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Cybertalk: Cyberspace devotee wonders if the reading of religious books and the listening to religious music is an escape from the world. Gurudeva says it is an escape from the external world to go into the internal world and by studying Gurudeva's Master Course he will change his approach to Sanatana Dharma. A cyberspace devotee from Brazil wants to know why the cow knocked down Satguru Siva Yogaswami. Shouldn't such great souls be free of karma she asks? Gurudeva says that great souls like Satguru Siva Yogaswami often take on the karma of a group and often it requires a little bit of suffering on the part of the guru.

Cybertalk Ends"
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Date: August271998
Title: Tools of The Mind
Category:
Duration: 3 min, 21 seconds
Date Given: August 27, 1998

What all of my sishyas do in the evening is meet with their extended families. Our Saiva Siddhanta Church is made up of about thirty-two extended families, worldwide. These families are in the country of India, Sri Lanka, Germany, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, America and on our beautiful island of Kauai.

Every member of our Saiva Siddhanta Church becomes a foster member of an extended family and they meet on Monday. That is the day of togetherness. That is the day of love. That is the day of sharing. That is the day of communication. That is the day to work on the sadhanas of the Master Course, our life-long study of these wonderful teachings of Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva, Merging with Siva, the Shum Tyaef Lexicon and much, much more.

It is very important that we remember today that we are a soul, living in a physical body. We have some tools. One of those tools is the mind, which can be trained into an intellect, either with wrong thoughts, wrong motivations or right thoughts, right motivations. We have another tool, which is emotion, which can be used in a very bad way, totally out of control or it can be controlled and used in a very good way, to be a productive part of the human race and to be a leader. Leaders are few these days, most are followers. Of the leaders who lead, many of them follow their own emotions, their own wrong thinking, their adharmic concepts. Finally, they look behind themselves and they find they are not elected, they are not leaders anymore. They lost their followers.

A true leader follows his spiritual intuition. A true leader has a dynamic will, has a purpose, a plan, persistence and plenty of push to make that plan work. A true leader can be you and you and you. I see many faces here looking at me through the cyberspace, internet, the wonderful network that the governments of our world have released funds for, to give us all the ability to communicate, to love each other through cyberspace, to think together, work together, be together. Being together is very, very nice. I love you and you love me. We love each other. That is very important, because .... why? Because we are souls, we all love each other. A happy day for each and everyone of us.

Aum Namasivaya.
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The three ladies on the right came from Seattle to experience the temple puja. On the left is Amrit and Chandan Topiwala who stopped by from a Pacific cruise ship.

Sannyasin Guhanathaswami is having daily religious classes with young Nutanaya during his temple vigil. Here they are studying the "Saivite Virtue Course", which is studied by all young people in the Church before taking their brahmacharya vrata (pledge of purity) between 12 and 14 years of age.

Our two dynamic hosts who daily have guests to take care of. We can all expect busy years ahead as the Iraivan Temple is already attracting more and more pilgrims. Sadhaka Mahadevan on the left and Sadhaka Thondunatha on the right.

Orchids close up. Take a moment, be still, let the mind quiet, observe the beauty before you. Gurudeva told us once:

"You have already had many realizations. So, there is nothing to get. Just surrender to your own realizations and you will discover that you know more than you think you do."

Here are the sacred Rudraksha fruits. Blue-colored symbols of God's Compassion -- the Tears of Rudra.

A plentiful harvest this year... many, many trees are filled with fruits and the earth beneath the trees of the groves is strewn with these precious jewels of nature. The seeds will be gathered, hand cleaned, drilled and made available for sale to help in our temple fund raising. If you would like to order a set, email iraivan@hindu.org for more details.

Gurudeva's spiritual center in the island country of Mauritius
in the Indian Ocean near South Africa

Before their departure for Hawaii where they will be attending the historic ceremony at the Iraivan construction site this month, the monks arranged a shanti homa by a priest from South India to invoke the inner worlds for their blessings. Sivacharya Anandan Gurukkal did a very nice ceremony and home blessing of the Dharmasala building which the Church families will now be able to use as office facilities and for satsangs when matavasis are not actually residing there.

Most of Gurudeva's sishyas turned up at the Saiva Dharmasala to bid farewell to the
two sadhakas and to thank them for all the good works they have been doing
to uplift the Mauritian hindu community at the Spiritual Park. These family
men and women would keep the spiritual vibration high at the park and would
be happily hosting visitors, mostly on weekends.

After the shanti homa, the keys of the Dharmasala were handed over to the most senior kulapati, Manon Mardemootoo who would now have the humble task of gently helping everyone to harmoniously blend their energies together to maintain the sanctity of that place. Kulapati Manon and his son Sivakumaren are well known attorneys of the island who are also joyously overseeing legal matters concerning the Spiritual Park.

One peak moment of the farewell ceremony for the monks was the planting of young rudraksha trees near the entrance of the Spiritual Park. Here Moorghen Caremben and his little son Sukanta are putting one of these plants into its hole while chanting Aum Namasivaya..., the most sacred mantra of the Vedas. Moorghen is a regular karma yogi at the park who enjoys taking care of the huge granite murthis, cleaning and oiling them regularly. The murthis are inspiring spiritual attractions for many visitors at the park.

Before their departure, the sadhakas have been giving intensive training to a few sishyas in a very short lapse of time. One of them, Rajen Manick is receiving last minute coaching from Sadhaka Adinatha. Rajen is an Education Officer with a Honors degree in French and Communication and has been working on Mac computers for many years. He will now be helping at the Dharmasala offices with translations, TAKA , publications and other karma yoga.

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