The India Cultural Center and Temple in Memphis, Tennessee, has just informed us that they will be honoring Gurudeva, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, by placing a marble murti of him in their mediation hall. Gurudeva will be placed next to Dakshinamurthy, Sankaracharya, Patanjali, Buddha, Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda , Ramana Maharishi & Malayala Swami.
“We are very thankful to Sri Gurudeva & Sri Bodhinatha Swami for the blessings they showered on our temple in last 24 years.” -Prasad Duggirala

Mahasivaratri Mangalam!

On this most holy night of the year we are pleased to bring you another golden audio treasure from the Gurudeva Audio archives: "Being in Siva Consciousness" some themes in this quintessential Gurudeva talk on Siva:

Siva is very accessible, everywhere. But the barrier is ignorance, forgetfulness. There are great truths throughout the entire universe, these great truths lie in your own superconscious mind, waiting to be used. See God Siva everywhere as all pervasive energy. Bliss consciousness, Siva consciousness. A story: "Why didn't you let Siva take you?" Everywhere a guru goes becomes his ashram. Leave the lower nature, look at Siva and don't see anything else. Siva is love and love is Siva. Find out how wonderful you really are. You'll become the knower of the known, the seer or the unseen, the embodiment of the Truth. Worshiping Siva with Himself, all the elements. Be in Siva consciousness.

Click this link to go to the permanent page for this talk and download or bookmark for future.

Jai Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami!

Each month during the chitra nakshatra the aadheenam observes a padapuja in Kadavul Temple to Gurudeva's granite paduka (sandals). Today's puja began at 5:45am with the chanting of Sri Rudram and an abhishekam performed by Natyam's Mayuranatha and Jayanatha. This is a powerful time of year for connecting to the inner world's and today's puja was no exception with a somewhat "zingy" energy felt from Gurudeva throughout the temple. Aum Namah Sivaya.

"Renouncing all I inwardly entered
And beheld the Light within.
My heart trembled. I prostrated low.
But Him I never forgot;
And the Lord of Celestials
Freeing me from the whirl of births
Immortal made me here."
-Tirumantiram 2615

Jiva and Kanmani Rajasankara sat with the Ganapati Kulam yesterday and shared their wonderful tale of being assigned the monumental task of overseeing Iraivan Temple construction in India. "I met Gurudeva in 1975 in Kuala Lampur," Jiva began, "At that time the communications were very slow, by the time I sent a letter to Gurudeva it could take two weeks to arrive and two weeks to return. And at that time the church sent newsletters to Malaysia on different guidelines for parents; remove your children out of missionary schools, etc. But at that time we would only read the letter with little seriousness, close the letter and set it aside. That was the general trend for the members at that time. This is what we did until we recieved a direct order from Gurudeva, then we would see what he said and apply it. "It took some time and went through all of the maturing in stages. Over the years I found that whatever Gurudeva says might not be clear to our intellect over that time, but whatever he gives is for ten, or twenty, years from now to see the results. So I eventually got the spirit that whatever he says is the final word for our karmic evolution for this birth. "When he gave me the instruction to move to India it was pretty easy with some challenges. The shift from one country to another and moving from one job to another, a job I had never heard of, and manage 30 to 40 workers started with struggle. We worked with Ganapati Sthapati in the beginning with some difficulty and then Selvanathan sthapati came and everything went smoother. He and I were both second generation in this field and worked well together and get a lot of things done. "Today, I can say that because of Gurudeva's instruction and guidance, our company is one of the leading companies in India. As a granite company who does both temples, deities and house items we are able to do cover a broader scope of work than most competitors who will only do one or the other type of job. I give all the credit to Gurudeva, this is all because of him. "We are doing well because of the grace of the guru. I'm very proud to see where the work is now and am excited for the future."

Thanks to our Digital Dharma Drive supporters and Andre Garzia's magic, The Guru Chronicles Audio Book is now on line. Click here to view a preview. Also works on smart phones For the web dev savvy among us, delivery uses the robust javascript Media Elements framework along with a playlist extension. If you want the files for your computer, a thumbdrive with all files is available for sale here, at Minimela.com which includes also the ebooks, artwork and additional priceless vintage Gurudeva audio and video from our archives.

Today at noon we celebrated Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami with our monthly pada puja during the chitra nakshatra. In Kadavul Temple Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and his monks gathered with local members for an abhishekam. While the monks chanted Sri Rudram Natyam Mayuranatha and Nirvani Tejadevanatha performed the puja, pouring pranic substances such as milk, honey and citrus over Gurudeva's black granite tiruvadi. Following a final arati, the event ended with singing and with each attendee prostrating before the shrine, with an opportunity for everyone to then sit in worshipful silence. Jai Gurunathan. Aum Namah Sivaya.

