Inniya Pongal Nal Valtugal! Happy Pongal Greetings to everyone!

Today early in the morning the silpis performed the traditional Pongal rites.

Today’s TAKA comes to you in two slides shows. One from this morning’s Pongal celebration and the second is another installment of our monks yatra documentary.

Today at lunch, the three pilgrims, Yoginathaswami, Sadhaka Jothinatha and Yogi Japendranatha each shared 10 minute tales of their journey.

The highlight of the pilgrimage was of course the Thiruvembavai Nataraja abhishekam in Chidambaram. With one voice they declared this the most powerful spiritual experience imaginable, something which every Saivite should definitely experience at least once in their lives. Yogi Japendranatha brings us more photos from the strip in the following slide show.

It is a quiet day a the Aadheenam. With our three monastic home from their pilgrimage in India and all the resident guest, task forcers and new premonastics the population is now up to 25!

Saravananathaswami shared news from his one-man Ekadanta Kulam today. He has been quite busy with the orientation and care of our new resident guests, Robin Jesse and today, Joe Chikkiar (more about him in the days to come). He has also been actively pursuing the logistics for the coming mini-innersearch retreat in California and handling the on-going arrangements of daily darshan meetings between Bodhinatha and pilgrims.

Light showers accompanied our little group to the Iraivan Temple site this morning. From left to right, Blaine Schafer from Kauai who plans to go on the 2008 Innersearch Pilgrimage to India, David and Mark from Sacramento, California, Subba Rao with his family, Kusuma, Rajesh Vijaya Lakshmi and the Raman family all from Wisconsin.

They were all “amazed” at the intricate and sacred designs hand-carved on the stones by the shilpis with such concentrated dedication. “Not even in India do you see such work as this anymore!” said Mr. Rao in obvious awe.

Yogi Japendranatha is offering us more photos of the monks’ India pilgrimage in slide show form below.

Bodhinatha sits quietly as the Sun One Homa began early this morning.

Today Bodhinatha continues with his talks on Shum.

Today he gave a deep mystical explanation of the 5th Dimension of consciousness.

He also described how we can identify that we are in the Fifth Dimension. One simple practical signpost is that you see the world as perfect and feel love for everyone. In the early stages on the path you may only be in this state for short periods of time, later you may hold that state for many hours at a time.

Our three pilgrims returned home yesterday from their yatra to South India. They were all looking well despite the long trip home.

Yogi Japendranatha

Our yatris with Bodhinatha..

The highlight of their trip was the Ardra Puja at Chidambaram. They described the incredible experience of the Nataraja Deity being taken out of the main sanctum, paraded around the inner prakarams of the temple and the village street outside the temple’s four walls and then brought back to the temple and placed in the thousand-pillared hall for abhishekam, which is something not done in any other temple. Usually the main Deity always remains in the sanctum and a second utsava murti, or “festival Deity,” is paraded outside.

In this case the actual central Deity from the inner sanctum is the utsava murti as well. This unusual event happens only twice a year and is a commemoration of the legendary day when, centuries ago, Lord Siva himself came and danced before the crowd of devotees. He granted a boon to two sages who said what they wanted was for him to stay with them. Siva is said to have granted the boon by manifesting the Nataraja murti of Chidambaram temple.

Yoginathaswami says it is one of the most incredible spiritual experiences you can imagine: “I won’t even try to explain it. It is beyond words. One amazing thing was that when we went back to the main sanctum of the temple while Nataraja was out in the parade, it felt completely empty, no vibration at all. But in the thousand-pillared hall where Nataraja was temporarily installed for the abhishekam, the vibration was beyond words.”

Yogi Japendranatha adds, “Sorry we don’t have any photos of this event. Photos are not allowed in the temple at Chidambaram at all. Amazingly, even during the parade out on the city streets, we saw not a single person with a camera. When someone on a second-floor balcony was taking photos of the passing chariot procession with her cell phone’s camera, someone noticed and, within seconds, dozens of devotees were pointing and yelling, sharply scolding her. Obviously chagrined, she retreated into the building. The whole city protects the temple and the Deity in this way.”

This is Robin Jessee from Reno Nevada who has only recently started studying the Master Course. He is twenty years old.

