Chapter 8§
HolyPilgrims
पुण्य यात्रिक
OLY PILGRIMAGE SITES, TĪRTHAS, ARE CENTRAL TO HINDU SPIRITUALITY. OUR MONASTERIES ARE SUCH SACRED PLACES, WITH ACCESS TO SEVEN GROUPS: 1) CHURCH MEMBERS; 2) ACADEMY STUDENTS; 3) DEVOTEES ON PREARRANGED SACRED PILGRIMAGE; 4) SPECIAL GUESTS; 5) SEEKERS ON VISITOR’S DAY; 6) MEN ON TASK FORCE; 7) PREMONASTICS, INCLUDING YOUNG MEN OF THE CHURCH SERVING FOR SIX MONTHS PRIOR TO PATH-CHOOSING.§
128 ¶Visitors from around the globe pilgrimage to Kauai Aadheenam, thirsty for knowledge of Iraivan and the Śaiva Siddhānta philosophy. Some are onlookers, some are seekers. Others come for blessings and guidance to help them through difficult junctures in life, with their family responsibilities or their inner aspirations. Many are leaders within their own communities, needing help or advice for their religious organization or temple. Casual visitors are welcome on phasely visitor’s day. Access cards of specific duration, to come at other times, may be granted to special guests and to serious Śaiva devotees on prearranged sacred pilgrimage, sādhana yātrā, having prepared from the outset of their journey and before by fasting and other disciplines. §
Access to Church Members§
129 ¶Our Church members, dedicated śishyas who have made deep commitments to our paramparā, may with blessings of the Guru Mahāsannidhānam enter specified areas of our monastery properties from six in the morning until six at night for personal worship, meditation and Śivathondu on days of the phase open to visitors. Others who wish to come for classes may earn their access by seeking to fulfill the challenges given by me to further them on the spiritual path through The Master Course. §
Access to Academy Students§
130 ¶Devotees who have enrolled in the Academy and been accepted into the student body are welcome to pilgrimage as often as possible throughout the year for guru darśana, worship and study on special study programs suited to their needs. They are taught by swāmīs and sādhakas, as well as by kulapatis and kulamātās, in pavilions set aside for this purpose. Arulśishyas can perform karma yoga at the Aadheenam or our dharmaśālas when accompanied by a kulapati or, in the case of ladies, a kulamātā. They may also participate in the Rājarāja Chola Gurukulams.§
Those on Prearranged Pilgrimage §
131 ¶Sincere devotees who prepare first and then travel here on pilgrimage are very special to us, even though they may not be members or students. It is important that potential pilgrims write or call us and ask for sādhanas to prepare themselves before they depart. While at Kauai Aadheenam, they receive instructions on what to do while under Iraivan’s moksha vibrations, and what sādhanas to perform after returning home to solidify personal achievements and strengthen the home shrine for the coming year. All this and more has to be imparted in a very short time to seekers who visit us. Anyone who requests to come on pilgrimage a second time should be sponsored by a Church member or another trusted person (on Kauai or in their local community) that is connected with them and makes sure that they understand and are willing to fulfill the guidelines of pilgrimage throughout their stay. It is the duty of this person or family to gently question them as to their progress on the studies previously given to them, so that a fresh, new program can be outlined for their pilgrimage. Their response also helps us to know if they are sincere and worthy, with the potential to become Church members. In summary, pilgrims coming other than for a brief visit on guest’s day cannot simply arrive unannounced. If a problem arises with second-time pilgrims, it is the duty of local council on missions to solve it. §
Judging Worthiness for Future Visits§
132 ¶During the first pilgrimage, we look at pilgrims as getting acquainted, and that is why we must make our teachings very clear during their stay, for this is the reason their soul brought them to us. When they wish to pilgrimage a second time, we must follow up to see if they have made changes in their life and if they have obeyed the guru’s instructions given during their previous visit. “If we don’t test people, we will be controlled by the people we don’t test.” Such pilgrimages are limited to one a year per family, and last no more than nine days in unbroken continuity, not counting days when the monastery is closed. If for any reason the party does not come to the monastery each of the available days, the rest of the pilgrimage period is thereby automatically cancelled. They could, however, still come to the public areas: the Puakenikeni Maṇḍapam area and the Rudrāksha Meditation Forest.§
Access Cards For Special Pilgrims§
