 Satguru Siva Yogaswami Jaffna, Sri Lanka  Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Hawaii, USA |
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 Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami Kauai's Hindu Monastery, USA 
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March 16, 2002
March 16: Asvini until 8:25AM Sun HST March 17: Asvini until 8:25AM HST Hindu Year 5103: Vrisha, the "Year of Fulfillment" |
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 HIS SWEEP OF GRACE. (by Siva Yogaswami) Divine Grace sweeps over And my soul revels in bliss. With none resisting Truth reigns supreme. Is it One or is it Two; No more do I query. Aum Sivayanama refrain Floods my heart with joy. Yama the terrible God of Death No more can sting but serve in tremor. Be no more fearful For there's nothing to fear. --Natchintanai. 200.
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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Cybertalk: Drawing from the lesson of the day, we can send messages to departed loved ones in the inner worlds. Gurudeva said that chelas (close initiated disciples) communicate with their departed gurus in this way. Gurudeva stressed that the satguru has an obligation "to help his chelas attain their highest potential in this lifetime," even after his departure from the physical plane.
" For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks.
Study Gurudeva's teachings
every day. Visit the Master Course site!
Bodhinatha will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sadhaka Mahadevan
If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page for sound geeks and follow the directions there.
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This group is on Kauai for a 10 day travel study program, studying with a Dr. Brugh Joy.(3rd from left in back) For twenty-seven years, Dr. Joy has been a teacher of "Heart Centered
Transformation and Spiritual Enlightenment". His courses deal with body
energy fields, healing techniques using energy transferred through the
hands, and Self-discovery.
This is Dr. Ramananda Shetty from Northbrook, Illinois and his wife Bharathi, who we are proud to say is a full time wife and mother. Congratulations Bharathi! They have two daughters: Annapoorna Shetty on the left is a school teacher in Arizona where she teaches 3rd grade children. And her sister, Anuradha on the right is studying at the University of Michigan. The Shetty family have been subscribing to Hinduism Today since 1993 and this was their first visit to Kauai Aadheenam on a Hawaii family reunion trip during the young ladies' spring breaks from school. Annapoorna was delighted to see "Positive Discipline" for teachers in our mini-mela book shop as she has read this as part of her teacher training studies.
It was an interesting meeting as when Dr. Shetty talked with our managing editor Sannyasin Arumugaswami about a feature story that is in the works on medical ethics he recommended we contact another doctor he knew: Dr. B. M. Hegde in his home town of Mangalore, India. Dr. Hegde is the Vice-Chancellor of the Manipal Academy of Education (University) Within minutes after Dr. Shetty and family departed, Arumugaswami found Dr. Hegde on the internet, emailed him and Dr. Hegde responded and is all set to contribute to the next article. Now, is that connected or what!
We hope the Shetty family will join us every year!
Now, there are many famous plants in the world, and trees have a special place of course as the "lungs" of the earth. We are all familiar with the sacred banyan tree and the giant California Redwoods. But did you know about the incredible sacred tree of Africa -- the baobab tree? Some of these remarkable trees are over 800 years old and highly revered in the indigenous faiths of Africa. Recently we were gifted with two of these plants as the person who gave them thought that, in keeping with Gurudeva's grand vision of a temple that should last for 1000 years, what better than to plant a tree at the Aadheenam that would last for that long... Here are some interesting facts from the web...
"Few travellers in Africa fail to be impressed by the size and bizarre appearance of the baobab tree. Fewer realise the extraordinary occult influence it wields over the lives of the people who live with it.
The knowledge of the spiritual dimension of the African baobab has been preserved by traditional healers and religious leaders of the societies in which it is found. Myths and legends imbue the baobab with great power, which is not surprising given its imposing presence and the many products that people derive from it.
Of the eight species of baobab -- there are six in Madagascar and one in Australia -- the single African variety (Adansonia digitata) is the largest and most spectacular. Found in dry, low-lying regions, the baobab is indigenous to more than 20 countries south of the Sahara Desert, and north of the Tropic of Capricorn. ... read more at:
http://www.pansophist.com/AkSafTree.htm
Large trees are often venerated in India and the remarkable story of how the Africans look at the Baobab tree as a "temple" of their ancesters shows the deep affinity of Hinduism and all the native people's faiths... this is a must read at: http://www.mg.co.za/mg/africa/06sep-oabaobab.html
Perhaps, if you do not merge with Siva by then, when you reincarnate you can come to Kauai and walk inside the sacred space of the hollow that forms over time within the baobab tree that will be here 800 years from now... since the trunk can attain a 40-foot diameter and the rest of the foliage and crown cover a 150-foor wide circle we will have to find just the right place...
Two years ago we planted some lovely "Calotropis Gigantea Asclepiadaceae" known as "Madar" and, in Tamil, as the erukku shrub and in the west as the Giant Milkweed. Gurudeva has seen these bushed covered with monarch butterflies and asked the monks to plant some for the Aadheenam to attract these delicate flying beauties. Only later have we come to realize that the reason they love the plant so much is that the caterpillar eats the leaves! Oh well... all a Divine Dance as we too, little human caterpillars will one day bring about the emergence of our own soul natures and turn into butterflys! Check out http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/CropFactSheets/calotropis.html this plant has wonderful medicinal properties and is very important in India for the tough fibrous hemp that serves for string, ropes nets etc. and which is very durable, even under water.
