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Bodhinatha meets with our long time sishya, Kulapati Vel and Kulamata Valli Alahan from Avon, Colorado.

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Most Recent update: Sun One Talk of Feb 19 (posted today). Opens in separate Window. Quicktime 6.0 required to view this 30 minute MP4).

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The stream of visitors and pilgrims continues. Normally at this time of year we have fewer guests but today we had over 50 people come. These included not only pilgrims for Sivaratri but guests from Canada, UK and other places in the US.

Rajkumar Manickam, Ananda Manickam and his little daughter Saroja have their time of darshan with Bodhinatha.

A bright young cross-national marriage brings forth a new generation of hope in a world torn by divisions.

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	Order Rudraksha Malas from Siva's sacred Hawaiian groves; and gorgeous 2003 Iraivan Calendars with Hindu festival days on them. Great for Gifts! All proceeds go to the building fund.

These potagai look happy to be free from their crating, ready to go atop pillars soon.

Pillars awaiting erection.

The Iraivan site is really in dynamic mode, changing daily. The big news is the removal of upper levels of the retaining wall and surrounding sand.

The doorway of Iraivan becomes visible.

Jai Iraivan! While the sand outside is coming down, inside the sanctum, it is also full of sand which will be removed later.

Magnificent... a cleaning process will bring up an even color across all the courses.

Tools for the sand removal. It turned out to be super strenuous work for this type of coral sand compacts into a block-like formation ... unlike river sand which, Sthapati says, will run and flow even after being under great pressure.

At the lower levels the sand in the retaining wall is hard as a rock and has to be dug out. The sand in the inside of the temple will thus be a challenge. Plans are in the works to perhaps blast it out with a high pressure hose as they do in the salt mines.

Meanwhile preparations are under way for the next set of pillars. After precisely locating and leveling the bases, they are removed and the necessary cutting away into the foundation and the base itself is done.

Raman looks up. Safety glasses are a new innovation in the trade. While they may not be all that comfortable, one injury, near eyeloss and a few days of pain and downtime is enough to convince anyone that they are the smart thing to do!

The side of the main sanctum

Chinnu the cook is looking good. After preparing breakfast for the silpis he will drop by the temple for a while to help out and then go back to the silpis house to prepare lunch and then come again for a few hours in the afternoon. A bright and dedicated man, he's also a great cook!

transcription begins

Date: February_12_2003
Title: The Aftermath of Self Realization
Category: The Ultimate Goals of Life
Duration: 9 min., 45 seconds
Date Given: January 3, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha

I was thinking about Parasiva this morning and what to say. It is very hard to describe Parasiva. Indescribable, what can you say about it? Except that it does not exist. So, right there you kind-of run out of things to say.

Anyway it is always a challenge to talk about the Self because it cannot be described. But we can talk about what the experience of the Self, Parasiva, what the aftermath causes to happen. We can describe that. We cannot describe the Self, we cannot describe the realization of the Self. But we can describe how that realization impacts the individual and the group.

So that is what we are looking at this morning. Three ways, not just one but three. Three ways that the realization of the Self leaves an impact. The first two are on the individual, the third one is on the group.

The individual, I think that is the one that everyone would probably think of first if you had to write an answer to an essay. How does the realization to the Self impact our consciousness? It makes us wiser, right? That is why it is called jnana, the jnana pada, because there is some wisdom that results, which Gurudeva, of course, was filled with. That is why he was so revered because he was filled with the wisdom that came with the inside, not from book learning. Filled with the wisdom that came from the inside as a result of what? Of his realizing Parasiva.

Gurudeva makes a big distinction between realizing other things, which are kind of wonderful but are not Parasiva and realizing Parasiva. You can go in and realize Satchidananda, find yourself all-pervasive, walk down the street and so you are not moving because when you are all-pervasive, you are standing still. Gurudeva used to describe that state. He would say, "Well, we are driving but it feels to me like we are standing still."

Why is that? Because if you are all-pervasive, you are already everywhere! So, you cannot have a sense of movement. So experiencing all-pervasiveness has its fun moments and all, but it does not give the knowledge that Parasiva does. We are making a distinction there.

There is a nice statement. It says, "It is the wisdom that comes as an aftermath of the kundalini breaking through the door of Brahman into the realization of Parasiva, Absolute Reality. The repeated samadhis of Parasiva ever deepen the flow of divine knowing, jnana."

That is one reason that monks focus on Parasiva. We want to be wiser. Let us experience some of this knowing. Let us go to some of the depths that Gurudeva went to and therefore our whole spiritual life works better. We are able to counsel others better because we understand things from a deeper perspective, because there is only one mind, there is only one human being. Everybody is a little different but we all function in the same way. So we understand ourselves, we understand everyone else, pretty much. That is the first way that the aftermath of the realization of Parasiva impacts us.

There is a second way which is new to this edition of 'Merging with Siva'.

"The golden body is a body made of golden light. After many experiences of Parasiva, it gradually descends from the seven chakras above the sahasrara. All seven chakras above the sahasrara slowly come down and down until the entire astral body is psychically seen, by mystics who have this sight, as a golden body. The astral body slowly, slowly, slowly dissolves into the golden body. That is what our parampara and our sampradaya know from experience."

So, that is important. We need a strong presence of the soul body in the physical body for certain realizations to occur, to move on into the inner planes, to attain moksha. We need something there to travel around in besides the astral body which does not go into the deeper planes.

It is saying, where does this come from? Well, it is there but it is coming down as a result of the aftermath of the realization of Parasiva. The soul body comes down and replaces the astral body.

"It is this golden body, as it refines and refines and refines itself within the Sivaloka after moksha, that finally merges with Siva like a cup of water being poured into the ocean. That same water can never be found and put back into the cup. This truly is visvagrasa, the final, final, final merging with Siva."

That gives us a nice sense of what happens to someone who has achieved moksha, It is that they are utilizing their body of light and are able to do things on the inner plane because that body of light has been matured, been refined through the experience of Parasiva. That is the second way we have an impact.

The third way is on the group, which again might not be self evident but it is in 'Merging with Siva'.

"The legacy of devas from the entire parampara accompanies our monastic order providing silent, unseen, inner guidance and protection for old and young alike. As long as at least one person within the entire group of mathavasis is going into and coming out of Parasiva once a day, the doorway to the Third World remains open to the hereditary entourage of devonic forces that has been building up for over two thousand years."

So, that is important. We don't want to loose all our devonic forces by forgetting to realize Parasiva. It shows there is an obligation here on the monastic order to consistently realize Parasiva. As it says, it does not have to be the same person. It does not always have to be the most senior, it can also be the most junior, it can move around the room. It can be more than one person. But when we have our morning meditations, this is an important point to keep in mind. It is one of the reasons these meditations focus on emkaef. We are hoping someone at least, at least one of us, realizes emkaef. That way we can keep all our devonic forces intact here, the hereditary entourage of devonic forces that has been building up for over two thousand years.

It goes on to explain why. "This is because the Brahmarandhra, the door of Brahman at the top of the head remains open when Parasiva is daily experienced within a mathavasi community. It could be within the oldest monk or within the youngest. This great realization occurring time and time again within someone day after day keeps the door of Brahman open for the entire prana chakravala of monastics, keeping vibrantly strong the inner actinic connection with all gurus of our parampara as well as with other sadhus, rishis and saints who have reached these same attainments and with the Saptarishis themselves who guide our order from deep within the inner lokas."

Have a wonderful Moksha ritau. Aum Namah Sivaya!

transcription ends

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