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Yogaswami says in this wonderful song to Lord Siva:

OH BLISS INFINITE

In the expansive firmament is the Father and mother.
In the expansive firmament is the soul of existence.
In the expansive firmament is the elemental forces five.
In the expansive firmament do I too dwell.

Deep within me I see the microcosm and macrocosm.
My innate self I see as macrocosm and microcosm.
Yet my intrinsic Self sees not the microcosm and macrocosm.
I permeate both macrocosm and microcosm.

The peerless One who is Father, Mother and Guru,
He fosters me as in me He dwelleth.
The Primal One absolves me from past deeds.
Him I come to know and merge in Love with Him.

He's ambrosia in the hearts of hoary saints,
Bliss eternal and ever immortal.
He's the balm that heals the burns of finitude.
Freed from affliction sore, I awaken to Reality.

He's the immaculate One, with and without Form.
He's my Guru who willeth to make me His own.
Above the sway of the twenty four principles, (Tattwas)
He alone prevails as the efficient creative cause.

He's Effulgence who banished my fears.
He's the Soul of Justice who shuns false hearts.
He's the Alpha of all true religious sects.
His Holy Feet on my head, life indeed is blessed!

The Primal One beyond the sixty four categories,
The magnanimous Radiance that dispels distress,
He's the mediator who showed grace to sage Agastya.
My unsullied heart is His favourite abode.

The Consort of the tender Sakti takes His abode
In the inner shrine of those who've subdued the senses.
The Essence of Letters five cannot be realised
In the passion-torn minds who perpetuate finitude.

--Natchintanai. 342-343.

Cybertalk: A cyberspace devotee asks why she picks up negative conditions
from other people. Gurudeva advices her to be around positive people who
have good thoughts and are uplifting to avoid this. A cyber cadet from
Perak, Malaysia wonders what is imagination. Gurudeva says imaginaton are
images created in the mind and advises him to make positive images in his
mind that are beneficial. A cyber devotee in California wants more
clarification on Gurudeva's advice on giving the wife everything that she
wants and everything that she needs. He asks what if she is abusive?
Gurudeva says that it is the husband who has taken her into his life and
therefore he must see to her needs and wants in order for them to have a
happy life together and perhaps sometime in the past her needs were not met
thus she is abusive now.

Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.

Do you have questions for Gurudeva? Send to questions@hindu.org.

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Transcription of One of Gurudeva's CyberTalks
Date: January_15_2001
Title: Sacred leaves for pada puja, Should one have a Guru who is alive?, Is everything that happens good?
Category: Hinduism and Tradition
Duration: 3 min., 33 seconds
Date Given: January 11, 2001

A cyberspace devotee in Johar Baharu, Malaysia wants to know if, "While doing a Pada Puja, Puja to the Feet of the Guru, is it all right to use sacred leaves like bilva leaves?"

While doing Pada Puja to your Guru, using bilva leaves is wonderful. Fruit juices, flowers, unbroken saffron rice, all the beautiful things. Because, what are you doing? You are creating a wonderful future for yourself by giving respect to the Guru.

A cyberspace devotee in Botswana wants to know on this 11th day of January, 2001, "Can a jnana guru be just as effective if he does not have the physical body, than if he does? Or can we take a guru who doesn't have a physical body as our guru? Or, is it better to have a guru who has a physical body?"

Well, that was a complicated question. But, a very simple answer!

You can hang a picture on the wall and do anything you want to, to that picture. That picture is not going to talk to you. To have a physical guru who can speak with you on the telephone, who can discuss matters with you, who can clear your mind of doubts, who can e-mail you - that is something new, an e-guru - is of a greater benefit than a guru that does not have a physical body. We can't leave this to your imagination. Imagine learning calculus, geometry from a teacher who didn't have a physical body.

Put those two things together, what is better? Teacher with a physical body or a teacher without a physical body?

A question from the state of Virginia on January 11th. "Is everything good? Or, I mean if something bad happens to you, is that also good?"

