We began a new phase today… six days of meditation and service…

All is well at the Aadheenam, quiet, work going on many fronts.

Chitra Nakshatra fell today, so Pada Puja for Gurudeva pre-empted the usual Sun One Homa…

Meditating during the puja…

The pictures tell the story, so we will take the opportunity to share come of Siva Yogaswami’s incomparable wisdom:

” We are the servitors of Siva.
No harm will befall us, if without forgetting we meditate on
the holy mantram that we have neither beginning nor end,
neither birth or death, neither day nor night, neither happiness nor sorrow.”

“What you contemplate, that you become. Persistent spiritual effort is necessary. Do not become discouraged. Those who fail to toil will not reap any reward. No pains, no gains is a familiar saying in the world. Persevere until you succeed.”

“Why do you constantly ponder on unworthy pursuits? Banish these futile intents and worship God with a full heart. Accept joyfully and carry out whatever is dispensed to you. In the end everything will lead you to success.”

“Perform cheerfully whatever work and duties are assigned to you, and be convinced that everything that happens is for the best. It is so. You may even ignore these things altogether. Both courses are acceptable.”

“Your liberation does not depend on action or inaction. Do not desire to be free of action. Do not become attached to action. Devote yourself to that which naturally befalls you, whether it involves action or inaction.”

” Greater than life itself is good conduct. Those who conduct themselves with rectitude possess everything that is worthwhile. Non-killing, non-stealing, non-vituperation, non-covetessness, truthfulness and humility–these are useful assets for virtuous living.”

“In whatever pursuits you are engaged, you should train yourself to work with zeal, keenness and delight. Such a discipline will lead you to acquire steadfastness of the mind. It is then that the mind develops the power of one pointedness, which in turn will lead you to enjoy an abundance of anma-sakti. Thenceforth everything will be bright, and you will not be disturbed by the agitations caused by seeing the difference in objects, as friends and foes, light and darkness.”

Paramacharya performs the daily Siva puja in the morning during the phase…. at the end.. the traditional offerings at the balipeedam…

Popular Music aficionados may know about the famed Crosby, Stills and Nash band… much beloved for their high-minded music and “mission” oriented initiatives to support positive causes through the years. Well, what has that got to do with TAKA? Graham Nash lives on Kauai and he and his wife decided to build a home they found in Bali.. that’s right. A complete Balinese house, created in Bali and dismantled and stored away was brought to Kauai. Graham had a team of Balinese craftsmen come to Kauai to assemble the home. Here they are meeting with Paramacharya Palaniswami after the morning puja in the temple.

Graham’s wife Susan Nash brought them all to the temple today as they have completed their work and will be returning soon to Bali…

Early in September, the Sacramento Hindu Svayamsevak Sangh invited Kulapati Easan Katir to talk to the Youth Group at a weekend picnic.

Easan distributes a copy of the educational pamphlet from Bodhinatha “Raising Good Hindu Children” to each family.

Questions and Answers

Bodhinatha with our guests today in the Guru Peedam.

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 Dvitiya Tithi, Sun One, Tuesday, Oct 4th.

This is Kanagasundaram from the UK. He is originally from Jaffna and met Yogaswami when he was a teenager.

Kanagasundaram with his wife.

This couple is from Anaheim, California… it is their first visit…

This is retired Sergeant Major Chaturbhuj Gidwani, a long time reader and supporter of Hinduism Today. He has just finished a 5-year post at the US military base in Okinawa, Japan, where he was hired back on as a civilian because of his expertise in mechanical engineering.

He has been an advocate for providing Hindu religious services in the armed forces. His goal is to have a official Hindu Chaplain as part of the Chaplain Corps. In 1973 he joined the chapel services for Christian soldiers, the only religious service available, but sat meditating in the back during the sermon. His determination over several decades brought awareness of the existence of Hindus in the armed forces. In Okinawa, he was offered the option to serve as a lay minister, leading chapel services for Hindu, and ministering to their needs. He’s advocating that a young Hindu with the right training join the armed services as a chaplain, an officer post. There are more than one thousand Hindus in the US armed services, mostly doctors and engineers.

Natarajnathaswami assists Bodhinatha by preparing print outs of shum meditations…

Here he is presenting some recent work to Bodhinatha for review. These meditation maps are used by the monks and initiated sishya in their daily meditations.

