Since 1967 our Innersearch Travel-Study Programs have been among the most joyous of our sharings together. Travel does that: opens mind and heart, sprouts new friendships, lifts the spirit so we can soar within without the usual obstructions, excuses and distractions.

Thus it gives us joy to invite you to join Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and his monks for an Innersearch Travel-Study Program, July 2-14, 2014, on the resplendent island of Mauritius, near the southern tip of Africa in the Indian Ocean. How beautiful is this island? After he visited the remote island nation in 1896, about half again the size of Kauai, Mark Twain quoted an islander as saying: "Mauritius was made first and then heaven; and heaven was copied after Mauritius."

This will be our first Innersearch program to Mauritius, one of precious few in the world that has a majority Hindu population, home to hundreds of Saiva Siddhanta Church members and Himalayan Academy students, as well as our Saiva Dharmashala and Spiritual Park, the only Saiva Siddhanta Church center outside of Kauai.

Innersearches happen only every few years. So it is a rare opportunity to spend time (not just a few hours but days and weeks) with the monks of Kauai Aadheenam while attending classes with Satguru Bodhinatha. You can look forward to life-long friendships with others on the path.

Gurudeva understood the importance of getting away from our day to day routines and that going on Innersearch is a transformative experience and a chance for spiritual change in our lives:

"What is your goal in this life? Is your goal to sit and wallow in the emotions? Is it to memorize a lot of things that different people have said so you can quote from them? Or is your goal in life to find first your Infinite Being within yourself? If you could only once gain just a glimmer of your true Being--the spiritual Being flowing through the mind which you always thought was you. Instead, you have things that you have to do that you haven't done, things that you will do, and things that you will not do, things that you haven't made up your mind to do as yet and things you thought you would like to do but decided you wouldn't do. All of this is going on as a process within yourself, and it keeps you nicely confused.

"Life in the technological age is a life of constant work, constant activity, all of the time. So, we tend to set religion aside just when we need it the most. We have to rely on our religion to keep a balance in our life. It is a proven fact that religious people can cope with stress and strain better than nonreligious people. The answer to stress is not to take a pill to be able to relax. The answer is not to give up the temple, not to give up the culture, not to give up the scriptures which put everything into perspective, not to give up the art of meditation and the practices of yoga. Spiritual things you must understand with your heart, with your feeling. Feeling and thinking, working together, give you that deep understanding that you need to cognize the wisdom of the spirit.

"In our religious life, one of the most fulfilling aspects is pilgrimage. We have a joy in looking forward to a spiritual journey, and we experience a contentment while on our pilgrimage and later bask in the glowing aftermath.

"The Hindu does not have the feeling of having to take a vacation to 'get away from it all.' We don't lead a life of mental confusions, religious contradictions and the frustrations that result from modern hurried living. We lead a moderate life, a religious life. In living a moderate life, we then look at our pilgrimage as a special moment, a cherished time of setting ordinary concerns aside and giving full stage to our religious longings. It is a time to take problems and prayers to our personal God."

Click here to visit our Innersearch information page for more details

Click here for more photos and report of Satguru Bodhinatha's visit to Mauritius, part 5

Click here for more photos and report of visit to our Spiritual Park where Satguru Bodhinatha gave dikshas and sishyas took vows including brahmacharya vratas.

Click here for more photos and report of the rest of Aloha Dinner including skit by the youth

Yesterday the Monks all joined together to uncrate and move the 5 satgurus and the 3 pithams which have recently arrived at the Iraivan Temple site. They will eventually be placed along the Path of the satgurus as it is landscaped within the next few years. For now the gurus are being temporarily placed in the Swayabhu Lingam square. The monks also uncrated the elephants which will ultimately be placed upon the main stairs leading up to the temple entrance. After years of carving and dedicated work, the satgurus are truly a site to behold as they sit in silence around the lingam.

About seven years ago we set out to have our main satgurus carved in India in Black granite. Our Selvanathansthapati advised that the murthis be 120% of human size, which is done traditionally to achieve a sense of divinity. He also designed eight Chola-style peedams on which the gurus will all sit, each a different style, and also each with a special symbol of Siva. Nataraja for Gurudeva, Tiruvadi for Yogaswami, Trimurthi for Bodhinatha, etc. See the map in the slideshow for the others.

Work began thanks to generous patrons who intuited the importance of the Satgurus in our sacred gardens. It was slow, and a couple of years back they statues were delivered to our worksite in Bangalore, from the site in Mahabalipuram where they were carved.

But our team there immediately saw there was room for refinement and perfection, and they went to work for more than a year to make the important changes. It was a long process.

We now have five of the statues and three of the pidam bases on the monastery grounds. The senior swamis decided to place them temporarily out near the Source of Envisionment, where Siva sat in Gurudeva's 1975 all-important vision.

Eventually, they will be placed around the Path of the Satgurus, a series of seven ponds, each representing a chakra, and pilgrims will walk that delightful 1400-foot path and meet each Guru in turn, starting with Maharishi Nandinatha and ending with Satguru Bodhiantha Veylanswami. See the map for the positions they will finally take.

