A Daily Chronicle of Kauai's Hindu Monastery

Satguru Siva Yogaswami Jaffna, Sri Lanka		Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA
	November 24, 1999 - Mrigasira

Gurudeva is bathing the sacred site where one day the Crystal Lingam will abide. The water is from the morning homa, carried from Kadavul Temple to Iraivan Temple this morning at dawn. New! Satguru Speaks Again! In part two of his talk on Sacrifice and Renunciation Gurudeva answers the question, "How do you know if you are Hindu?" He also tells us about the life of sannyas and how, when the temple goes, the culture goes. 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. Today is Sun 1, the beginning of our "week." Each Sun 1 we start with a pre-dawn homa. Here the priest is offering ghee with a traditional wooden ladel, and Gurudeva is holding a tray of offerings that will be given into the fire soon. On the left is Mr. Subramaniam, a pilgrim. He lives near Chennai, at Tirunevelli, and his family is closely connected with the Sringiri Sankaracharya Mutt in Karnataka State. After the homa, Gurudeva spoke to all the members gathered in the main mandapam. Once again the Crystal Lingam was radiant. Gurudeva spoke today about religion, about the sacredness of the Sanskrit language and its importance in invoking the Gods in the temple. His talk will be posted in a few days... Today we are putting this original art work on ebay, to auction it off to raise funds for Iraivan Temple The art was a gift from the famous New York artist, Peter Max, of '60's fame. He has a BIG studio in the Big Apple, and he did this heart to help the Hawaii Siva Temple manifest. Peter valued it at $12,000, so we will see what ebay folks say. Thanks, Peter! Deva Katir and his wife Tara helped Mr. Subramaniam feel at home this morning, and by his big smile they must be doing a great job! He is on Kauai to meet Gurudeva and to receive direction on the next stage of his personal spiritual disciplines, called sadhanas, and to enjoy satsang with all the mathavasis and devotees on the island. Picture time. Natyam Tyaganatha lights camphor as we begin our entrance to Iraivan with Ganesha arati. Ganapati is in a tree here, a banyan tree, just like one finds throughout India. From there we begin our walk around Iraivan Temple foundation. It sprinkled a bit, so Sivanadiyar is holding an umbrella. Guhanathaswami carries the kumbha. Now we are standing on top of the four-foot-high foundation. It's still covered with burlap and plastic, and palm fronds, to protect it from drying out too quickly. Soon we will remove these layers. The camphor is passed as all stand in awe. The little red pole by the pot is the exact spot where the future Lingam will reside, the center of the sanctum, which will rise 35 feet above the floor, touching the island sky. Hands in anjali mudra, members worship with Gurudeva. Taskforcers and aspirants join the swamis for the morning pilgrimage. That's Diksha Kandar, second from the right, here to serve for three months. On our walk we ran into some interesting new plant experiences. This is a cluster of blue seeds hanging near Iraivan on a palm tree. They are quite striking, and about shoulder high so it was easy to get a close shot. It's the Chinese Fan Palm, sort of a weed and a menace here at the monastery! Don't you wish all our weeds were so lovely? Wow! The name of this ginger family flower is Kimi. It's a famous flower, used by all the tropical flower shippers here, a cross between a red and pink ginger, with tones from each. 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!