmachari Vel Mahalingum from Mahebourg comes to the park on almost every Saturday to take care of the murthis.
Lord Muruga now looks beautiful inside His new Pavilion.
Muruga murthi close up
Everyone has helped to make the murthi beautiful on that day…even the little son of Yudananda did a fantastic job!
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! |
|
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
One of Gurudeva’s favorite activities: signing books for those who have purchased them. It meant that the teachings were going out to one more home. He wrote about this foundational aspect of his mission:
“I was asked recently what to do about all the things that you cannot avoid listening to and seeing on the TV and news and reading about–atrocities, crime, murders, poverty, unfairness–which may tend to disturb one’s sadhana. To perform good sadhana, we have to have a good philosophical foundation, which is found in Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva–The Master Course trilogy. A good philosophical foundation allows us to understand why we have the highest and the lowest human expressions here on planet Earth. Philosophers and mystics have for centuries said, “Only on planet Earth in a physical body can you realize the Self, because only here, in this world, do you have all twenty-one chakras functioning.” You need the lowest in order to realize the highest. Some people are born peaceful because of merits attained in past lives. They are born helpful, and they are the uplifters of mankind. Others are born angry, scheming, conniving, resentful, and they are the doubters, the detractors, of mankind. But all have an equal place here on planet Earth. All are going through a similar evolution up the spinal column to the top of the head, through the door of Brahman and finally out.”
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Sadhu Paksha Day Ten.
All is quiet at home… as we write these captions, Bodhinatha is settling into this accommodations in Toronto. He and Yoginathaswami had a one night stop over in San Francisco, which means a good night’s rest before the mission begins of intensive activities for a week of days in a row.
He will be in Toronto until the 16th and then fly to Montreal for activities there on the 17th. See his travel page for details and timings of events.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha is now visiting Toronto and Montreal. His next travel is September 8-23: Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
We take you now to our own Kauai, Wailua Saiva Siddhanta Church Mission where the sishya are working hard on their next fund raising goal: to make 100 Rudraksha Malas. The sales of these beautiful malas go to the Iraivan Building Fund. One Hundred malas at $60.00 each will be $6,000.00 for the temple!
Saiva Siddhanta Church
Wailua Mission
It’s the All Wailua Mission Monday Family Home Evening at the home of Kulapati Durvasa and Kulamata Isani Alahan…Tonight the focus is the Rudraksha Iraivan Fund Raising Project. Here the ladies are do the final work of stringing and finishing the malas…
Kulamata Amala Seyon and Sitara Alahan…
The mission is getting a little extra help from the Mahadevan Family who are here on Kauai on pilgrimage to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary in the spiritual atmosphere of Kadavul Temple… Dasan Mahadevan here…
And his shakti, Shakti Mahadevan…
Matriarch of the household, Kulamata Isani Alahan.
Eldest daughter, Nisha Alahan..
Kulapati Durvasa Alahan in the back with the other men…
Brahmachari Rajadeva Alahan.
Tandu Sivanathan…
The men are drilling and then stringing the beads on wires…
These racks are then pressure washed to remove all traces of the fruit fibers and yield and exquisitely finish rudraksha.
Kauai Master Course student Gale Mariah Martin joins the team this evening.
A joyful evening doing Sivathondu (karma yoga) in the company of like-minded devotees… such precious hours are rare in this life and a treasure…
Sitara Alahan very concentrated.
A tray of finished tassles, ready to be attached to “Guru” bead on each mala.
A strong nylon thread is used to string the beads.
After tying of the final bead, a candle is used to melt and bond the final knot.
The young ladies of the Alahan family were fortunate to spend several years in India. Sitara and Priya Alahan play the veena.
Our veena player does a finished mala fashion show 😉
Priya Alahan…
Sitara…
These beautiful hand made rudraksha malas available from our web site… Order now and help Iraivan!
The finished work for the evening, offered before the Lord Ganesha…
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! |
|
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
Sadhu Paksha Day Nine: Its ashram sadhana day for this month and the monks are all out cleaning and work on special projects.