Being the last day of the phase… we had our usual tour guests… we will end here and let the pictures tell their own story…

Aum Namasivaya

Rudy and Dora Tanzi came back today to have darshan with Bodhinatha. They asked may insightful questions and engage Bodhinatha for a full hour.

Upon departure. Rudy said: “I don’t think I have ever met anyone who answer my questions with such clarity.”

As mentioned in a previous TAKA, Rudy and Dora are professors of neurology at Harvard Medical School

He and his wife are vegetarians and specialize in Alzheimer’s research and other brain diseases. The staff of Hinduism Today has been talking with them about a possible article on the relationship between mad-cow disease, meat-eating and Senile Dementia, which has many forms, only one of which is Alzheimers.

Alzheimer’s is different than Mad-cow disease, but cases of the latter in humans may be mis-diagnosed as Alzheimers. Rudi says there are many complicating factors.

It is hard to pin down a definitive causal chain. But best not to take chances… don’t eat meat!

A quiet day at the Aadheenam. Everyone focused on their Sivathondu and Sivadhyanam… We take this opportunity to bring you a second set of photo from Sri Lanka…

The Tsunami affected on the coast line. It’s business as usual for those establishments away from the ocean.

Here is Siva Markandu from Toronto, his wife Vasanti, father-in-law Ganesh lingam and two sons, Vignesh and Kumaran at Nallur temple in Jaffna.

Despite the difficult times, the magnificent temple of Lord Murugan is in great condition.

and beautifully maintained.

Here we are in Alaveddy, at Gurudeva’s first mission: Alaveddy Ashram…

Bullet holes in the walls…

The stage in the back of the Ashram…

Yogaswami’s picture is kept here….

And a shrine for Gurudeva is still maintained by devotees.

We are all praying for peace so that we can resume activities one day here..

Next we go to Kopay to the Subramuniya Kottam.

It is run by Mylvaganam and Sivalosani Kanagaratnam

This shrine was recently renovated.

The Kottom class room where children are taught.

An old picture of Gurudeva from the 70’s still hangs there…

A sad reminder of the state of affairs is just behind the Kottam: a danger sign… the ground is filled with land mines.

Slowly the mines are being detected and removed.

Here are some mines that have been picked out of the ground…

The library in Jaffna has been completely rebuilt…the original building was burned down at the beginning of the war in 1983.

It is a quiet day at the Aadheenam, so we take this opportunity to reflect on our roots and Parampara.

We have two sets of Photos from Siva Markandu in Toronto who recently went to Sri Lanka. We will show one set today and another tomorrow.

Yogaswami sang:

The One and the Many art Thou Lord, whose abode is the
Himalayas. Thou who vanquished Dakkan and art the
consort of the alluring Sakti–Oh Lanka’s divine Teacher
recovered by Yoganathan! Thy Refuge we seek.

Sternly did Thou destroy the pride of doubting ascetics.
The eternal Feminine constitutes part of Thy Form. Thy
fiery Eye did burn the deluding Cupid. Oh Lord Siva who
reigns over Lanka, Thine are we in Refuge meek.

Day and night I toil to ease my worldly wants. Will Thou
not pity my weakness so abject? What shall I do? My Guru!
To whom shall I turn? Resplendent Light of the bejewelled
Isle of Lanka, Thine in Refuge are we.”

Siva Markandu tells us:

“These are Red Cross workers, who have been very helpful to all the refugees…”

They have given a lot of supplies to these boys of our Thirunavukkarasu Orphanage. One of the older boys is now doing volunteer work with the Red Cross.

Red Cross Family Hygiene kits. In times of disaster, basic needs like toothpaste and soap are important.

Cooking and water pots are essential…

Here I am (on the right) giving a check to the orphanage for CAN$4,001.00 which was raised by the Sri Lankan Tamils living in London, Ontario area, Canada.

Handing out small gifts of candy to the boys that we brought.

At home in Canada we have this Canada South Blues Society. The musicians raised money and gave these tee-shirts for the boys.

The founder of the Guru Kulam, Swaminathar Thambaiyar Adigal

The devastation of the area where the orphanage originally existed.

