 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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October 4, 2002
October 4: Purvaphalguni* Until 1:59PM HST October 5: Uttaraphalguni Until 11:06AM HST Hindu Year 5104: Chitrabhanu, the "Year of Varied Splendors" |
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 Below we bring you a long series of lovely photos from the Ganesha Visarjana festival of our Golden Gate Mission in California. Looking through Living with Siva we have these wonderful words from Gurudeva: "To know one's dharma is a clear path. To be uncertain is a path of confusion. There is one God who knows the patterns of all humankind, whose superconscious mind is so intricate, encompassing and spanning the yugas of time, that each path for each individual is known, memorized and recorded indelibly in the inner ether of the akashic matter of His mind. Through the worship of this God, Lord Ganesha, the venerable pope of the Hindu religion, the individual's dharmic pattern in this life is unfolded from within. It becomes clear. It becomes known. It is difficult for the modern, twenty-first-century Hindu to consciously know the correct dharma, but this can be made known to him through the worship of Lord Ganesha."
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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Cybertalk: Bodhinatha reports on his recent trip to Mauritius, Malaysia and Singapore. On the way to Mauritius he stopped in Malaysia and had an uplifting and well attended satsang with our Church mission there. In Mauritius he talked about parenting and had a nice homa at our Spiritual Park there, including giving some dikshas and observing some young people taking brahmacharya vratas and the like.
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Chaluvadi and Vasuda Sridhar from Ohio came a few days ago and came back today to have darshan with Bodhinatha.
The numbers of people coming on tour day seem to be increasing. Previously we might only have 5-10 people, but lately the numbers are jumping to 20 souls or more each week.
The group is made up of about half Kauai island residents and half people from off island. Kauai residents are now making the monastery a place to bring their relatives and friends who are visiting from off island.
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Incoming news flash: Dandapani emailed from India. He is on pilgrimage there with a special mission to also scout accomodations for coming innersearch.
Taking photos of the silpis at work on stones that are still down on the foundation.
The walk to the temple site is getting to be quite an adventure.
This couple in the front are from Bangalore. The millions of rudraksha seeds on the ground are a joyful treasure.
Lucy Kawaihalau on the left has been an active participant in the "Vision Kauai" group that Gurudeva and the monks have supporting for many years. On the left she brought her father and mother Mr. and Mrs. Sachs. The parents are in their eighties now and remarkably hale and bright. Across the way is Lucy's friend, Michael Smith, Federal Emergency Management Agency. He lives on Kauai and FEMA sends him to places as needed. He recently returned from disaster relief work in Guan and adjacent islands which were badly hit by a recent hurricane. Michael enjoyed the Gurudeva memorial issue of Hinduism Today, saying he had read it three times: "What a magnificent life and what a great job you did!"
Golden Gate Mission
California USA
We bring you an inspiring retrospective from California on the Ganesha Visarjana festival that was held by our members on the mainland USA.
Here we are at the home of Easan Katir in Northern California in Yuba City. Rajkumar Manickam, originally from Malaysia came with his wife from Colorado. He performs the puja to Ganesha.
This lovely Ganesha statue was carved and crafted by Hotranatha Ajaya and his daughter Yatrika.
Many small murthies made by the members were also blessed at the puja.
Aum Gam Ganapataye Namaha!
Devika and Yatrika Ajaya did a great job painting the murthi.
The photos speak for themselves, so we will run some more of Gurudeva's thoughts on Lord Ganesha from Living with Siva. "If someone is not fortunate enough to have been born into a family that perpetuates the Sanatana Dharma, then he must perform sadhana and offer repeated prayers to this first God, Lord Ganesha, whom all Hindus invoke before the other Gods and before any task is undertaken, this God whose knowledge remains supreme, penetrating most deeply through every avenue of the devotee's mind."
Ganesha festivals are really fun for children.
It is one of Hinduism's great qualities that its culture is full of the sights and sounds that can bring young minds into spiritual consciousness.
Everyone chants the names of Ganesha together during the Ashtottara.
Gurudeva; "Once the dharma is clear, is known, it must be faithfully performed throughout the life most willingly, thus destroying the seeds of karma through living out the pattern without creating a new karma, through performing good service, accruing good merit in fulfillment of the totalities of all of our multiple life patterns. This then makes the next life and the one after that joyous, brings good births well earned and well lived, through the graces of Maha Ganapati, Lord Ganesha, who sits upon the four-petaled lotus muladhara chakra within the spine of every person. "
Now, time to go to the river!
Gurudeva: "As the divine being rises within and consciousness expands, a kundalini coil is released and a certain power awakens from deep within. At the same time, conscience awakens, and the mind emerges into the muladhara chakra, there to meet Maha Ganapati, Lord Ganesha, through whose eyes and mind the devotee enters into the joys and happinesses within the Hindu religion, the birthright of all humans."
Gurudeva: " This is how the Sanatana Dharma perpetuates itself and progresses from generation to generation, from age to age. Of course, once well settled into dharma, through Lord Ganesha, we will meet the other Gods."
Gurudeva: "They will help maintain and fulfill our life in all avenues of culture and appreciation of that culture. It is only when each individual finds his own particular pattern in life, and clings to this pattern, that good future births are assured."
The procession arrives at the "sangam" (joining place) of the Feather and Yuba rivers.
