Blog Archives
October 16, 2002 
"Siva is the God of love and nothing else but love. He fills this universe with love. He fills you with love. Siva is fire. Siva is earth. Siva is air. Siva is water. Siva is ether. Siva's cosmic energy permeates everything and gives light and life to your mind. Siva is everywhere and all things. Siva is your small, insignificant worry, the concern that you have been holding in your mind for so many years. See God Siva everywhere and His life energy in all things. First we dance with Siva. Then we live with Siva. The end of the path is to merge with Siva, the Self God within." --Gurudeva
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
Click to read for Details.
Mystic Mouse Coloring Book Now available
Today's sample page. ----- Click here to get your copy today!
Happy Birthday to Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami!
|
Title: When Everything Seems to Go Wrong |
Cybertalk: Everyone has days when everything seems to go wrong. Bodhinatha emphasizes that we must recognize that days like this happen and not have an unrealistic idea that all days are going to be perfect, productive, smooth-flowing days. This is the key to not getting totally frustrated. It's also good to step back if you can. Don't just push and get externalized if things aren't working out right. Allow the mind to relax and the subsuperconscious to come through.
Cybertalk Ends"
For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here.
And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks.
Study Gurudeva's teachings
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 Yogi Mahadevan
If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page for sound geeks and follow the directions there.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Live Web Cam Pix! |
 |
||||
The "Half-Female Lord" Ardhanarisvara is not easy to dress up! Natyam Tyaganatha is here working on some clothing designs that will portray the male side and the female side in the "fashion" of the clothes that are used to decorate "Shim."
We spent quite a bit of time gathering all our videos and Paramacharya Palaniswami has started going through selected tapes and is pulling out cuts into digital format in Apple's Final Cut Pro video editing software. The goal is to create a two-hour movie of Gurudeva, excerpts from previous videos taken through the years.
VHS and DV, we have hundreds of tapes, and plan to archive them all as time goes one.
Sadhaka Jothinatha, our Pillaiyar Kulam Hinduism Today marketing manager, subscription manager and advertising manager has a huge responsibility and is a wizard at keeping a multiplicity of projects afloat. He sends you all his love and encouragement to "Subscribe to Hinduism Today, TODAY!"
He also wants to thank his team of sevaks that help, the ladies here on Kauai, Dandapanis in Alaska, Jnanideva in New Mexico, Jutikadevi in Atlanta...the Hinduism Today sevaks of Malaysia, Singapore and Mauritius and Trinidad all of whom are making a big success of Hinduism Today.
Nitya Nadesan has been here on Kauai for nearly a week and comes to the monastery for karma yoga. Usually involved in the sophisticated, high-stakes real estate business in Seattle, Washington, he enjoys some contemplative solitude in the sannidhya of the temple while doing the simple task of painting our publications archive containers a disappear-in-the-jungle green. What an artist!
When he is at home in Seattle Nitya performs the very important seva of putting the issues of Hinduism Today on the internet. Thanks Nitya for all your help and dedicated support through the years. A man you can really count on!
Flags are flying as the first decorative move toward getting ready for the first annual observance of Gurudeva's Mahasamadhi. This is a very good shot of what visitors see when they first walk onto the property.
Meanwhile, don't miss buying one of the Iraivan 2003 calendars: festival days for the year, gorgeous color photos, pictures of Gurudeva. It will be a lovely addition to your home or office for the coming year, to be sure!
| FULL INDEX OF 650+ CYBERTALKS
 |
|
Study Gurudeva's teachings.
|
transcription begins
Date: September_16_2002
Title: Bringing a Gift for the Temple
Category: Temples and Temple Worship
Duration: 5 min., 54 seconds
Date Given: August 24, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha
The next point which Gurudeva stressed for all fifty years of his ministry - Bring an offering. Don't come empty handed. Usually, it is a flower offering but if flowers are scarce, at least bring a leaf is what he used to say. No reason in the world that you cannot at least bring a leaf as an offering, when you come to the temple. So don't come empty handed, bring something.
Ideally, you can bring an offering that you have spent time preparing. Like, sewing a garland is the traditional one. Something where you put time and prana as well. You put your energy, your life force into the offering. When you make a garland of flowers, you are handling the flowers, you are touching them, you are putting your life force into them, as well as, thinking about the Deity you are giving it to. You are putting your energy into it. Later on, when that garland is placed upon the Deity, your energy is in the garland and the garland is touching the Deity. So therefore, it is the same as if you were touching the Deity, reaching up with your hands and touching the murthi. It is the same effect. You have created a psychic closeness with the Deity through putting your prana into the garland which is placed upon the Deity. That helps create a closeness, much more than just bringing a single flower and offering it.
It is also important to pay attention when you are attending a puja or other temple ceremony, not just let the mind wander all over the place. Sometimes this is challenging because all the chanting or even the singing can be in a language that you don't understand. So it is hard to focus on what is going on, but it is important. You need to figure out a way to do that. For example, if the puja is going on, at least remain aware of different actions, "Oh incense is being offered. Now we are offering the flame. Now we are offering flowers. Now we are chanting the names." At least, keep track of the basic actions that are going on in the puja. Don't just let your mind wander. If you are singing devotional songs in a language you don't understand, make sure you find out the meaning. It does not do much good to sing something and not have any idea what it means. Even though you have looked up the meaning, after a few years you might forget and just get in the habit of singing it without remembering what it means. So it is good to refresh your memory every once in a while, every few years at least, on devotional songs that you don't understand that well and at least have a general sense of, "What are we singing about here? What is this about?"
Another way of getting close to the Deity through temple worship is taking advantage of the fact that all days are not the same. All days are not equally auspicious for worship. Festival days for example, the major festival days are the most auspicious for worship.
On Mahasivaratri, for example, is a very auspicious day for Siva worship. The energy we put into worshipping on Mahasivaratri brings better results than on other days. There are monthly days that are more auspicious than other days. Different temples have different traditions. It is not the same at every temple. But keeping in mind the auspiciousness of the day and on days that are more auspicious, putting more energy into your worship, more time at the temple, is a good way of increasing our closeness to the Deity.
In closing, we have three little phrases to remember. The first one is traditional, from scripture. It is Auvaiyar,who said "Do not live in a village that is without a temple." We all know that one, right? Meaning, we want to be able to go to a temple every week. We have two more to add to that.
"Do not go to a temple without an offering." A simple one to remember.
The third and last one, "Do not attend a puja without attentiveness."
Now we have got three, simple, little guidelines to remember.
Aum Namah Sivaya.
Now we can bring our minds back from Mauritius, where we were right down there by the ocean there in Grand Bay. We will hear it in Creole, it will be translated in Creole. That is one reason it needs to be simple. It has got to come across in the Creole language.
transcription ends
|
MORE UPLIFTING THINGS |
Innersearch 2003-4 in India!
We just completed the July 17-23 Kauai Innersearch, 2002. Bodhinatha will lead the next Innersearch to India, between Dec 2003 and Jan 2004. We will visit Bangalore and the Iraivan Carving Village, and settle in the South in Tamil Nadu, Click on the above for details on what will be an inspiring journey to our holy land of Bharat! |
|
|
Check our children and youth section for new items for the young and young at heart! | |
|
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT |
||
| 2. Newest Book: LIVING WITH SIVA | ||
|
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY |
||
|
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND |
||