What is happening? Bodhinatha leaves for Malaysia in just two days for the 5 day intensive Himalayan Academy study program he is conducting there. Sannyasin Yoginathaswami and Yogi Japendranatha will be accompanying him. Yogi has been working very hard on getting the study materials altogether.

Paramacharya Palaniswami continues his ongoing efforts to assemble and preserve the “digital” heritage of all Gurudeva’s audio and video tapes. right now he is working on digitizing 100’s of VHS video tapes to DVD video format.

The Pilliyar Kulam continues to work on upgrading our web site offerings. Those of you who have been interested in our educational literature can check again at store.himalayanacademy.com pamphlets section for some recently added items.

And now we will bring you our usual seasonal excerpts from the Saiva Dharma Shastras on the Moksha Ritau sadhanas that Gurudeva outlined for us all… It is time to go In and In and IN and in!

The Third Season: Moksha Ritau

The third period of the year, Moksha Ritau, the cool season, is from mid-December to mid-April. It is the season of dissolution. The key word is resolution. Merging with Siva: Hinduism s Contemporary Metaphysics is the focus of study and intense investigation. The colors of this season are coral-pink, silver and all shades of blue and purple coral for the Self within, silver and blue for illumination, and purple for enlightened wisdom. High above flies the coral flag, signaling Parashiva, Absolute Reality, beyond time, form and space. Moksha Ritau is a time of appreciation, of gratitude for all that life has given, and a time of honoring elders, those in the sannyasa stage of life. Moksha Ritau is excellent for philosophical discussions, voicing one s understanding of the path through an enlightened intellect. In finance, it is the time for yearly accounting and reconciliation. On a mundane level it is a time of clearing attics, basements, garages, sheds, warehouses, workshops and desks, getting rid of unneeded things, of pruning trees, of streamlining life on the physical plane of reengineering.

The Aadheenam realms of this season are: 1) San Marga Iraivan Temple, a hand-carved, white-granite edifice seated upon a lava-rock plinth, golden tower shining in a rainbowed sky; 2) Tamil Nayanar Neri, the 1,300-foot-long path that winds around ponds, banyan trees, tropical plants in seven distinct botanical habitats, with seven shrines to the great Saiva saints of South India, and 3) Kauai Aadheenam central, with its offices, publications facilities, kitchen, library, workshops, monks  quarters, aviaries and cloistered gardens.

The Four Steps of Atonement

The four petals of the muladhara can be described as unrestrained devotion, confession, repentance and reconciliation. When penance is given, it must be fulfilled, especially when requested. Otherwise, the life of the penitent is vulnerable to the company of asuras. Penance is given after a certain amount of remorse is shown and the urgency is felt by the individual to rid his mind of the plaguing matter. All help is given by the divine devas to those seen performing a sincere penance. These devas that oversee those in a penitent state of mind are similar to doctors and nurses gathered to help their patient become well again. The angelic helpers surround their patient,  assisting in the relief of mental and emotional illness caused by transgression of dharma and the guilt that follows. When the penitent is undergoing penance, it is a form of tapas, described by some as psychic surgery performed by the devas working together to bring the soul from darkness into light. It truly is a happy event, but only long after it is over. The guru of every pitham receives the verbal confession of shishyas and gives out the appropriate penance, prayashchitta. He recognizes Divine absolution, knowing the penance has been fulfilled, when the inner aura is bright as a new-born child, the face happy and the testimony on the result of the penance discloses true atonement. In our Church, the period specifically dedicated to confession, repentance and reconciliation is the third season, Moksha Ritau.

Another project in the works behind the scenes is putting the entire color edition of Dancing with Siva on the internet… here is a sneak preview of the one section of the Children’s Primer

Sadhu Paksha is over and we begin the Moksha Ritau today… It was also Ashram Sadhana day for this month at the monastery and Flag Raising Day.

We had this interesting guest yesterday…all the way from San Paulo, Brazil: Vladimir Paulon. He has a very intimate connection with the Iraivan temple… but only today was he able to actually come… but, we will let Kulapati Deva Rajan tell the story:

This is Vladimir Paulon, a colleague and close friend of Professor Mehta, wanting to visit our temple site. Vladimir lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was very helpful to us back in 1999 when Professor Mehta was firming up our engineering of the Iraivan foundation design. ….

“What happened was that Mehta’s co-author of his famous text book on CONCRETE, Paulo J.M. Monteiro, who is Brazilian, made contact with Vladimir Paulon in Brazil and asked him to run Mehta’s calculations through the computers that he had developed there. You see, it is only in the under-developed countries like Brazil, where they are still building their infrastructures such as massive dam projects, highways, bridges, etc., that they have developed software to analyze the performance of High Volume Fly Ash mix designs in ways that we are no longer interested in doing in America.”

