Over the last year, our publications team in Kauai has been quietly working on a sizable side project sponsored by the Uberoi Foundation. The project is intended to assist in the presentation of the four Dharmic faiths, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, as per the foundation’s goal. This particular video is meant to teach the Buddhist religion in California 6th grade social studies classes. The ten-minute video is hosted by Rimban William Briones who describes the temple’s origins and basics of their beliefs. The temple was begun in 1905 by the Japanese community of Los Angeles. It belongs to Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, one of the largest denominations of the Pure Land stream of Mahayana Buddhism, and the largest Buddhist denomination in the United States. The video is the first to be released. Each one will allow students to experience these temples as a digital school tour, when visiting them in person might not be possible.

Directed by Mainak Dhar, Produced by Gabriel Bruskoff.

For many moons we have wanted to upgrade the floor of the Banyan Mandapam, an important gathering place for visitors. But it was hard to find the hours to do it. Then Rajen Manick came, a senior member from Mauritius who brings with him considerable graphics and translation skills, and not a few practical abilities. Rajen just finished painting the floor of the 40 by 40 tent, and the 50 foot long walkway. It took about a week (not full time) to paint two coats of durable paint. He was helped a bit by Doug. A big upgrade to the entry of the monastery.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"It is in the svādhishṭhāna chakra that the majority of people live, think, worry and travel on the astral plane. If they are functioning solely in the reasoning capacity of the mind, devoting their life’s energies to its perpetuation in the libraries of the world, then they would take the intellect very seriously, for they naturally see the material world as extremely real, extremely permanent. With their security and self-esteem founded in reason, they study, read, discuss, accumulate vast storehouses of fact and rearrange the opinions and conclusions of others. When guided by the higher chakras and not totally entangled in ramifications of intellect, the powers of svādhishṭhāna are a potent tool in bringing intuitive knowledge into practical manifestation. Reason does not conflict with intuition. It simply comes more slowly, more cumbersomely, to the same conclusions. Nevertheless, the intellect, in its refined evolution, can harness and direct the base instincts in man."

This book was recently sent to us. To our surprise, the very first chapter is dedicated to a small order of Saiva monks living on a far island. It's a bit academic, but it has some rather thought-provoking things to say about Gurudeva's little order, and so we thought to share it.

Gurudeva always loved using the latest technology, whether typesetters, Walkman recorders or Macintoshes. By encouraging his monks to embrace high-end tools, he amplified their abilities to push forward the mission.

As you will see, it worked. Here are excerpts of the chapter:


Abstract:

The Significance of Non-Participatory
Digital Religion
The Saiva Siddhanta Church and the
Development of a Global Hinduism

There are just a small number of websites that have appeared consistently in the top ten during the research period. For example, a search conducted on November 13, 2004, revealed the following five websites in the top ten of the Google rankings: religioustolerance.org. hinduism, bbc.co. uk/religion/religions/Hinduism, hinduism.about.com, hinduismtoday.com, and himalayanacademy.com9 (see Scheifinger 2008: 36). These same websites also appeared in a search conducted almost 12 years later on August 29, 2016. These websites also featured when the intervening searches were conducted.

Especially noteworthy is the fact that not only is it the case that a single group has two of these websites (himalayanacademy.com and hinduismtoday.com) that have such a strong online presence, but that it is the only religious organization among those responsible for the five websites. This organization is the SSC and it, along with details regarding its online presence and its influence within Hinduism, will now be discussed.

This chapter has demonstrated four undeniable facts. These are that the SSC has an incredibly strong online presence (the extent of which has been revealed in the methodology section of this chapter), that it pursues its aims online (evidenced by my discussion of the contents of its websites), that new forms of digital media mean that the internet is now embedded in many people's lives, and that the SSC wields influence within Hinduism which belies its size. I

In combination, these facts give rise to the following claim: that the SSC's online presence is an important factor in the development of the global form of Hinduism discussed in this chapter, and thus it plays a role in the way that Hinduism is perceived by non-Hindus and understood by Hindus themselves.

