 Satguru Siva Yogaswami Jaffna, Sri Lanka |
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 Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA |
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| March 7, 2000 - Punarvasu | ||||
    
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 Gurudeva performs Arati a the temple site following Sun One Homa ceremonies Satguru SpeaksTitle: Sivaratri 2000
To submit questions on topics that you would like Gurudeva to elucidate, e-mail questions@hindu.org A detailed index of past inspired talks is available here. Thanks to those who are sending questions for future talk subjects. Keep it up, send your questions on important contemporary and spiritual issues to Gurudeva today! Gurudeva answered questions after the homa, which was still blazing high. Today we will start off with our video clip.  Look, it's a movie!Natarajanathaswami and Karttikeynathaswami play drums as we parade around the temple foundation.  While we offer photos of the mornings regular event we are going to share with you a wonderful testimony on the significance of Hinduism Today Ram Swarup, as many know, was one of Indian greatest Hindu Renaissance thinkers. He recently passed over to the Feet of Lord Shiva. Before his transition he had wonderful things to say about Hinduism Today magazine.  Hinduism Today: A New Journal, A New Force. But Hinduism Today makes us aware of Hindus beyond India and does it in
its own way, not as NRIs„the way successive Governments in India have
learned to take notice of them after they began to do well
economically„but as part of a family, as brothers and sisters united in
a common spiritual perception and feeling.
Hinduism Today takes us on a journey and extends our horizon both in
space and in time. It tells us of Hindus and Hinduism abroad not only
at present but also in the past. It finds Hinduism an old phenomenon,
and not a seventeenth century construct as some would-be Orientalists
would have it, but an ancient and great civilization whose influence had
travelled far and wide. But in the succeeding centuries, India fell on
evil days and the Hindu mind and psyche began to shrink, and Hindus
tended to forget this side of their history. Hinduism Today is helping
them in reviving those lost memories. As it travels back in time, it
finds no Aryan invasion of India but reports of Hindu presence in Europe
and even Americas. From its scholarly special articles on Plotinus and
Druids, we learn of intimate spiritual contact between India and Europe
at an early date. Its recent article on old Incan and Mayan buildings
reveals remarkable similarities with old Indian architecture, which
points to an early pre-Columbus contact between the Hindus and the
peoples of South and Central America.
Hinduism Today* has now been in existence for quite some time, and it is
possible now to assess it on the basis of what it has been and what it
has done. No need to make subjective claims or to go by them.
Hindu communities are now found in many countries, but with the
exception of Hinduism Today, there is no journal dealing with their
problems and opportunities. In this respect, this journal is unique. It
reveals to us an important face of Hinduism, its international face.
Every time one picks up its copy, one becomes aware of Hindus not only
in India but also in Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad, South Africa, South East
Asia and now also increasingly in Europe and North America. Its pages
bring them together so often under the same roof that they begin to feel
and live together.
 But Hinduism Today makes us aware of Hindus beyond India and does it in its own way, not as NRIs„the way successive Governments in India have learned to take notice of them after they began to do well economically„but as part of a family, as brothers and sisters united in a common spiritual perception and feeling.
Hinduism Today takes us on a journey and extends our horizon both in
space and in time. It tells us of Hindus and Hinduism abroad not only
at present but also in the past. It finds Hinduism an old phenomenon,
and not a seventeenth century construct as some would-be Orientalists
would have it, but an ancient and great civilization whose influence had
travelled far and wide. But in the succeeding centuries, India fell on
evil days and the Hindu mind and psyche began to shrink, and Hindus
tended to forget this side of their history. Hinduism Today is helping
them in reviving those lost memories. As it travels back in time, it
finds no Aryan invasion of India but reports of Hindu presence in Europe
and even Americas. From its scholarly special articles on Plotinus and
Druids, we learn of intimate spiritual contact between India and Europe
at an early date. Its recent article on old Incan and Mayan buildings
reveals remarkable similarities with old Indian architecture, which
points to an early pre-Columbus contact between the Hindus and the
peoples of South and Central America.
