This morning, monks and devotees gathered and the Svayambhu Lingam for a short puja and meditation to honor the day in February of 1975, when Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami had the powerful vision of Lord Siva which led to the creation of Iraivan Temple.

Below is the description from Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions book:

In the early hours of February 15, 1975, lying on a tatami mat in his Ryokan--the simple, oriental room where he slept--Subramuniyaswami was deep asleep. He was in one of those profound states of slumber that are neither awake nor full of dreams, his conscious mind fully absent. In this clear space above physical consciousness, the 48-year-old satguru experienced a three-fold vision that would be the spiritual birth of the great Siva citadel called Iraivan Temple, and its surrounding San Marga Sanctuary.

"I saw Lord Siva walking in the meadow near the Wailua River."

"Then I saw His face peering into mine.

"Then He was seated upon a great stone, His reddish golden hair flowing down His back. I was seated on His left side.

"This was the vision. It became more vivid as the years passed. Upon reentering Earthly consciousness, I felt certain that the great stone was somewhere on our monastery land and set about to find it. Guided from within by my satguru, I hired a bulldozer and instructed the driver to follow me as I walked to the north edge of the property that was then a tangle of buffalo grass and wild guava. I hacked my way through the jungle southward as the bulldozer cut a path behind me. After almost half a mile, I sat down to rest near a small tree. Though there was no wind, suddenly the tree's leaves shimmered as if in the excitement of communication.

"I said to the tree, 'What is your message?' In reply, my attention was directed to a spot just to the right of where I was sitting. When I pulled back the tall grass, there was a large rock-- the self-created Lingam on which Lord Siva had sat. A stunningly potent vibration was felt. The bulldozer's trail now led exactly to the sacred stone, surrounded by five smaller boulders. San Marga, the 'straight or pure path' to God, had been created. An inner voice proclaimed, 'This is the place where the world will come to pray.'"

Yesterday the monastery observed our monthly padapuja to Gurudeva during the chitra nakshatra. In the early morning, monks and guests gathered in Kadavul Temple for the abhishekam to Gurudeva's black granite tiruvadi. Sadhaka Dayanatha and Nirvani Tejadevanatha performed the puja. Jai Gurudeva!

"Don't let anyone take your religion away from you. We have to keep developing religion in our mind. We have to keep learning the language of our soul, which is one definition of religion. When religion leaves our mind, something comes in to replace it. What comes into our mind to replace the vacuum when religion goes? Greed, jealousy, hatred, anger, past regrets, despair, self-condemnation. We cease to feel good about ourselves. We are always discontented and restless, and we are always unhappy, jealous, angry and fretful. These are some of the lower emotions that replace religion when we allow religion to leave our mind. There are many people in the world today intent on taking your religion away from you. Saivites have the greatest and philosophically most comprehensive and deeply experiential religion in the world. Saivites have moved their religion forward for five to ten thousand years. At no time in history has the Saivite religion not been on this planet. The Tamil people especially have moved the Saivite religion forward, year after year after year, through bhakti. And it is your religion. It is in your DNA, and no one can take that religion away from you. But you must steel your mind, make your mind strong through knowledge, through religious education." Gurudeva

Over the retreat, the aadheenam celebrated the chitra Nakshatra with its monthly padapuja to Gurudeva's tiruvadi in Kadavul Temple. Immediately following the Natyam ceremony for Natyam Mayuranatha, the monks gathered in the temple and began Sri Rudram. Sadhaka Jayanatha and Nirvani Tejadevanatha were the evening's pujaris. Oil, milk, yogurt, honey, coconut water and other prana-filled substances were offered at Gurudeva's holy feet. Following Rudram, the puja was done in meditative silence, with just the ringing of a bell and the passing of flame.

"Train your mind to awaken the spiritual being. This is as difficult to do as it is to train a person to dance or to swim, or to accomplish any athletic feat requiring a highly trained body. You have to always be the master, and be attentive to your goals in life." Gurudeva

We are happy to release yet another golden gem from Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's audio archives. This incredible upadesha from 1962 is from the inner sky of the Vedic Rishis, but presented by Gurudeva in a language that the public can understand. He explains the illusion of the mind, karma, meditation, dharma, and Self-Realization from the Advaita perspective. He urges listeners to follow the laws of religion, discover and fulfill their duties. The talk contains guidance for mothers and an especially compelling section on how to listen to and understand the language of the soul. Excerpts from the transcript:

