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transcription begins

Date: February 02, 1999
Topic: Having a Positive Lifestyle
Category:
Duration: 4 min., 11 seconds

Today at Kauai Aadhenam. Aloha! February 2, 1999. Well, I'm off to Alaska in June. If you would like to have a brochure mailed to you, send us your name and address and we will be happy to send you an invitation to a 7-day journey from Vancouver, Canada to Anchorage, Alaska. It will be a wonderful event.

We are going to talk about the inner self and how to build up your self image within you, so that you look at yourself as somebody important on this planet. Not somebody with a big ego, but somebody who has all parts of their being, functioning.

For all of you out there in cyberspace, what does this mean? This means, that your intuition is functioning, your positive qualities are functioning, and are stronger than your negative qualities, your intellect is keen. This means that you are a happy person. If you are not a happy person, make somebody else happy and you will begin to feel happiness. Don't underestimate yourself and above all, don't look on the negative side of projects, people or yourself.

When you have a bright idea, it may come in your karmas, from your superconsciousness, from your intuition. That bright idea can be developed, if you find ways and means within yourself to do that. It is not going to be, if you just say, "It can't be done. I don't have enough of this, I don't have enough of that, I don't have enough time, I don't have enough money, I don't have enough intelligence." Why did you get the bright idea in the first place? Because you are a complete person. You have your destiny.

Look on the positive side. All great ideas have taken much time to develop. For some people, even years to develop, many years to develop. Work at it a little bit, little bit, and a little bit more. You will build up the positive within you and that will overcome the negative within you. Everyone is an on-and-off switch. They can either be positive or they can be negative. There is not much middle ground there between the positive and negative. Either one way or the other.

Many people discourage their children, when their children want to do something of a positive nature. They discourage themselves, they discourage their family. It is better to encourage and to lift every one up, rather than to discourage and push everyone down. It is just a change of attitude.

That is the sadhana today, everyone. We'll be seeing you in cyberspace again, tomorrow. Aum Namah Sivaya.
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At the Aadheenam today we had the wonderful pleasure of having the Sun Five discourse by Paramacharya Bodhinathaswami and also by Swami Bhaktirupananda, President of the Ramakrishna Mission in Fiji. Swami described in an articulate and cogent story the history of the Ramakrishna Mission and how it came to it place of service in the world today. The Ramakrishna Mission has played a significant role in social service in India, primarily through its schools. This has been in fulfillment of the vision that Swami Vivekananda had, that what was required to uplift the masses of India was education. Swami went on to describe the history of the RK Mission in Fiji. In the early 1900's the Sangam, an organization of Hindus in Fiji, wrote to the Ramakrishna Mission in India and requested spiritual leadership. A swami was sent for one year, and subsequently Swami Rudrananda was sent and stayed on for 47 years and revolutionized the situation for Hindus in that country. His successor, Swami Damodhara continued the work and has now retired to India and three years ago Swami Bhaktirupananda came to continue the work. We were all impressed by swami's wonderful speaking style and very much inspired to hear about the great work of the Ramakrishna Mission.

Today was guest day and we had over 70 people arrive after being closed for two weeks during Sadhu Paksha. It was quite an array of souls!

Walking from the ship to a nearby park in Warnem�nde for a
picnic provided by the Veeragatiyar family who drove 2.5 hours from Berlin.

This park was aside a waterfront nearby the pier where our ship docked. The path was lined with a plantation of enormous yellow marigolds. This little port village really only comes alive when a big ship like ours docks.

The ladies served an absolutely delicious Jaffna style rice and curry lunch prepared early the same morning by the ladies of our Berlin mission.

Feeding the devotees of the Guru is a time honored Hindu tradition and considered a form of worship by those who serve them.

Selvaraja (in the veshti) to Gurudeva's left with his family.

Gurudeva with Kulapati Veeragatiyar, his wife and son,
Nirmalan from Berlin.

James Daugherty enjoying another delicious Sri Lankan meal... These ladies can really cook!

Gurudeva visiting with Srinivasan Iyengar and his wife,
Kamala, two of our wonderful Innersearchers.

Innersearch and German devotees.

Sivaprintha (right), Veeragatiyar's daughter, with Devika
Ajaya (middle), an Innersearcher, along with another lady from Berlin.

Rohini Kumar Nair, Ruth Ann Delph, Jeff Weiske, Ariel Lewin
and Clive Roberts just outside the Hudson Room, our classroom on the ship.

Standing outside the Ganesha temple in Stockholm.

Arati to the Guru by the local Tamil ladies in Stockholm before entering the temple.

Pada puja for Gurudeva in the Ganesha temple.

Oisin Thompson, Rohini Kumar Nair, Alex Ruberto and Meena Nagalingam enjoy another luscious Jaffna style lunch prepared by the devotees in Stockholm.

Sherilyn Benner, an Innersearcher from Pennsylvania, standing on a balcony overlooking Stockholm.

Adi Srikantha with Stockholm harbor in the background.

Bill Atwood and Acharya Palaniswami returning to the ship with our Innersearchers who had taken a bus tour of Stockholm after the temple event. It rained buckets and buckets while we toured the islands of Stockholm by bus that afternoon. Murugan also blessed us with some thunder and lightning. We were just happy it wasn't a walking tour! Stockholm is an amazingly old and beautiful European city made up of hundreds of large and small islands.

Kailash Dhaksinamurthi, our intrepid travel agent who
arranged many aspects of our travel in Northern Europe.

Gurudeva in one of many striking silk outfits at a formal
dinner on the ship.

A small island in the Swedish archipelago as we leave Sweden at sunset. The Swedish archipelago is composed of something like 24,000 islands, each one of them beautiful, some of them inhabited. An amazing site to be seen while we drove into the harbor that morning and out that night at dinner.

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