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San Marga VII
The Wise who have known the Self, in whose heart is enthroned the Lord, will not be deluded by the joys and sorrows of the earth, but will live benignly in the world as the drops of water floating on the lotus blooms. Those who do not cultivate discrimination will be unequal to face the challenges of life. The wise man who practises dispassion and fosters self- knowledge will overcome the sway of good and bad forces, and cease to be selfish and self-centered. It is certain that he will attain the abiding felicity of the Lord's blessed Feet. Those ignorant of this Path will be subject to much confusion and bewilderment.

As the bees rejoice in sipping the honey of the flowers after a long quest, so also doth a devotee experience bliss after searching in the petals of his heart, and by ceaseless worship shall he find the honey of immortality. He will no longer be tossed by shifting values. Behold a farmer who tills his field, sows paddy, separates the weed from the growing plant and gathers the corn in the fullness of time. Even so doth a devout worker till field of his heart where abides Siva. He sows the seed of devotion, plucks out the extraneous weeds of lust, anger, desire, cruelty, and envy, and enjoys the harvest of plentitude in Sivam Sarvamayam. (All is Siva)

Cybertalk: This is a radio interview conducted by Loni Petranek with Gurudeva. The interview gives an overview of Gurudeva's worldwide mission. In the tenth part today Gurudeva and Loni talk about the new millennium. And Gurudeva also shares with Loni a little about the Hindu calendar. They also talk about the new resurgence of the mother spirit.

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

Gurudeva 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 Sivadevanathaswami

Click here if you have a question Gurudeva answers questions from CyberCadets, and welcomes your spiritual queries. However, he responds only to matters of general interest and not to personal or intimate matters.

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Date: March_07_2001
Title: Gurudeva Interviewed by Loni Petranek, Part 4
Category: The Guru
Duration: 3 min., 40 seconds
Date Given: August, 2000

Loni: You also participate in what is happening for the 'Vision for Kauai'. Can you maybe enlighten us as to what you are supporting and what you are moving with?

Gurudeva: Well this little group, 'Vision for Kauai, Vision 2020', is looking ahead 20 years and finding out in our minds what the island is going to be like, what the people are going to be like, who is going to come to the island and what they are Has worked out extremely well. We have been meeting now, for 2 years. First every month and now, every other month. We sit around, talk, look ahead and out of it has come these 'Aloha' posters. You have seen them?

Loni: Yes.

Gurudeva: We recently asked Larry Rivera to create a song. Have you heard it?

Loni: No, I haven't but I know Larry.

Gurudeva: It is a beautiful song and he sang it before the County Council the other day. A really nice song of the Aloha spirit and it is called the 'Kauai Anthem'. So Kauai now has an anthem, which all the school children will sing in every school. We are going to ask Larry to go around and teach the children. You know, he is our State Treasurer. He has been singing for so, so many, many years and so we are very enthusiastic about that. We do our part to help the community. We have been printing these little 'Aloha' cards, hundreds of thousands of them. It is very easy for us to do, because we print it right along with our magazine and they have been distributed.

Also recently, we have done something else for the island. We have been working with community to create a 'Drug Free Kauai' CD, along with six posters which will be seen on all community bulletin boards. This CD is sort of a scared-straight CD. It shows the consequences of what will happen to a young person or anyone, matter of fact, if they take ice or start on one kind of drug or another. We interviewed the Chief of Police and some Vice Squad detectives. They told us, step by step, what they do and how they set up a 'sting operation'. The Mayor is giving an interview. We have DQ Jackson, who works for the emergency room of the hospital, give a chilling report on people coming in, dead on arrival, because they lived too far away from the hospital. Four inmates of KCCC, two ladies and two men, give their experience in their own voice. Then we show the Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto point of view of karma, which is very, very important. How it plays a part of the karmic chain, if somebody gets started. If you start somebody on drugs and then they kill somebody, you are a party karmically. Maybe not legally but karmically. You are karmically responsible.
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Our Sun One homa was energizing as ever:

The Rig Veda (X, 190) says:

1. From blazing Ardor, Cosmic Order came and Truth;
from thence was born the obscure night;
from thence the Ocean with its billowing waves.

