A Daily Chronicle of Kauai's Hindu Monastery

Satguru Siva Yogaswami Jaffna, Sri Lanka		Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA
	December 31, 1999 - Svati

It's Sun 1 today, crystal clear, and the first day of our annual Satguru Jayanthi celebrations. Devotees and pilgrims have come from several nations to be with Gurudeva at this auspicious time, the honoring of his 74th birthday on January 5, 2000. By the way, a life-size white granite duplicate of the crystal Siva lingam Gurudeva is seated near will be sent to Kauai in the months ahead. Stay tuned for more news on that.... New! Satguru Speaks Again! Today's Cybertalk: Hear part 2 and the conclusion of Gurudeva's latest talk on the Worship of Lord Murugan, with Tamil translation. MP3 Streaming: Use the QuickTime controller above to listen to Gurudeva's upadesha in MP3 streaming mode. You must have the QuickTime plug-in installed in your browser. (Click here to get QuickTime.) Click here for Real Audio For those unable to play streaming MP3 or RealAudio: Option-click here to download MP3 file to your computer. Option-click here to download WAV file to your computer. Oh, yes, we survided the turn of the Millennium and wish everyone a most wonderful new year and new decade and new century and millennium, Western-style that is. In mid-April we will wish you Happy New Year again. After the early homa, Gurudeva spoke on meditation, and soon (today?) you will be able to click on the button that reads GUIDED MEDITATION and enjoy this new series of meditations for modern aspirants. The monks chanting the ancient Sanskrit Sri Rudram during the Homa. About Gurudeva's Talk Members at the morning festivities, shown here with 54 of the 108 Tandava poses on the wall behind. This morning Gurudeva gave this wonderful speech to the Jaffna community regarding Lord Muruga. Gurudeva explained that Lord Muruga has the mission to stop wars within the homes. As He is called Saravanabava which means calmness or stillness of mind, He brings peace and harmony to the households. According to Gurudeva, Lord Muruga lives close to earth. Together with Ganesha, He is working in individual homes to see that they handle their family life professionally as they do at work. Gurudeva made it clear that it is wrong to say that Ganesha or Muruga punishes for our wrongdoings. Actually all the Gods and Goddess are beings of Love. They see that we learn and understand from our mistakes and to continue to live a good life. Gurudeva says that we only punish ourselves when we make wrong decisions and reap negative karmic experience as a result from the wrongdoings. Advise was given that when misunderstandings or backbiting occurs within the families, prayers to Lord Muruga helps to bring back harmony and He sees that it does not lead to seperation. Gurudeva said to the Jaffna people that it is in their karma that they were born in the US or Canada. Being a Hindu they should be a voice of Sanatana Dharma to see first harmony in their homes and to then uplift the community with love, appreciation, kindness and generosity. Gurudeva urged the Sri Lankans to support the temples and our Sanatana Dharma by contributing money. The puja's crescendo... Shanmuganathaswami with Shyamadeva Dandapani in the moments after sunrise. Visitors waiting for the morning events. We offer a very special welcome to Panshula Ganeshan. His names literally means "Siva covered with the dust of sandalwood." Panshula arrived on Kauai for the first time last night, and is here for six months. He is from the Chicago area and has worked very diligently in the past few months preparing himself for spending time in our Saivite monastery. The bright soul on the left is our own Tejadeva. Yoganathan was running around today with his great energy and curiosity. Welcome also to Dr. Shan and Tilaka Sundar, from California, and to Hitesvara, at the back with a short grey beard. Besides the pilgrims, other families on the island for the holidays toured through the grounds this morning. A big special welcome to Shanta Devi, on the left, from Singapore. She came with her family, and here is being hosted by Peshanidevi. Visitors met with Gurudeva in the Guru Peedam. Over the retreat we received a modular building, measuring ten feet wide by 44 feet long, and placed it near the Publications building. To get it in place, we had to remove a coconut tree, and hired two locals to do the task. Here Silvarajoo and his son Nanthakumaran grab shovels to move a few precious plants before they get smashed by the big tractors during the manouvers. Vicknesvaran smiles for the camera. Monks in the trees, trimming a few branches of our giant Banyan Treem so the equipment can pass under it without breaking off limbs. to reach the limbs, they use the bucket of our tractor, and chainsaw from it. This is a Hawaiian-style work crew, lots of supervisors, overseers, managers, executives and sidewalk engineers. no one actually does work. OK, they did work after the photo was taken, we have to admit, and quite hard too. Tons of debris, rocks and trees had to be moved from the site. Here's our local beginning his climb, with chainsaw on a rope. It's a hard task, requiring lots of strength and courage. The tree was about 50 feet tall. The trimmers took down the fronds first, then slowly cut 18 inches at a time till they reached the ground. His partner watches with a back-up saw. The tree comes down, piece by careful piece. that's the new modular office, being pulled by the tractor near our pool which is just outside the Publications Building. Arumugaswami guides the team, and runs the tractor carefully around our lush plantings. A side view of the three-room facility. Year 2000 March Caribbean Innersearch Taking Reservations Now Don't Delay as the group is limited in size Gurudeva says, "Come with me to the Caribbean next March, on the Year 2000 Innersearch. Besides our wonderful study together, we are planning a gala gathering of Hindus in Trinidad for one day." We will depart from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on March 25th and return to Fort Lauderdale on April 4th and be traveling on Holland America's spectacular, brand new cruise ship, the MS/Volendam. For information contact our wonderful tour agent who will be conducting the Innersearch: Kailash and Indra Dhaksinamurthi of Search Beyond Adventures, Inc. ASAP at search11@mail.idt.net Very Important!: Be sure to include your mailing address and phone number in the body of your message! Kailash will be mailing you information, but if you don't send an address there is nothing he can do.
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New! Satguru Speaks Again!