As a result of the computer run-outs and checks of Mehta’s concrete mix design by Vladimir Paulon, together with some consulting with William Langley, an engineer in Canada, Professor Mehta felt confident that the proposed concrete foundation design would work for us for Iraivan.

Here is Vladimir with his daughter who, in another interesting connection, lives just down the street with her husband and daughter. They moved to Kauai to be near the big crystal…

We are nearing the winter solstice and spectacular sunsets come early in the evening…

These pink colors are amazing, and Gurudeva chose this very color for the Hindutva Flag of the Moksha Ritau…

He called the color “coral pink.”

At noon all the monks break from their work for the pleasant, uplifting simple ceremony of changing the flag to begin the new season.

Bodhinatha watches as the monks prepare to make the change.

Down comes the “rust” colored flag of the Jivana Ritau.

The monks, silpis, a few of our devotees and some Hindu pilgrims are enjoying a beautiful sunny day.

Bodhinatha connects the Moksha Ritau flag….

Up, up, up….

Looking aloft, I reminder to keep our eyes on the higher things of life.

We have a stiff breeze today and the flag breaks open to show of its color…

This Hindu couple from Chicago, Vinod and his wife had come this morning but didn’t have a chance to meet Bodhinatha or any of the monks. He prayed to Siva that he would be able to “see the saints,” and was delighted to be invited at noon to join us. At age 80, he’s a deeply devoted soul and he and his wife have pilgrimaged to all the holy places in the Himalayas.

Other guests… hugging the Rudraksha trees and taking a big bag of Rudrakshas home with them…. More on the Moksha Ritau tomorrow.

“”Each guru has his own methods of mantra initiation from his own sampradaya. It’s a school of verbal teaching. Most importantly, preparation must be attained and maintained in order to convince an orthodox guru that the commitment is strong enough to make the initiation beneficial. Initiation from an orthodox guru begins a process of learning. It is not the end of a process of preparation after which the devotee is totally on his own once he pays his fee.”

“Path-choosing is a beginning, pointing a direction, declaring an intention. Marriage becomes a lifetime commitment only when the final marriage vows are spoken. This is preceded by months or even years of choosing a spouse, a process that calls forth the wisdom of the two families, community elders, religious leaders and those who are trained to judge astrological compatibilities.”

“Renunciate life in our Natha tradition and many others becomes a lifetime commitment only when final, lifetime vows of renunciation of the world are voiced.”

“The successful Hindu householder family is stable, an asset to the larger community in which it lives, an example of joyous, contented relationships. Members of the family are more interested in serving than being served. They accept responsibility for one another. They are pliable, flexible, able to flow freely like water. They worship and meditate daily without fail and strictly observe their individual sadhanas. Their insight is respected and their advice sought. Yet, they do not bring the world into the home, but guard and protect the home vibration as the spiritual center of their life. Their commitments are always first to the family, then to the community.”

“If your religion is not manifesting daily in your life, then basically you don’t have a religion. You just have some sort of Indian culture which will eventually go away and be replaced with another kind of a culture, because it doesn’t really matter to you. Someone asked me recently, “How do I know what to be committed to?” The answer: “What do you believe in?” Belief is a magical thing. It’s like a vitamin; it permeates your whole system. A belief can be taken away and another belief can replace it, or the belief can be strengthened through commitment. Be committed to your beliefs, or find beliefs that you can be committed to, then build on them. Then you will leave your footprints on the San Marga of time. Otherwise, you are just sitting in one place, making no progress. Nothing is happening in your life. The karmas aren’t working right, and you are not able to face life.

“There are many things to be committed to. Youths should be committed to an education that prepares them for what they plan to do in the future. Mothers should be committed to raising their children, making them good citizens, though some mothers don’t care whether their children are good citizens or not. They just don’t care. They are not even committed to raising their own children. …. Husbands should be committed to raising up their family, taking care of their wife and children. That is a commitment that they have to fulfill. If they don’t fulfill it, they are making an unworthy karma. But many husbands are not even committed to that.

Commitment and dharma are just about the same. Dharma brings law and order into life, gives us rules to follow and guides us along.”

“Where does commitment come from? Commitment comes from the soul. The intellectual mind is going this way and that way all the time, controlled or antagonized by other people’s opinions most of the time and by how society is thinking.”

