Today we celebrate Guru Purnima, basking in the blessings of our beloved satguru. Thank you, Bodhinatha!
As our fluctuating lives ensnare us, move us and uplift us,
You, as the Self, remain constant and free.
The Ocean to which all our rivers flow, and the humble depths by which all of them are guided.

"Driven by the guru parampara, we will all reach Siva's feet. Guided by the guru parampara, we will unfold the secrets of the Vedas and Agamas. To be merely touched by the guru parampara, is to inherit the universe. Illumined by the guru parampara, our path will be joyous and our dharmic missions fulfilled."

An Excerpt From the Kularnava Tantra:
When the entire universe is looked on as pervaded by the Sivaguru, what mantra can fail to achieve its purpose for the sishya? When the Satguru is present, no tapas is necessary, neither by fasting nor observances, neither pilgrimage nor purificatory bath. What he speaks is as scripture. Feel one with your guru and not separate from him, and do good to all as your own. Whatever is beneficial to yourself, term that beneficial to him. Whether moving or standing, sleeping or waking, performing japa or making offerings, carry out only the injunctions of your guru with your inner being dwelling in him. As in the vicinity of fire, butter gets melted, so in the proximity of the holy Sivaguru all bad karmas dissolve. As lighted fire burns up all fuel, dry and moist, so the glance of the Sivaguru burns up in a moment the karmas of the sishya. As the heap of cotton blown up by a great storm scatters in all the ten directions, so the heap of negative karmas is blown away by the compassion of the Sivaguru. As darkness is destroyed at the very sight of the lamp, so is ignorance destroyed at the sight of the holy Sivaguru. I tell you now that there can be no Liberation without diksha, initiation. Nor can there be initiation without a preceptor. Hence the dharma, the sakti and the tradition come down the line of masters, called parampara. Without a Satguru all philosophy, knowledge and mantras are fruitless. Him alone the Gods praise who is the Satguru, keeping active what is handed down to him by tradition. Therefore, one should seek with all effort to obtain a preceptor of the unbroken tradition, born of Supreme Siva.

You're probably all wondering how the experiment turned out. What experiment? (Okay, perhaps just a few of you are wondering.) The experiment of traveling for a month in Europe with only an iPad mini and an iPhone. It worked remarkably well, so much so that this editor is finding himself still using the iPad for tasks that don't require a full-fledged computer, even when that computer is sitting nearby on the desk. Sometimes we have to take an extra moment to figure out just how to do something on the iPad that has become second nature on the computer. It's a fun exercise, and sometimes it requires a little exploration and innovation. As the saying goes about necessity... Admittedly, on occasion a new and unusual task for the iPad is a challenge to find a solution for—owing most of the time to this editor's lack of frequent experience using one of these devices—but it's pretty much always possible. This is really a testament to Apple's iOS. It is very simple and easy to use, yet highly functional—and it receives more functionality with every annual update. Not always leaps and bounds, but it inches its way toward being a platform that one can get anything done on. For many, it is already that. We met a retired couple in an airport for whom their iPad is their only device, and it does everything they need. Yes, our needs are at times more complex, but astonishingly not as often as we might have thought. Until the full Adobe Creative Suite is available for iOS, small devices can't do everything for us, such as lay out a magazine article. Desktop and laptop computers will probably always be required for the kind of sophisticated publications work the monastery engages in. And to process photos properly for blog slideshows while on the road we would likely need an iPad with more memory and a specialized app. There probably is such an app—still to be researched.

After two days in the amazingly beautiful and energetic city of Paris, we took the long flight to Chicago, working on TAKA posts for several hours (it's a science during travel of this intensity to find small islands of time for communications back home).

What a welcome we received in Chicago, met by Jigisha Patel and her mother, Hansa, flowers in hand, giant smiles and kind words, making us feel instantly at home. Then a few minutes later came Gaurav and Ripla (and of course Aran) Malhotra, showering us with greetings. Then off to our downtown hermitage for a few minutes rest before dinner.

Dinner was not a trivial affair, but a banquet held at Jigisha's home. Hansa and Champak were there, and the Malhotras, along with Satya and Savitri Palani (who had come hundreds of miles from Fort Madison, Iowa, to be there) and some close friends and neighbors. The swamis gave a short talk, not a memorable one as the travel exhaustion factor was high and it was wee-hours-of-the-morning in Paris time (Senthilnathaswami officially declared his brain "off line").

