Chapter 5§
Circles of Association
शिवमण्डल
XPANDING OUT FROM THE INFINITE SOURCE, ŚAIVA SIDDHĀNTA CHURCH HAS MYRIAD ASSOCIATIONS WITH THOUSANDS OF INDIVIDUALS. THIS SPIRITUAL NETWORK CAN BE VISUALIZED AS A MAṆḌALA, A MYSTIC DIAGRAM OF FOURTEEN CONCENTRIC CIRCLES, AVARAṆA, WITH THE DIVINE ABSOLUTE AT THE CENTER AND THE GRAND BODY OF ALL HINDUS AT THE PERIMETER. WE HUMBLY SERVE ALL WHO ASPIRE TO ATTAIN THE BEYOND OF THE BEYOND.§
66 ¶At the center of our grand maṇḍala of ministers, missionaries, members, friends and associates is Śiva Peruman, the Supreme God, extolled in the Vedas in all three perfections. §
The Spiritual Preceptor and His Maṭhavāsis§
67 ¶The first circle surrounding Lord Śiva consists of the paramparā gurus and me, traditionally seated upon the Kailāsa Pīṭham due to the grace of my satguru, Āsān Yogaswāmī, vowed to uphold the strict traditions when others are reluctant to do so for themselves, to hold the center of all, the Self within, as Kauai Aadheenam’s Guru Mahāsannidhānam, hereditary preceptor of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. The second circle, in the significant year 1995, is our noble Śaiva Siddhānta Yoga Order, eleven sannyāsins who have been trained for the last twenty to thirty years and whose only mission is to fulfill their guru’s vision as clearly outlined in these Śaiva Dharma Śāstras. The third circle in this maṇḍala is a group of fifteen or more disciplined yogīs and sādhakas, all in training to receive holy orders of sannyāsa either early in life or after age seventy-two. §
Our Patriarchs Initiates and Novitiates§
68 ¶The Śrī Sannidhānam and his monastics are surrounded by over 54 kulapatis, the fourth circle, heads of extended families, men who have been tested and proven worthy and who take pride in seeing that every direction and nuance from their guru manifests for the benefit of the family members under their care. Each kulapati finds strength and support in his wife, kulamātā, making over 108 dedicated heads of extended families in all. Surrounding these 54 exemplary couples is circle five: approximately 350 other initiates and novitiates preparing for dīkshā, each of whom tithes monthly and fulfills to the best of his or her ability the 365 Nandinātha Sūtras. Mentioned thus far are the five main circles, pañchāvaraṇa, of our fellowship.§
Master Course Students and Book Readers§
69 ¶The sixth circle of our international extended family is composed of all serious students of The Master Course, the Saivite Hindu Religion course and our other texts. There are at any one time thousands of children and youth studying Level One, and roughly 200 older youth and adults pursuing The Master Course Correspondence Study. In this circle we also include several thousand Tamil families who were personal devotees of Paramaguru Yogaswāmī and who revere Kauai Aadheenam as their spiritual nucleus, the site of the Kailāsa Pīṭham. §
Circle 7: Hindu Leaders; Parliamentarians§
70 ¶The seventh circle consists of Hindu religious leaders and Hindu parliamentarians. This is an important group of kindred spiritual souls who have associated themselves with us and our fellowship for many years. There are 1,008 and more of them, leaders of sampradāyas, independent yogīs and wandering sādhus, swāmīs and Śivāchāryas, mystics, Hindu theologians, heads of maṭhas and āśramas, founders of powerful, often historic, institutions. In this group are also a special breed of political leaders—whether in Malaysia or India, Southeast Asia, Africa or on the Continent—who understand that theirs is, at heart, a spiritual task and who work with Śaiva Siddhānta Church for the betterment of their citizens, for the resolution of social and governmental difficulties, for the assurance of protection of religious rights and for harmony in their nation. §
Temple Stewards; All Faith Leaders§
71 ¶The eighth circle in the maṇḍala is a group of temples and their trustees and managers, founders and counselors and elders who rely on my Kailāsa Pīṭham for direction, for Deity mūrtis, for advice in design and building of temples. This circle also includes yoga schools, āśramas, new age groups and more. There are a few thousand such key individuals, heading up sacred places in the United States and Canada, Fiji, Germany, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and India. From time to time, when invited, we are involved in the growing ecumenical movement. In this eighth circle, we are in touch with an extraordinary group of spiritual leaders of other religions, from the Dalai Lama to Muslim imams and Christian leaders, chiefs of indigenous peoples and New Age channelers. At global gatherings we are in communication with heads of all the major religions of the world as one of three Presidents of the Hindu Faith appointed by the Parliament of the World’s Religions Centenary Conference in Chicago in September, 1993. This is an exclusive group, one that is most involved and influential in changing human consciousness and promoting peace, harmony, understanding toward resolution through negotiation and arbitration, all based on ethical principles and spiritual values toward a new humanity—a one world, a one God, a one race, the human race. We experienced their spirit in the Global Forum high-level meeting in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in the summer of 1991 where artistic, media, political and religious leaders gathered to give a balancing dimension to less enlightened political leaders who gathered separately in an unprecedented all-nation conference on the state of the planet. Speaking briefly with US-Vice-President-to-be Al Gore, US senators and heads of several nations, we could see that problems were well-defined and solutions forthcoming. §
