When should we do those hard spiritual disciplines that we admire (and secretly fear), the hardships endured by yogis, saints and swamis of memory and legend? Are we ready for the fire of tapas, the tenth niyama? How to get the most of these extraordinary efforts? Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami explains, with his unsurpassed clarity, how and when to use tapas for your spiritual benefit.
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On Sunday in Midland, Texas, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gave a talk accompanied by a Keynote presentation at the Shri Radha Krishna Temple of the Hindu Association of West Texas. Around 80-90 members of this tight-knit community attended the event, emceed by Kulapati Easan Katir, visiting from Davis, California. Afterward, the members performed arati at the beautiful white marble shrines for Radha and Krishna, Ram Pariwar, Venkateswara, Ayyappan, Siva Pariwar and others.

Later in the afternoon we took the two-hour drive north to Lubbock, where Texas Tech University is located. The small Hindu community in this town has a small building that they call the Lubbock Satsang Mandal, donated by a local hotel owner. Bodhinatha gave his presentation again, but tailored for this particular satsang, which contained a contingent from the local interfaith group that was inspired to hear Bodhinatha speak. Here again about 80 people attended, which is excellent as a turn-out for a lecture by a swami at a Hindu temple in the US. The question and answer session here was intense and informative, and the "Ten Questions People Ask About Hinduism" pamphlet was a big hit. It never fails to give Hindus much-needed answers to questions they are often asked (or accused), and non-Hindus the background they find useful to understand their Hindu friends. In places such as West Texas, which has a strong evangelical Christian majority, this knowledge is crucial.

Tropical rains have been flooding the island all night, complete with rare lightening and thunder. The river is running high, but more interestingly the several waterfalls we built recently are now flush with water for the first time! It's exciting to see this. Off we went in the rains this morning, Nikon in hand, to capture the moment and create a slideshow for all our CyberCadets.

The latest issue of Hinduism Today for April/May/June 2012 may be ordered online at www.minimela.com in single copies and in multiple copies at discounted prices. This issue focuses on the Hinduism of Bali where we experience the people and explore the temples of this unique Hindu outpost.

Read about the history of Hindus settled in Bali and the Lontar palm-leaf manuscripts which reflect Bali's connection with ancient India. An expatriate Australian married to a Balinese shares her keen cultural insights, and we tease you with a sampling of the arts, music, painting and dance which permeate Bali's spirit and unique forms.

Dare we speak about Nyepi, the day of silence, when all of Bali comes to a complete stop. And how do Hindus inside and outside of Bali understand their tradition of animal sacrifice? Find out all about this controversial practice in this issue. Discover why Bali's cremation rites reflect a cogent understanding of the soul's passage, and we conclude our Balinese issue with Bali's reflective response to the 2002 terror attacks which stunned the world.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami discusses how our soul matures slowly over time in this issue's Publisher's Desk, and Dada Vaswani gives a presentation on Atma Vidya, the science of the Self.

The Insight section features the traditional wedding with a pictorial summary for Hindus in the diaspora.

And, as usual, read our regular digests on Global Dharma, Quotes & Quips and Digital Dharma. With stunning photos and in-depth articles you don't want to miss this special issue on Bali!

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and Sannyasin Senthilnathaswami are in West Texas. The first event was a satsang at the home of Mrunal and Padmaja Patel in Midland, attended by around 50 devotees from the tight-knit Hindu community here. Mrunal and Kulapati Easan Katir performed a beautiful pada puja to Bodhinatha, followed by a beautiful rendering of Yogaswami's Natchintanai, "Engal Gurunathan." An upadesha followed, including a rich question-and-answer session.

As attendees were enjoying prasadam, the swamis, the Patel family and Easan Katir, who is visiting from Davis, California, for this event, retired to the family's beautiful shrine room for a special ceremony. Following a powerful Mahaganapati puja by Senthilnathaswami, Mrunal, Padmaja and Mrunal's mother, Hansa, read and signed the four vows--Ahimsa, Shakahara, Kailasa Parampara and Dashama Bhaga. These vows bring them into a status of probationary membership in Saiva Siddhanta Church called arulsishya, literally "disciples by grace." They are joining the extended family of Kulapati Easan and Kulamata Sundari Katir; thus Easan was here to sign as witness to their vows. It was a special and auspicious moment for the family, who has been studying the Master Course and preparing for about five years.

In the evening, Bodhinatha was hosted at the home of Dr. Chittur and Mala Ramanathan in Odessa. The Ramanathans are originally from the village of Vaitheeswarankoyil in Tamil Nadu, in Kumbakonam district. The Vaitheeswarar Temple is a famous, powerful temple where Siva resides as the Healer, and many miracles are associated with the temple, including modern-day. The family knew Gurudeva in San Francisco in the early 1980s; their son Karthik's head was personally shaven by Gurudeva in a chudakarana samskara at our temple there. Fond memories of Gurudeva, stories about Vaitheeswarankoyil and another rich (two-hour!) discussion ensued before prasadam was offered in their shrine room and served.

Some late pictures from Bodhinatha's visit to Kerala. These are from February 11 when Bodhinatha gave a talk at the Cherukolpuzha Hindu Matha Parishad's 100th Annual Convention. A special part of it was honoring our artist Suresh Kumar of Kerala for his spectacular work on the "vision paintings" capturing the visions Gurudeva had which led to the founding of Iraivan Temple. You can see his paintings below.<

[Slide your mouse up and down. Click the full screen icon on the right above to see large images of this artwork.]

Today marks a special anniversary. It is the 37th year since Gurudeva had three potent visions of Lord Siva that lead to the founding of Iraivan Temple. There are many ways to start a temple. A committee can do it. A wealthy family also. A devotee honoring his tradition. But the most powerful temples begin as a spiritual vision. They are, in a real sense, not begun by man, but by God through man. That is how Iraivan Temple came to be. It all happened on February 25th, 1975.

We will let Gurudeva tell the story as we honor that moment in time, which is still being made manifest decades later.

"Early on the morning of February 15, 1975, I experienced a three-fold vision of Lord Siva. First, I saw Him walking in the meadow near the sacred Wailua River on our fifty-one acre Aadheenam land. Suddenly His face, composed of billions of tiny, hair-like quantums, was looking into mine. I remember this perfect face of all faces clearly today, and with each year the details of this vision become clearer and clearer. Then He was seated upon a great stone. Astonished, I was seated on His left side. 

Upon reentering earthly consciousness, I felt certain the great stone was somewhere on our land and set about to find it. Guided from within by my satguru, I hired a bulldozer and instructed the driver to follow me as I walked to the north edge of the property that was then a nearly impenetrable tangle of buffalo grass and wild guava. I hacked my way through the jungle southward as the dozer cut a path behind me. After almost half a mile, I sat down to rest near a small tree. 

Though there was no wind, suddenly the tree's leaves shimmered as if in the excitement of communication. I asked the tree, "What is your message?" In reply, my attention was directed to a spot just to the right of where I was sitting. When I pulled back the tall grass, there was a large rock, the self-created Linga on which Lord Siva had sat. 

The bulldozer's trail now led exactly to the sacred stone, surrounded by five smaller boulders. San Marga, the straight or pure path to God, had been created. All this happened on February 15, 1975.