 The journal avoids politics and politicians, in itself quite a relief. On the other hand, it reports what is happening in the Hindu religious world; it tells us of Hindu philosophy, doctrines, modes of worship, rites; it tells us of Hindu festivals, calendars, places of pilgrimage; it tells us of temples and educational centers that are being built by Hindu communities in different corners of the world--it has itself built a Siva temple in Hawaii with all its stones chiselled and carved in India; it tells us about the great Hindu personalities and about non-Hindu friends of Hinduism; it tells us of Hindus who are distinguishing themselves in different fields all over the world; it gives prominence to Hindu sannyasins and men of God. And though the class has undoubtedly its black sheep and charlatans, the change of focus is itself important. Some sannyasins have done great work in projecting Hindu India, to which official India has been allergic. A few persons like Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Prabhupada have done more in putting India on the map of the world than all our white elephant embassies put together.  Teachers like Sri Aurobindo and Vivekananda thought that revival of Hindu people could come only through the revival of their religion. Hinduism Today seems to share this view and emphasizes religious Hinduism. It presents the Hinduism of the Vedas, the Agamas, the Puranas, the yogas as well as the Hinduism of temple worship and rituals; it also takes into account many popular expressions of Hinduism like the kewarha; in fact, it did not neglect even the milk-miracles of the last year and reported it amply. Anything that interests Hindus also interests it. It is promoting vegetarianism, a great value taught by Hinduism. Some Vedic sciences like Ayurveda and Astronomy are honoured.  It serves Indian Hindus by informing them about themselves. It reports about men and institutions we neglect or do not take particular notice of. For example, it wrote about Motilal Banarsidas whom most of us knew only as commercial publishers probably specializing in oriental literature but knew nothing about the original inspiration of its founders. Similarly, it wrote on Hindujas whom we knew mostly from the negative reports of the press. But from Hinduism Today, we came to know about their Hindu commitment. It seems it does not suffer from the current socialist suspicion of the vaishyas.  The journal has probably yet to pay tribute on behalf of us all to the Birlas, the great builders and renovators of temples. The late Jugal Kishore Birla built the well-known Lakshminarayana Temple in Delhi in the late thirties, probably the first presentable structure after more than 700 years--tokens of infidelity were not allowed to be built during the long Muslim rule. J.K. was more than a man with money; he had a vision of a greater Hinduism, and freely helped all members belonging to the larger Hindu family: Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Arya Samajists, etc. He built Buddhist temples and supported their institutions in India in a big way. Luckily, the younger members of his family shared his views and continued his work. Any faithful account of Hindu renaissance would include not only its great visionaries and intellectuals but also its great vaishyas, though the current fashion is not to take them into account. But they deserve our full honor.
Hindus in India continue to be overwhelmed by their own problems and
have little energy and time to spare for their brethren abroad, but
Hinduism Today keeps serving them as best it can. For example, in
their hour of distress the Fiji Hindus found in this journal a
dependable friend and spokesman.
 In the US and Canada, the journal helps Hindus to retain their identity, which could be easily lost in a very different cultural environment. But a family which receives a copy of Hinduism Today would find in it a great defense. The journal helps them in many different ways. It brings their problems into the open and discusses them frankly and tries to find Hindu-cultural answers to them. It shows Hindu men and women at work facing new challenges; the problems of Hindu boys and girls at schools learning and coping with peer pressures, trying to look and be like others; the problems of dating and new sexual mores; the problem of aged parents briefly visiting them or living with them.  Any answer to these and similar problems which Hinduism has to offer is important not only to the Hindu repatriates but also to their other American neighbors. For they all face similar problems: problems of an individualistic, competitive, permissive and consumerist society, over-emphasis on success and acquisitions, disintegrating family life, loneliness of the old and the neglect of children, inner sickness in the midst of a developed health care system, and emptiness in the midst of increasing sensations and images. Any solution that Hinduism offers should help all.  Mention should also be made of the journal's excellent production. It is soothing to the eyes and maintains a high standard of workmanship and skill. It is sattvika in appeal and maintains this quality even in its advertisement columns. From Hinduism Today, let us turn to those who run it. They are not NRIs. They are mainly white Americans--converts, Hindus by choice, and sannyasins at that. Those of us Hindu by birth tend to take Hinduism for granted and neglect its deeper, spiritual categories. But it is different with those who embrace it after much reflection and self-searching. They are seekers and sadhakas; they are interested in the problems of God, of Self, of inner life, of dharma and mukti. These concerns find ample expression in Hinduism Today and other publications at Hawaii, and this fact has given them a special quality and flavor.  Hitherto, Hindus knew only two categories: Hindus born in India and Hindu emigrants who went overseas during the last few centuries often under very adverse conditions. But now we have also a new, fast-growing third category of those who adopt Hinduism by free choice. This is an important category, and traditional Hinduism should become aware of them. Their contribution to Hinduism is notable. Who could, for example, forget the name of the Hare Krishna Movement in this connection?
