httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEoH5m6TrNk

During Satguru’s time in London, he visited the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in London where he gave a presentation he created entitled, “What is Saivism?” The purpose of the presentation is to clarify Saivism’s uniqueness from other Hindu schools of thought, mostly in an effort to have the distinction between it and the prevailing idea of Sankaracarya’s Advaita Vedanta clear in the mind of practicing Saivas. Part One of Five is embedded above, which shows the heartfelt welcoming of Satguru at the temple. Below, we offer links to the remaining four sections in which the actual presentation is contained.
The YouTube channel on which these videos are posted is London Hindu Temples, which hosts a collection of beautiful videos of the many festivals and other events happening in and around London’s Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu community. We encourage you to watch other videos on their channel and subscribe.
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSW_r9hFg_4
Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gNVEjpsOn4
Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ5i6UJdyZc
Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDd4_nzHsso

Chapter One: The Great Story of Awareness

For those who saw this post several weeks ago, and were surprised to see them disappear suddently, we have improved the speed and audio quality and added proper MP3 tags and are now release these as good to go.

Gurudeva’s 1970 Audio Master Course transformed the hearts, minds and lives of 1000’s of spiritual aspirants. Several generations of seekers have passed through these last 4 decades and many have never heard of this treasure. Gurudeva lays out the core metaphysics of spiritual evolution in very simple terms.

We want to give a special thanks Iain Morland in the UK who has professionally restored the digitized versions of these very old audio tapes and brought them forward to good quality MP3 files. Now Gurudeva’s powerful presence feels like he is right with you today!

In 1970’s the sadhana/practice/course was to listen to each one of these 12 tapes 3 times in one week. Then move to the next chapter. The course also had transcripts to read as you listened and took three months to complete. Some young Hindus recently heard some of these talks and were “blown away… awesome!” so the message is ever fresh and ever powerful, 40 years later.
Click here to listen or download to your computer or mobile device
NOTE: Small request for help: In our archives, we are missing a copy of the printed booklet of Chapter One of the course. In the front of each chapter transcript is a message that we have included in the web version, but we need to get that message from the Chapter One transcript book. If you have a complete set of this old course, please open to the first page that describes the meditation, visualization and practice that should accompany Chapter One, type this up and send it in an email to studyhall@hindu.org Thank you!

Bodhinatha’s Latest Upadeshas:“Sivaratri 2016: The Meaning of Yoga” (March 6,2016)

In his 2016 Mahasivaratri talk, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami describes the subtle meanings behind some of the concepts in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and shows how they correspond to Gurudeva’s teachings. Hinduism defined is trying to be in the highest state of consciousness you can, right now. Quieting our thoughts down to the point where there aren’t any. Separate from body, mind and will to attain liberation. Through meditation we can detach awareness from our own five states of mind and experience the consciousness of other forms of life, which is all God Siva. What happens to you is created by you; break the cycle of reaction, make life much more sublime. Find that part of us which is God Siva, that pure energy powers everything.

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

Guru Chronicles

Master Course, Merging with Siva, Part Four, Cognizantability the Conquest of the Mind

Click here to go to an index of all of Bodhinatha’s and Gurudeva’s online audio.

Bodhinatha’s Sun One Talk is up on our server.

Bodhinatha’s Latest Upadeshas:“God is Love; Putting This Into Practice” (February 2, 2016)

The deepest perception of Love: Love is the ultimate Truth. Our Affirmation of Faith: “God Siva is Immanent Love and Transcendent Reality.” You are also that Love, you are also God Siva. There’s only one Being and that Being is a being of Love. The more we can act from that part of us, the better.

Master Course, Living with Siva, Lessons: 45, 296

Click here to go to an index of all of Bodhinatha’s and Gurudeva’s online audio.

As promised, here is Side B of the 1977 cassette that Gurudeva requested be prepared and distributed to all his devotees. In this short piece he briefly describes the purpose of Saiva Siddhanta Church and then leads us in the repetition of the Twelve Beliefs of Saivism. Join him as he requests us to affirm the great truths of our ancient religion.

Magical divine synchronicity happened these past few days. We have been meditating on key knowledge that is missing in the mind of youth today. One of these is the understanding of the Three Worlds. Background discussions with our team on creating short digital illustrated educational modules on this subject have been in progress for weeks. Out of the blue Vayudeva writes: “I found this old cassette of Gurudeva, from 1977. Side A is – ‘This is Religion’ and Side B is ‘Beliefs of Saivism.’ ” Side A is actually all about the Three Worlds.
We looked into our archives and there it was! Gurudeva gave these two talks in 1977 and then he commissioned a professional to edit them, add vina music, reproduce on cassettes and distributed them to all his devotees. We did not have the software or tools to do this ourselves in those days, so he must have felt it was very important to get this message out. We are happy to bring you this new treasure from Gurudeva’s audio archives — a vision dear to his heart that he hoped to pass on to all. His message is renewed and will live on. Stay tuned for Side B tomorrow.

