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Siva Yogaswami

--Natchintanai. 327.

"No more can sorrows cling to me for I've seen
The co-eternal vision of the Supreme Reality."

Siva Yogaswami

--Natchintanai. 90.

No Audio Today

				Live Web Cam Pix!

Mrs. Nuggehalli (far left) visits with her two sons, Nandkumar and Amarnath and their wives Premalatha and Prema, her two granddaughters and grandson from Bartlett, Chicago.

Amarnath and his wife have been here before a couple of years ago but its the first time for the rest of them. They have been subscribing to Hinduism Today for many years.

On the far right is Venkatesan, Anbuja Srivathsan from Michigan

They had a wonderful tour of the grounds and Iraivan temple and enjoyed picking up rudraksha seeds from the ground that have been cleaned by the insects. They also were able meet Bodhinatha.

Venkatesan, Anbuja, Srivathsan from Michigan

Happy Pancha Ganapati Day 4!

Here is a wonderful poem from the book Loving Ganesha to remind us of the five special forces that are the grace of Lord Ganesha that we invoke during this festival:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Five Saktis of Lord Ganesha

Loving Ganesha! Dear to Siva's men,
Within whose form the world of form resides,
Who earned the mango by a ponderous ken
And made the moon to wax and wane in tides.

Aum Ganesha! Loved by saints and sages,
Whose skillful arms five potent shaktis wield
To guide men now as in forgotten ages--
The seeker's shield, the farmer's fertile field.

Aum! Ganesha's first shakti is home life,
Protection, harmony, fertility --
Respect becomes the man, as love the wife,
Obedience their cherished offspring's glee.

Aum! Ganesha's second shakti's family --
By blood, by marriage and proximity.
Word and thought controlled, like minds agree,
While faithful friends preserve community.

Aum! Ganesha's third shakti's the market,
Where commerce earns the earth stability,
Where forthright, selfless merchants, free from debt,
Conceive, produce, exchange prosperity.

Aum! Ganesha's fourth shakti brings culture--
Refined expression, graceful artistry
In music, dance, in poetry and sculpture
Or common conduct performed consciously.

Aum! Ganesha's fifth shakti is dharma--
Fair merit found in virtue's charity--
Where love of God does conquer ancient karma
And Siva's slaves earn grace's rarity.

Jaya Ganesha! Come, our hearts protect
From discord in the home, from strife with friend,
From business misfortune, from art's neglect,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have not visited yet, or read the book, take a look at the online version of Loving Ganesha

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Our team at work. Course 15 has just been completed today ahead of schedule... we will bring you photos of that tomorrow.

Rain on this beam brings out the beauty of the carving.

Maha Kala "Great Time" is a classic image in Hindu art, invariably found adorning doorways and arches.

Saroja Manickam from Colorado (daughter of Rajkumar and Ananda) says:

"Oh wow! Awesome! This latest edition of Hinduism Today is one of the best ever... of course I always say that every time my copy arrives. Dada Vaswani, Hindu of the Year, such a great and sweet soul. Uh Oh!... looks like my subscription is going to run out I better renew my subscription today! Forget computers, what's better than a real piece of printed matter you can stick in your mouth, and chew on? OK, well, maybe computers are OK, but how I love to cuddle up with my Hinduism Today magazine and see the world from within its beautiful pages."

transcription begins

Date: November_29_2002
Title: How Judgments Affect Others
Category: Good Conduct
Duration: 3 min., 28 seconds
Date Given: November 13, 2002
Given by: Bodhinatha

We got an interesting question. Again this is a response to the Editorial, from Sheela Venkatakrishnan. She is our transcriber, transcribes all the talks from Chennai now, that go on to TAKA. The written versions go on the TAKA page. She is the transcriber.

"I was transcribing your talks on 'Good people, Evil people' and was reminded of something I read recently in a book called 'Soul Food'. May I share that with you?

"If we set aside the superficiality of so many of our judgments, would we not see with great depth and understanding? It is also true that in this depth and understanding we would discover new dimensions of humility, forgiveness and tolerance. The energy employed in the judging mind is sufficient to transform the world. It is an energy we need to re channel."

Then Sheela asks a question. "This seems to tie in with what you are saying. I am wondering why do we judge people? How does an assessment differ from an evaluation and from a judgment?"

Anybody know? Assessment, evaluation and judgment.

"Is labeling at one extreme end of assessing? What is then, the other extreme? It appears to me that this concept-misconcept is at the root of many problems, big and small in personal, public and national relationships. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for addressing this issue and I hope it grows beyond 'Publisher's Desk'. I am grateful to George Bush for his contributions toward making you talk on this subject."

Axis of evil. Evil, evil!

Well, that is an interesting question. I have not answered her yet but I thought about it this morning.

In terms of the differences between assessment, evaluation and judgment, there really are not any. It is just different words for the same thing. It is more the type of judgment that differs.

What the author was referring to was superficial judgments, where we don't look deeply into someone. We are just looking at the surface, looking at something very external about the person and making a judgment.

Therefore, when we try to find the extremes, superficial judgment is one extreme and in-depth judgment or really looking into someone's nature deeply is the other end of that.

Or said another way, we can assess someone looking for their faults, trying to find everything that is wrong with them so we can criticize them. That happens. Or are we looking at them to find their goodness so we can talk about that?

Lots of people for some reason like to look at people and find their faults rather than their goodness. I guess it makes better gossip. You cannot really gossip about someone's goodness as well as their faults.

transcription ends

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