Yesterday marked the 60th year since Yogaswami's grand departure. Here at the Aadheenam, the Satguru and the monks observed a small private arati at Yogaswami's shrine before beginning their morning meditation. In Sri Lanka, events were held at Columbuthurai, the Sivathondan Society and Alaveddy.

"Live a disciplined life. Everything else will take care of itself." - Yogaswami

Here are a few photos of last week's Krittika Puja (the final portion) taken by taskforcer Rajen Manick, with a few pilgrims attending.

Jai Gurudeva!

The Gurudeva app has now been released for Android users.

Visit the Google Play Store to find it for your device: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.himalayanacademy.gurudeva

Tandu brought a blossoming bougainvillea into the garden, a marvelous bonsai that is a bit of a show-stopper. It inspired us to go out today and capture the various shapes and species he has nurtured for decades. He placed them near each of the Satgurus, as you will see in the slideshow.

This collection of about 12 plants has added a third level of refinement to Siva's Sacred Gardens. Level one is the wild underbrush, the untouched-by-human-hands thickets, mostly wild guava. Level two is the cultured and cultivated sections, where we cleared, formed paths and ponds, planted thousands of tropical species. Now we have a third level, the bonsais, which are stunningly refined and elegant (and maintenance-intensive).

Enjoy the slideshow.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"As soon as we start on the path to enlightenment, we begin to wonder about our own personal life, and that becomes very important to us, even to the point where sometimes it could make an aspirant rather selfish, because he becomes more interested in himself, his own personal life, than people around him. This is one of the things on the path that really should be avoided, and again a complete change of perspective is needed. We have to change our perspective and begin to realize that beautiful body of the soul which has been growing through the many, many lifetimes that we have spent on the Earth. It’s an indestructible body, and each lifetime it grows a little bit stronger in its inner nerve system. That is called the soul, or the psyche."

Long ago, the first mobile app Himalayan Academy produced was a rather simple concept: random photos and quotes from Gurudeva to keep you inspired. Long had this little app been enjoyed by those who knew about it, and long has it been in need of some updates to its code and interface. Over the last few weeks our team has been rebuilding it and yesterday we released the version for Apple iOS and it is also released for Android.

You can get it for iPhone here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gurudeva/id1031437551

And Android Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.himalayanacademy.gurudeva

Or if you already have it installed, simply update the app.

A few days ago our "Aadheenam Protector-in-Training," Bhairava, celebrated his first birthday. Right now he's living in a small walled-off corner of the new Siddhidata Kulam machine shop building, but soon he'll move into a larger home right next to the building which has been dubbed Bhairava Mandapam.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives an Upadesha in Iraivan Temple on the evening of Mahasivaratri, 2024.

If you have a young child or know someone who does, our highly-illustrated "Lion Sage" book has now been turned into 19 short videos with simple animation and character narration. This is a great teaching tool for young ones, being the mystical teachings found in Gurudeva's "Merging with Siva" brought into language for 3-8 year olds by the monks. The narrated and animated videos are a great achievement, accomplished by Venkatesh in Australia. Now you can have bedtime stories with spiritual content for the little ones, bringing children and their parents together in a spiritual way. Some think it's better to wait until they are older to hear some of the profound ideas, but Gurudeva felt they are never too young to hear of the deeper ideas in life. You can access the videos using this Playlist link. No kids? Forward the link to those who have little ones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEp57jcBSjpbmfg1gmrvOsmEhfh3v_ml

Venkatesh has a six-year-old son, and the two of them have been sharing these stories nightly for several weeks. Their experience is worth sharing:

"Every night when I play the "Lion Sage" bedtime stories for my son, more than him, Im learning more from the stories nowadays. Even as I type this email on my phone, I finished listening to 3 chapters. Though I now feel it could have been done better (after listening to the audio podcasts at bedtime almost three times a week, repeating again and again), I think it is one of the most valuable lessons every kid must listen to.

"Thank you so much for having given me a chance to work on this great book. It was a magical experience for me. The learnings are too deep. I have to pause at times to really get the full message in silence while listening, and then I resume the clips. They are amazing!"

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.

"Gaining stability in any of the chakras above the mūlādhāra avails a certain control over the related chakras below the mūlādhāra. For example, the mūlādhāra has power over the second, fourth and sixth chakras below the base of the spine, the centers of anger, confusion and absence of conscience. Maṇipūra, the third chakra, has power over the mūlādhāra and the same Narakaloka centers in an even more expansive way. The reason center, svādhishṭhāna, chakra two, controls the centers of fear, jealousy and so on. The cognition, seeing-through-worldliness chakra—anāhata—the fourth center above the mūlādhāra, controls the reason chakra and the centers of fear, jealousy, egotistic self-preservation and so on."