"The mind is only an illusion ever creating itself carried forth by its own creations. It is but a dream and we find reality in the mind only from the depths of our memory as we project our fears worries and doubts, hopes and aspirations into the future. Only from the depths of the memory and what you have already projected mentally into the future...The two states of consciousness that we have here, the past and the future if you meditate upon that you can bring yourself into a deeper knowing and actual experience of the eternity of the now. There are many subtle things that take place as you practice yoga and as you fulfil your life in fulfilling your duty and become consciously conscious of exactly where you are in space or where you are in evolution. That is your first realization in being consciously conscious or consciously aware...." Click here to listen along with the full transcript

After many moons the eloquent carpentry and stone work in the Media Studio Cave Entryway has finished. This was a creative collaboration between the monks (design), Kanda Alahan in California (fabrication of the roof shrine, plus innovations), and Bhani Karthigesu in Singapore (engineering the masterful and colorful wooden sculptures in North India). The result is simply magical, providing a moment of blessing and change of consciousness as one moves from the tropical gardens into the more-akashic-than-physical space of the Media Studio. Jai to teamwork!

This morning the monks celebrated the Chitra Nakshatra with their monthly padapuja to Gurudeva's Tiruvadi. Bodhinatha is leaving on a two week trip to Singapore and Malaysia today, so the padapuja was held a little earlier than usual, so that he and Shanmuganathaswami could catch their flight. Natyam Rajanatha and Nirvani Nilakanthanatha performed the puja as other monks chanted Sri Rudram.


"Find your actinic spiritual destiny in this life. Learn to live fully each instant, completely in the eternity of the moment. Become refined by constructive, rather than abusive, practices. Become positive through the generation of good deeds, rather than those uncomplimentary experiences we react to and reenact. Yours is a new and positive destiny, one that is true, constant and free from want or dangers. Life ahead for you can only become one of fulfillment and radiance as you adjust to dharmic principles.

"On and on through the mind we travel daily, once awareness has become detached from the limited area of mind it has been trapped in. The journey seems endless! It is. Seek on, seek on. Look in, look in. And on that solid foundation of good character, move into that place in the mind and live there, seeing no difference between the inner and the outer states of fluctuating awareness. Be that now for which you have been striving. The search is within. Go within the mind. Go in and in and in and in and make fathomable the unfathomable depth of Being. You can do it. It has been done countless times over the past several thousand years. Give yourself the great benefit of believing in yourself and flow inward, inward--to the totality of it all." Gurudeva

From devotees in Toronto:
"On Sunday, October 19, 2014, we observed Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's Mahasamadhi Gurupuja at the Sankkamam Prayer Hall. It was attended by large gathering of swami's devotees." 

Above are photos from our final day of Gurudeva's 13th Mahasamadhi celebration.

The day began with a short padapuja, followed by a final satsang with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, at which he presented each pilgrim with a copy of our new Guru Chronicles Audio Book USB drive. The afternoon began with an elaborate havana in kadavul performed by Kumar Gurukkal, and culminated with a final puja to Gurudeva's black-granite tiruvadi. The whole afternoon event lasted about four hours.

From Dancing With Siva:
The satguru is like the sun. He is just there, radiating this very pure energy like the sun evaporates water. The satguru hardly does anything at all. It is the seeker who opens himself to the great accumulated power of darshan which the guru inherited from his guru and his guru's guru, as well as the natural darshan he unfolded from within himself through his evolution and practices of sadhana and tapas. It's all up to the aspirant at first. A satguru doesn't do a thing. The guru can amuse himself externally with anything. It does not make any difference in his darshan when he is at a certain point in his unfoldment. If you are around him long enough, and if you are honest with yourself and persistent in the tasks he asks you to perform and directions he gives you, psychic seals lift after awhile. But you have to do your part. He does his in an inner way, and as he does, you will feel the psychic seals melt away under his fiery darshan, just like a blowtorch penetrates and transforms the metal it touches.

From the Kularnava Tantra:
Devotion to the Satguru is the one main prescription. Without this, all learning, all austerity, family status and observances are useless. They are only decorations, pleasing to the worldly eye. The sishya who has complete devotion, steady and constant, what has he to worry about? Moksha is in the hollow of his palm. For him who remembers, “My Satguru is Siva Himself who grants Liberation,” fulfillment is not far off. As the steady devotion for the Satguru grows, so grows one’s knowledge. Neither yoga, nor tapas, nor ritual of worship are sufficient for spiritual attainment. Only gurubhakti excels. Service to the guru performed with devotion, according to one’s means, holds the same merit whether offered by the wealthy or the impoverished. Even if you give the whole of your wealth to the guru but without devotion, the fruit will not accrue to you, for indeed devotion is the only cause. The sacred paduka of the guru are the ornament. Remembrance of his name is japa. Carrying out his command is duty. Service to him is worship.