Hindu influence however goes far beyond this category. Hindu thought is
changing the intellectual-religious contour of Europe and America and
attracting their best minds. In this thought, they also find the
principle of their own self-discovery and recovery. The new religion of
these countries is now really the "New Age," which is greatly worrying
the Christian establishment. The Pope sees "Eastern influences" in this
new development. Pat Robertson, an influential American evangelist,
finds that "the New Age and Hinduism„it is the same thing," He
complains, "We are importing Hinduism into America."
 I have often found that those who publish Hinduism Today show better awareness of some very important problems Hinduism faces than most of us do here. For example, I have felt that one great problem of Hinduism is the poverty and illiteracy of its priests. But have you ever heard a party of Hindutva in India discussing it? On the other hand, those around Hinduism Today are concerned with the problem, and as early as 1984, held an "International Conference of Saivite Priesthood" to deliberate over it.
For obvious reasons, Hindus in India are occupied--some say
"over-occupied"--with Christianity and Islam. When they speak of
"harmony of all religions", they mean them though the doctrine
ill-applies to them for they seek not harmony but hegemony. On purely
spiritual grounds, Hindus should learn to take more notice of other
religious traditions closer to their own, for example, like those of
China and Japan, of old Egypt and Iran, of Pre-Christian pagan Europe,
and of indigenous Americas.
 The journal rightly stands for peace among the followers of all religious persuasions, without being called upon to preach an artificial and indiscriminate ideology of "harmony of all religions." Nor do its monks feel any pressing need to prove their universality by disowning their Hindu identity. In an editorial, the journal chides monks visiting the West who are Hindu in everything--dress, teaching, lineage--but when asked about their Hindu identity deny it and become non-Hindu universals. Its own monks take pride in being Hindus and teach us to do the same.
I believe that America is waiting to be rediscovered--not as in the past
by outside adventurers who came and occupied the "promised land" and
enslaved its people, who were arrogant and thought they had nothing to
learn but only to teach. The new discovery would require a different
spirit, a reverent and compassionate spirit, the Vedantic spirit, which
sees goodness and godliness around, which sees one's own self in all.
This spirit would reveal another America, another people whose way of
intuiting man, nature and deity is still valid and could help the other
America to renew itself at a deeper level. Should the "Great Spirit" of
these people return, America's rivers, forests and mountains would recover
their sacredness and be the abodes of Gods again; nature would cease to
be a mindless mechanism, the Earth a mere resource for man to use; they
would become "living" and "soulful" again.
I believe that the establishment of an alert Hindu Ashrama at Hawaii
would help this process; it would help the indigenous people in their
religious and cultural revival; which in turn would help the revival of
America itself.
 Hinduism Today represents a new force. While consolidating Hindus, it also projects the great ideas and ideals of Sanatana dharma. I believe that Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami who has inspired and who presides over this movement will have a honoured place in the history of Hindu revival. Like Agastya Muni of old, he would be remembered for extending the frontiers of the Vedic dharma. Many would regard him as a special power (vibhuti) of Siva, and Hawaii, his field of activity (karmabhoomi) is likely to become a significant religious site, a place of special manifestation of Siva in this part of the world. I welcome the journal and the people around it; I welcome their work and their role. Hinduism needs their service, dedication, sadhana, their skill (kaushala), talent and intelligence, their leadership. My mind appreciates their work and my heart blesses them.
Ram Swarup
 A vigorous parade around the temple site.  We have news from our soil engineer consultant from Canada, that since the foundation has only settled about 1/2 an inch, we will probably take off the soil at the end of June. This is good timing because we expect another shipment of stones to arrived from India by then.  The small havan fire at the Yagnasala on the north end of the temple site.      Photos From Our Branch Monastery |
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