 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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February 24, 2004
February 24: Asvini until 2:10AM Wed HST February 25: Bharani until 4:23AM Thu HST Hindu Year 5105: Subhanu, the "Year of Beautiful Radiance" -- Site Map -- |
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 During this Moksha Ritau, we bring you quotes from Gurudeva's writings, focused on the ultimate goals of life: "Religious learning is the greatest learning, the only permanent learning. All else is transitory and changing. Religion is the knowledge of the soul. God Siva created your soul. Your mother and father created your body, brought you into this world. But you create your own experiences in this life from the sum total of experiences in your past lives. You came to this Earth for one purpose: to learn of your religion. You are on this Earth for the evolution of your soul. You are not here to earn money. You are not here to gratify yourself through excesses. You are not here to fight with each other. You are not here to accumulate material conveniences. You are here to learn of and then to fulfill your religion. It is knowledge of religion in your life that makes the soul evolve. So, learn your religion fully, properly, intelligently, and it will guide you through this life into a better birth or on into moksha, liberation from earthly existence." -- Gurudeva  This elephant in Kanchipuram seemed especially good with blessings. Many times the elephant will just wave its trunk over your head, but this time he places it fully and gently on top of Bodhinatha's head.
 It is always a wonderful day when seniors come to visit. They have so many years of experience behind them and speak from lives fully lived and the wisdom gained that only living life can bring. This group of 35 elders came about 4 years ago. A lot has changed since then and they were totally awed by the temple construction. As usual, the view of the Wailua River and Mount Waialeale takes many of them off on a walk down memory lane as many recalled their childhood memories of coming here when this place was the "Tropical Inn," and they braved the slippery slopes to go down and play in the river.
 It is the second to last day, the 20th day of Innersearch, February 4th, 2004. And after being a close knit group of 82 sishya, students and monks, we threw open the doors for a grand event in the evening in Chennai. We had previously invited about 150 of those people in South India whom we know and love and with whom we have worked, some, for decades. It was a joyous reunion and a face-to-face with so many with whom we have only been in touch by email for many years. Bodhinatha is greeted with a big crown of flowers and a 20-pound mala of red roses!  All the swamis honored at the door upon arriving. With our guests and innersearchers, about 250 people were there.  The event began with a Sanskrit blessing chant by Shanmugam Sivacharya (Sambamurthi Sivacharya's son,) and a welcome address by Paramacharya Palaniswami  At the entrance in the back of the hall our brahmacharinis Gowri and Barathy and Kulamata Kanmani take charge of a table of literature: copies of Hinduism Today, CD for sale to help Iraivan fund raising...  Our movie on Gurudeva and Iraivan was shown using a DVD a small iBook and a projector that we had carried all the way from Hawaii.  It was appreciated by everyone to get a visual update of things at Kauai Aadheenam.  Next we honored our team of artists, one after another. Here is A. Manivel, his wife and two sons, all of whom have contributed to much of the beautiful artwork you seen in Living with Siva, Hinduism Today, How to Become a Hindu and more.  Sripati Acharya and his wife. He is a new recruit to our team and has done some lovely work for the next edition our Saivite Hindu Religion children's course.  Here we present a poster of the statue of Gurudeva that now lives in the Kadavul Temple, to it's creator, Sri Vidya Shankar Stapathi from Swamimalai.  Swami Advaitananda is here (center). As a young man he personally attended to Swami Chinmayananda during Swami Chinmayananda's travels and now he is working to start new centers in Poona. He has been a reader of Hinduism Today for many years and is anxious to assist in helping with the spread of the magazine in India. He has come to visit us earlier in Madurai and came back again tonight.  Long time sishya's of Gurudeva from Rajapalayam, Mr. Pethu Raja and his wife Rajini. Rajini is a gifted writer in Tamil and has been working on a important project for many years: a biography of Gurudeva in Tamil which is being released tonight.  They offer a packet of books to Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami and take one out.  It is beautifully printed and we should commend Rajini and her husband for his support and the printer. This is a very useful addition to our line of books. The proceeds of all sales will be given to Iraivan.  Finally Bodhintha gave a talk on Hinduism Today (the audio for which you can listen to from yesterday's TAKA which is now in the archives.)  Sheela Venkatakrishnan did an excellent job translating the talk into Tamil.  Bodhinatha knows enough Tamil to follow her along in his written copy of the English, as she translates.  This is the family of Shanmugam Stapathi who is building Iraivan here on Kauai. They came to meet us all. They send their love to "Daddy" from Chennai.  The Pethu Raja family with young ladies of their extended family.  One of the first artists who did paintings for us years ago was Mrs. Saroja Nagaratnam who did all the Bija art paintings. It was good to see her tonight with her husband and relatives after all these years.  Sripati Acharya and family.  A. Manivel, wife and children.  The young ladies sing for us...  Brahmacharini Gowri Nadason, who has been with Gurudeva for over 20 years and has been doing much Sivathondu for Hinduism Today and Iraivan along with so many other dedicated sishya in Malaysia.  Here is Swami Advaitananda again. You can find out more about his Advaita Foundation and work in Pune by going to http://www.advaitaguru.org  The elderly but ever energetic S. Rajam whose exquisite works adorn the covers of Gurudeva's Trilogy and also the latest edition of Dancing with Siva. It was a truly wonderful evening for all of us!
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 Sannyasin Saravananathaswami If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page and follow the directions there.
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