 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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April 04, 2003
April 4: Bharani Until 4:00PM HST April 5: Krittika Until 7:07PM HST Hindu Year 5104: Chitrabhanu, the "Year of Varied Splendors" |
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 Sadhu Paksha Day 4Gurudeva signs one of his books for a guest. These now form the textbooks for Himalayan Academy's "Master Course" which has been going on for decades.. since Gurudeva first started his mission. Daily study of spiritual writings is a form of "self-edification" considered a key activity called "Svadhyaya" for all Hindus. Gurudeva wrote: "As we progress on the spiritual path, we must have a clear intellectual understanding of the map leading to the eventual destination, as well as what is required to prepare ourselves and to take with us to complete the journey. To begin, we shall discuss Vedanta and Siddhanta, monism-pluralism, advaita-dvaita and the traditional part that yoga plays within the midst of Hindu Dharma. "
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
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Cybertalk: Bodhinatha continues his exploration of sloka 1 from Dancing with Siva with sentences 2 and 3 - "We came from God, live in God, and are evolving into oneness with God. We are in Truth, the truth we seek." God is our life, the Life of our life, and an important practice is to seek to discover this life energy in the trees, the animals, and especially people. A practical method Gurudeva taught was to look deeply into the eyes of another person and see God Siva within them. This practice is the essence of namaskaram, the Hindu's gracious greeting through which we affirm and discover the Divinity within others.
" 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 Yogi 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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Another beautiful piece of art in Dancing with Siva.
During Sadhu Paksha, the monks are alone with themselves in the morning sadhana hours. Gurudeva used to say to the monks: "This is a time for you to be like an Indian Sadhu. Lord Siva loves the wanderer... wander on San Marga until sunrise. Go sit under a tree... merge with nature."
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa
our photographer and TAKA correspondent in Mauritius writes:
"Hope everything is going well in Kauai. Here in Mauritius things are quiet. However the mass consciousness is on the Gulf war. The Tamil New year will be very spiritual this year as it is falling in the fasting Sitraii Kavadee period dedicated to Lord Muruga.
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With the rainy season everything is growing healthily around æthe main Dharmasala building at the Spiritual Park. The Park is abundant of different species of plants. One of the rare plants on the property is the endemic ebony which was almost eradicated by Dutch settlers in the 17th century. Now a new forest of this ebony is emerging at the Park.
Devotees continue to flow everyday to worship the magnificent Pancha Mukha Ganapati at the Mandapam. Ganesha looks very real and inspires spontaneous bhakti.
This is the new wooden bookshelf just fixed inside the Mandapam. Visitors can thus have a clear idea of books available at the Spiritual Park. Most of the books are those of HH Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniya swami and a few copies of Jane Nelson's Positive Discipline for parents are also displayed.
Brahmachari Vel Mahalingam comes regularly to clean and oil the three huge murthis of Lord Ganesha, Lord Muruga and Lord Siva at the Park. Here he is just finishing with the Siva Dakshina murthi majestically sitting in the little Konrai forest.
This is a group of our young Master Course students having some real fun drawing and coloring in the Mandapam with Lord Ganapati happily overseeing them. They have just finished with the Master Course BK 2 lesson on the milk miracle. The older ones had assignments to interview people in the island who had witnessed this miracle on September 21, 1995.
One of the most exciting activities for the students is the Ganesha puzzle. They usually work in a team of three or four to construct the puzzle which is not so much an easy task. This exercise helps keep their mind one pointed and concentrated. A good start for learning mediation.
Every week the Master Course students have a Hatha Yoga session at the Park. Here is their new instructor Rohit helping them master the correct asanas.
These students are newcomers to the Saturday Master Course and they are already learning to master some difficult yoga postures.
This group of students are following an interesting lesson on the book Mystic Mouse conducted by Kulamata Premila Manick. Copies of the mystic mouse is being ordered from Trinidad, West Indies and will soon reach the island of Mauritius by Fedex. Visitors at the Park can soon buy this very interesting and fully illustrated book designed by Gurudeva.
Close up of Ganesha Puzzle
 The Remarkable Vision |
Iraivan Temple Progress Update |
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Shanmugam Sthapati, the man who built the 8th wonder of the world: the Tiruvalluvar statue at Kanya Kumari, India, is the leader of the team building Iraivan.
Sundaram Achari is here working on fine jointing details where the ridges of the stones on one course must be carved to perfectly meet up with the same on the adjoining stones above and beneath it.
Our white granite takes on a lovely shade in the rain and the carved symbols appear in sharp relief.
A stop at the Patarai is always a fascinating moment. Fire and earth in action! Dull chisels heating up 'till their points are white hot and molten.
Raman pulls them one by one from the little forge and hammers the end to a fresh new sharp point.
Set aside to cool just enough with tips in water.
After a millennium or more, this side of the craft has remained the same.
Our Golden Gate Mission had some culture performances after their recent satsang at Kulapati Easvan Param's home. here is Devika Ajaya, dancing.
Her sister, Yatrika Ajaya...
"Oduvar" Jothi Param... sings
Raja Sivamani playing Veena
Venita Katir playing veena.
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS  |
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Date: March_26_2003
Title: Malaysia-Singapore Visit Report Part 3
Category: Travels, Pilgrimage and Missions Abroad
Duration: 3 min., 19 seconds
Date Given: February 2, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha
One more prepared response to the trip. Again, I don't know where we will use it, but a lot of lecturing on Hinduism. We attended this Hindu Renaissance event and I gave a talk and Swami Ghanananda from Africa gave a talk, and Swami Vigyyananda from India gave a talk. A Sivacharya, Muktukumara Gurukkal gave a talk and Dato Jagadeesan gave a talk as well. So five long talks on Hinduism. As I was thinking about it all, I said, "Boy, we sure can make Hinduism complicated!"
One of the beauties of Gurudeva's approach to Hinduism is it that Gurudeva can make it so simple, so pragmatic. I was thinking this morning along that line, this is in that spirit.
Have you ever tried to explain to another what the purpose of our Hindu practices was? Perhaps as a parent, your child asked you: Why are Hindus vegetarian? What is the purpose of going to the temple? Why do we meditate? Of course, we can opt for a philosophical answer such as, to resolve our karma, realize God and be liberated from reincarnation.
This, of course, is a technically perfect answer. However, it is so abstract it does not give the child a clue as to how in Hinduism we are expected to behave. Therefore, a simpler answer would be a more useful one. Here is a simple answer that focuses on behavior : Hinduism teaches us how to become a better person, improve our behavior, live as spiritual beings on this earth. Three ways of saying the same thing.
Man's nature can be described threefold - spiritual, intellectual and instinctive. It is the instinctive nature, the animal-like nature, which contains the tendency to become angry and harm others. The goal is to learn to control these animal instincts as well as the ramifications of the intellect and manifest one's spiritual nature.
This is nicely stated in Tirukural Verse 35. "Virtue is living in such a way that one does not fall into these four - envy, anger, greed and unsavory speech."
In fact, learning to control anger is such an important part of improving our behavior that the Tirukural devotes an entire chapter to this subject. The chapter points out through its ten verses that , "Anger gives rise to teeming troubles, kills the face's smile and the heart's joy. When it is uncontrolled will annihilate you, burns even friends and family who try to help and easily leads to injury of others."
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