2. From Ocean with its waves was born the year
which marshals the succession of nights and days,
controlling everything that blinks the eye.

3. Then, as before, did the creator fashion
the Sun and Moon, the Heaven and the Earth,
the atmosphere and the domain of light.

The main "mandapam" in temple hall is bright with the sacred flames, the light of consciousness, the gateway to inner worlds.

On San Marga everyone sings the Arati song. Yajatadeva sleeps on the shoulder of his uncle, Kumar Katir. Born in Malaysia to Amala Nagappan, he is a "cross national" child. One half Malaysian Tamil and one half American, he comes into a world bringing hope of peace for the future where people of all colors and nationalities will see beyond national boundaries. Amala is on Kauai to spend some time with her birth family and to let Yajatadeva get a chance to be with his grandparents.

Mr. Folco, an Italian film producer joins the group. As mentioned in a previous issue of TAKA, he is working on a feature length movie depicting India's holy men.

John and Jennifer Crittenden and their little girl Cassidy from
the Bay Area, California. John works for Kulapati Deva Rajan and was eager to see the Iraivan Foundation.

Peng Leng Tay and Stephen Chan, residents of Kauai. Peng sells the produce to the monastery that we don't grow and Stephen is soon to open a restaurant in Kapaa.

Meanwhile, two days ago on our retreat Martine Thom and her two-man film crew undertook a daring adventure flying over Kauai Aadheenam and San Marga in a helicopter with no doors, trying to capture "the big picture." Not having a big Hollywood budget, they could not afford the thousands of dollars required for a "steady cam" boom that is usually used for helicopter shots. Instead Zachary had to do his best with his hand held video camera.

Beginning at the ocean and flying up the Wailua River, Zachary said today: "Wow, I didn't realize that with doors off it was going to be so windy. It was a really difficult shoot and I was really worried about the footage. But when we got home for the dub [transferring hi-res digital video to regular VHS tape for previewing and to plan the subsequent shot list] we did find some excellent cuts."

Also on retreat Sannyasin Guhanathaswami performs a special blessing in our carpentry shop.

The puja begins with the worship of Lord Ganesha.

The new equipment that has been installed is a gift from a master carpenter, providing the monks with tools they need for on-going building renovations and numerous carpentry projects. The blessing invokes the divine energies into the equipment, helping to bring an attitude of safety and informing the carpentry devas.

Our 11-acre village in India is home to 75 Indian master craftsmen who live there and work each day on the carving of the sacred white granite Siva Temple which will soon be shipped soon to Kauai and assembled. See our latest February 2001 Building Fund Progress Report and join our family of contributors today!

Meanwhile in Bangalore, no fancy machinery there! Just thousands of years of knowledge and skill, all culminating in the hands of master stone carver Perumal who is the lead artisan for the detailed carving work.

Great News... The first 4 courses of stone were crated and loaded into the containers and there is still room for another course, so course 5 will be crated and added to the shipment and sent over. A course is a "layer" beginning at the bottom, the very first course is the one that sits on the foundation. Course number two sits on top of those stones etc. The final course being the 11 ton capstone, shown here on top of a model of the temple.

Gurudeva's other monastery in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa

Usha Mareachealee is visiting from London. On her left is her niece, Shikha
Baichoo from Phoenix. Usha's a devotee of the Ramakrishna Mission near
London. Besides coming to see Ganesha she's hoping to get the past issue of
Hinduism Today that has the big article about the Ramakrishna Mission. She
did not go away disappointed.

A gift of star fruits and caramsole custard fruits from Lalmatie. Wow!

Gurudeva's devotees pose with his portrait after the Sun One satsang homa.

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