 Satguru Siva Yogaswami Jaffna, Sri Lanka |
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 Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA |
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February 1, 2002
February 1: Hasta until 2:27AM Sat HST February 2: Chitra until 1:51AM Sun HST Hindu Year 5103: Vrisha, the "Year of Fulfillment" |
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 One of Hinduism's great lights, J.P. Vaswani writes to the Aadheenam from Pune, India:
J.P. VASWANI SADHU VASWANI MISSION Beloved and Blessed Ones, I was away from Pune for many days. I have seen "Hinduism Today" (Jan-Feb-March, 2002) Issue. Such was God's Will! Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami was called away from temporal existence on Nov. 12. The Voice that gave comfort to myriad devotees is stilled: but the Message remains. The Form through which God blessed thousands of devotees is gone: but the Light remains. May it be the privilege of Sadguru Bodhinath Veylanswami and you all and many others to spread this Light, far and wide. Humanity needs it. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami now dwells in the Starland of Silence. From there may he continue to pour his benedictions upon you al-- and this humble servant here-- in rich abundance. Say not that Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami is gone. He hath but been united to the "Golden Purusha" of whom the Upanishads speak to us in rapturous strains-- the Golden Spirit who, unseen by many, hath His seat in every heart. My humble, loving pranams to Satguru Bodhinatha and all inmates of the Ashram. I bow down to you all and seek your blessings. And may the Lord continue to bless you and your noble work ever-increasingly! In the One Service, J. P. VASWANI
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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Cybertalk: I get many questions about karma that are way off the mark. We need to understand karma and apply it to our life. Here are 4 of the principles: Principle number 1: Take responsibility. Karma comes back from other people. Easy to blame them. But you caused it. Principle number 2: Forgive the offender. When we look at it as our karma and are happy to receive it, we don't think about the other person and hold it against them. Principle number 3: Don't retaliate. No reason to be the person to deliver the karma back to the other person. Principle number 4: Consider the consequences. Sometimes we don't respond wisely. Wise person things carefully about the consequences and avoids reacting emotionally.
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Our several days of storm have passed and brilliant sunshine came upon us through radiant clouds today.
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
Rajen Manick writes:
"Holy prostrations to Lord Vigna Vinayaga and our Kailasa Parampara!
Glory to Lord Muruga on this forthcoming Thai Pusam !
We went through some hard times with cyclone Dina which just hit our island. Today we have received back electricity supply and is able to use the computer again. I am immediately sending a few photos for TAKA on the damage at the Saiva Dharmasala. Aum."
From Monday 21st to Tuesday 22nd January, the island of Mauritius was under the influence of the severe tropical cyclone Dina which did some serious damage to the island, mostly affecting the crops. People have been without water and electricity a few days, but soon life for everyone is getting back to normal and Saivite Hindus are happily preparing themselves to celebrate Thai Pusam kavadee this week.
At the Spiritual Park there have been a few damages too, but one should not be too alarmed. All the main buildings are intact, except for an old store off the front road that was seriously damaged. However, the whole property is covered with leaves and branches that had fallen off the trees with the violent winds. Here we see a few coconut trees being blown down at the main entrance of the Spiritual Park.
The beatifully made Malaysian wooden gate that leads to the Dharmasala main offices from the main gate was not spared. This needs to be repaired soon.
The very strong gusts blowing over the Park blew down our fencing that overlooks the la Pointe village. This has to be fixed without delay to prevent stray dogs and looters from entering the property.
No banana trees could resist the strong winds blowing as high as 225 km. The trees were either cut through half way or they were blown down completely.
Lord Pancha Mukha Ganapathi saved our main water tank from a coconut tree that just came to rest lazily on it. However, heavy downpour had completely flooded the floor of the Ganesha Mandapam. Also bits of leaves and other debris carried by the winds were stuck on the wooden frames of the Mandapam. All these have already been cleaned off.
The construction of the Teaching Pavillon located at the far end of the property in a little bamboo forest was to be soon completed. But now Cyclone Dina had blown down a few of its wooden structures.
This is one among the many coconut trees that were broken during the cyclone. This gives an idea the intensity of that cyclone. Now Gurudeva's sishyas of the island are ready to repair what has been damaged. They are organising karma yoga activities during the weekends and should you wish to come and give a helping hand, you are most welcome....