On our third Mahasamadhi day, devotees observed a special blessing of the newly renovated Media Studio. Following a morning of pujas and classes, everyone made their way to the Studio's redwood entryway, where Kumar Gurukkal performed an official opening puja. We then followed Bodhinatha inside for the final blessing, after which Gurukkal went through and purified each room. Snacks and some of the monk's homemade lime soda were served as Bodhinatha and each of the members of the Ganapati Kulam gave a short talk about the project and the new studio's implications. With this period of renovation closing, the future of our publications team's educational work is looking bright. Jai Gurudeva!

Today we celebrated our second day of our Gurudeva Mahasamadhi activities. The day began in Kadavul Temple with a the chanting of Sri Rudram and a short puja conducted by Sadhaka Jayanatha and Sadhaka Dayanatha. Even before the puja had begun, Gurudeva's presence could be felt as a powerful love and inner stillness radiating out from his tiruvadi. Following the final arati, everyone sat for a silent meditation.

After the pilgrims enjoyed breakfast and the morning Siva puja, everyone gathered in the Guru Peedam for a class with Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami. Swamigal discussed many things, including recent positive happenings and also about how we should respond to hostility, which he explained through several real-life stories. The group also discussed ways in which we can maintain Gurudeva's presence in our everyday life.

Paramacharya read a poem, called "Who Was It?",
that he wrote to Gurudeva during a past Mahasamadhi Festival

Who was it who captured my errant heart
and save me from a common life?
My Gurudeva, whose love for me
was greater than my love of the fleeting world.

Who took me in and in, revealing the core
of this vast cosmos to be my very Self?
My Gurudeva, who every waking moment
knew the Self of all as his very Self.

Who drove the demons of distraction
from my mind, never to return?
My Gurudeva, whose perfectly one-pointed
mind permitted not the slightest wavering.

Who shattered the charade of self-interest
and unshakled me from ego's confinements?
My Gurudeva, whose humility was so pure
it shamed away petty self-importance in all who approached him.

Who set me on the path of self-transformation,
uprooting the weeds of worry, wantonness and weakness of will?
My Gurudeva, whose iron will knew no resistence
in this world or the next.

Who opened doors and windows of the mind,
that my constrained perceptions could soar in the larger world.
My Gurudeva, who lived a life on Earth,
a life in Siva's Elysium and a third between.

Who taught me life's practical lessons,
that my youthful sassiness could turn to something useful to others?
My Gurudeva, who knew the world's ways
and achieved everything he set his mind to do.

Who introduced me to the Gods
and made me fall with affection at Siva's holy feet?
My Gurudeva, who taught me what pure love is
and walked, a living Siva, on the Earth.

Who took my hand and kept me strong
when days were dark and doubts rained down unrelentingly?
My Gurudeva, whose strength I never measured,
who was the agile nemesis of all negativity.

Who gave me the gift of oneness that lies beyond divine union,
That which is prior to all things, the gift of infinite inclusion?
My Gurudeva, who knew all things, delighted in all things, was all things
and, possessing the All in all, could proffer it to those with hands outstretched.

Who saw through my crass humaness,
perceiving the divinity within, all the while redefining true humanity?
My Gurudeva, humanity's noblest son, freed of every dross,
and able to see only perfection in this world.

Who mended in me what many lives had broken
and set me on the golden throne of self-knowing?
My Gurudeva, my heart's ruler, whose loving light healed all it touched
with the palpable promise of perfections yet to come.

From Merging with Siva:
Older souls, seeking the Self beyond the mind, merge with the Spirit and with things spiritual. For them, a pure and nearly perfect life calls. They intuitively know that the profound merger of jiva in Siva is no easy task, to be accomplished in a weekend seminar or yoga class. So they go farther, they renounce, they take up the ideals of the four Vedas--not to parrot them, but to live them, just as did the rishis of yore. That leads to the path of the renouncer, to the sannyasin in the Indian tradition. Though it may not be your dharma to formally renounce the world, you can benefit your search immensely by knowing how the great ones seek to live and respond to life. You can find ways in the midst of your life to follow their example. Realize that the sannyasins, the sadhus and the host of nameless mendicants from the traditional orders of Hinduism do have built within them the spiritual, social, cultural structure that has survived siege and pestilence within the countries they serve. But most importantly, these three million soldiers of the within have survived the siege of their lower self, the pestilence of their own mind, and risen above to the heights.