“Commitment comes from the soul. It is a quality of the soul which you can teach to the next generation. Another quality of the soul is observation. Still another intuitive quality of the soul is creativity, which should be encouraged in every child. Through commitment, the soul dominates the intellect and the intellect dominates the instinctive mind. This is religion in action. This is living with Siva.”

“Carry your karma cheerfully. Then begin the tedious task of unwinding these multitudinous patterns through performing daily sadhana.”

“Each next step will become quite obvious to you as you begin to find that you are the writer of your own destiny, the master of your ship through life, and the freedom of your soul is but yours to claim through your accomplishments of your yoga.”

Have you ever stopped to even think and get a clear intellectual concept that the Spirit within you is the only permanent thing? That everything else is changing? That everything else has a direct wire connecting it to the realms of joy and sorrow? That is the mind.

The subtlety of the joys that you experience as you come into your Effulgent Being cannot be described. They can only be projected to you if you are refined enough to pick up the subtlety of vibration. If you are in harmony enough, you can sense the great joy, the subtlety of the bliss that you will feel as you come closer and closer to your real Self.

“We see ourself as an immortal being, and we work consistently with our lifestyle day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year. Each decision that we make is an easier decision to make, and each reaction that we face, we face it joyfully.”

“Each meditation that we hold is more profound than the last, and the spiritual being, the soul body, begins to merge with the physical body, as the elements of the instinct and the elements of the intellect that have been supreme life after life after life begin to give up and transmute their energies into the immortal body of the soul.”

Bodhinatha with our elder brother… Swami Bua Maharaj… he is somewhere around 114 years old….

Siva’s followers all believe in the Mahadeva Karttikeya, Son of Siva-Shakti, whose vel of grace dissolves the bondages of ignorance. The yogi, locked in lotus, venerates Murugan. Thus restrained, his mind becomes calm. Aum.

Lord Murugan was created by God Siva’s shakti and given a vel of spiritual discernment, a lance of divine intelligence. Pray to Lord Murugan to unravel the great mysteries of the universe. Pray to Lord Murugan to make you a spiritual person. Pray to Lord Murugan to release you into the arms of Lord Siva by teaching you more about your Saivite religion.

The lancelike vel wielded by Lord Karttikeya, or Skanda, embodies discrimination and spiritual insight. Its blade is wide, long and keen, just as our knowledge must be broad, deep and penetrating. Aum Namah Sivaya.|

The shakti power of the vel, the eminent, intricate power of righteousness over wrongdoing, conquers confusion within the realms below. The holy vel, that when thrown always hits its mark and of itself returns to Karttikeya’s mighty hand, rewards us when righteousness prevails and becomes the kundalini serpent’s unleashed power thwarting our every effort with punishing remorse when we transgress dharma’s law. Thus, the holy vel is our release from ignorance into knowledge, our release from vanity into modesty, our release from sinfulness into purity through tapas. When we perform penance and beseech His blessing, this merciful God hurls His vel into the astral plane, piercing discordant sounds, colors and shapes, removing the mind’s darkness. He is the King of kings, the power in their scepters. Standing behind the temporal majesty, He advises and authorizes. His vel empowering the ruler, justice prevails, wisdom enriches the minds of citizens, rain is abundant, crops flourish and plenty fills the larders. The Tirumurai says, “In the gloom of fear, His six-fold face gleams. In perils unbounded, His vel betokens, ‘Fear not.'” Aum Namah Sivaya.

The Bhadra pillars of Iraivan look awesome.

Sannyasin Yoginathaswami will be leaving with Bodhinatha on a teaching mission to Malaysia on the 18th. He’s working hard to make sure the temple crew has everything the need in place during his absence. Normally he is on call for anything the need, nearly 24-7…

Looking up from the northeast corner we see the stone lattice work of the small gopurams on the sides of the main sanctum.

We will see you next phase… in the meantime, enjoy our Kauai sunset…

Aum Namasivaya!

“The cognition of the actinic process of life currents intrigues him, and he looks further into the practice of yoga techniques and finds that peace is gained through a conscious government first of the life currents through the body and second of the realm of ideas as they flow into thought. And while remaining the observer of it all in the eternity of the here and now, the seeker fully realizes that time, space and causation are only indicated through holding an off-balanced consciousness of past and future.” — Gurudeva

“As the clear white light becomes more of a friend to his external mind than an experience or vision and can be basked in during contemplative periods of the day, the nourishment to the entirety of the nerve system, as ambrosia, bursts forth from the crown chakra. This is identified inadequately as “the peace that passeth understanding,” for he who reaches this state can never seem to explain it.” — Gurudeva