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Date: January_19_2002
Title: Martin Luther King Day and Hinduism on Tolerance
Category: Relationships
Duration: 14 min., 59 seconds
Date Given: January 08, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
Taking it more into the Hindu realm for this morning, in terms of our theme of 'Parents as gurus' and for the need for parents to teach tolerance, I have a few thoughts.
The simplest definition of tolerance is freedom from prejudice. Prejudice, of course, is defined as suspicion, intolerance or irrational behavior of other races, creeds or religions. Gurudeva has a nice writing on tolerance in 'Living with Siva', that I thought I would read. If you ever wondered why 'Living with Siva' has two bookmarks, one is for the lesson of the day and one is for the sutra of the day. That is why it has got two.
Turning to the question, how can we cultivate tolerance in children? You can't simply say, "Children be tolerant, don't be prejudiced." It doesn't work like that. We have to go about it in a more systematic way. Here are a few thoughts on that.
The first one is the idea we brought forth recently - stressing that divinity exists within all people, even people trying to harm us or even people who dislike us. Divinity still exists within them and we need to recognize that. The secular pledge puts it another way, that every person is a treasure. So they don't want to talk about divinity. But that is how they are putting the same idea. Every person is special, every person is a treasure, every person is divine. It is just that some people aren't manifesting that divinity in this life time. They are manifesting other qualities. But that doesn't mean it is not there. It is within each of us and we need to teach children to respect everyone, to treasure everyone because the divine is within them.
The second point is to avoid ethnic generalizations and stereotypes, both good and bad, and focus on individuals and recognizing the qualities of that particular individual. Why would we want to avoid generalizations that are good? Because we are not looking at the individual then, even if we make good generalizations. For example, a few times a year we have Japanese groups come here and they are always so well-mannered, so well-behaved. All the shoes are lined up in a perfect row. They all come forward, are so respectful. So it is easy to make generalizations about Japanese people, "Oh, Japanese people are all so cultured." But that is a dangerous statement because then we stop discriminating between one Japanese person and another. We are not looking at each Japanese person as an individual with different characteristics. We are not looking at each individual because we are making good generalizations. It is easy to start making bad generalizations, because we haven't learned to look at individuals or, even good generalizations about groups of people. "Chinese people are all industrious", is a dangerous statement to make in front of a child, because you are teaching the child not to look at each individual person and distinguish the characteristics in that person.
I was looking at Dr. Martin Luther Kings famous speech, "I have a dream." One of his statements relates to this point. "I have a dream that my children will be recognized because of their character." This is the idea, that individuals will look at his children and see the qualities in them, not make generalizations about them because they are black or because they are Dr. Martin Luther King's children or for this reason or that reason. But, actually look deep into the individual, discern the qualities that are there, recognize them for who they are, honor them for who they are, not because of some generalization. That is an important point.
Of course, it is easy to make ethnic generalization comments like this, from just casually watching television, because television often depicts stereotypes of people. Take for example, the Indian. They have a certain stereotype of someone from India. "He is usually not very dynamic", it is a man I am talking about. They tend to portray Indians as not dynamic people but somewhat soft-spoken and so forth. This is a stereotype, it goes into the mind. If we see stereotypes on television, it is important to correct the mind of the child. Indians are not all like that, this is a false concept. The media is portraying a stereotype. We need to make children aware of these stereotypes.
Another area is social interaction. This became quite apparent to me when I visited Australia about five years ago. One of the activities there was a youth seminar. Older youth, I think, about from age eighteen to twenty five, youth and young adults, all Australians. All Australians of Indian descent except for one or two, because it was a Hindu temple group. Somehow the conversation turned to Americans at some point. They were asking questions about Americans and they had some strange ideas about Americans. One of them was like, "Americans were like John Wayne somehow."
I realized, "My goodness! They haven't really socially interacted with Americans, they don't know Americans. They haven't had the opportunity to be with Americans, they haven't grown up with Americans. They are suffering from stereotypes about Americans because they have not socially interacted with them. Therefore they have false concepts, false beliefs and so forth and they tend to generalize. They tend to have generalizations. All Americans are like this, Americans are like that. "
Well, of course Americans would be same towards Australians, because most Americans have not had the opportunity to socially interact with Australians. So they have these general concepts, "Oh Australians are like this, Australians are like that.", which of course, isn't true, Australians are individuals. Each one is potentially quite different from the other.