But dinner woke us up. What a marvelous collection of luscious dishes, especially appreciated after so many weeks on the road, away from home cooked meals and those things, what are they called, vegetables? Check out two photos of the feast in our slideshow. Thank you, Jigisha and Hansa, for this delightful, warm and nutritious Gujarati welcome to Chicago and to America.

The days in Chicago were such a boon. Time to rest, time to chat with one another, time to walk the streets of the Windy City. Summar was in full force, with locals and tourists out on the streets in droves, enjoying the heat and sun after a late break in winter weather, to which must be added The Taste of Chicago happening not far from our hotel, along with rock bands from around the country performing in every venue in the city. Chicago was bustling.

Continuing our down time, we wandered the halls of the famed Art Institute with our hosts, seeing for the first time some treasured canvases of a bevy of Impressionists--Van Gogh (his startling self-portrait has to be seen in person for full appreciation), Monet, Gauguin, Degas, Cézanne, Renoir, Seurat, Pissarro, Toulouse-Lautrec and more--many of them uncovered by glass.

But the real fun was to be found in the museum's Asian Gallery, filled with 1000-year-old Ganeshas, stone lingas, Muruga on His peacock, Natarajas and more Ganeshas. It was a delight so see the artistry that craftsmen achieved in those days. We were so drawn to the exquisite details that more than once a docent gently invited us to step away from the sculptures.

We took a boat ride along the Chicago River, a 90-minute passage through some of America's most important, and grand, architecture. We learned that this dense collection of massive and creative buildings was made possible by the 1871 Chicago Fire, which devastated the all-wood city (even the bridges were wooden in those days) opening the land to be resettled by America's foremost builders and designers.

Interestingly, the fire led Chicago to fight hard for the 1893 World's Fair in a winning bid to let the globe know it had recovered, and that led, of course, to Swami Vivekananda's speeches, and that led to his stop-over in Sri Lanka, and that led to a 19-year-old Yogaswami's attending his bold lecture, and that led to his thinking about the life of a Hindu monk, and…..you get the idea. Thank you, Chicago!

Work is progressing well on the roof stones for Nandi Mandapam as these lotus petal designs, also called kamalam, near completion.

Dr. Newton Kondaveti and his wife Dr. Lakshmi are visiting Hawaii from Hyderabad, India, on their way to USA mainland. They learned about our Lemurian Scrolls book many years ago and have wanted to visit for a long time. They feel a special connection with our grounds. They have a center in Hyderabad to research past lives, laws of karma and they are strong promoters of vegetarianism and respect for animals.

Today the monks begin their next lunar phase. A morning Siva homa was held in Kaduval temple, with offernings of ghee and flowers to the inner worlds. Through the fire, written prayers to the devas and mahadevas are burned. Bodhinatha gave an upadesha afterwards, discussing the art of being consistent in our everyday lives as it helps us to better understand our experiences.

Off to Paris

After a productive and delightful five days racing here and there on the autobahn in Germany and the Netherlands, our peripatetic swamis boarded the high-speed train from Cologne to Paris, the City of Light (a name it owes first to its fame as a center of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment, and later to its early adoption of street lighting.) An aside: The interesting aspect of this comfortable ride was that the tracks on this route were precisely aligned and completely smooth in Germany, utterly wonky in Belgium (mandating much slower speeds) and then quite smooth again in France. There are so many little, interesting experiences like this that tell the tale of the varied cultures, mentalities and landscapes throughout this historical continent.

To put our journey into perspective, we offer a short comparison of the US with Europe. Europe's population is 503,492,041 whereas the US' is 316,250,000. Europe's area is just under 4,000,000 square miles while the US has 3,794,000. Class dismissed.

On Thursday morning we trudged back to the area known as Gare du Nord (North Station), where we had arrived the day before. This was one of the largest, most complex train stations we had seen, comparable to the main one in Berlin. But unlike Berlin, where the modern, city-like station is extremely well organized, offering abundant and clear signage to guide travelers up and down multiple rows of escalators to the correct platforms, this station in Paris seemed to have been built in another era, designed from a completely different perspective. A maze of corridors, sparse and inadequate signage and the rare and apathetic (at best) information counter staff made it a veritable adventure just to find the local train to Gretz-Armainvilliers, a quaint town 45 minutes away in the suburbs where the Ramakrishna Mission's Centre Védantique is located. 