Well, the answer would be that if something bad happens, you can get a good lesson out of it, so it won't happen again. Because, everything that happens to you is for a reason and the reason is you put it into action in the past, either a past life or sometime in this life, and have forgotten how you did it. In forgetting how you did put this action into motion, it comes at you through other people, through situations that you didn't anticipate at some time.
So, accept your karma cheerfully. That is the mystical way, that is the yoga way, that is the Hindu way. Accept your karma cheerfully. Get the lesson out of the experience.
Get the lesson out of the experience and you can carve a beautiful future for yourself.
transcription ends

Each morning after the early morning puja, the older monks go for their meditation sadhana while our resident guest task force stay in the temple to continue their studies. Sivaneswaran here is doing his daily Merging with Siva reading and sadhana.

Outside on the westside of Kadavul temple is a traditional "side shrine" with Lord Ganesha installed. Everyday a small puja is done.

Our new infrared filter takes a shot from the ground level looking up at palms in the middle of a bright sunny day.

The same shot without a filter. . .this is the entry way to our "courtyard" where all the monks gather for the noon meal.

Bouganvilla flowers are not really flowers at all but tight clusters of colored leaves. But deep inside the cluster you will find an ever so tiny white flower.

An eleven acre site in Bangalore, India, where 75 Indian families live and daily carve the sacred white granite edifice of Iraivan Temple which will soon begin to be assembled on the island of Kauai

Having completed our "stone ring series" from the Iraivan temple carving site just outside Bangalore India, we turn back to the "human story" of the wonderful village of carvers, their wives, children and our great temple carving site manager family, Jiva, Kanmani Rajasankara and their sons, Sentiladhiban and Thuraisingam.

Thurai is our main photographer and he has sent us this great series of shots from the Jayanthi celebrations and Thai Pongal celebrations.

We begin with the gathering for the Pada Puja.

Thurai says:

Guru Jayanthi celebrations on 5-1-2001 at San Marga Iraivan site. It is
one of the major festivals that is celebrated with the silpis.

Full view of the decorations to Gurudeva's photo before the Tiruvadi
puja

This is a section of the silpis witnessing the Tiruvadi puja.

Another section showing my mother (Mrs. Jiva Rajasankara on the right in purple), Sapna (the little girl) and the silpis.

This day last year was a retreat. No page was archived.

"How to Become A Hindu"! Gurudeva's latest book release is now available Hot Off the Press! Visit the Himalayan Academy Book Store Web Site get the book and read the incredible testimonies of the early pioneers from the west who chose to make a full and complete conversion to Hinduism, legally change both their first and last names to Hindu names, change their lifestyles, sever their formal connections to previous faiths and joyously face the challenges in joining the tribe of the Sanatana Dharma

Visiting Kauai's Hindu Monastery
If you are planning to visit Kauai, please go first to our our visitor's page. Thank you.

Click here for information about Gurudeva's travels. He is presently staying on Kauai and has not immediate travel plans.

And

2001 EUROPEAN INNERSEARCH

12 Glorious Days, 8 Enchanting Countries
and One Chance in a Lifetime!

Imagine spending 12 days with one of the greatest spiritual leaders of this century. Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami will be leading this exotic educational and spiritual voyage himself combining the mystical path of Indian spirituality with a superlative retreat from it all.

Take advantage of this one chance to be in close proximity with a living master. Come with us on an inner and outer voyage to Northern Europe and Russia.

www.innersearch.org

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THANK YOU, GURUDEVA

For those who have been touched spiritually by Gurudeva's work, his books, his guidance, his inspired life and example and even his website, the "Thank You, Gurudeva Fund" has been established within Hindu Heritage Endowment.

Proceeds from this fund last forever; they're not a one-time gift. So gifts to this fund have eternal gratitude built into them. They live on in perpetuity.

Each month Gurudeva receives the income from the fund to be used at his own discretion to promote his work and mission around the globe. He loves this, for he knows that it comes from all the good souls who have met him and studied with him, traveled with him or just talked with him over the years. A contribution to this fund is tax-deductible.