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Yoginathaswami left for Toronto and Montreal this morning.
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next visit is August 11 – 17: Toronto and Montreal, Canada. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
Departing from the monastery….
Its time for the mandatory “Show me your passport and tickets” checkup… Sannyasin Muruganathaswami, who makes all the travel arrangements, books the air tickets, communicates with the travel agencies etc. reviews their tickets before the team leaves.
At home the big renovation project of redoing the roof of the Aadheenam is underway. Tile removal, removing termite damaged beams and rafters… installation of new treated supports…
Actually this is being done by a professional roofing company, but our team here is getting some lumber delivered for the job.
The rains continue on top of Mount Waialeale… our zoom lens give us a close up of the incredible cascading waterfalls that drain off from the swamps at the top of the mountain range.
Capstone Installation Photos
Today we bring you our final segment of photos from the installation of the Shika (capstone) on top of Iraivan. Sadhaka Dandapani and Tim Dela Vega brave the heights as Larry Conklin sends them up, up and up!
Tim Dela Vega took this marvelous shot.
Directly in front on the north side of the temple.
Magnificent.
The silpis grouting the joints with special epoxy mortar.
Going up and closer…top awaits final spire shaped stone on the Kumbha Abhishekam inauguration day, which is still a few years away.
Now, turn around for an aerial show of Dakshinamurthi.
Ok, as far up as the crane will take us…
One more.
A close up of the stone…
Yoginathaswami and Larry chat about the successful morning, while the photographers work up high.
Back down on the ground, Tim takes a picture of Sadhaka Dandapani and Shanmugam Sthapati. Sadhaka says he’s not really so enamoured with height, but by the look in his eyes, that must have been exciting to be up there hanging in space….
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! |
|
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
Become acquainted with the awareness, that one beautiful, pure element of the soul, your superconscious body, which is easily found and easily discovered by simply closing your eyes and opening them and saying “I’m aware,” not necessarily of what you are aware of. Close your eyes. Say, “I am aware.” Awareness is closely identified to the realms of sight–hearing, of course, too, but more predominantly sight. As awareness expands and as awareness contracts, we find that we have power over awareness. It merely becomes a tool. The underlying power of awareness is the blissful state of the spiritual body of man, pure consciousness, the central source of all energies in its blissful, calm state. Meditate on awareness being like a lotus flower.
Close your eyes and visualize a river flowing into the sea, and see yourself holding on to the bank of the river, and the river flowing on past you. Now, let go of the bank of the river and flow down with the river and merge into the sea of life. Feel yourself, right at this instant, living in the here and now. Holding onto the river bank, we hold the consciousness of time and space. Holding on to the banks of the river of life is to recreate within you fear, worry, doubt, anxiety and nervousness. Detach yourself from the banks of the river and again be free. Love the banks as you pass, with a love born of understanding, and if you have no understanding of the bank, study your attachments until you do.
–Gurudeva
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Sadhu Paksha Day Nine
Bodhinatha leaves for Toronto and Montreal tomorrow with Sannyasin Yoginathaswami…
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next visit is August 11 – 17: Toronto and Montreal, Canada. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
The Ekadanta Kulam gave their report today. Saravananathaswami and Sadhaka Dandapani are quite focused on the advanced arrangements for Bodhinatha’s coming missions to Canada, then just a few weeks later to
Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius and then in the fall to California. Here he reviews the schedule with Yoginathaswami.
Waialeale Mount looks incredible today. The night rains and clouds have pulled back…
Showing us the face of the volcano draining the mountain.
 The Remarkable Vision |
Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
Join this historic undertaking. Please contribute generously. Sponsor a stone today! |
| Gorgeous Gift Cards — Proceeds to Iraivan | ||
Other TAKA pages with recent Iraivan images.
 |
||
The first jalakam is complete, with all the pieces in place from the floor level to the ceiling level of the gopuram.
It’s one of many of Iraivan’s remarkable pieces.
Looking forward to the coming construction is what Shanmugam Sthapati is always thinking about. Here he has begun drawing out positions for the next set of pillars to be placed.