Because of his very clear intention to take up spiritual life he has come to the aadheenam for a six-month task force to find out about monastic life.

Robin says he has been studying about the inner path since he was 16 years old, having found some books on Buddhism and then Hinduism. At one point he felt he wanted to dedicate himself fully to spiritual pursuits, but that he didn’t think he could do it on his own and needed guidance. So he was about to continue his search by going to India, when he found Gurudeva’s teachings on the internet and decided to come here instead.

It was the last full day of pilgrimage for Sivagnanam and his son Sugumar from Edmonton.

Sivagnanam presented Bodhinatha a mala made of coral stones interspersed with gold beads.

It is meant to be added the temples sacred jewels collection, to be used as decoration on the Maha Sphatika Lingam.

It was wonderful to have Sivagnanam with us. He has been an “ally” in the religious work of protecting and preserving our Saiva culture, for over 25 years.

He is going home with a plan to get all of Saint Auvaiyar’s works to us.

Vagesh Dave with wife Vishala and son Shiv and daughter Pooja, from Dallas, Texas, originally from Gujarat. He has been reading Hinduism Today for a few years and finally had an opportunity to come here. Even though he learned a lot about Hinduism from his orthodox brahmin grandmother, he appreciates the in-depth quality of the Hinduism Today articles which taught him a lot more.

Yesterday we shared photos of the masterful wood inlay art recently installed in the Guru Peedam. Twenty-four works telling the stories of our Guru lineage.

Today we offer a short video telling more about the art. Check our video below.

Dora Kovacs recently traveled with her husband, Rudy Tanzi, to South India for the first time. Today she sent back a report which included this sweet story of an encounter she had.

“Our guide at Mamallapuram was quite spiritual. His name was A. Jayachandran. Mr. Jayachandran wore a big, flat, 12-faced rudraksha bead amongst many other rudraksha malas. After spending a couple of hours with him, I showed him a small picture of Gurudeva. To our surprise, in response he took the same picture out of his own wallet! Turns out, he met Gurudeva about 11 years ago. Gurudeva himself gave him that picture and also a little packet of prasadam from the Aadheenam, which he also showed us. Mr. Jayachandran said: “Money comes and goes, but these two will always stay in my wallet”. Apparently, meeting Gurudeva had sealed his purpose of becoming religious and giving up drinking. Now he leads a group on pilgrimage to a little shrine in Kerala, for two months every year. I’m attaching a photo of us showing Gurudeva’s pictures. Neat little story, isn’t it?”

Now we step back few days to pick up some photos and captions from Brahmacharini Shama Kumaran, who hosts many visitors coming to the monastery.

Gurudeva’s Shrine in the Kadavul Siva Temple beautifully decorated for the Jayanti Ceremony which was held on January 5th.

Maneesha and Aju Daswami are from New Jersey and are visiting the Aadheenam for the first time. Here they are posing with Pandi one of our great artisans at the Iraivan temple.

Kaewyn and Turiya, (right) who are visiting from Denver Colorado where they own a small metaphysical shop called “Herbs & Art,” and Maneesha and Aju Daswami all pose in the center of the Iraivan Temple complex.

Jayanth Kudra had just heard about the temple and made a whirlwind drive up to visit Kadavul temple before his plane left at 2 p.m.

Another view of Gurudeva’s Sacred Shrine.

A little news from Bodhinatha’s world. For decades before Gurudeva’s Mahasamadhi, Bodhinatha was the chief administrator for Saiva Siddhanta Church. After Gurudeva’s Maha Samadhi he began training the Pillaiyar Kulam, especially Yogi Jivanandanatha, to take over many of those administrative responsibilities.

We are happy to share with you that five years later he is now free enough to spend more and more time on the religious and spiritual teachings. Recently he has been able to get deep into the Shum Language so we thought to day to share a bit about Shum with you.

Here is Bodhinatha in the Guru Peedam, and today we will take you for a little tour of the Guru Peedam wall images and Shum Murals.

On the West wall of we have arranged some incredible wood inlays of stories of the Guru Parampara.

Hanging, on the north wall, left and right of the peedam are two large murals with the Shum portraits for the dimensions and the chakras. This one is the seven dimensions.

On the right: the seven chakras

This is “aarehooshum” the first dimension, the inside of things you cannot see or touch.

