A Daily Chronicle of Kauai's Hindu Monastery

Satguru Siva Yogaswami
Jaffna, Sri Lanka

A Daily Chronicle of Kauai's Hindu Monastery

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA

November 1, 2000 - Uttarashadha
Hindu Year 5102: Vikrama, the "Year of Fulfillment"

Today was Skanda Shasti and after the homa and the puja Gurudeva gave some beautiful answers to questions from cyberspace listeners. He gave an crystal clear simple answer to explain the basic duties and path of a good Hindu:

Do a puja daily in the home
Go to the temple once a week
Go on a pilgrimage once a year
Then if you can add to that, meditate and do sadhanas
Worship externally and then internally
Worship the Gods within yourself.

For more listen to the audio of the talk which is on today.

Title: Worship of Lord Murugan
Category: God and Lords of Dharma
Duration: 4 min., 14 seconds
Date Given: November 1, 2000

Cybertalk: Today we share Gurudeva's inspired upadesha after this morning's Skanda Shasti homa and puja. Gurudeva talks about Lord Murugan, as well as about the characteristics of both the Kadavul Temple and the Iraivan Temple. Gurudeva also talks about the Saiva Siddhanta way of performing external worship and then internalizing that worship. Title: Worship of Lord Murugan Category: God and Lords of Dharma Length: 4 min., 14 seconds Date Given: November 1, 2000

" For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Do you have questions for Gurudeva? Send to questions@hindu.org.

Please note: Gurudeva only responds to questions from the general public on matters that are suitable for our public cyber audience. Personal or intimate questions sent to this address are not answered.

A detailed index of past inspired talks is available here.

Transcription of One of Gurudeva's CyberTalks
October_31_2000
Title: Foot Touching: Who is an Adult, who's an Elder?
Category: Hinduism and Tradition
Date Given: September 7, 2000

A cyberspace cadet in Memphis, Tennessee, who I talked to recently, is a member of a very large group asks, "if the lower part of the body represents the lower instinctive mind of anger, greed and jealously, why do we touch peoples feet, like elders that we respect?"

You'd only bow down to those slightly who are living in anger, jealously, greed and say things that they later they are sorry for when going into a rage. You wouldn't touch their feet because you wouldn't respect them and you also don't want to pick up that vibration. You only touch the feet of people who have closed off the doors of the lower realms of the mind. And for the elders we must remember that respect cannot be commanded it must be earned.

Another question from our temple in Memphis, Tennessee. "I'm 35 years of age and I still feel like a little boy. How can I find myself, get a direction in life?"

Being 35 years of age you didn't obviously attend my session in Memphis, Tennessee a few days ago with all the children of the temple and it was announced that all the children must come from the age 10 to 30. The elders of Asian communities have the wrong idea about who is a child, who is an adult, who is a young adult and this holds the entire community subjugated to the will of the elders, who often shouldn't be elders at all or looked at as being elders and given that respect because their behavior is not proper and up to a religious standard. So I explained to the children, I said you're living in the United States of America and here you are a young adult at 17 years of age and at 21 you are an adult and get this in your mind, children have rights as well as adults and animals. There was one little boy and a girl who were 13 and 14 years of age and I said now when you're 17, 18 years you are going to be a young adult and you must take on the responsibilities of a young adult and when you are 21 you are a full fledge adult. So you're 35 years of age, stand on your own two feet, lean on your own spine, make you own decisions, live your own life and let the community be proud of you. You can pray to the Gods for help and direction but you must be proactive yourself. When the will rises and commands even the Gods are happy to obey.

Another powerful homa was performed this morning in honor of Lord Muruga on this very sacred day.

Through out the world Murugan temples were celebrating the power of the mighty Lord of the Spirit, Lord Skanda, Lord of the powers of yoga, kundalini, righteousness, spiritual aspiration, healing, asceticism, administrator of Justice, the Whisperer in the ear of the rulers who seek to rule by the Law of Dharma.

Lord Muruga is the favorite God of the Tamil people and it is said that He loves abhishekam, the sacred bath. Here gallons of milk are poured over the Deity.

And yogurt. . .during this puja Lord Muruga's Shakti begins to build: an actinic ray of crystal like power and purity, a light blue force that seems to come from an other-wordly realm.

The final part of the abhishekam comes when the pot that was full of water, next to the homa fire is brought into the shrine.

And the power of the homa, contained in the water of the primary Kumbha Pot is poured over the Deity.

Skandanathaswami finishes the Abhishekam by sprinkling the devotees with sacred water from the pot, a joyful blessing.

After the bathing the curtains are drawn and the priests perform the "alankara" the decoration. Covering Muruga's face with ashes we are reminded of the great Being in the inner worlds.

Lord Murugan is also the God of Beauty, Youth, Strength, Celibacy and Tapas.

If you were to be standing in front of the Deity after the puja you could feel the shakti pouring forth from the inner worlds like a beam of laser energy hitting your whole body, mind and soul.

An eleven acre site in Bangalore, India, where 75 Indian families live and daily carve the sacred white granite edifice of Iraivan Temple which will soon begin to be assembled on the island of Kauai

We continue on today with more pictures from the "documentary" of our Bangalore Carving site Ayudhya/Vijaya Dasami celebrations.

During Ayudha Puja , puja is done to a new stone. This is called "Muhurtham" in Tamil. This black stone will finally become part of the railing that comes beside the steps leading to the main sanctum of the Iraivan Temple.

Chidambaram Stapathi and his assistant are marking the measurements for the stone. Only thread dipped in red oxide is used for this purpose.

A simple puja is done to the stone after this. Finally, each silpi will chip the stones a few times. The first chiseling is done by our resident sthapati.

After the chiselling, kumkum and chandanam are applied to the stone.

Here is another picture of the silpis chiselling, each one will come forward to participate.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's pictures of the festivities that followed the ceremonies!

Gurudeva's other monastery in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa

At our center in Mauritius a giant statue of Lord Muruga stands at the end of the property, overlooking the sea, facing eastward toward India and Australia.

"Murugan, Kumaran, Guhan, to utter and melt and have divine experience, when shall You grant this,

Oh guru supreme, worshiped by the devas devout and mortals alike, abode of virtues eight!"

--Skanda Puranam

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