The ancient technology used for this process is extremely accurate.
Modern day engineers have come to the temple and looked at the pillars that have been raised so far and are amazed that the silpis could do all this without modern instruments.
More Shikha Stone Installation Images
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! |
|
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
These guidelines established by Gurudeva in his Nandinatha sutras are so applicable today’s photos:
“Siva’s devotees know that for eons our religion has come forward to recreate a Hindu unity. Therefore, they are dedicated to building whenever necessary, and keeping strong always, an invincible Hindu solidarity. Aum.”
“Siva’s monastics honor and support the good causes of Hindu lay ministers, priests and pandits of all lineages to create a dynamic solidarity in diversity to carry Sanatana Dharma to each succeeding generation. Aum.”
~~~~~~~~
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 Tritiya Tithi, Sun One, Monday, August 2nd
Which will be the start of Sadhu Paksha
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Three more photos from Houston. Here is Bodhinatha on the last day, afternoon. With Pandit Sharma (right) his wife Asha (far left ) and Asha Chaku, their friend and long time reader of Gurudeva’s books.
Yogi Japendranatha writes:
“We had a pleasant meeting in the lobby with Pundit Rajendra Sharma, his wife and their friend Asha Chaku, all three of whom have visited Kauai Aadheenam together a number of times. They are such sweet people. They brought some snacks, and we had a nice chat. Asha asked Bodhinatha for some personal advice, Punditji’s wife told stories about her very successful Mystic Mouse classes, and Punditji and Bodhinatha discussed ways to better teach children, get children involved and make sure they get hooked in to their religion. Punditji gives lectures in colleges using Gurudeva’s books, mostly Dancing with Siva, as well as incorporating some Hinduism Today material.”
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next visit is August 11 – 17: Toronto, Canada. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
“Like Vijay Pallod, Pundit Sharma is also very excited about increasing Hinduism Today subscriptions amongst the large Hindu population in Texas. The Mystic Mouse classes that Punditji’s wife holds sound impressive. In a six-week course, she has the children read and discuss the book and tell the story in their own words. They do vasana daha tantra together, which she says is making a huge difference for the kids. Some of them, in college now, report to her that they still do it, and they have even taught the practice to their parents.”
Bodhinatha then went to visit Vijay Pallod and saw the class room where the Hindu Student’s Council hold classes. One of Vijay’s friend’s greeting Bodhinatha by given him a tilak at the little classroom.
~~~~~~~~~~~
We don’t have photos for this part as we ran them already yesterday… but here is more story from yogi on the last day morning’s events at the BAPS temple:
“We had a great day yesterday. We had arranged to meet some of the swamis for more interviews and conversations, so they sent our driver, Vatsal Shah, to pick us up at about 9:30. Everything was calming down from the grand intensity at the Swaminarayan Mandir, being the day after the main event. There were still lots of people around, as the festival doesn’t officially end until August 2 when Swamishree leaves for a carbon copy of this festival which will be happening in Chicago, opening their new regional center and same style traditional limestone and marble temple there. Amazing they can do two of these just a week apart. No other group we know of could make that happen.
Our first meeting was with Jnanpurush Swami, our gracious monastic host who looked after us so well and made sure that we were always attended to and taken care of in all the right ways throughout our visit. We interviewed him for Hinduism Today, which went well. Topics included BAPS plans for the future in the US, youth, the upcoming BAPS centennial, the importance of Gurudeva’s instruction to them when he visited their Indian centers in 1995. This was about the fourth time one of their swamis told us the “Obey your guru…” story about Gurudeva and how important that is to them, this time, eyes wide open, adding “Three times! He said it three times!”
After that, he brought us over to Pramukh Swami’s residence, where we sat for another conversation with Dr. Swami. He asked Bodhinatha some trenchant questions, seeking his advice, as well as seeking to do some teaching in our direction. He told the “Obey your guru…” story, too, and also said “Three times!” with a big, bright smile on his face. Other topics with Dr. Swami included asking Bodhinatha for feedback on the event and just for their organization in general, western management principles that they take into account when planning events, a story about Swami Chinmayananda, asking if there is any advice Bodhinatha has so they go deeper in their sadhana (to which Bodhinatha responded with praise for their example of having temples with qualified teachers, their sadhus, resident in them), happiness and joy, what to keep in mind when speaking and teaching in the USA, external and internal approach to teaching.
