August 2018 Video on Activities in July 2018, including:

Iraivan Carving
Work continues in Iraivan Temples Nandi Mandapam, with ever higher levels being fit into place. At the same time other areas of the temple are seeing progress. The small steps at the temples entrance have been completed and pieces of the perimeter wall are being placed. Satguru Purnima On July 26, the aadheenam celebrated Guru Purnima with an early morning parade and puja honoring Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami. Following the chariot parade down San Marga, our monks and devotees sat down for a pada puja. Afterwards satguru gave blessings to all present.

Vow Renewals
In our monastic order, a monk can only take lifetime vows once they become a sannyasin. Until then they are under short term vows that must be renewed every two years on the auspicious occasion of Guru Purnima.

Today our postulants all gathered at the guru pitham to renew their four vows of humility, purity, obedience and confidence.

The introduction to their vow of Humility is as follows: HUMILITY IS THE STATE OF profound maturity in which the soul, immersed in the depths of understanding and compassion, radiates the qualities of mildness, modesty, reverent obeisance and unpretentiousness. There is an analogy in the Saivite tradition that compares the unfolding soul to wheat. When young and growing, the stalks of wheat stand tall and proud, but when mature their heads bend low under the weight of the grains they yield. Similarly, man is self-assertive, arrogant and vain only in the early stages of his spiritual growth. As he matures and yields the harvest of divine knowledge, he too bends his head.

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