Upon arriving in Gretz, the adventure was not over. We learned as we disembarked the train that the swami we had come to visit had just raced to Paris for the day. Perhaps we traveled in passing trains? Once that was resolved (he was to adjust his plans and meet us a couple of hours later), we awaited our ride to the center.

The Centre Védantique outside Paris was established in 1948, we learned, and has some 13 acres of land, including pastures for grazing cows and four beehives, the original mansion and some newer residential facilities for guests and residents. Swami Veetamohananda, originally from Bengal, is the resident administrator and primary teacher here. An ambitious program of weekly pujas, satsangs and classes, along with monthly and seasonal residential learning programs is offered. 

It was revealing to learn from Swami about the activities here, the many French participants (more than Indian Hindus), the interfaith work they are doing, the daily regimen of the residents, his experience and knowledge of the immigrant Hindu communities in the country. Our Vivekananda issue of Hinduism Today was stacked in the bookshop, and the swamis told us they read each issue avidly (and have a complete set in the library).

After returning to Paris and navigating our way back out of Gare du Nord (almost as formidable a project as the inward journey), we joined a group of local Hindu leaders who had gathered at Saravanaa Bhavan, an Indian restaurant near the station, to meet us for our article interview. The immensely insightful and adept Armel Boueyguet organized the meeting for us, bringing together representatives from the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, the World Saiva Council and the Chinmaya Mission. 

The conversation that ensued was highly informative, giving insights into the situation of the Bangladeshi Hindu refugees in this country (there are large groups of them in other nearby countries, too), the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, the opportunities they have been presented with and the challenges they face.

Anil Badhwar, his wife and two grown daughters had driven all the way from Oslo, Norway, to be with us for these hours, and Martine Thom took the train from her home to join us again. Our conversations, over tea, were wonderful, after not seeing the family since the 2001 Innersearch.

With the interviews concluded, we all walked together to the Sri Manika Vinayakar Alayam, the Ganesha temple in the same neighborhood that puts on the famous annual chariot parade. This temple, originally established in 1958 and now at its third location, was much humbler than we expected. The bottom story of a typical building on the street and a simple sign out front were all there was to it. But the vibration was beautiful, the young Adisaiva priests (four of them in full priestly garb) from Tamil Nadu caring so lovingly for the single-tusked Lord. Darshan and the full round of evening aratis at all the shrines was a treat, along with conversations with the priests and others who had joined us. 

Senthilnathaswami took the opportunity to interview Jeyarathnam, who currently runs the temple. In this interview we discovered one of the most surprising facts of all: in the greater Paris area, there are 200,000 Sri Lankan Hindu immigrants, with another 100,000 estimated throughout France. This is much larger than the populations we learned of in Switzerland (40,000) and Germany (50-60,000). This group in France faces greater challenges, economic and social, compared with their neighbors to the East. 

Desperate for some exercise after hours of sitting in interviews, in cars and on trains, we embarked on a major walk through the city. It's an intense place, with more people milling about and hanging out in the public spaces than any city we have ever been in. They are not just running from Point A to Point B,as in New York, they are talking and relaxing and smoking (lots of that we discovered, throughout Europe. We are now on a 12-step nicotine withdrawal program.) 

Our walk took us to Notre Dame cathedral where there was a Mass underway, complete with organ music and ancient chanting. It was a rare joy to see worship happening in this remarkable Catholic jewel. Yes, the tourists outnumbered the prayerful in the pews, but the rites were beautiful to behold.

This was the final stop of our European adventure, and we must say that the mission was accomplished--in spades. many hours of interview audio is now on its way to a service in India to be transcribed, and in the next three months the just-returned swamis will be editing, selecting photos, writing and explaining the fascinating story of Hinduism in Continental Europe, a story that has never been told before and whose time has come. Stay tuned for the story in the January/February/March 2014 edition of Hinduism Today! 

Off now to Chicago, the Windy City.