Suddenly, the door opened and amidst a flurry of Gujurati with many occurrences of the word “Bapa” (one of their affectionate terms for Pramukh Swami), Dr. Swami did namaskaram and we were quickly whisked out the door, down the hall and into Pramukh Swami’s room. He has a beautiful room with a very thick carpet, beautifully carved guru chair, etc. The vibration was noticeably different in here, very, very high and sublime. The swamis presented Bodhinatha with a chair directly facing Swamishree, just a couple of feet away, and I sat on the floor next to him. Jnanpurush Swami translated as Pramukh Swami greeted us and told us how happy he was that we came to the festival. He speaks quietly and with a very even tone, but even without knowing the language one can gather that his words are very precisely chosen. Jnanpurush Swami prompted me to ask the questions I had prepared from Swamishree. We got through three out of the four before Bodhinatha indicated we should curtail the interview. It had gone on a while and he didn’t want us to tire Swamishree out. Swamishree then proceeded to ask Bodhinatha some questions about our monastery, such as how many sadhus we have, what our daily routine is, if visitors can come and stay at the monastery and if not, how do we arrange accomodations for them, etc. Jnanpurush Swami later pointed out that the fact that Swamishree was so interested in how things work at our monastery was unusual and really impressed him.
Bodhinatha then presented Swamishree with a Know Thy Self, a new Aum CD and a Dancing with Siva pocketbook, which Swamishree was very happy to receive. He asked his assistants to tell him exactly what they were, which was nice. Swamishree then gave instructions for some gifts to be presented to us, and moments later a nice orange bag full of prasadam (which we are bringing home), brochures, pictures of Swamishree and the temple, japa beads, etc. was presented to each of us. Shortly after that Jnanpurush Swami appeared with a sealed envelope of dakshina for each of us. The sadhus never touch money, so the cash had been prepared by the householder men, these worldly tasks for which there are always several men available nearby.
We said our thank-yous and good-byes, and we were on our way. Quite honestly, Bodhinatha and I both got a little spaced out in Swamishree’s very divine presence. When we left, it was as if we were floating in the clouds.
Out into the hot Texan sun we went, in an electric EZ-GO people mover, over to the Sabha Mandap (the giant main tent) to meet with Akshaymuni Swami. Akshaymuni Swami is their chief engineer and temple architect, and we had asked to speak with him to compare notes about temple building. He was joined by a grihastha man of their congregation who is clearly a knowledgeable engineer and quite involved in this temple project, possibly others of theirs as well. Our first topic was shipping, and they offered to help us ship the Iraivan stones to Hawaii, through some contacts they have. Numerous other topics were discussed, from fly-ash raft foundations to lightning rods, and we have all the details on that. They were pretty surprised that our temple building is progressing so slowly. They built this temple in Houston in about two years, from the shipping of the first raw stones from Turkey and Italy to carving sites in India, to the completion of jointing and opening of the temple here in Houston. They have 1500-2000 silpis at 16 sites throughout India carving the stones for their temples, and 68 jointing silpis here in Houston. The pledged total support, and they really want to help in any way they can. They said, “Our gurus have a common vision, and we are building these temples together. Let us help.”
Back at the Aadheenam, today was the last day of this phase and the tour day for this week… a small group of about 25 today…
Prenuptial ceremonies for the wedding of Sivaram and Devika in Penang Malaysia continued… Such a rich cultural tradition makes a wedding in American look very drab!
Applying chandana on a wooden stick which willbe installed outside Sivaram’s home invoking Lord Ganesha’s blessings and protection. This is called as Kalyana Muhurtha Kaal ceremony.
Sivaram breaks a coconut before the wooden stick to begin puja.
