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What Happened Today at the Monastery?

Bodhinatha has darshan with a family who are devotees of Yogi Ramaiah, from Arizona.

Today’s Pilgrims and Visitors

A bright sunny day with majestic Mt. Waialeale outlined against a clear blue sky. Five families arrived for the wonderful morning puja and a tour of the very sacred Iraivan Temple.

Venkata, Sunitha and Preethi Balagani from Gilroy, CA; Radha Krishna and Giriga Balagani from Mt. Prospect, IL; Shailesh, Bhavana, Sangeeta and Anisha Sampat from San Jose, CA. (Shalesh noted that he last visited this temple in March 2002). Shankar Buddiga from Fresno; and Eswar Narayanan with Nandini Krishnamurthy and Akshara Eswar from San Francisco.

It’s the world’s most popular orchid, our local breeder tells us. Today the Chocolate Orchid is in full bloom, amazing visitors with its powerful fragrance that is just so chocolatety.

Back Road Repaired

Roads and paths are an important part of any facility, and the monastery is no different. Roads allow us access to the land, give us the ability to landscape, maintain, build. But roads deteriorate, and the one Gurudeva had built in 1975 was getting a little worn out.

So the Siddhidatta Kulam brought in our long-time friend and professional heavy equipment operator, Dennis Wong.

Dennis worked all day to repave the back entrance. He told us the story of his boss, Jeff, who wears a Namasivaya bracelet all the time that he got from Dennis. Jeff loaned his loader and roller free for the day, to help the monastery.

Dennis added tons of fill.

Then carefully leveled it.

He’s a master at this.

His son, Charlie, who grew up next the the monastery, mans the roller.

How wonderful, to have a solid, flat road again, without the pot holes. Thanks, Dennis. Thanks, Jeff!

Summer is definitely here and the air is dry and clear. Waialeale looks magnificent in this close up.

Olga Restores Yogaswami Painting

This is Olga Urminski (right), an incredibly talented professional of art restoration on Kauai.

She came with her brother Paul, who also understands a lot about art and sculpture, and his wife Gabriella.

Originally from Slovakia, she was commissioned by Carole and Marty Kahn to restore our main painting of Satguru Yogaswami. The original is a work of legendary painter Indra Sharma, and had been affected by our all-too-alive Kauai weather.

She did a marvelous work, and the painting now looks bright and alive again. Congratulations, Olga! Thank you, Carole and Marty!

Later we took them out to see San Marga. On the way we find a magnificent Golden Shower tree in full bloom.

and the ever awesome lotus pond.

Olga was delighted to be able to show her relatives such a beautiful site.

Her brother and sister-in-law said, in Slovakian, the place “felt like a fairytale, there are so many things here you will never see anywhere else in the whole world.”

Our neighbours, Greg Smith (far back) his wife Stepanie, 16-month-old daughter Sienna, Stephanie’s sister Cassandra and her friend John are all here from Arkansas. They live right next store to the monastery. Their home base is on the mainland but Greg is spending more and more time here at his place on Kauai and collaborating with the monks on putting his land to good agricultural use.

Today Sivakatirswami takes them to the temple. On the pillars we find many symbols and shum murals. Gurudeva envisioned that these could be explained to guests and they would get an interesting education in Hindu thought and philosophy. Swami is explaining the Shum murals of Anef, Nashumef, Nalif Mamsani.

You can read about it in the Twelve Meditations Booklet available at our store..

Sienna is all ears.

“An�f means to find that place inside yourself that is absolutely quiet. Anif is an area in which we are deep enough within that all of the forces of the mind can be seen, and we are, like the hummingbird, totally quiet. We look out from that place and see the forces equalizing themselves.”

“The very best time to meditate is as soon as you wake up in the morning; find anif. As soon as you go to bed at night, find anif. Then deliberately put the body into a state of sleep, which is putting awareness deep within the mind, which is into a state of meditation. How do you do that? Lay the body down, palms up, heels not touching, and go into the power of the spine. Feel the power of the spine, just like you do when you sit in meditation. You’ll feel your body relax. Concentrate the mind, concentrate awareness, right at the back of the neck, and the first thing you will know, it’s morning.”

The portrait in the middle is Nashumif:

“Nashumif is the perspective we hold while looking at the energy fields in and through things–looking at the inside of a tree, seeing how the energy comes up through the tree and finally causes a leaf to form. Nashumif is a state that you are in when you can see the ebb and flow of the eighteen predominant forces working within the mind consciousness. These forces are always trying to equalize themselves. Some are static, some are spinning, some are active, some are lifting others up. And this makes form as we see it in its various dimensions. We experience Nashumif in the pull of forces between people who are close to us, and in the forces of nature, the full moon, the moon that’s waning, the noonday sun.”

Swami says that nashumif is not a difficult state of awareness to find. Things are falling, spinning, breaking apart, flowing on, all moving to find stillness in the end. Just observe the forces of nature, in a childlike way.

Sienna says, “I have no problem with that.”

Nalif is the holding of the inner vibration from one meditation to another. For instance, if you perform anif in the morning just as you awaken, it sets a vibration which you feel all through the day; and we strengthen that vibration when performing anif just before we go to sleep at night. This holding of the inner memory, so to speak, or inner vibration, from one anif period to another is called Nalif. It is a challenge in itself, holding the inner awareness until our next meditation, all through the day, holding that inner thread so that we remain two-thirds within and only one-third in external consciousness.

Archives are now available through 2001. Light colored days have no posts. 1998-2001 coming later.

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