Five-armed is He, elephant-faced with tusks protruding, crescent-shaped, son of Śiva, wisdom’s flower, in heart enshrined, His feet I praise.§
TIRUMANTIRAM INV. TO VINĀYAKA. TM§
Circle 9: Friends In Dharma§
72 ¶Next is a circle of sevakas and thondars, selfless workers, mature and competent souls, men and women, professional and amateur, who give of their time and talents for a thousand projects. They may be carpenters, journalists or businessmen, accountants and attorneys, craftsmen, seamstresses who sew the vestments for the Gods, or housewives who type in manuscripts before publication. They may be editors or poets, publication experts, ad salesmen for our HINDUISM TODAY monthly magazine, the multi-talented staff managing printing or distribution of HINDUISM TODAY in nearly a dozen countries, printers and computer programmers, historians helping with some obscure fact, linguists translating verses, mechanics and heavy-equipment operators, cooks and flower pickers, architects and landscape designers preparing pilgrimage sites. They may be photographers or mail-stuffers, astrologers or śāstrīs, āyurveda masters, endowment and financial advisors, travel agents working for a budget fare, Macintosh afficionados or artists capturing spirituality in sacred imagery, Vedic and Āgamic scholars, Sanskṛitists or knowers of mystical literature in any of India’s many languages, promoters and supporters of culture and tradition, missionaries working in the estates among the poor, academics, precious-metal workers or electricians, stone carvers or e-mail experts, video professionals or gardeners who come to work each week on the monastery grounds. They may be doctors or dentists offering their services free of charge to the monks, interfaith leaders cooperating in a United Nations publication, botanists sharing plants gathered in a South American jungle to be planted at the San Mārga Iraivan Temple gardens. There are at any one time 5,000 or more of these individuals. Their inspirations are an important part of the Church’s outreach and year-by-year accomplishments. §
Circle 10: Supporters and Sympathizers§
73 ¶Circle ten is a group of dedicated souls who, in more distant ways, are studying and applying to their lives our teachings, public courses and books. In 1973 our Śaivite Śāstras prophesied such support in verse 483, “Little by little, the friends of Śaivism grew in abundance, and great support was given to the monasteries, as such logical explanations of religious practice were made available through many sources to the non-Śaivite public. These were glorious years, and the years ahead are to be glorious too.” There are uncounted thousands of these individuals in countries around the world, attending satsaṅga, communicating with missions and members, visiting our centers, meeting with us when we travel, communicating via correspondence and electronic mail, molding their lives around our ancient enlightenment teachings. They may encounter us at a parade in Germany, a festival in Switzerland or a temple opening in Fiji. They may see us quickly at a school in London, a mandira in Durban or a koyil in Colombo. They may visit Kauai Aadheenam to see the Iraivan Sphaṭika Śivaliṅga, or meet us at a conference. In this tenth circle, we include the families of our maṭhavāsis who send cookies during the holidays, and the many people who are in touch by personal correspondence in dozens of nations. §
Circle 11: Readers of Our Books§
74 ¶The eleventh and next larger circle is composed of the dedicated readers of our religious books. They are serious about their spiritual life, eager to know more about dharma, having found an expression of its purest path in Loving Gaṇeśa, Dancing with Śiva, Living and Merging with Śiva, and our many other books and courses in many languages, pamphlets, posters, videos, World Wide Web publications, sacred art and more. There are an estimated 100,000 in this widening circle. Central among them are lifetime HINDUISM TODAY subscribers, called the Renaissance Circle or Rājasaṅga, an unusually committed and talented team of men and women in many nations.§
Circle 12: HINDUISM TODAY Readers§
75 ¶Beyond these lies the twelfth and next largest circle, lovers of Sanātana Dharma who read HINDUISM TODAY. As of March 1994, there were an estimated 250,000 readers in 120 nations. Gurus, heads of āśramas, institutions and libraries have informed us that as many as 25 to 100 or more people read a single issue and wear its pages to tatters before the next arrives. This is a community of leaders, followers and institutions unparalleled in the world, a diverse, well-educated, widely dispersed “family” of Hindus, along with seekers of other faiths who love and support, admire and follow the Hindu way, the Hindu path, the Hindu vision of One God, One World. §