Next comes the Nalunggu rituals held at Sivaram’s home. This is a time when all the relatives of the bride and groom bless and honor them both.
Sivaram’s aunt applies sesame oil on his head.
Devika’s aunt doing the cleansing ceremony for her.
The Nallungu ceremonies continued on into a second day.
Sivaram’s aunt applies kumkumam on his forehead.
Everyone has been applying chandana on Sivaram. Kulapathi Sivajnani Nagappan makes sure no bear spots are left anywhere.
Devika’s mother applies chandana on her cheeks and arms.
Sivaram’s aunt applying kumkumam for Devika.
Devika, during the ceremony.
Sivaram and Devika after the nalunggu, still wearing plenty of chandana.
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! |
|
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
Sun Three….
“To be awake on the inside means waking up early in the morning. You woke up early this morning. That may have been difficult. But you got the body up, you got the emotions up, you got the mind up, and your instinctive mind did not want to do all that. Did it? No! Spiritual life is a twenty-four-hour-a-day vigil, as all my close devotees are realizing who have taken the vrata of 365 Nandinatha Sutras. It means going to bed at night early so you can get up in the morning early. It means studying the teachings before you go to bed so that you can go into the inner planes in absolute control. It means in the morning reading from my trilogy, Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva, to prepare yourself to face the day, to be a strong person and move the forces of the world.” — Gurudeva
Don’t Miss the Show! Join Us for the
Gala Cultural Iraivan Temple Benefit
Click for more Info…
Bodhinatha arrived home this afternoon with Yogi Japendranatha after a wonderful trip to Texas. We have another great photo series and report from Yogi…
TRAVEL NEWS! Bodhinatha’s next visit is July 23-27 to Houston, Texas. See travel page for more information.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||
Click for most recent TAKA page with an Iraivan Temple progress update. |
||||
Bodhinatha with Dr. Mehta, concretologist who designed the concrete for the foundation of Iraivan and then he applied that same technology to the foundation for this temple in Houston.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Yogi Japendrenatha’s report from Day Three in Houston]
It’s hot here in big sky country. Temperatures have been about 100� during the day, mid-high 80s at night, although it’s overcast tonight, we got a little lightning and rain, and it’s cooled down to the mid 70s. Also, it really is “big sky country.” Wide open spaces everywhere, vast open spaces even between the buildings! Huge housing communities, which are kind of packed together, but then there are these giant cleared areas with roads that seem to be set up to become industrial parks. There are usually a couple buildings, really far apart, with most of the space open for leasing, and giant fields with land for sale signs on them. The highways are giant too, and it looks like they run far below capacity. Everything is just big, really big, Texas big.
On stage during the diksha ceremony.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
We had a wonderful day at the Swaminarayan Mandir in Houston today. The morning began a little earlier than usual, at around 8:00, with the sadhu diksha ceremony in the giant event tent (did I say this tent is huge? must be something like 100 x 250 feet). A bit of background first on their dikshas: They first go to Sarangpur for one year, equivalent to our premonastic program, to live and experience sadhu life before making a firm decision to become a sadhu. During this time they are called Sadhakas. If they decide it is right for them, they take Parshadi Diksha, where they are given the white robes and hat, and they begin 3 or 4 years of training at Sarangpur in preparation for sannyas. During this time at Sarangpur, they are watched carefully by the senior swamis, and if all feel that sadhu life is truly for them, then they take Bhagavati Diksha, receive their sadhu name and don the orange robes as full-fledged sannyasins.
Our Satguru in a joyful mood during the monastic ceremonies…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
Five sadhus took Parshadi Diksha (white) and one sadhu took Bhagavati Diksha (orange) today in Houston. The ceremony is interesting. Each sadhu, accompanied by his father, went up on stage, already dressed in his new dhoti but bare-chested. Two senior swamis, Dr. Swami and the senior swami in charge of the Sarangpur training center, shared the duty of putting the shawl and hat on each new sadhu, and then one by one, accompanied by dad, they went up to Pramukh Swami for blessings. The father officially handed off his son to his second guru, Pramukh Swami gave his blessings in several ways such as touching him on the head, then looked him in the eye and spoke with him for a minute, apparently giving specific directions. The father then touched his son-now-sadhu’s feet, stood together with him and Pramukh Swami for a photo, and turned around and left the stage. The emotion of the parents was noticeable and touching. Some may not know that the Swaminarayan Sanstha is very strict in that, after diksha, sadhus never again have any contact with their family. They are not even allowed to acknowledge them should eyes fall on each other by happenstance.