“seeawvumne” the second dimension of things you can see and touch.

“Rehooneshum” the 3rd dimension of odic magnetic forces between people and people and people and their things.

“Simvumkame” The 4th dimension, mountain top, overview consciousness that surveys the 3 dimensions below while being in touch with the higher dimensions.

“lingingdashummm” the 5th dimension, where things are present in all phases of their manifestation; past, present and future.

“ingmamlemne” the 6th dimension where forms exist as inner light, sound and colors.

“Eelemingshum” the 7th dimension of pure awareness; endless inner space.

Awkalesimbe: the first chakra of memory and self-preservation.

Rehnamtyavum: the second chakra of reason.

Be vum be ka: the third chakra of will power.

Rehmtyanale: the 4th chakra of direct cognition, the heart chakra.

Kalingkasim: the 5th chakra of divine, all pervading love.

Tyamavumna: the sixth chakra of Divine Sight, the Ajna chakra.

kamakadeeesareh: the 7th Chakra, the crown chakra.
Shum provides a road map of the inner mind allowing the seasoned meditator who has mastered the basics of mind control, to freely travel and explore the inner worlds. It is akin to the “laya” yoga systems where yogis would explore inner realms using various symbols. And if you read some of the ancient writings of Gorakshanatha you see he describes visualization that are almost exactly the same as areas of consciousness that Gurudeva has detailed in shum.
You can find out more about the inner mind by reading “Merging with Siva.”
And we bring you a slide show from the 2nd and 3rd dimensions of our Golden Gate mission where our Kulamatas sew up the work outfits for the monks. Of course their hands are in the 2nd and 3 dimensions, but their hearts and minds are in the 4th and 5 dimensions from where the spirit of karma yoga arises.

Bodhinatha watches a small hula group who came to perform for him today…

Palaniswami shares stories first to the group.

Next the performance. Brief video excerpts below.

Meanwhile the rain on the mountain is making the Wailua river fill up.

A brief explanation from one of the hula leaders

We want to thank Ahilan Arulanandan for his help these past few days. It was a short 5 day task force, but rewarding for everyone. He’s on his way back home to Berkeley tomorrow, where he will continue his university studies.

Ahilan has been helping with the publications team in the morning and the Siddhidata Kulam in the afternoon.

This is Mark Amaru Pinkham, one of the North American Commanders of the International Order of Gnostic Templars who are dedicated to the Revival of Gnostic Wisdom. Visit their web site at http://www.GnosticTemplars.org He lives in Sedona. (Sorry about the focus….)

Mark is enthused by what he sees in the work of the monastery as so much of the Hindu tradition is in alignment with the western Gnostic tradition. He talks with Paramacharya Palaniswami about possible collaboration.

Long time devotee Sivagnanam (left) from Edmonton is here with his son Sugumar (right). Sivagnanam has been working closely with the monastic order since the early 1980’s, and was instrumental in seeing the Ganesha temple come into manifestation in Edmonton. And also we have with us long time Hinduism Today subscribers, Mr. and Mrs. Arjan Daswani who live in New Jersey.

Next we bring you an all important event of this New Year. The entry of a new monk into our midst. After many years of study, overcoming so many obstacles with strength of dedication, Satya Subramaniam took his formal Sadhaka Vows during our last retreat. Our slide show below has the story.

This is Bodhinatha with a pilgrim who was here last week. Lakshmi Kanthareddy.

We step back to yesterday, which was another busy tour day…

On a special visit to the Hindu temple, here are the 3rd grade children from the Kula School with their teacher “Ben.” The Kula school is located on the North Shore on the Island of Kauai.

After attending the 6 a.m. Jayanti ceremony in memory of Gurudeva, Divyaprabha Patel and the entire Raval family were taken on a tour of the Iraivan Temple. This was their “happiest and most spiritually fulfilling day” of their visit to Kauai.

Puna Kalama Dawson, a wonderful local Hawaiian lady, arrived with her family, including a new baby grandson, “Meha” and many of her friends from the Mainland and Japan.

Puna, showing off the new baby, with her son, his wife and child.

This is Kamil Bigda, young man from Poland who is interested in monastic life.

