A CyberCadet sends this digital painting today, the view of monks in procession on the Great Path as seen from high above by an orchid.

"All men are beautiful walking flowers. Instead of remaining as a witness and enjoying all this, man suffers through being possessed by the disease of 'I' and 'mine.' It is God who sees as the eye behind our eye. Brahman fills us entirely." Siva Yogaswami

This is the Chellappaswami shrine and this elderly man is Chellappaswami's great nephew.

We came across this list of beautiful and bizarre creatures today that we'd like to share. These colorful, and in some cases one-of-a-kind beings are a wonderful example of Siva's uncanny and uncommon forms. With all the variety on our little planet alone, it stretches the imagination to infinity, to ponder the countless variation that must exists throughout our galaxy alone, as it floats through Siva's perfect universe.

From Living With Siva:
It takes much meditation to find God Siva in all things, through all things. In this striving--as in perfecting any art or science--regular daily disciplines must be faithfully adhered to. Siva is the immanent personal Lord, and He is transcendent Reality. Siva is a God of love, boundless love. He loves each and every one. Each soul is created by Him and guided by Him through life. God Siva is everywhere. There is no place where Siva is not. He is in you. He is in this temple. He is in the trees. He is in the sky, in the clouds, in the planets. He is the galaxies swirling in space and the space between galaxies, too. He is the universe. His cosmic dance of creation, preservation and dissolution is happening this very moment in every atom of the universe. God Siva is, and is in all things. He permeates all things. He is immanent, with a beautiful form, a human-like form which can actually be seen and has been seen by many people in visions. He is also transcendent, beyond time, cause and space. That is almost too much for the mind to comprehend, isn't it? Therefore, we have to meditate on these things. God Siva is so close to us.

Credit for the above collection: talemaze.com

We have caught up with processing Bodhinatha's recent upadeshas. You will enjoy his fascinating commentaries on Patanjali and various issues relating to spiritual unfoldment.

• How Is All Karma Finally Resolved If We Make Karma in Each Life? (Nov. 16, 2014)
• Patanjali - Overcoming Obstacles with Concentration and Friendliness (Nov. 8, 2014)
• Four Places In Which to See God (Nov. 1, 2014)
• Eight Features of Natha Sampradaya (Version 2) (Oct. 25, 2014)
• God Ishvara, In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (Oct 3, 2014)

Great adventures in New Delhi. Tomorrow Rajiv Malik, our senior correspondent in India, was to travel with us to Rajasthan for a three-day gathering of swamis at what may well be the world's largest cow ashram, goshala. 

A few hours ago Rajiv and his daughter came to our hotel and to our surprise he was standing before us with a cast on his right arm. Rajiv had fallen just hours before and fractured his wrist while taking his 95-year-old father to the hospital (stepped into a pothole when they got out of the car and fell). He has surgery scheduled for tomorrow am to realign the bones and wire them together for 6 weeks of healing. He will be unable to join us and had to cancel his flight. 

However, his filmmaker daughter Palik courageously came forward to take his place in Rajasthan and we sat in the hotel lobby and with the help of her brother, Puket, quickly booked new flights so she arrives a little before we do in Ahmedabad and can ride with us to the Goshala. Palik is moving some other responsibilities around to do this for Hinduism Today which she loves, and taking a 5am flight to Mumbai tomorrow to make it happen, so she will have to leave the house at 1:30am. Brave young woman.

Palik will do the needed interviews for the article we plan. Stay tuned for more adventures from India. 

Recently Sannyasin Shanmuganathaswami and Sannyasin Siddhanathaswami boarded their flight to San Antonio, Texas. They will be back in a week, and are in Texas to attend a 4D conference. For those unaware, 4D is the development platform which powers our database. Wishing them a safe and productive trip!

Though we do not get to see Siva's amazing diversity in our normal, patterned life, it is there, hidden in the recesses, crouched in the forest, swimming in the depths, hiding under a rock. Today we share a gallery of creatures to amaze the mind and spark our love of life's diversity. With it, a quote from the white-maned Lion of Dharma, our Gurudeva:


Living with Siva is living with everyone every reptile, fish, fowl, animal and creature, to the very smallest in a consciousness of the one life force within all of them that sustains this perfect universe. Truly, God Siva is everywhere. He is the energy within our mind manifesting thought. 

He is the thought thus made manifest. He is the light within your eyes and the feel within your fingers. God Siva is the ignorance which makes the One seem as two. He is the karma, which is the law of cause and effect, and He is the maya, which is the substance of evolution in which we become so deeply immersed that we look upon the outside world as more real than God. God Siva is all this and more. 

He is the Sun, the Earth and the spaces between. He is the revealed scriptures and those who have scribed the scriptures. He is all who seek the wisdom of scripture, too. Siva dances in every atom throughout this universe. Siva dances energetically, ceaselessly, eternally. Siva is perpetual movement. His mind is all-pervasive, and thus He sees and knows everything in all spheres simultaneously and without effort. 

Siva is the Self, and He is the energy we put forth to know the Self. He is the mystery which makes us see Him as separate from us. He is the energy of life, the power in the wind. He is the dissolution called death, the peace of motionless air. He is the great force of the ocean and the stillness on a calm lake. Siva is All and in all.

Jiva recently sent us these photos of the Bengaluru Carving Site's Ayudha Puja. All of the tools are blessed followed by each worker receiving a gift.