“Meditation is similar to watching the play of light and pictures on television. Identify with the pictures, and emotion is experienced. Identify with the light, and peace is experienced. Both light and energy forms have their source in God. Begin this evening while watching the news on TV by keeping awareness more within the light than the pictures.” — Gurudeva

“Return to the source. Merge with Siva. At the source there is always peace. The key to this entire practice is to become consciously aware of energy. In this constant remembering we have the feeling of being the center of the universe, with the whole world functioning around us. To be fully anchored in the knowledge of the source of our being, the eternal now can and must be a constant experience. It’s easy to live in the now if you work with yourself a little every day and concentrate on what you are doing each moment. ” — Gurudeva

Today was the last day for Sarasvati and Potriyan Sivanathan at the Aadheenam.

They had darshan with Bodhinatha before departing for home in Malaysia tomorrow. They have been here over a month and really enjoyed their pilgrimage. Potriyan stayed in the monastery, learning about monastic life and being of wonderful service.

At lunch today, Potriyan recounted everything he had done here, helping out in each of the Kulam’s. In the Ganapati kulam he learned about scanning images and helped with the project of scanning the new Tirukkural art from S. Rajam and also editing sound files. He helped the Ekadanta Kulam with a lot of mailings, the Pillaiyar Kulam with their annual honey bear project. Every morning Potriyan picked flowers for the morning Siva puja and was the pujari’s assistant in the temple. In the afternoon’s he worked outside with the Siddhidata Kulam, which he says he enjoy the most, being outside, working in the garden.

Sarasvati spent many hours doing karma yoga, quietly enjoying a spiritual retreat herself from her busy world, immersed in the all pervasive peaceful atmosphere of Kauai Aadheenam.

Potriyan said: “Not once while I was here, did anyone speak a harsh word to me. You know, in the world, people speak harshly, but here, no, it’s very different, harmonious.”

Speaking of art.. our web department has been working for several months on preparing the new color version of Dancing with Siva to post on the internet. And we share with you today some of the art work.

Though the new site is not “live” yet to the public, we can give you a sneak preview… just go to the first Mandala here. and click next to look through what has been done so far. The table of contents is still under construction and the back resource section as well, but we think you will enjoy the amazing art that this book contains.

Of course, there is nothing like having a hard copy of the most amazing of all the works produced by Himalayan Academy Publications to date. Go here to order your hard copy.

A belated photo of some guests who had darshan with Bodhinatha last phase:

The couple on the left was originally from Kashmir but now live in the mainland US. They said they are devotees of Siva and thus was keen to come and visit our temple. The couple on the right live in California and it was their first time to our aadheenam. They both had a wonderful meeting with Bodhinatha and asked him insightful questions.

Today was Chitra puja for this month. The puja was held at noon as the nakshatra fell right in the middle of the day.

Sadhaka Dandapani and Sadhaka Tejadevanatha perform the pada puja….

Gurudeva sometimes feels, closer than your own breath…. in the silence moments, he is there, inside you and watching over each of his devotees.

Hinduism Today… going strong! The latest issue arrived from the printer: the January 2005 issue and it looks beautiful… watch for it soon in your mail box if you are a subscriber and if you are not and would just like a trial copy, you can order a single copy here at our internet storefront.

Sadhu Paksha Day Six

Yogaswami sang:
“”Your friend is within. Tap at the door and keep on tapping, till He opens it. Call on Him incessantly. Chant His Name and He will respond as He did to St. Sundarar.”

” Come Thou Oh Siva! Heed our call and come!
Thou wondrous One in manifold forms,
Oh pure One who doth the cosmic dance.
Stainless art Thou with Sakti by thy side,
Illumined rock of the Vedic seers–Come, Come unto us!”

We took our silpis on an outing with task force participant Potriyan over the retreat. The destination… Waimea Canyon…

Drive, drive, drive all the way to the Waimea town on the western coast, then turn inward and climb up to the edge of the ancient volcanic rim to look down and view the ancient valleys where the Hawaiians used to live.

Potriyan says “Aum Sivaya, Dad” to his father, Ramesh Sivanathan, back in Sabah… Malaysia.

We are heading for winter on Kauai and temperatures are dropping to a bone chilling 65-70 degrees Fahrenheit.

😉

With constant rains these past few months, there are waterfall show on display everywhere you look.

Far beyond the mist is the ocean at the very end of the valley. The native Hawaiians would travel both by land and by sea to enter these far away protected valleys and live by agriculture and fishing.

Our silpis are enjoying a break. Far from home with few people who know how to speak Tamil, they are living a fairly isolated life here for two years. This is a chance for us to give them a breather. They had been here before but wanted to come again to get pictures to take home.