So what is the problem? The problem is we develop false concepts about other people simply by not having the opportunity to socially interact with them. Therefore the idea is, make sure your children interact with children of other ethnicity and religions, at school, at play and learn to feel comfortable with them. Opportunities are not infinite but we can take advantage of the opportunities wherever we live, to the best of our ability to make sure that children mix with children of different backgrounds and learn to feel comfortable with them. Once children get over the difference, they are very comfortable with each other because they all love to play and do the same things, if they are of similar ages. There is not a lot of natural resistance there.
Second idea is to provide to your own children, an appropriate amount of fun-involved information on the customs, languages and history of the other children. We don't want to make it too tedious. But this book points out fun ways such as websites and children's books that tell stories and all, where they can learn about children of these different backgrounds that they are interacting with, become knowledgeable about and understand the cultural differences, religious differences.
Then the third point is to value diversity. Teach that there is a strength in diversity. Combining different perspectives, sensitivities, backgrounds, creates a group that has the potential to act with greater effectiveness and wisdom than a less diverse group. Our monastery is a good example of that principle of diversity. We have individuals from a number of different countries in the monastery. But of course, we are all Saivites. The diversity gives us a strength because coming from different backgrounds we bring different qualities together. It is like Gurudeva's statement, "Combine the best of the East and the best of the West." We've heard him say that. So we are combining the best of a number of different countries together in the monastery. Therefore, it is a more effective and wise group in its actions, because of that diversity.
Diversity is a strength. If we can utilize that principle and utilize it in working with children and working with different situations to try and create diversity that is appropriate to different situations, then children learn to value the diversity of the group, which is quite the opposite of wanting everyone else to be just like you, which is how some people are
because they haven't been raised this way. They kind of fear that which is different. They are most comfortable with themselves and other people who are exactly like them. But through this kind of raising of children, children can be made to feel quite comfortable with people who are very different. Enjoy the differences and learn to work together in a more effective and wise manner.
Now we get to read 'Living with Siva'.
"I spoke on global education in January of 1990 at the Global Forum for Human Survival, Development and Environment in Moscow. My message to the seven hundred religious and political leaders there, was that we need in the century ahead to teach all children tolerance, openness to different ways of life, different beliefs, different customs of dress and language. We need to stop teaching them to fear those who are different from themselves. Stop teaching them hatred for peoples of other colors and other religions. Stop teaching them to see the world as a field of conflict. And instead instill in them an informed appreciation and a joyous reverence for the grand diversity we find around us. Modern education can do that, provided the approach is changed. Basic human Vedic values should be taught to every child and every student. These eternal values have nothing to do with race, creed, caste, politics or ethnic culture. Learning how to read and write is not the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal of education is also knowing what to read and what to write. As well as how to live in tune with nature, in harmony with the Universe and at peace with oneself and one's fellow man. A great Hindu saint once wrote, "Those that cannot live in harmony with the world, though they have learned many things, are still ignorant."
Then in conclusion, Gurudeva says, talking about the value of the family:
"While the family is suffering a lot in many parts of the world, it is still very strong in Hindu society. We have to keep it that way. And teach the world by our example that it is the family that nurtures the individual and stabilizes the religion and hence the Nation. Only by keeping a strong sense of family can human kind hope for a secure future."
Aum Namah Sivaya!
| MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
Innersearch 2002 in Hawaii! Our next Innersearch Travel-Study program will be held right here on the island of Kauai in the summer of 2002. It's the first such program on the Garden Island since 1974! From July 17 to August 22 we will enjoy daily classes with the swamis, join in the annual Guru Purnima festival, be inspired by local culture, explore the lush tropical island in exciting and non-touristy ways, and more. Be prepared for a wonderful spiritual experience in paradise with meditations, seminars and sacred ceremonies at the Siva temple of Kauai's Hindu Monastery. Many have applied already, and there is a limit of 50 participants, so we recommend everyone apply as soon as possible. Interested? Please request an application from pilgrim@searchbeyond.com |
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