We also offered assistance to the Ramakrishna Mission Boys’ Home… This boat allows the boys to move back and forth over the lagoon. Transport is an issue in these devastated areas. Unlike places in the US where a hurricane like Katrina strikes, where they have resources to rebuild, here in Sri Lanka, these people have very little.

A long term sustained relief effort is needed… it is easy to forget…

Sri Lanka, fabled for its beauty has been sadly hit by war and natural disaster. We all need to help.

Whatever may come to pass, this is our sacred spiritual homeland.

More pictures today from Mauritius… here is Bodhinatha diving deep within during a temple ceremony…

Rudy and Dora Tanzi who visited here in March are back to see us again. Both are professors of neurology at Harvard Medical School and on their last visit to Kauai they learnt about Gurudeva.

After visiting the monastery they started to read Gurudeva’s Master Course and now enjoy it very much. They both will be joining Bodhinatha on the Innersearch to Australia and New Zealand in January. Why don’t you come and join them?

Incidentally they arrived in March on the day our calf Anu was born so today they brought a bag of bananas for the whole family.

And Anu and family were more than happy to see them….and the bananas!

Tyler Comer is here from Jefferson City, Tennessee on a three month task force program… This phase he is spending the morning with the publications team. Today he’s helping Acharya Kumarswami with some research on the next insight section.

Tyler wants to send a big “Aloooha!” out to his mother, Rhonda.

Tyler just turned 20 years old this month, and is working to earn money for college.

This is a big smile for our Amma Rhonda!

Tyler has been studying the teachings for several years and has expressed interest in monastic life.

We carry on with our retrospective series from the beautiful island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

On September 19, Sat Guru Bodhinatha was invited to give a Talk at the Arul Tharum Kali Parasakti Thava Sidhar kali Kovil at Chebel, Beau Bassin. The subject of the Inspired Talk was Worship: Home Shrine and Pilgrimage.

The chilly cold and windy evening did not discourage a large crowd to attend that special temple event. Here Bodhinatha alights from the car at the Temple entrance.

The temple priests are ready to traditionally welcome Bodhinatha with a Kumbam.

Bodhinatha is garlanded and everyone comes forward to greet the Satguru with all due respects

After parading around the Temple with traditional musicians leading the procession, Bodhinatha arrives at the Lord Ganesha’s shrine where an arati is conducted…

Lord Ganesha adorned with sandalwood paste…. According to Kulapati SK Moorghen the priest spent several hours on that day to make all the murthis of the temple look special for this Guru event!

Another arati at the Lord Muruga shrine…

A longer puja is done in the main Shakti sanctum and Bodhinatha and swami were invited to come inside the sanctum. After this prayer to the Goddess, the main priest led Bodhinatha out to the peedam…

Bodhinatha gets ready for His Upadesha. Before Bodhinatha addresses those present, various socio-Hindu religious leaders welcomed Bodhinatha in each of the Indian languages spoken in Mauritius: Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Marathi. A welcome message was also read in sanskrit.

Many of our Church members turned up for this occasion too…

Bodhinatha’s Talk first emphasized on the home shrine: Bodhinatha said, “The family that prays together stays together. For Hindus , ideally this includes two practices. daily early morning worship in the home shrine as a family. Weekly worship at the local temple as a family.”

Kulapati SK Moorghen whose kutumba coordinated that Chebel temple event translated Bodhinatha’s Talk into creole, the island’s spoken dialect.

” … A point I like to stress that Hinduism is the only religion in which everyone can own their own temple and become the temple’s priest- the temple, of course is their home shrine which you can spiritualize or make feel like a temple through conducting daily puja in the home shrine.”

Devotees sat and listened carefully to the practical teachings of the Guru…

The Temple mandapam’s was full of devotees coming from various parts of the island…

Priest Umapathi is an ardent devotee of the Goddess who claimed having had visions of Her guiding him to build this new Temple in Mauritius. This priest also counsels in matters of vastu principles.

Bodhinatha is offered a small plaque by the Temple priests …

The name of Bodhinatha is inscribed on this temple plaque….A souvenir from Mauritius….

The Speaker of Mauritius Parliament was present at the event too…

The event ended with Bodhinatha blessing devotees coming forward and Bodhinatha offering them a printed copy of His Talk. On the whole is was a wonderful Temple public event and the Temple management really gave Bodhinatha a grand welcome.