133 ¶Access cards of specific duration may be granted to serious devotees described above, who have come on prearranged sacred pilgrimage, having prepared from the outset of their journey and before by fasting and other sādhanas. These individuals, known as sādhana yātrikas, may enter from 6AM to noon into specified cloistered areas of the property and from noon to 6PM into the semi-cloistered and public areas (which may change from time to time). This is the case on all days except when the monastery is closed for retreats. There is no reason for pilgrims and devotees to come to Kauai Aadheenam other than to see the guru and have his darśana—even if it is a chance glimpse from across the way—and only secondarily to see the temples where the maṭhavāsis worship daily in three-hour shifts, then only after this meeting, if they are devout pilgrims, to be assigned by the Guru Mahāsannidhānam to perform sādhana with his blessings. It is important that the Śrī Sannidhānam know all about the people who come on prearranged pilgrimage. Entering a cloistered monastery is an experience not to be forgotten, not to be taken lightly. It is a privilege only for the sincerely devout. §
When a person comes to weakness, be it through old age or disease, he frees himself from these limbs just as a mango, a fig or a berry releases itself from its stalk.§
ŚUKLA YAJUR VEDA, BRIHADU 4.3.36. BO UPH, 139§
Special Guests to our Centers§
134 ¶Another type of visitors to our monasteries is known as special guests. They are sincere Hindus seeking to visit the guru and his temple for the first time. They also include individuals whom the talaivar of a monastic kulam knows or elects to host for one reason or another. For the most part they are those who are collaborating with the monks in a kulam to serve the guru’s mission in promoting Sanātana Dharma in the many ways this can be done. Examples are journalists for HINDUISM TODAY, representatives of Hindu Heritage Endowment and jyotisha śāstrīs who are working closely with the maṭhavāsi jyotishāchārya. All special guest visits are arranged and scheduled in advance, and the guests are well informed of the monastery flows. Special guests, of course, do not enter when the monastery is closed: after noon, on phasely retreats, sādhu paksha and sādhu māsa. When the talaivar has blessings from the guru to admit a special guest for multiple visits, an access card is issued for the devotee for the specified period. The access card is displayed on the visitor’s garment near the left shoulder, and a slender orange shawl is worn around the neck. These signs prevent embarrassing moments when a monk, member or security person might question why the visitor is on the property. §
Access to Deliverymen And Workers§
135 ¶Another category with distinct policies includes local delivery persons, repairmen and other services. Deliveries may happen anytime during the day without restriction, even when the monastery is closed. In general, we try to schedule the presence of repairmen and other workers between 7AM and noon on days when the monastery is open. However, they may also come between 3PM and 6PM if mornings are not convenient to their schedules or to monastery needs. It may also be necessary on occasion to permit workers who are landscaping or building or involved in other major projects to stay on the job all day long in designated areas, except on days when the monastery is closed for retreat. Special situations, such as equipment breakdowns, may require the presence of repairmen even on retreats or other times when the monastery is closed. Most importantly, any personal crisis or emergency among our Church spiritual family, or the broader community, is attended to without regard to whether it is night or day, phase day or retreat. §
Access to Casual Visitors§
136 ¶There are also many casual visitors who hear about the facility and seek to visit for a variety of reasons. To accommodate these onlookers, seekers and devotees from every walk of life, we have a visitors’ day on the last day of each phase from nine to noon. We ask all who seek to visit to call for a schedule of our weekly visitors’ days for the next few months. For guru darśana at 10:30AM, guests are invited to call in advance to make appointments.§
Our Truest Service to Visitors§
137 ¶I explain to my monastics that everyone who visits Kauai Aadheenam comes to hear our teachings, whether they realize it or not. It is up to the hosts to bring the guests’ minds into the highest advaitic philosophy, to remind them of the goal of life on earth—Self Realization leading to moksha—to make their first visit to Kauai one that changes them completely, after which their life improves in wonderful ways. Many think they are coming to see the large crystal, others to walk the San Mārga path, others to visit the editorial offices of HINDUISM TODAY, but we must assume that all are coming to be uplifted by the teachings of the Self. Therefore, we do not engage in conversation about their philosophy or other interests. Nor do we become involved in their problems or give advice. They should depart filled and thrilled with a new perspective on life and a new self-image from hearing about our teachings. All the maṭhavāsis should freely proselytize to seekers, speaking boldly of our lofty philosophy on our own lands. We want each one who comes to carry away the teachings of the untarnished perfection of the soul on its path toward moksha. To accomplish this, the majority of talking and informing should be on our part, rather than theirs. Senior swāmīs and āchāryas prepare presentations that are memorized by younger monks and Church families who host visitors. The monastery Ekadanta Kulam cares for and oversees all visitors and guests, in coordination with the Church families in the area. All visitors are regarded as Gurudeva’s guests, and every effort should be made to enroll them in the study before they leave. §