Zooming in on the distant ocean, a shower in the distance sparks a rainbow…

“The inner light is so beautiful. It is firm, like a plasma. It is sometimes fibrous and full of energy. And yet, it is quiet and full of colors. You begin to see color, and in that realm you can hear color at the same time that you see color.” –Gurudeva

“Your sadhana now is to take pains to develop your aura in the direction of more desirable colors and to gradually eliminate undesirable ones.” –Gurudeva

Bodhinatha has been working to increase our output and distribution of educational materials. Previously options to get this literature for distribution in your community were only for those who found obscure links on our web site, and only available in large quantities for teachers.

But now the “Jnana Dana” (Knowledge Giving) program has gone public with offerings at our web store for just the cost of printing and shipping. Click to see what is currently available, with more coming soon in the weeks ahead.

The monks early this year planted a large number of hibiscus cuttings and some new varieties out near Iraivan Temple area due to high demand for our Kadavul Temple pujas, and also with the vision to provide more flowers close by Iraivan for use when the temple opens. The hibiscus are finally flowering now and producing a good quantity of flowers, mostly used in the main puja of the day at 9am.

Here is Potriyan who is driving off to gather the flowers for the 9 am puja.

Looking down the garden…

Gurudeva wrote about the early stages of meditation practice:

“For instance, we take a flower and begin to think only about the flower.”

“We put it in front of us and look at it.This flower can now represent the conscious mind. Our physical eyes are also of the conscious mind. ”

“Examine the flower, become aware of the flower and cease being aware of all other things and thoughts. It is just the flower now and our awareness. ”

“The practice now is: each time we forget about the flower and become aware of something else, we use the power of our will to bring awareness right back to that little flower and think about it.”

“Each time we become aware of any other thoughts, we excuse awareness from those thoughts.”

“Gently, on the in-breath, we pull awareness back to the world of the flower.”

“This is an initial step in unraveling awareness from the bondages of the conscious mind.”

Join Bodhinatha on the next Innersearch, this time to two of the most beautiful countries in the world, New Zealand and Australia. This photo shows the spectacular Southern Alps in the south island of New Zealand which we will be visiting on one of our day excursions.

Go here to find out more are out Himalayan Academy Travel Study Home page.

Our journey begins in Sydney, on January 8th, 2006, a cosmopolitan city bordered by the beautiful Blue Mountains to the west and the seemingly borderless Pacific Ocean to the east. It is here that we will board our floating resort for the following twelve days, Princess Cruises brand new ship, the Diamond Princess.

You can also email the Innersearch staff right away, if you want to be sure to reserve a seat. Unlike our last India Odyssey, when we took 90 souls, this trip is restricted to about 50 maximum and spaces will sell out quickly.

Gurudeva with Innersearchers from India, Malaysia, Singapore and the mainland USA onboard the MS Volendam during the 2000 Caribbean Innersearch.

Thilika Sunder from California, going deep within, during a guided meditation on the banks of river in Dominica (2000 Caribbean Innersearch).

Chella Rao, from Birmingham, England, celebrates her birthday with Gurudeva and the Innersearchers onboard the Holland America’s MS Amsterdam during the 2001 Northern Europe and Russian Innersearch.

Gurudeva conducting a class in our very own meeting space, the Hudson room, onboard the MS Amsterdam (2001 Northern Europe and Russian Innersearch). On the next Innersearch Bodhinatha will be carrying on the tradition that Gurudeva started. Don’t miss the opportunity to spend precious time with Bodhinatha as he shares with us insights into Hinduism’s uniqueness, an in-depth look at karma and suggestions for refining our conduct to intensify our spiritual progress.

Jeff Wesike, from the US, and Rohini Kumar, from Malaysia, met for the first time during the 2001 Europe Innersearch. Now friends for life. Innersearch is a wonderful opportunity to make new friends who share the same zeal for a deep inner life.

Bhavani Param and Dayavati Murugan (from US), Chella Rao (from England), Gowri Nadason (from Malaysia) and Puvaneswary Roberts (from The Netherlands) share a joyous moment
(2001 Northern Europe and Russian Innersearch).

Not an Innersearcher but a friendly mate we are bound to encounter in our day excursion in Melbourne to the great Western Plain, otherwise known as the Outback.

Iraivan photos… we will let them speak for themselves….

You can help Iraivan in a simple way in this holiday season by getting beautiful hand made greetings cards to send to all your loved ones, here. Click on the card to see the beautiful large version. These are hand made with loving care by the ladies of the Golden Gate Mission in California. All proceeds to go Iraivan.