The audio-visual and lighting setup here was nothing short of a rock concert setup.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
This was clearly a very big day for the BAPS congregation, sadhus and grihasthas alike. After the diksha ceremony in front of thousands of devotees and all the other sadhus present here in Houston, we sat for a while up front in front of the stage as most of the sadhus went off and prepared for the temple’s murti pratishtha ceremony.
One of the temple shrines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
The murti pratishtha ceremony began, and we, along with most of the devotees, were watching it on the big screens. We think only the sponsors were able to fit in the temple itself. It’s not a very big temple, maybe the size of Iraivan plus a little more width. After a while one of the sadhus walked up and asked Bodhinatha if he’d like to go to the temple and participate in the ceremony. Yes, of course, and we were on our way. Going out of the AC tent into the Texan mid-day height-of-the-summer felt just like being in India. We were escorted as VIPs to the temple, entering from the back, and up right in front of the shrines. Bodhinatha was seated on a comfortable chair right in front of the right-most shrine. I was on the floor next to him amongst many sadhus, cameramen and some very hot lights. It’s amazing being around these swamis, because they interact with me just like I’m one of them. With Bodhinatha it’s a little different; they show him great respect and treat him like the great guru that he is.
Bodhinatha give his speech which is going live to 160 nations!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
Pundits were chanting the puja chants while an elaborate little tabletop shrine was setup in front of the central shrine (doors were closed). Pramukh Swami arrived with great pageantry beneath colorful festival umbrellas amongst an entourage of his sadhus, and the beautiful wooden shrine doors were opened so he could have the first darshan of the newly installed Deities. After that, he got settled in his elaborately carved chair and performed puja for the little Harikrishna Deity, which seems to be something he does to begin most ceremonies. He then gave a talk, then the naivedyam offering, then the arati. Bodhinatha was given an arati tray to perform arati for the Deity he was positioned in front of, and Pramukh Swami did the arati for the Swaminarayan Deities, other swamis such as Dr. Swami and another senior swami performing arati for the other Deities. It was a remarkable ceremony, beautiful.
Bodhinatha greeting Swamishree following his speech.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
As Pramukh Swami made his way out after the puja was finished, he walked by and paid his respects to Bodhinatha. It is quite clear to us that he is really happy Bodhinatha is here.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay greeting Swamishree after his speech. They actually hung out there and talked for a few minutes, with Atmaswarupswami translating.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
Not making our exit soon enough, we found ourselves quickly surrounded by devotees in one of those shoulder-to-shoulder mob scenes thought only possible in India. At first we just went with it, and we ended up in front of the main Swaminarayan shrine, where we noticed a powerful darshan and paid our respects accordingly. It was evident that we needed to begin pushing, as others were, so we squeezed our way through slowly and popped out of the crowd at the edge of the temple, where we ran into Dr. Mehta, who was delighted to see us at his new masterpiece of concrete engineering (he did their foundation with fly ash sans rebar, just like ours, which was the first). Soon after walking down from the temple to the ground level, we were met by some grihastha men who took us back to the main tent.