Gurudeva has given a succinct introduction to the Nandinatha Satgurus in Dancing with Siva:

What Is the Lofty Kailasa Parampara?
Sloka 152
The Kailasa Parampara is a millennia-old guru lineage of the Nandin.tha Sampradaya. In this century it was embodied by Sage Yogaswami, who ordained me in Sri Lanka in 1949 to carry on the venerable tradition. Aum. bhashya

The authenticity of Hindu teachings is perpetuated by lineages, parampara, passed from gurus to their successors through ordination. The Kailasa Parampara extends back to, and far beyond, Maharishi Nandinatha. Our branch of this parampara is the line of Rishi Tirumular (ca 200 bce), of which the first known satguru in recent history was the Rishi from the Himalayas (ca 1770–1840). From him the power was passed to Siddha Kadaitswami of Bangalore (1804–1891), then to Satguru Chellappaswami (1840–1915), then to Sage Yogaswami (1872–1964) of Sri Lanka, and finally to myself, Sivaya Subramuniya swami (1927–). The Tirumantiram states, “Thus expounding, I bore His word down Kailasa’s unchanging path—the word of Him, the eternal, the truth effulgent, the limitless great, Nandinatha, the joyous one, He of the blissful dance that all impurity dispels.” Aum Namasivaya

Click here for more photos and report of Aloha Dinner part one

The rust-colored flag was raised today to begin the Jivana Ritau, fall season in the North, spring season in the South. Following our tradition on TAKA we bring you a vision of this season with a summary from Bodhinatha and excerpts from the Saiva Dharma Shastras (get a copy or read on line).

Nature
Gurudeva describes this season as a natural time for work, that it is a physical time, a time of exercise and exertion in the physical world, a magnetic time for action and willpower.

The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past, finishing jobs already started.

It is a natural time for caring for the practical details of the external world including the environment.

Special Sadhanas
There are a number of special sadhanas for the Jivana Ritau.

The main study is the Nandinatha Sutras both at home and at the Mission Satsang. Specifically go through  the sutras as well as review your daily sadhanas looking for the ones that have been neglected or totally ignored. Strive to ma ke improvements in those areas. Bring up to date all vratas and sadhanas in which you have gotten behind.

The  Jivana Ritau is the season we emphasize culture. Thus it is a time for putting more emphasis on teaching the traditional 64 kalas to children, for learning new Natchintanai songs of  Satguru Yogaswami and for improving our Sanskrit puja chants.

It is also the time for honoring those in the vanaprastha asrama including asking them to share their wisdom.

112 Introduction
Beginning with Hindu New Year in mid-April, three seasons of the year divide our activities into three great needs of humankind--the learning of scripture in the first season, Nartana Ritau; the living of culture in the second season, Jivana Ritau; and the meditating on Siva in the third season, Moksha Ritau. Thus we are constantly reminded that our life is Siva's life and our path to Him is through study, sadhana and realization. In ritau one, we teach the philosophy; in ritau two, we teach the culture; and in ritau three, we teach meditation.

117 The Second Season: Jivana Ritau
During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December, Living with Siva: Hinduism's Contemporary Culture is the primary text. The key word of this season is work. The colors are rust, copper-maroon and all shades of red--rust for earthy preservation, copper-maroon for fulfillment and red for physical energy. The Aadheenam's 60-foot flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags. This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life's elder advisor stage. The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past. Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world. Practicality is a word much used this season. In the monasteries and the missions, there is a big push on studying the sutras of Living with Siva and these Saiva Dharma Shastras. The format of the mission satsanga changes into one that in fact helps everyone live and breathe with Lord Siva through personal adjustment to the aphorisms of Living with Siva, which define tradition, culture and protocol. Gurukulams are established or renewed to teach the 64 kalas for boys and girls. All work hard to perfect and strengthen Saivite culture in the life of each member. Kulamatas, grihinis and their daughters should think ahead and make plans to send talented children to dancing, singing and art schools for special courses, and ponder ways to make this possible through scholarships and special funds. It is a time of building and repairing and caring for what has been built, planted or created in any realm of life. It is a physical time, of exercise and exertion in the Bhuloka, a magnetic time for action and willpower, of finishing all jobs started since the first ritau. On the farm, there is harvesting of the land's fruits as we celebrate abundance. In the missions during Jivana Ritau, the shishyas can form tirukuttams, and thereby visit students' homes, see how they live and meet their families.

Over the retreat, Arumuganathaswami and Sadhaka Jayanatha took a short, two-day trip to Honolulu. They did so, to take a HACCP certification course at the University of Hawaii. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, and is a systematic preventive approach to food safety. This will make it easier to move forward with the monastery's Noni juicing project. The two monks had time to explore the campus and drive up to the Pali lookout which was sporting 50-60mph winds.

Click here for more photos of day one--arrival at airport