Being the Life of life is splendrous jñāna worship. Beholding the Light of life is great yoga worship. Giving life by invocation is external worship. Expressing adoration is charyā.§
TIRUMANTIRAM 1444. TM§
Schedule of Monastery Visitors’ Days§
138 ¶For several years at Kauai’s Hindu monastery, the designated visitors’ day was Saturday. However, this proved unacceptable, for not uncommonly Saturdays were found to fall on our retreat days. Attending to the various needs of visitors burdened the monks on days, when they rightfully should have been free to be alone, to go within themselves, to strengthen their attainments, unencumbered by outside forces. It was on May 15, 1995, that we firmly, permanently and irrevocably shifted visitors’ day to the last day of each phase so that our periods of retreat would not be interrupted. We demand that this be continued on into the future of futures. Thus, from that day onward we began publishing an ongoing schedule of these visitors’ days.” The schedule also includes the days that the maṭha is closed and there are no visitors. These are days when the monks interrelate with each other and with their guru, perform chores and catch up on their religious studies. Our monasteries could in modern terms be described as theological seminaries. They are similar to the ancient Himālayan abodes where mendicants come to prepare themselves for their life’s work and mission. §
The Nature Of Our Visitors’ Day§
139 ¶On the strictly-observed visitors’ days, which begin at nine o’clock, guests are given a presentation of the property and of our noble philosophy. Afterwards, a love-offering basket or tray is passed among the guests and books are offered for sale and all are given free literature as gifts. Visitor-day guests, be they Hindus or non-Hindus, are expected to visit no more than once a year. Hindu guests who show a deep interest in the teachings of our sampradāya are encouraged to return on serious, prearranged pilgrimage to perform deep, daily sādhana and seek for personal transformation through self effort. These special pilgrimages are also limited to one a year, as explained previously. Those who want to come more often for classes and seminars, should begin serious study as Academy students preparing for Church membership. §
Karma Yoga At the Monasteries§
140 ¶It is a great blessing to perform humble service, karma yoga, at a temple or monastery. All our family śishyas and their progeny are given this opportunity at our centers within the gentle guidelines of our culture. The seva performed is under the guidance of the monastery Siddhidatta Kulam in coordination with the local kulapatis. One day a week, every Saturday (when the monastery is open), is set aside at our Aadheenam and its dharmaśālas as a formal karma yoga day, when groups of family śishyas from surrounding missions dedicate their time in helpful tasks, like polishing the temple brass, caring for gardens and grounds, decorating for festivals and assisting in building projects. Thus, visiting pilgrims may encounter Church family members, men, women and children, in small groups here and there in certain areas of the property quietly working in a worshipful mood while enjoying the sannidhya, the holy presence, of the monastery. Academy students are as a general rule not permitted to perform karma yoga at the monasteries, for when on the Church properties their sole focus is performing sādhana and study. There are, however, two exceptions: 1) Arulśishyas are eligible to participate in karma yoga when accompanied by a kulapati or, for women, a kulamātā; 2) male Academy students may be permitted to participate in the Śivaseva Task Force program described in the next paragraph. §
Śivaseva Task Force Program§
141 ¶The Śivaseva Task Force program provides a wonderful opportunity to perform karma yoga at Kauai Aadheenam or a dharmaśāla and intensify one’s personal sādhana for up to six months. We call this a “task force” program because individuals come not only to learn and do sādhana, but also to help their guru in his mission, in the spirit of “work is worship.” Task Force participants delight in using their skills and talents in many varied karma yoga tasks. Participation is open to male Church śishyas and to Academy arulśishyas who have been accepted into a Church family. In addition, from time to time special programs may be provided for other male Academy students to study, worship and perform sādhana for nine days or less. All those over age twelve are welcome, family men and single men interested in performing karma yoga, learning more about the sannyāsin path and enjoying a spiritual retreat. The service performed is under the guidance of the monastery’s Siddhidatta Kulam talaivar and in coordination with the local kulapatis. Śivaseva helpers reside in a monastery extension, devasthānam, as resident guests if it is convenient, or outside the monastery in family homes or in rental units of their own choosing and pilgrimage to the monastery daily to serve. §
Premonastic Aspirants and Supplicants§
