Beautiful flowers!

A book of Natchintanai by Siva Yogaswami: Seventy-three songs full of the wisdom of the Sanatana Dharma and the enlightened vision of one of the most evolved siddha yogis of modern times, Siva Yogaswami.

Since 2009, Natchintanai - 73 Spiritual Songs was available with MylaiSri text for the Tamil. It was not possible to put it online, because that Tamil font would have rendered as gibberish. But now that Tamil has been re-entered in Arial Unicode! Now that it is in unicode, it can be copied and pasted across any web platform or in your email. The publication is also available in the EPUB:

https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/natchintanai-73-spiritual-songs

Dedication:

This song book is dedicated to Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, affectionately known as Gurudeva. He gave us these instructions regarding the heritage of songs from his guru, Siva Yogaswami of Jaffna, Sri Lanka:

"All my followers shall revere as sacred scripture the songs of Sage Yogaswami, called Natchintanai, which entirely embody the teachings of our lineage and command one and all to 'Know thy Self by thy self.' Aum.

They and my noble mathavasis all follow the path of service so vigorously hailed by Asan (spiritual master) Yogaswami in his many Natchintanai hymns which embody our philosophy."

Satguru along with some Pillaiyar Kulam members are on a nine-day trip primarily to continue the process of closing down our publications warehouse space in Kansas City, Missouri. On the way, they stopped in Chicago to visit SSC sishya Malhotra family's renovated home and held satsang there. Now they are in Kansas City coordinating the shipment of all our books on pallets over to Kauai.  

Island School is a private school on Kauai, and the social studies classes have taken a field trip here almost annually during the period of the year when they study world religions. The teachers say the students always enjoy their visit here because it's so different from anywhere else on the island. Pat Gegen is the teacher who brought the students this time. He said, "I really enjoy bringing the students because they are so amazed and it interests them - they leave with a much better understanding and a greater appreciation for the Hindu world." Here are some photos of the group visit a few days ago.

A few days ago we posted about the Bala Alaya events to transfer energy from Kadavul Temple Nandi, Balipeedam and Dhvajastambha flagpole to a miniature wood replica so that craftsmen can soon do upgrade stone work around the bases. Here we present photos of the final event when the shakti was transferred from the kumbha pots into the replicas, just after the priests, Satguru and monks paraded all the kumbhas from the yagasala in Banyan Mandapam into Kadavul Temple in front of the Iraivan Sivalingam.
The shakti is contained in the water inside the kumbha pot, so a small amount of water from each kumbha was poured over each replica accompanied by powerful chanting, followed by decoration, dhupa, deepa, naivedyam. Toward the end, the priests chanted selections from all four Vedas, as is traditional at an event like this. Finally, they honored Satguru and he gave them the traditional tray of gifts and dakshina for their efforts.

Over the past four years, we have been saving and planning for three new large tools for the woodshop: a wide belt sander, a 20" wide jointer and a combination saw/shaper. Recently the last of three tools arrived: the SCM Minimax ST 5SE Saw/Shaper. In this post, we show a few photos of the installation and of the blessing that was held to inaugurate the trio of tools.

Big News! As you may know, soon we will be adding the granite cladding to the bases of the Nandi Mandapam, Bali Pitham and Kodimaram (golden flagpole) in front of Kadavul Temple. This however, requires an important ritual, as is done for any construction that is to take place on an established temple. Beginning on the 11th, priests Kumar Gurukkal and Arul Vishvanathan performed a powerful ceremony which transfers energy out of the temple's Kodimaram, Bali Pitam and Nandi into a bala (small) shrine. This shrine is placed in Kadavul Temple, and mystically serves as these structures for the duration of construction and repairs. The event occurred in two parts over two days. The energies are transferred into kumbha's (water pots) and later from those pots they are transferred to the bala shrine. During the event various pujas occurred around the temple but a majority happened within the yagasala—a temporary structure for housing energies from the temple. The very first ceremony in Kadavul was a traditional puja which gives the priests permission to become temporary proxies for Satguru. As in the Agamas, the elaborate performance of these rituals is performed by the guru himself. They also asked the Kadavul Temple deities for permission to begin. Without this permission the remaining ceremonies would not be fruitful. The next homa was in front of the temple's kodimaram and as soon as it began, unusually heavy rains poured until the moment that it was complete. Perhaps we should warn our neighbors next time. Next, through various pujas and homas the power was transferred out of the large stone Nandi in front of the temple and into Kumbhas. The following day the kumbhas were paraded by Satguru and the monks from the yagasala into Kadavul Temple. There they were used to transfer the power to the bala shrine. This fig wood replica of all three structures now sits in Kadavul in front of the Crystal Lingam and all rites that would normally happen around Nandi are done to the replica instead. Now the silpis can work on Nandi's base without disturbing Kadavul's energies.

Take a moment with each photo experiencing the event as if you were here with us!

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Jai Ganesha!
Today Vatshalan starts his two months of taskforce at Kauai Aadheenam. Vatshalan and his family from the UK have been close devotees of our lineage for many years now. He is taking these two months off from his medical career to experience a little bit of living like a monk, helping with various projects around the monastery. Today he is working in the tomato greenhouse, harvesting our special strain of romas among other varieties .