Three Worlds – This Is Religion

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lr8Qx0SyrYI
“The History of Hindu India” (Part Three) was developed by the
editors of Hinduism Today magazine in collaboration with Dr. Shiva
Bajpai, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University
Northridge. It is intended to provide an authentic presentation of
the history of India and Hinduism for use in American middle and
high school classes, as well as Hindu temple study groups, dharma
classes and general presentations on the Hindu religion and
history.

The documentary is based on the third chapter of the
textbook,
The History of Hindu India,
published by Himalayan Academy in 2011. It covers Indian history
from 1000 to 1847 ce, from the Arab Muslim invasions to the British
rule, a time of great difficulty for the Indian people. The foreign
invasions are recounted from the 10th century onward, including the
sacking of the great Siva temple at Somnat. The establishment of
the Mugul Empire by the 16th century in most of India is explored,
as is its subsequent decline by the mid-18th century and the
gradual control of India by the British. The documentary provides
an account of the saints of the Bhakti Movement which gathered
strength during this time, including Ramananda and Kabir. One
section is devoted to an overview of the Sikh religion, from its
founding in the 16th century by Guru Nanak to formation of the
Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in the 18th century. This is followed
by a brief introduction to Indian music and its basic concepts of
tala (rhythm), raga (scale) and improvisation.

For more information and for class lesson plans based on the book
visit www.hinduismtoday.com/education/. The film, funded by the
Uberoi Foundation, Institute for Curriculum Advancement, may be
freely distributed for educational purposes.

Directed and Produced by Sushma Khadepaun. Narrated by Roger (Raj)
Narayan.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0kLX2aPgo8
“The History of Hindu India” (Part Two) was developed by the
editors of Hinduism Today magazine in collaboration with Dr. Shiva
Bajpai, Professor Emeritus of History, California State University
Northridge. It is intended to provide an authentic presentation of
the history of India and Hinduism for use in American middle and
high school classes, as well as Hindu temple study groups, dharma
classes and general presentations on the Hindu religion and
history.

The documentary is based on the second chapter of the
textbook,
The History of Hindu India,
published by Himalayan Academy in 2011. It covers Indian history
from 300 ce to 1000 ce and opens with magnificent footage of the
famed Kailasanatha Temple in Maharashtra, then discusses the Gupta
Empire, the Huna invasions, the visits of the Chinese Buddhist
monks Faxian and Xuanzang, the initial incursions of Arab Muslim
armies in the 8th century, as well as the great Chola kingdom of
South India, with a brief foray into the political history of
India, all at a time when one third of world’s population lived
there. City and village life are described, along with jati, the
joint family structure and marriage arranging. This period also
witnessed the beginning of the Bhakti Movement and the development
of many still-famous Hindu temples.

For more information and for class lesson plans based on the book
visit www.hinduismtoday.com/education/. The film, funded by the
Uberoi Foundation, Institute for Curriculum Advancement, may be
freely distributed for educational purposes.

Directed and Produced by Sushma Khadepaun. Narrated by Roger (Raj)
Narayan.

Recently Acharya Arumuganathaswami and Natyam Jayanatha have returned from their short trip to California. Above are some photos from their journey. The two flew into San Jose, CA, late at night and drove on empty highways to the state's capital of Sacramento. Their goal is to keep tabs on the developing California textbook narrative draft process. See here for details as to what this process is all about.

Basically we are doing our small part to ensure that the presentation of Hinduism in public school textbooks is fair and accurate as opposed to the current, slightly slanderous content. Our monks checked into a hotel down the street from the Department of Education, and next attended the Instructional Quality Commission (IQC) meeting, in which comments can be submitted and vocalized in regards to the IQC's current work on the draft narrative.

After two days of meetings, with our monks giving public testimony, the task was done until the next meeting. Before returning to Kauai, the monks had an evening meeting with local members of the Hindu Education Foundation. The HEF had been very helpful in this process by encouraging their children to testify at the meeting about their experiences in the classroom when studying world religions in 6th grade. The monks also took an opportunity to take a short hike through the Bay Area's (currently dry) hills. Then back to Kauai they went!