142 ¶Upakurvāṇa śishyas, aspirant premonastics, are young, male Church members of well-established Church families, either their own progeny or foster members of their family, serving for six months in preparation for adult life, prior to path-choosing, in a monastery or on a missionary program outlined by the Church. Not eligible are children of Academy students and children of foster members of a kulapati family who have not matured their own nuclear family to the standard of their kulapati’s family. This includes having a good record of tithing, fulfillment of community duties and performance of assigned sādhanas. A second type of premonastic is the supplicant, an individual who has chosen the monastic path and begun serious training in preparation to enter the postulancy. Supplicants reside in the devasthānam as resident guests under the pledges of purity, humility and obedience in fulfillment of the sādhanas of Sacred Pledge. §
The simple temple duties, lighting the lamps, picking flowers, lovingly polishing the floors, sweeping, singing the Lord’s praise, ringing the bell and fetching ceremonial water—these constitute the dāsa mārga.§
TIRUMANTIRAM 1502. TM§
A Welcome To Our Swāmibais§
143 ¶Our swāmibais—gurus and swāmīs of other orders—as well as qualified priests, are always welcome at Kauai Aadheenam for stays of up to nine days. They enhance the education and determination of our young monks and play an important part in the Hindu renaissance of HINDUISM TODAY, Through their meeting in saṅgam with the Śaiva swāmīs, a step forward is always taken for the benefit of modern-day Hinduism. Some will qualify to stay at the monastery’s devasthānam facilities, and others may enjoy living at the family homes, or even at public facilities, while coming to the monastery as special guests. §
Guidelines For Resident Guests§
144 ¶Resident guests are defined as those individuals from the three groups named above—1) premonastics, 2) those on task force and 3) other special guests such as swāmīs of other orders, Hindu priests and other devout Śaiva men admitted at the discretion of the Guru Mahāsannidhānam—who are permitted to reside in the monastery devasthānam facility, living the monk’s life during their stay. Our Śaivite Śāstras delineate exacting guidelines for resident guests in our monasteries. Brahmacharya is the first rule, as designated in our Śaivite Śāstras. Verses 268-269 state: “Only brahmachārīs should live as guests in the monasteries, and they should be at least one month into the brahmacharya period before entering the monastery, even as a [resident] guest. Family men may come as guests if they are in the process of building their family. Otherwise they have to live as brahmachārī in order to enter the monastery.” Building a family means actively trying to bring a soul into physical birth. Verse 270 gives the rationale behind these and other rules for monastic residency: “This is how we would prefer the monastery to be handled to give us the maximum leverage in always being at hand to help and serve, as you in your world are always there to help and serve. It is our working together that sustains the consciousness of religion in our world as well as your world.”§
Review of Resident Guest Stays§
145 ¶Each resident guest’s stay is reviewed by the monastery’s senior minority group at three intervals—after nine days, after 39 days and after three months and nine days. The individual is invited to sit with the senior minority group and is interviewed to determine if he would like to stay on and if his conduct during his stay thus far, and his ability to blend his energies with the existing group, has been satisfactory. Resident guests may not return to a monastery on Task Force until at least three months have elapsed since their last stay. This pattern of review also applies to upakurvāṇīs. §
About Our Resident Guest Housing§
146 ¶From 1995 onward, resident guest facilities will not be provided on central monastery land, but only in devasthānams on land belonging to the Church but not adjoining monastery properties. This is in keeping with the statement in verse 512 of our Śaivite Śāstras, “If a monastery has a guest house which is not connected to the property of the monastery and outside the force field that is supervised, any number of guests can be there without disturbing the balance within the monastery of three to one who has received the rehmtyanale mookamba, as previously described. You will have to study closely these new directions for your order, as they ensure positive growth through the years.” Therefore, only monks of our order under four vows are allowed on the main monastery property overnight at Kauai Aadheenam and its branch monasteries. There is no exception to this rule, not even for short stays of senior swāmīs of other orders or of very special priests, even during times of high ceremony. §
About Other Guest Facilities§
147 ¶Because our monasteries are strictly cloistered, we do not have live-in guest facilities other than our devasthānams, which are governed by the strict sāstric requirements described above. Thus, those pilgrims who do not qualify to stay in the devasthānams must seek out other lodging and meals, either in hotels or family homes. We foresee that guest facilities will in future years arise around our monasteries to accommodate pilgrims. These may be owned and managed by individual families of our fellowship. §
We Are Not In the Hotel Business§
