Click here for description and more photos of the homa at our Spiritual Park

Aum Namah Sivaya

Wishing everyone a wonderful Ardra Nakshatra. Today, as they do once each month, the monks performed an abhishekam to Lord Nataraja. Today's puja was quite powerful, and we were joined by many wonderful guests in Kadavul Temple.

Now have I realized the path of Hara. In the past I sought Him in narrow paths and strayed. Lo! All the while He stood before me like a beacon light in firmament, guiding my voyage across the sea of my soul's longing. The path of Siva is the proven path. It led them to Hara. It is the royal path that renowned souls have walked, the path divine that took the devout to cosmic space. That path do seek, enter and persevere. Still your wandering thoughts, chant the sacred syllable Si and so persevere on the path of Hara. You shall envision primal light effulgent.
Tirumantiram1562-1563.

During Jivana Ritau, the rainy season, from mid-August to mid-December, Living with Siva: Hinduism’s Contemporary Culture is the primary text. The key word of this season is work. The colors are rust, copper-maroon and all shades of red--rust for earthy preservation, copper-maroon for fulfillment and red for physical energy. The Aadheenam’s 60-foot flag pole flies the rust-colored dhvaja, symbolizing environmental care. Copper-maroon and all shades of red adorn our smaller flags. This is the season of honoring and showing appreciation for those in the vanaprastha ashrama, life’s elder advisor stage.

The focus is on preserving what has been created, manifesting goals and fulfilling plans made in the past. Inwardly the emphasis is on direct cognition and caring for the practical details of the external world. Practicality is a word much used this season. In the monasteries and the missions, there is a big push on studying the sutras of Living with Siva and the Shastras. The format of the mission satsanga changes into one that in fact helps everyone live and breathe with Lord Siva through personal adjustment to the aphorisms of Living with Siva, which define tradition, culture and protocol.

At some point of time, whether in their current life or in a future one, everyone starts to figure it out. The endless ramifications of this external world begin to lose their shiny draw. The many many paths one could take become less interesting, because most have been walked before. You've eaten all types of food, owned all kinds of homes, large and small and have been every kind of person, the drunkard and the greatest of kings. You've had all relationships, been a wife, a husband, child, brother, sister and more. You've walked to every mountaintop, swam in every sea and river. you've laid down upon the shady grasses, walked through the pristine snow, and looked up through the treetops. You've felt pain, hunger, hatred, betrayal and death, again and again you've suffered yourself. You've been joyous, excited for the future and humbled by life's beauty. You've won victories and sustained losses, you've seen good and bad, bright light and shadows. You've known the freedom to dance, and the fearlessness of your singing voice--self-expressions you'll love forever. You've laughed with friends, giggled with loved ones. Upon you're Earth you've seen the stars unveiled as the world begins to sleep, and you've awoken, inspired by the dauntless warmth of the rising Sun.
Again and again you are born, you live and you pass on, to live again. Until, it is suddenly not so interesting anymore. The ups and downs of life are not the fun ride they used to be. They're not much of anything really. They begin to fade from your vision, as something else takes their place. Something you did not expect. An understanding bigger than most people know. Broader, deeper, all-encompassing and so very, very real. Like nothing else you've seen, and yet you recognize it. Losing interest in the World around you, you begin to take interest in yourself, realizing that the external is painted by your personal thoughts, feeling and attitudes. But these inner layers of the mind are still not the ultimate discovery. If you were you're attitudes and emotions then how could you be thinking about them. And if you can witness your thoughts, what is it that is observing them? Find that.

Today Lord Ganesha was looking extra nice, bedecked in golden konrai flowers.

"The God with the elephantine visage I shall never forget--Shankara's son, with massive belly and the thodu in His ear, the Lord who gave His grace to Indra, of whom mantra is His very form." Yogaswami's Natchintanai