One of the amazing legacies of our Guru Parampara that comes to us from Gurudeva is Shum: The Language of Meditation. Towards the end of his life, Gurudeva was very active in working with the shum alphabet, refining the letters, revising patterns for extending words from 2 to 6 syllables and more. Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami is continuing this work and every quarter meets with the editing team to work on the Shum language. For the past week he has been working on this project. For those not familiar with shum, please see this book on line: Twelve Shum Meditations. Click the Minimela Print edition link to get a physical copy for your shrine room and personal study away from the computer.

Recently we celebrated our monthly chitra puja in honor of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, his monks and local members all gathered in Kadavul temple for an early morning padapuja to Gurudeva's granite paduka. Natyam Rajanatha and Natyam Jayanatha performed the abhishekam as other monks chanted Sri Rudram.

Read About Gurudeva in The Guru Chronicles. Download it here
Here's an excerpt:

Marching Through Sri Lanka and South India
The 1982 Indian Odyssey and the all-island tour of Sri Lanka that followed
had no precedent in history. No one, not even S. Shanmugasundaram,
the liason officer for the Church in Sri Lanka who had done the
groundwork for the journey, had an inkling of the overall magnitude of
the receptions that awaited Guru deva there.
It was unprecedented precisely because religious followings in Asia
remain exclusive, and the followers of one teacher or guru do not attend
the lectures of another. When a Rama krishna swami travels, for example,
his audience is, for the most part, Ramakrishna Mission members, plus a
few uncommitted seekers. But here was a rare soul, a guru, not from India,
but from the Wild West, from America, who had no local following and
posed no threat to any movement. After all, he would soon return to his
land and not draw devotees away from the local ashrams. Everyone was,
therefore, free to attend his talks, and they did in numbers that had not
been seen since the legendary saints of yore walked these same lanes to
speak similar thoughts to devotees centuries before.
In this remote part of the world, the village was still the center of life;
and when Guru deva rode through a village, by car or carriage, it came
alive. Thousands of Saivites lined the lanes of Alaveddy, Kopay, Karainagar,
Batticaloa, Hatton, Kokuvil and elsewhere to honor and revere the satguru
and affectionately greet the Saiva pilgrims from the West. A holiday
was declared in Kilinochchi so all the school children of the district could
join in the parade, which wound a full sixteen miles through the region
and took an entire day.
From 9am to 5pm Guru deva was seated on a tall chariot made for the
occasion, drawn through the crowded streets by hundreds of men pulling
two long, stout ropes. At the gate to each family compound, typically
just off the road, nearly every household had set up an elaborately decorated
greeting altar, with brass oil lamps called kuttuvilakku and a kumbha.
Standing around the altar, the entire family (often three generations)
would greet the tall, white-haired, orange-robed, rudraksha-bedecked
satguru with flowers, rosewater, holy ash and arati.
For most, he simply passed by and they rushed forward to throw their
garland into his hands. Now and again, the procession halted, and Gurudeva
got down, approached the family's altar and allowed them to pass
the lighted lamp before him, to pour water on his dusty feet, place the
red pottu on his forehead and garland him. He looked like Siva Himself,
they whispered to one another, so divine, so full of light and love. For
these families, stories would echo for generations.

Some highlights of the final day. October 28th.

A devotee was reflecting in the days moving toward Mahasamadhi this year, reflecting on Gurudeva's words that he had only one power, the ability to transform lives. If a shishya needed one siddi in her satguru, that would be it. Thinking thus, she penned this little ode to Gurudeva:

Only someone as true as Gurudeva could be so humble and silent about something so massive …

What a lesson in
standing in truth
irrespective of what others are doing
standing tall
resisting the temptation to flaunt
standing strong
responding only to love

O! Gurudeva
How much have I
to learn from you,
of you …

I rejoice and bask
in the joy
of having my breath touched
by one as rare as you!
O Gurudeva!
What could I do without you?!!
Infinite love and eternal gratitude
Aum Namah Sivaya!.

Today we are going to bring you days two through five of the mahasamadhi ceramonies and classes. The week was truly a special one, starting each day off with a puja to Gurudeva followed by a group meditation. A major class from a swami was held before lunch and plenty of time for the group of pilgrims to wander about the property to do sadhana or chat with others.

The slideshow takes you through one of our morning pujas, conducted by Natyams Rajanatha and Mayuranatha, then to Satguru's keynote class and our final homa and pajapuja, which was extremely intoxicating with thick, smoke-like darshan that filled the room.

The monks were able to make lunch for everyone each day and Gurudeva's devotees all ate together in our largest mandapam. Our newest publication and app were handed out to everyone as a special gift to those who gave up their time to spend it with Gurudeva.

Thank you to everyone for coming, thank you to our officiating priest Kumar Gurukkal, thank you Satguru for letting us serve in this way. Aum Namah Sivaya.