Here we go....
The murthis of Ganesha, along with our thoughts, prepare to merge in the waters of the ocean of consciousness.
Visarjana, means "farewell" Goodbye to Ganesha! We will now find you on the within of Being.
Tada Astu! (It is done!)
Lord Ganesha has merged into His Mother's sacred waters.
It is hard to describe the deep inner joy that comes at this moment after having returned Lord Ganesha to the waters. it is as if a new balance has been struck in the unverse, and the perfection of That which is already Perfect is made even more Perfect.
But, only those who have been there know what it feels like.
The message is at once profound and has a deep philosophical import, and yet, as with all Hindu rituals, it is beyond thought, and words, the experience speaks for itself, to minds young and old.
Om Sri Ganeshaya Namaha!
This little one has also merged into.... ??
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS  |
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Date: September_04_2002
Title: Why Bodhinatha became a Hindu
Category: Travels, Pilgrimage and Missions Abroad
Duration: 6 min., 42 seconds
Date Given: July 26, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
Another story. We went recently to Pittsburgh. It was a nice symposium there at which we spoke. 'Hinduism - Past, Present and Future', was the subject and there were about ten speakers. An impressive group of Ph.Ds, most of them. Some were very, very insightful, others were more theoretical.
What we spoke on, was 'Hindu Megatrends', which was a very interesting topic that is coming out in the next issue of 'Hinduism Today'. We are updating our ten Hindu megatrends. Remember we published some, about 12 years ago? It is a way of looking into the future. Ideally not just looking, but reflecting on the positive trends and the negative trends. taking advantage of the positive trends and trying to fix the negative ones. So ideally we just don't look at it as a nice document by Hindu leaders. We think on these trends and put them into use in a practical way.
One of the experiences was, one of the participants in the seminar came up during a break and he said, "Oh, you were not born a Hindu. What made you adopt the Hindu ways?" That is a common question you get asked and I always give the same answer. Well, Hinduism is an experiential religion. That is what I always say. It teaches you not just to believe in God but to experience God. Not just to believe in the deeper truths but to be able to experience them. That is why Hinduism is so great. That is what I always say, standard answer.
But in reflecting upon it, I realize I needed to expand my answer. My answer was good, it hit the core of the matter but it could be better. So I was thinking about that and added two more reasons and I will share those reasons with you.
It is joyous. How do you elaborate on that? But Yogaswami has a nice statement that goes into English. You know, you hear me quote it often, "Bliss, bliss, bliss. Here there everywhere am I." That is how it gets translated. Meaning, he is experiencing God's omnipresence as himself. So it is a very profound but simple statement. What are the first three words there? Bliss, right? Hinduism takes us into a bliss consciousness. We are not just denying ourselves and sitting there in hardship or something on a rock all day and hoping for something to happen. No, it is taking us ever more deeply into a bliss consciousness. That is the idea.
As Gurudeva said, "Life is meant to be lived joyously." So that is one of the greatnesses of Hinduism, it is leading us into our inner bliss. There is a nice word that we use in 'Dancing with Siva' - entasy. Instead of ecstasy, which is like outer bliss, this is inner bliss. We don't have to do anything to create it. Outer bliss, you have to do something to create it. If you are a child, you go on a roller coaster, bliss. You have to do something outside of yourself. Entasy means the bliss is inside, you just have to find it. You don't have to do anything. You just have to go deeply enough inside yourself to find it. Inner bliss, it is there all the time.
Sometimes, we don't convey that joyous sense enough, about Hinduism, particular to children, to youth. It is important. Sometimes the youth just encounter Hinduism as a strictness, as a set of rules. "You can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this, you can't do this." A bunch of rules and the sense of joy isn't emphasized enough. But it should be, we need to balance out the rules with a sense of enjoyment, a sense of joy in the Hindu approach.
So that is the second reason why Hinduism is so great. There is a third reason. In Gurudeva's terminology, it has a great collection of tools, techniques that we can follow. As Gurudeva said on the last Innersearch, "I have given you all the tools and it is up to you whether you use them or not."
It is like we just recently built a carpentry shop. It has got some of the greatest tools you can have for carpentry in this shop. But the shop isn't that valuable, unless we build something. We have to use it. We have to have the skill, the knowledge to use the tools and then we have to actually turn them on and use them and build something. We are using it to build a shrine for Gurudeva, back there in the corner. If you are wondering what we are doing back there, that is a shrine for Gurudeva that we are planning to finish by his Mahasamadhi. So, it will be ready by November.
We have a great collection of tools, the best collection of tools, techniques to cause us to progress on the spiritual path. There is no tradition that has more tools than Hinduism. You got more tools than you can use. Even just the Trilogy - 'Dancing, Living and Merging with Siva' - you know, you won't be able to apply all those tools to your life. There are too many them but you grab onto the ones that are the most important and use those and you make progress.
So it has a great collection of tools, techniques to progress spiritually.
| MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
Innersearch 2003-4 in India! We just completed the July 17-23 Kauai Innersearch, 2002. Bodhinatha will lead the next Innersearch to India, between Dec 2003 and Jan 2004. We will visit Bangalore and the Iraivan Carving Village, and settle in the South in Tamil Nadu, Click on the above for details on what will be an inspiring journey to our holy land of Bharat! |
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