148 ¶We emphasize here that our sampradāya and especially our paramparā is strict in adhering to its ancient tradition of monastic cloisters and does not have nor will it have in the future “coed āśramas,” which have become so popular of late, in which men and women devotees live on the same property. Furthermore, now and into the future of futures until the end of time we do not intend to provide such facilities, which would be to go into the hotel business, in the name of karma yoga, which would mean our monastics becoming servants of family people and singles. Furthermore, for the last several hundred years our traditional gurus have never provided family guest facilities. We conclude by stressing that we are not in the temple business, the hotel business, the festival business, the cultural entertainment business. We follow our paramparā which has always spoken out spontaneously from the inner sky vidyā, jñāna, making life-changing experiences for all who have come in contact with its satgurus, swāmīs, yogīs and sādhakas. §
Pūjā, reading the scriptures, singing hymns, performing japa and unsullied austerity, truthfulness, restraint of envy, and offering of food—these and other self-purifying acts constitute the flawless satputra mārga.§
TIRUMANTIRAM 1496. TM§
Protecting the Sanctity: How and Why§
149 ¶And we say again, as we said in chapter six, what makes the San Mārga Iraivan Temple, the moksha sphaṭika Śivaliṅga, our small and large shrines and publication facilities so special is that they are part of a monastery or aadheenam, the home of a spiritual master, a satguru, and his tirelessly devoted sādhakas, yogīs, swāmīs and āchāryas. Moreover, the Aadheenam is a theological seminary for training monks from all over the world to take holy orders of sannyāsa and join the great team of our Śaiva Siddhānta Yoga Order. The cloistered sanctity of our monastery grounds must never be taken for granted. It must be closely maintained by the monks now and far into the future more carefully and attentively than they tend the gardens. The vibration of unworldliness must be defended by my Śaiva yogīs and sādhakas at all times, day and night. It must be protected by my dīkshā śishyas and vrata śishyas. It must be respected by my students. And thus it will come to be honored with awe by the public at large. None should be allowed to violate this sanctity. None shall erode on the fragile sublimity that quietly sustains the culture throughout the land. §
How We Preserve Our Psychic Bubble§
150 ¶On the inner planes, each monastery and temple has a brilliant aura. The shell of this aura is seen as a great psychic bubble extending around the property and far up into the atmosphere as well as deep into the earth. The monks and the members who worship on the property are constantly replenishing and adding to the aura’s power through consistent daily sādhana, through pūjā which invokes the cooperation and blessings of the devas and Gods, by keeping the monastery scrupulously clean, by prudent management and scheduling of all activities, by restricting activities on retreat days, days that the cloister is closed to friends, members and the public, and during the days that the monastery is open by closely regulating the flow of visitors and guests. §
Kauai Aadheenam: Not for Tourists§
151 ¶We firmly affirm that Kauai Aadheenam and its Iraivan Temple are not a tourist attraction. Āśramas of our kind are destinations for traditional pilgrimage where the devotedly serious come by prior arrangement, after having prepared themselves at home by fasting and praying. All for whom this seems too strict are encouraged to pilgrimage to āśramas that are less traditional, more liberal and welcoming to one and all, regardless of qualifications or religious persuasion. In 1995 there are many such places.§
The Future Beckons, the Past Impels§
152 ¶Thus ends our summary of rules for access to seven groups who may enter the monastery properties. These are: 1) vrata and dīkshā śishyas living up to the sūtras they are vowed to uphold, 2) Master Course students coming for serious study, 3) sādhana yātrikas, special guests on prearranged sacred pilgrimage, 4) casual visitors, 5) those on task force, 6) premonastics, including upakurvāṇa brahmachārīs, and 7) swāmīs, paṇḍitas, priests and dignitaries who come for advice and solace. We emphasize that we give our time to those who appreciate the teachings of Satguru Yogaswāmī and our paramparā: to the Sri Lankan Hindu community which has turned toward us after years of suffering, love and devotion, to śishya who are students and members, especially those who have received dīkshā, and to our cherished swāmīs, yogīs and sādhakas, supplicants and aspirants, to our kulapatis and kulamātās and, most importantly, to the children, before they have entered the gṛihastha āśrama. Our future decides the way these policies are to be administrated by those who follow. §
About the Following Chapter§
153 ¶Himālayan Academy, a schooling program of Śaiva culture, is explained in potentially boring detail in the next chapter. Bear with us and try to enjoy the history, structure and the methodology of our effort to teach this sophisticated path, hopefully well, during the past 38 years since its humble beginnings. §