Two of our upcoming books are about Sage Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and Saint Tayumanavar’s life and songs. Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami commissioned ten original pieces of art for each book from famed muralist Suresh Muthukulam in Kerala. Though it will be a while before the books are published, the artwork is now available on our Himalayan Academy Museum of Spiritual Art (HAMSA) in the Suresh Muthukulam collection, with detailed captions for each. Here is a sample from each group:
Tayumanavar
Tayumanavar, with accounting journals under his arm, walks barefoot to the castle, where King Nayak has engaged him as his financial manager. Days later, two men examine the footprints he left in the sand, astonished to find they have not disappeared as one would expect. They take it as a miraculous happening. Above, Siva uses His trishula to row a divine Moon Boat through the heavens, watching the events below. On the left, a family of toddy tappers walk the aerial ropes between palmyra palm trees, gathering the nectar for making jaggery and toddy. Below, a woman sells the palm nuts. A bullock cart full of kingly supplies approaches the castle, and elephants, one with a flower in his trunk, greet the saint on his first day. Below, under a spreading banyan tree, two philosophers debate the merits of Vedanta and Siddhanta. It was Tayumanavar’s life mission to show the unity of these two great views.
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
Here, Rishi Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras (ca. 200-500 BCE), meditates while seated on the coiled body of a giant serpent. His hands are held in Shuni Mudra, which is said to awaken intuition and higher consciousness, and to purify thought and emotion. The banyan tree, with its vast rooting tendrils, represents the strength and longevity of Hinduism. Above, Sadasiva rides on His winged vahana, Nandi. In the branches, two cobras have wrapped themselves around the ola leaf manuscript of the Yoga Sutras, protecting it for future generations. Near the bottom, Siva is present in the sage’s personal Sivalinga. Subtly, Siva’s two all-seeing cosmic eyes peer out from the sky behind, just above the horizon.
One of the magnificent 12-inch flowers from our pitcher plant vine
Rains and morning sunlight produced this recent rainbow over Iraivan Temple
Mahalingeshvara bedecked in blooming flowers
The aadheenam’s only yellow jade vine is also in bloom. Be careful though, flowers from this hue come with little spines!
Evening sun shines through the rudrakshas and bamboo
Our very happy, red tiger lily blooms near Satguru’s office
It’s the only one of this particular type that we have blooming right now. For some reason it will often bloom in the dark of night, and then close midday.
Nene have been stopping by this month. They are our state bird, and always nice to see
The temple gets a sudden rain shower
An eye in the sky! Perhaps somebody is looking out for us.
The Ganesha near our entrance gives protection to a little gold-dust day gecko on His nose
Our monks recently found some aloha near the ocean’s edge
The chariot parades around Iraivan Temple during our recent celebration of Guru Purnima
This has been quite an energizing month at the Aadheenam. We’ve had many guests come through, mostly to attend Guru Purnima celebrations. We’ve also been having bright, sunny day’s, interspersed with sudden, deafening deluges of tropical rains from Kauai’s fast moving clouds. After our cooler spring months, much of our surrounding nature has begun to grow and bloom rapidly, aided by this onset of water and sunlight. In the slideshow are a few photos of some of the sites from our jungle canopies and waterways.
Tirumantiram 2010:
Śiva assumes the form of infinite smallness by being within the minutest atom. At the same time, He assumes the form of infinite vastness by holding all the universes within Himself, such that each universe appears like a small atom. Lord Īśvara who is incomparable and matchless, simultaneously presents Himself within all the objects of the world, both moving and inert. He pervades the entirety of space and all the worlds. There is not even a minute space that is unoccupied by Him. In spite of this presence of Śiva, the worldly-minded do not realize His inseparable oneness with each soul and His presence in everything.
On Guru Purnima, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami had planned a special event—to plant a new bilva tree right in front of Iraivan Temple. During this auspicious occasion, Satguru joined in planting the tree along with our priest, Pravin Kumar. It was a meaningful and sacred moment for all of us, as the bilva tree is especially revered in worship of Lord Siva. Planting it directly in front of the temple made the event even more special. Now, Pravin Kumar will be able to offer fresh bilva leaves to Mahalingeshwara every day.
We took these photos this morning and look forward to a few ripe oranges.
Showing the entirely hollowed out base of the tree.
The orange is near our newly planted Nepalese Rudraksha Grove.
You are looking at a box of six Hawaiian heirloom orange trees, saved from extinction by the high-tech Terra Nova Nursery in Canby, Washington, about 200 miles from Seattle. Of course, it comes with a monastery story.
About 70 years back Uncle Manuel (who for decades was the manager of the water system that flows through the land that is now Kauai Aadheenam) received a gift from a Hawaiian clan. They gave him a special orange tree, one whose sweetness and low acidity made it rare and valuable. Manuel carried the tree in a gunny sack on horseback from the mountains about 20 miles to the monastery and planted it himself in a field. There is grew and gave its fruits for all these decades.
About 15 years back it began to age. The bottom trunk rotted out during a wet winter, then our cows sped up the process by munching on the sweet leaves and fruits. We put a fence around it, but a year later the cows overwhelmed the fence and ate every leaf. We though it was dead.
But it is a brave orange, and it grew strong branches right out of the rotting trunk. We tried to propagate it. And failed. We enlisted local tree grafters. Who failed. Finally, in desperation to save this legacy fruit tree, we reached out to Harini Korlipara, General Manager of Terra Nova Nursery. She had visited the monastery three years back and said she would try, so we sent her cuttings following her directions.
It worked! Yesterday we opened the box with six very healthy orange trees. We will give one to the living relatives of Uncle Manual in honor of his bringing the mother plant to our land, a couple to local botanical gardens and collectors and the rest will be planted in our own fruit groves. Orange trees can live 70-100 years, so a couple of generations of monks will have sweet oranges for breakfast.
Oranges and other citrus fruits were introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by European explorers. British Captain George Vancouver is often credited with bringing orange seeds or saplings around 1792–1794 as gifts to King Kamehameha I. Hawaii was for a short time the premier supplier of oranges to California until the citrus farms developed in the state.
Last week Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami shared the upadesha that he recently gave at satsangs in Singapore and Malaysia, about comparing the inner climb up the chakras to reaching the summit of Mount Everest. Mount Everest base camp was compared to the fourth chakra and dimension of cognition. In today’s upadesha he shares our late Gurudeva’s in-depth description of the fourth dimension of consciousness.
Besides the livestream from this morning, here is a selection of photos which also show the chariot parade out to Iraivan Temple, and the planting of a bilva tree sapling next to Iraivan Temple right after the padapuja. And, the final photo shows Nandi receiving yogurt abhishekam during Pradosha Puja the prior afternoon.
