Madhavi Meets Bodhinatha
Madhavi (Rene Lafaurie) is a exponent of Vaastu teachings and was blessed by Ganapati Sthapti who took her as his God Daughter. Today Madhavi is working to preserve the heritage of Vaastu both in India and USA. She founder of the Vaastu Emporium in Ashland, Oregon. This is her second visit. She came years ago with Ganapati Sthapati. Yesterday she met with Bodhinatha.
Bi-Weekly Singing Satsang at the Aadheenam
Every two weeks Sannyasin Brahmanathaswami meets with our local members who are interested in sacred music and together they practice singing and learning songs. The scope of the session covers Natchintanai, simple bhajans, stotrams, chants, invocations and long songs. We also do some breathing work and a few sangeetam exercises to help improve our voices. Fourteen-year-old Deepanjali Mardemootoo joined us. She said she was to shy to sing for us, but with a little encouragement we had her even leading our group. She has excellent pitch and a very clear voice.
One of our goals is to help empower everyone to feel confident to sing and lead. We really are not concerned how perfect it is, or if you have the exact tune right. The goal is to cultivate singing to the Gods as a personal sadhana, to include everyone in our gatherings. It’s not about entertainment, it is about bhakti-devotion. We work hard on visualizing what we are singing. Today swami introduced the group to this lovely prayer to Lord Siva.
Sivam, Sivakaram Shaantam
Sivaatmanam Sivo’ottaam
Sivamarga Praneytaram
Pranadoshmi, Sadaasivam
And we started work on another Natchintanai “Shaantam Upa Shaantam”
Swamis' Visit to Midland, Texas
On Monday and Tuesday, Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami visited West Texas, invited by the Mrunal and Padmaja Patel family, who are Master Course students.
The premier event was a satsang attended by about 60 people in the Midland-Odessa area's small Hindu community. Topics ranged from the most spiritual to the most earthy, this being a small minority community within the most thickly conservative, evangelical Christian region of the country. Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami's upadesha was profound, and the questions and answers engaging for one and all.
The following morning was Chitra nakshatra, so our swamis went again to the Patel home to perform pada puja for Gurudeva. The vibration created by the puja was not unlike that at Gurudeva's shrine in Kadavul Temple on Kauai after such a puja!
Twitter Updates for 2012-08-21
- TV Asia is interviewing Sadasivanathaswami before the book signing starts in Houston http://t.co/OdCmEPLY #
- Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami are on their way to Houston now. We have a book signing for The Guru Chronicles tonight. #
- Since it is chitra nakshatra, our swamis performed Gurudeva pada puja in Midland this morning. #
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A Hike Around Lake Chabot
After the satsang with the members and students in San Jose, Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami went with a few to Lake Chabot in the East Bay Regional Parks District for a hike. It was a beautiful day, sunny, cool, and the tell-tale delicious fragrances of Northern California forest delighted the olfactory senses as we all enjoyed a fun, relaxing, informal time together.
Satsang in San Jose
On Sunday morning our traveling swamis had satsang with our members and students who live in the Bay Area (and one who came up from LA!). Hotranatha Ajaya conducted a beautiful pada puja for Bodhinatha, assisted by his son-in-law Sivaram and grandson Arunesh. After all sang "Engal Gurunathan" together and Sadasivanathaswami shared news from the monastery, we presented a cake baked by Devika in honor of Hotranatha's and Punita's 40th wedding anniversary, which was the previous day. It was a precious time for everyone to be together and enjoy a formal visit with the traveling swamis.
Chitra Puja, August 21
Jai Gurudeva!
Twitter Updates for 2012-08-20
- Satsang with our swamis at the home of Mrunal and Padmaja Patel in Midland tonight #
- It's official. One of our swamis has just been dubbed "Texas Swami." #
- Howdy y'all. Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami fly to Texas today after a successful, productive visit to California. #
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The Guru Chronicles Book Signing in San Jose
On Friday night, Sadasivanathaswami and Senthilnathaswami had a book signing for The Guru Chronicles at Barnes and Noble Books in San Jose. Sadasivanathaswami spoke about the book and told a few stories not in the book, engaging an audience of about 35 people. (The store was quite pleased with the turn-out.) At least two dozen books were signed. The event was a great success.
From Our Gurus' Teachings
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