Circle 13: Distant Bhaktas And Devotees§
76 ¶Beyond this lies the thirteenth circle, a group of people, several million, who distantly know of us and respect our service. Many keep my picture in their shrine room or think of us in times of need and write or call occasionally. They may hear about HINDUISM TODAY on a local radio program, see some of us on a television newscast or in a local or national newsmagazine article, or watch a video circulating in Asian or European communities. This circle includes devout seekers who attend the temples, participate in the festivals and pilgrimage to the holy tīrthas we frequent or have helped establish in many countries. §
These Lords who, it is said, on the pure path, attend to the various duties deriving from a higher realm of māyā are at the prow of the effects of the higher realm of māyā.§
MṚIGENDRA ĀGAMA JÑĀNA PĀDA 13.A.5. MA, 289§
Hindus Throughout the World§
77 ¶The fourteenth and largest circle is the entire family of Hindus worldwide, nearly a billion souls of a hundred thousand sampradāyas. It is this group, and truth-seekers beyond it, that constitute the fullest extent of our global family. §
About the Following Chapter§
78 ¶We have a pilgrimage for you in the chapter to come. It is to our center of centers, Kauai Aadheenam, a spectacular sanctuary resting on the 30-mile-wide island Kauai, in the Hawaiian Island chain, the most remote land mass on earth, far away from congested cities, in a real jungle, not a concrete one. Kauai Aadheenam is 3,800 miles from Tokyo in the West, 2,750 miles from San Francisco in the East, 2, 200 miles from Alaska in the North, 4,200 miles from Australia in the South, a mere 102 miles from the international airport in Honolulu and only 4.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Making a pilgrimage to Kauai’s Hindu Monastery is a life-changing experience, that is true. Many have testified how and why they were never, ever the same after their first visit and how they now see God, soul and world differently from ever before. The next chapter will explain our “nine realms” of nature’s forests, lakes, river, waterfalls, streams and ponds: life in an overgrown jungle, life fighting for life, the birds, the colorful fish and memory-provoking shrines and the Iraivan moksha koyil that dominates all life itself in its pristine glory, now alive in dreams of architects and devotees, later to manifest in crystalline stone. §
The hands are alike but in their work they differ. So also, two cows, offspring of a single mother, may yet give differing yields of milk. Even twins are not the same in strength, or kinsmen in bounty. §
Ṛig Veda 10.117.9. VE, 851§
In how many parts was He transformed when they cut the Purusha in pieces? What did His mouth become? What His arms, what His thighs, what His feet? His mouth then became the brāhmaṇa, from the arms the rājanya was made, the vaiśya from the thighs, from the feet the śūdra came forth.§
To the strong Rudra bring we these, our songs of praise, to Him the Lord of heroes, He with braided hair, that it be well with our cattle and our men, that in this village all be healthy and well fed.§
Ṛig Veda 1.114.1. RvG vol. 1, 161§
Instill in us a wholesome, happy mind, with goodwill and understanding. Then shall we ever delight in your friendship like cows who gladly rejoice in meadows green. This is my joyful message.§
Ṛig Veda 10.25.1. VE, 302§
He is the never-created creator of all: He knows all. He is pure consciousness, the creator of time, all-powerful, all-knowing. He is the Lord of the soul and of nature and of the three conditions of nature. From Him comes the transmigration of life and liberation, bondage in time and freedom in eternity.§
Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, SvetU 6.16. UpM, 96§
All this universe is in the glory of God, of Śiva, the God of love. The heads and faces of men are His own, and He is in the hearts of all.§
Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, SvetU 3.11. UpM, 90§
God is, in truth, the whole universe: what was, what is and what beyond shall ever be. He is the God of life immortal and of all life that lives by food. His hands and feet are everywhere. He has heads and mouths everywhere. He sees all, He hears all. He is in all, and He Is.§
Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, SvetU 3.15–16. UpM, 90§
He is the God of forms infinite, in whose glory all things are, smaller than the smallest atom, and yet the creator of all, ever living in the mystery of His creation. In the vision of this God of love there is everlasting peace.§
Kṛishṇa Yajur Veda, SvetU 4.14. UpM, 92§
Devoid of beginning, duration and ending, by nature immaculate, powerful, omniscient, supremely perfect—thus is Śiva spoken of in Śaivite tradition.§
Ajita Āgama 2.2618.1. SA, 56§
The path of Śiva is the proven path. It led them to Hara. It is the royal path that renowned souls have walked. By this path divine, the devout pervade the universe. That path do seek, enter and persevere.§
Tirumantiram 1563. TM§