Kamil says he’s been reading and studying about Hinduism, yoga and meditation from his early teens when in Poland, he discovered the Sanatana Dharma on the internet and told us this morning: “I never stopped searching and reading since then.”

His family moved to Chicago and Kamil continued his study and discovered Gurudeva’s teachings on the internet. He was so enthralled that he moved to Hawaii and got a job in Honolulu with an airline, just to be near the temple.

Kamil has come to Hawaii with his mother’s blessings and he’s quite serious about spiritual life. We invited him over for a whirlwind introduction to monastic life on this Saturday-Sunday weekend off from work.

We bring you a lovely slide show of the South and West side of Kauai. Captions of this monastic outing on our three-day retreat are written by Teja, Scott Falzone.

We share a few more photos of Pancha Ganapati celebrations in Mauritius held on December 23. The youth are busy blowing up balloons for decorations.

This is Hariharan, the youngest child of the Appavoo family. The Appavoos are regular supporters of the Spiritual Park and all their children are attending the Saturday Saivite Hindu Religion Class at the Park.

Time for certificates of completion of the SHR series. Brahmachari Vel offering one to Dayananda.

Moorghen Caremben a devotee is invited to offer another…

Mr. Samoo Pillay is happy to come forward to offer the certificate to Bijamati

Yudananda Munian…. to Iraivan

Roshan Nathoo and Ariadassy

And now the Pancha Ganapati gifts are handed out to all …Anandi offers one to Jambalini

Mrs. Priya, one of our festival sponsors, to Giradevi.

Kulamata Amooda to Sivarathna

Kenina , one of our Master Course students….

Mr. Jagapa to Padmini

Selvaraj Sanjeevee to Rudrapriya

Everyone enjoyed a nice lunch in the shade near the bridge

Mr. Samoo Pillay and his two sons

The Jagapa family from Amiti & eacute;……

Mr. Jegadissa Chenganna, a close friend of the Spiritual Park.

Bodhinatha has recently been putting in many, many hours of work on the Shum language, picking up where Gurudeva left off years ago, to make that this powerful legacy of inner teachings are codified and brought into use again as Gurudeva intended. Gurudeva made many major changes and decisions for the language during his last years, and now it is Bodhinatha’s task to take all those instructions and bring the language forward.

At the Sun One Homa we had Gurudeva’s stone padukas as the presiding deity.

In remembrance of our beloved Gurudeva, Paramacharya Palaniswami prepared this slide show of a wonderful birthday party we had for Gurudeva for his 72nd birthday.

Today Bodhinatha read an introduction to the Shum language as his Sun One discourse on this Gurudeva Jayanthi day.

Our new Sadhaka Satyanatha who entered the monastic order officially on Ardra Puja day on the retreat (more about that tomorrow) received his earrings at the homa this morning.

A close up of the earring of the Sadhaka…

Sadhaka Satyanatha is our current visitor tour guide and today’s tour was documented by our resident guest Ahilan Arulanandan who followed the tour with camera from beginning to end and later wrote the captions. See the slideshow that follows.

~~~~~~~~~~~
END OF PHASE
Today is the last day of our short 4-day phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain posted
over our coming three-day retreat,
until Dvitya Tithi, Sun One, Friday, January 5th.

The Ganapati Kulam gave their news today… it was a long list of projects they are working on! Hinduism Today articles for the next issue, various web and media initatives and working on books.

All of the visitors today were Tamil speaking – to the delight of the Shilpis.

Deskin and Radhika with their two children, Shriya age 16 and Shriman, age 9 from Michigan. All originally from Chennai, S. India. Desikan felt that visiting this sacred place was “a great spiritual start to 2007.”

On the far left is Varathaledchumy Shanmuganathan and her daughter Priyatharshini from Toronto, Canada; originally from Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

And here is a slide show of the first day of 2007.

Varathaledchum and her daughter Priyatharshini between St. Tirumular and St. Tiruvalluvar. Mrs. Shanmuganantha felt very moved by her experience here today. She was previously here in 2000 when the temple-building had not really begun.
And another slide show from Anna Purna Gardens, (our vegetable garden) below:

Linda Smart

This young man, Joe Chikiar , has been coming to the temple daily for a few days, reading Gurudeva’s books. He has a strong interest in spiritual life and is searching direction.