One of our pots from India, decorated with a traditional local image: the salamander or "Gekho."
Gurudeva's Vision Manifest in Arizona Ganesha Temple
Grand Opening of Maha Ganapati Temple of Arizona
[by Bala Raj and Dave Mahadevan]
Lord Ganesha, the remover of obstacles, has graced the valley with his divine presence since May 1999. Sri Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami of Kauai Aadheenam donated a four feet tall granite Ganesha idol weighing 1600 lbs to the Hindu Community of Phoenix.
Thus started the saga and vision of building a much-awaited Ganesha temple in Phoenix. In March 2000, the temple was incorporated as an Arizona non-profit organization. The deity was initially housed in devotees' homes. Many residents of Phoenix thronged to the see the Lord regularly for sat sang and pujas.
Two devotees donated 15 acres of land to build a temple near Maricopa city about 25 miles from the City of Chandler. An interim structure (Modular Home) of 2100 sq. ft. was bought and made ready for Ganesha at the temple site.
In November 2001, Sri Raman Sastrigal who is proficient in Vedas and Hindu rituals and religious liturgy joined the temple as full time priest. In addition to performing Temple duties, his services are available for pujas and Hindu functions for individuals in the valley.
On February 17, 2002 many volunteers joined hands and moved the deity from the Scottsdale residence to the interim structure.
The Grand Opening of the temple was held on February 24, 2002. Sri Raja Rathna Bhattar, Priest Emeritus of Houston Meenakshi Temple and Sri Raman Sastrigal of Ganapati temple of AZ performed the Homam, Maha Abhishekam and Archanas on that day. Gurudeva's blessings for this effort was felt through the picture mounted on the temple wall
More than 500 devotees of the Hindu community attended the opening event. The celebration included singing of bhajans and devotional songs by devotees followed by a sumptuous lunch.
The temple will be open on all Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. The temple board is planning to have the temple open for darshan on Saturdays and week day evenings as well very soon.
The next special Puja at the temple will be on March 12th for Maha Sivarathri. The day's events starts with the Rudra Homam at 3:30 p.m. followed by Abhishekam at 6:30 p.m. and harthi at 7:30 p.m.
We welcome the devotees to have darshan of Lord Ganesha and request the help and support to realize our collective vision.
Please visit the temple website @ http://www.ganapati.org for further details and on-going updates.
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Study Gurudeva's teachings.
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Date: March_10_2002
Title: The Self is like Waking Up
Category: The Ultimate Goals of Life
Duration: 4 min., 47 seconds
Date Given: February 21, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
We are dreaming, we are dreaming, we are dreaming that we are not Parasiva, that we are going to realize Parasiva sometime in the future. But realizing Parasiva is like waking up. We say, "Oh, you know, I was already Parasiva! I was just dreaming that I was not." It is like that. We just have to claim it. We have to step beyond time and space, step out of the concept that we have to do something, then something else and then something else in order to realize it. It is like when we are traveling in a dream, we just have to wake up. Very simple and we find we are home.
There is an interesting Tamil word, 'vidu', which means both home and liberation for some reason. Same word, that is unusual for a word to mean liberation and also home. So you are going along and you are reading something and it says, "vidu" and you say, "What are they talking about a house for?" No, it doesn't mean house. It is liberation, in that sense.
It works perfectly with this analogy because in both cases we end up 'vidu'. We end up home or liberated, almost the same thing.
That is our monism as Gurudeva says sometimes. "We close our eyes and we are monists. Open our eyes and we are theists." So, in this case we are moving on to Lesson 315 from 'Living with Siva'. "I urge all Saivites, devotees of God Siva to worship Him as the God of Love and, in doing so, to become beings of love. The great saints of our religion were Siva bhaktars. They changed the world through their love of God Siva." Sounds like theism, we have switched to theism.
The phrase that struck me was, of course, the idea of loving God Siva. We say that all the time. But the phrase that struck me this morning as I read this was, 'become beings of love'. Step one, we worship God Siva. Step two, we develop a love of God Siva. And what happens in step three? We become beings of love. We are back in time and space, so things do work one step after another.
This is a very interesting idea, I never realized that phrase was used before, become beings of love. It relates to our next subject. "Holding the family together can be summed up in one word." Anybody care to guess? Love, right! Yes, love, there it is, love. "Love is understanding. Love is acceptance. Love is making somebody feel good about his experience. Love is giving the assurance that there is no need to keep secrets no matter what has happened. Love is wanting to be with members of the family."
Being a being of love, as we all are, as we are all trying to be, the family seems a natural place to perfect that. In our case, we have a monastic family. It too counts as a family. Holding the whole family unit together is summed up in the one word, love.
That is a wonderful topic, I think, to develop in the future. What does it mean to be a being of love? What is the yard stick? How can we measure how successfully we are being a being of love?
We had a very wonderful yard stick given by Gurudeva, on speech. It has to be true, kind, helpful and necessary. Very easy to tell if we are following that or not. Maybe if we look in Gurudeva's teachings, we can come up with the equivalent of that to see how well we are being a being of love. Because it is an important part of our Saiva Siddhanta, very important part.
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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 July 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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