Beautiful, energetic dance on stage by a group of boys.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
A wonderful collection of talks were given, most in Gujurati or Hindi, as were most of the talks and announcements during this festival. Sadhu Atmaswarup Swami from the London center was the only sadhu who spoke in English. His English is very good. The head County Judge of North Bend Country was introduced, and gave a very nice talk with much admiration of BAPS for the temple and how he sees it influencing Texas and America. Next, to our delightful surprise, was House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (who hails from this part of Texas), who gave a fantastic talk beginning with “Jai Swaminarayan!” He began by speaking of religious freedom in America, and how that promise was extended to BAPS without restraint, and how when a religion lays down its roots here, it is a great day for all Americans. He made some absolutely amazing comments in praise and support of BAPS, something I know I wasn’t expecting. It was truly inspiring to see such an important congressional leader saying such things about our religion, our spiritual brothers, our American Hindu population.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
Bodhinatha was invited to give a talk, which was one of the most clear presentation and most audible of them all. Everyone listened carefully and absorbed his message, which was all about the Swaminarayan group. All the events today were being live webcast and telecast on TV to 160 countries, in the US on the channel called TV Asia, and in India on Ashta, the major religious TV channel there. Hopefully somebody will send us a tape. We’ll ask the swamis tomorrow also…
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay with Jnanpurushswami and the kumbha.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
All in all, at the official end of the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Mahotsav, we can say that we have had a very wonderful time at a great festival inaugurating a truly awesome temple, a major architectural masterpiece that is really a statement of Hinduism to not only the greater Houston community but also to the entire American community, much in the same way that the BAPS temple in Neasden was a great statement of Hinduism’s greatness to the UK.
A representative from the Indian government, who also spoke, Tom DeLay, Swamishree, and the head County Judge.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[report continued…]
Tomorrow, in a more post-festival relaxed mood, we are going to meet again with Dr. Swami, who has requested some more discussion time with us, as well as some of the other swamis for interviews about various topics for the Hinduism Today article we are doing, including one or two of the just-initiated sadhus. We hear that we may also get a chance to sit with Pramukh Swami Maharaj for a few questions. We’re really looking forward to that.
(End of today’s report… more tomorrow…)
Center, a couple of representatives from NASA Mission Control in Houston, who accompanied DeLay.
One of our new sadhus, left, with the swami in charge of the Sarangpur training center and Bodhinatha.
The looks magnificent from a distance… still some landscaping to do.
Out-of-town devotees having lunch in a tent specifically set up to serve them.
The satellite uplink truck. Which completes our series of photos from Houston. Stay turned to your copy of Hinduism Today, as a future issue will do an in-depth feature article on the growth of the Swami Narayan Fellowship in North America.
Back at home at the Aadheenam this morning:
Chaluvadi & Vasudha Sridhar from Cleveland were our guests today.
It was their 3rd visit to the Aadheenam and they were amazed by the progress on Iraivan Temple. They said the last time they were here work was being done on the sanctum only.
Saiva Siddhanta Church
Malaysia Mission
We continue now with the wedding ceremonies of the new union between Sivaram Eswaran and Devika Ajaya.
Today’s photos are from the Engagement Ceremony on June 27, 2004 at the Nattukottai Chettiar Thandayuthabani Temple, Penang.
Devika arrives at the temple with her parents and the bride’s maid
Procession of offering trays for the bride
Engagement rituals between the family of both sides.
Devika seeking Lord Ganesha’s blessings
Devika on the way to change into her engagement clothes
The Ganesha pooja continues with Sivaram
Devika returns after changing
Engagement rituals continue with both the families
Exchange trays
Sivaram gives Devika her engagement ring
Devika gives Sivaram his engagement ring
Sivaram and Devika thanking all for attending the engagement ceremony
The engagement ceremonies are complete. We share these word of wisdom from Gurudeva for the new couple to be:
“If both husband and wife are on the spiritual path, the householder family will progress beautifully and deeply. Their love for one another and their offspring maintains family harmony. However, the nature of their sadhana and unfoldment of the spirit is different from that of the sannyasin. The family unit itself is an odic-force structure. It is a magnetic-force structure, a material structure, for they are involved in the objects and relationships of the world. It is the family’s effort to be “in the world but not of it” that gives the impetus for insight and the awakening of the soul. The struggle to maintain the responsibilities of the home and children while simultaneously observing the contemplative way, in itself, provides strength and balance, and slowly matures innate wisdom through the years.” –Gurudeva
Engagement rings with Sanskrit initials of “De” for Sivaram and “Si” for Devika
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! |
|
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
Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.