Despite these points, it is safe to say that it is highly unlikely that this small order of twenty monks living on a Hawaiian island, deriving from a particular Hindu tradition "representing fewer than three million of the world's ... Hindus" (Martin 2001) would be able to have the influence discussed in this chapter if it had not been so successful in its engagement with contemporary digital media. . . .

Aum Namah Shivaya

At Iriavan Temple each month, during the Kirttika Nakshatra, Pravinkumar performs a special homa. Since Iraivan is not yet fully open to pilgrims, it is attended by Satguru and a few monks and devotees. This time, Rajen Manick was there to capture the event with his camera. This Krittika was quite auspicious, being very close to the full moon, with Ardra the next day and Thai Pusam being the next. This is a powerful time for inner and outer worship. Aum.

One of the great boons from the county project to widen Kuamoo Road beyond our rudraksha grove entrance, is a large amount of free earth. They are removing earth about two feet wide and two feet deep from the sides of the current road and replacing with gravel. All that earth is being delivered to us for free (otherwise they'd have to pay a lot to haul it much further away.

Most of the earth is being piled up to help level the area of our San Marga Iraivan Temple parking lot, but a lot is also being delivered near our new maintenance building, where our Siddhidata Kulam is using it mainly to raise the ground level where they use tents to store many items like gas tanks, metal resources, lawn mowers, etc. They are also using it to build new culverts in our back road to channel rain water, and another roadway.

Jai Ganesha!

Last week the aadheenam celebrated Thai Pongal. This annual celebration takes place during the month of Thai (~January), when the Sun enters Capricorn. It recognizes the solar new year and gives respect and thanks to Lord Surya, provider of light and life for our whole solar system.

On this day, the monks of the Siddhidatta Kulam teamed together to make a special lunch for Satguru and the monks. They spent all morning making Channa Masala, Payasam, Vadai, Papadams Curries, Chutney, Sambar and of course, Pongal! To top it off everything was served on traditional banana leaves. Aum Namah Sivaya

When Gurudeva was on his fasting bed 22 years and 2 months ago, the team at Kauai Hospice guided the monks through his end of life journey. Every day for over a month they were on the phone, making Gurudeva's last days comfortable and understandable to those of us who had never been through the process. So selfless and knowledgeable, so compassionate they were.

A few days ago they visited, 28 of them, almost the entire staff. Many had never visited the monastery, so seeing Iraivan Temple completed, visiting the sacred gardens, it was a new and surprising experience.

They had many questions about the Hindu view of Death & Dying. Fortunately, we had prepared a somewhat complete dossier for their visit, taken from past Insights printed in Hinduism Today.

We also personalized it a bit, and had DALL-E paint some images. Our graphic experiments with artificial intelligence continue, and as you will see do not disappoint.

Here is a link to the illustrated 20-page PDF document. If you know anyone going through end-of-life experiences, you can share this PDF with them, as it is rich in knowledge of the process with a focus on Hindu practices and understandings. It also has stories of how ten Great Souls left their bodies, and ten reasons we should never fear death.

https://kauaishindumonastery.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Death-Dying-for-Hospice2.pdf

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"Hindu scriptures speak of three worlds, fourteen worlds and countless worlds. These are different ways to describe Śiva’s infinite creation. Of the fourteen worlds, seven are counted as rising above the Earth and seven as descending below it. Correspondingly, there are fourteen great nerve centers in the physical body, in the astral body and in the body of the soul. These centers are called chakras in Sanskrit, which means “wheels.” These spinning vortices of energy are actually regions of mind power, each one governing certain aspects of the inner man, and together they are the subtle components of people. When inwardly perceived, they are vividly colorful and can be heard. In fact, they are quite noisy, since color, sound and energy are all the same thing in the inner realms. "