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April 11, 2003 
Sadhu Paksha Day 12
First, we are happy to be back after a four-day break from the internet. Our ISP had trouble with their local network system that interrupted our T1 service on the last day of the phase. Then we had a three-day retreat of no kulam seva. But all is well. The big news is that Bodhinatha is now in Toronto. And we are getting news from the team there who are very "wired," and following Gurudeva's high-tech footsteps staying in touch electronically as they move.
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
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Saravananathaswami writes: (Thursday Night) "We are here at the Hilton Suites in Toronto, typing this note at about midnight. It was about 17 hours of flying and waiting in airports, getting through special random security checks...."aah, you're the lucky one this time" said the security person. There is snow outside on the ground from the previous storm but the weather is calm now. It's fairly cool out, but not too cold. Bodhinatha had a small warm reception at the Toronto airport after picking up luggage. Thiru Satkunendran, Visuvalingam of Saiva Siddhanta Manram, and Sivayogapathy and others from Sivathondan Nilayam were bubbling over in their welcomes."
This is Day Two of Bodhinatha's trip to Toronto. In the morning, Buddy Singh (left) interviews Bodhinatha for his television station.
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Title: Gurudeva's Description of the Self |
Cybertalk: Siva exists in three perfections: as the personal God, as omnipresent consciousness and as the transcendent Self. One of the many unique teachings Gurudeva gave us was a very accurate description of the transcendent Self - timeless, formless, spaceless and causeless - "an emptiness that is the fullness of everything." Having this precise description of the Self makes our search much easier through our vast and varied meditative experiences.
Cybertalk Ends"
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FRIDAY NIGHT: Saravananathaswami writes: "It is 11:15 pm here in Toronto as we write this short report on Friday night. We had a successful and fruitful first day here.
In the morning Buddy Sewlochan Singh, his wife and a cameraman came to our hotel to conduct a TV interview with Bodhinatha. Buddy and Bodhinatha had a wonderful interview about how Hinduism can contribute to producing peace in the world.
Buddy's cameraman. His shows are broadcast throughout the eastern regions of Canada and USA.
It's spring in Hawaii, but there is still snow on the ground in Toronto! Bodhinatha enjoys the cool weather. And, it's not that cold...
Here is our team at the main event of the trip which was for Bodhinatha to come for the Annual Yogaswami Mahasamadhi observances and puja at the Richmond Hill Ganesha Temple.
Swami writes: "The Evening event at Richmond Hill Ganesha Temple went well. The temple is quite large and full of shrines to many Gods and Goddesses. The Ganesha shrine is actually rather small, whereas there are larger shrines with huge Muruga and Vishnu murthis.
"After being greeted and taken around the temple with three nagaswaram and two tavil players blasting, Bodhinatha was taken to the community hall where padapuja was performed and puja to Yogaswami's tiruvadi.
"There were about 350 people and they all lined up at the end for a wonderful darshan session where they each got vibhuti and posters of Yogaswami."
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A good view of the east side of the temple with pillars, potagai and roof beams on top.
Karuppiah working on the end of another roof beam.
The surface he is working on will be face down on top of a pillar and we will see this ornamentation as we look up.
Meanwhile another soul passes to Siva's Feet.
Our members deliver the ashes of a loved one to the place where the Wailua river meets the sea.
The soul is off to the inner Mount Kailas, which we think of when we look up at the beautiful Mount Waialeale.
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transcription begins
Date: March_29_2003
Title: False Concepts About the Spiritual Path
Category: The Spiritual Path
Duration: 7 min., 56 seconds
Date Given: February 10, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha
Oh, the second subject, I was thinking about false concepts. As is true in many areas of life, there are more false concepts about something than true concepts. In this case, the spiritual path. There are more false concepts about the spiritual path than there are true ones. I ran into a few of them recently and I thought I would share them.
We became aware through email, one of our members is working with a neighboring family and the young man there is very keen on meditation. He wants to meditate, wants to learn how to meditate.
Of course, simple meditations benefit everyone. If our goals in meditation are very simple, then great! We encourage everyone to meditate. Meditation will quiet the mind down, make you feel a little more peaceful, give you a little more control of your thoughts. However, the kind of meditation that this young man has in mind is a deeper meditation, the kind that leads to profound realizations.
So, what is the problem? Well, he has a false concept that you can just start, sit down and meditate and if you get the right technique, you can really have profound realizations.
Of course, this is not our teachings. There are some things you have to do first. It is like starting in graduate school or something, rather than kindergarten. It does not work that way.
What do you have to do first? Well, in our terminology of course it is, charya - kriya that comes before yoga. But in just ordinary terminology, trying to explain it to someone - you need to be able to perform humble service, be a great thondar. You need to have cultivated a great love of God, be a great bhaktar. Those are our two prerequisites. Or, said another way, you need charya and kriya. We have actually gone through years of service and devotional practices before we can expect the profound nature of meditation to manifest. That is the correct concept.
But, there are prerequisites here. Even in the Ashtanga yoga, the eight-limbed yoga definition, you start not with meditation but you start with the yamas and the niyamas, which is another form of expression of good conduct, service and devotion. The yamas and the niyamas are the first step toward profound realization.
Here is another false concept.
We have sincere men who are on the path, going along studying Gurudeva's teachings. They get angry and have the concept, "Well, I get angry. So what? It does not influence my spiritual progress. Everything is going along fine, I just get angry. I kind of get upset and get it off my chest."
A classic example is the husband gets frustrated at work, by the actions of his boss. Of course, he cannot complain to his boss, he would lose his job. So, he has to hold it all within. All this frustration is there that he feels against his boss. He comes home and what does he do? He expresses it against his wife because he is allowed to do that. He will lose his job if it gets expressed against the person who he really feels it about. So he comes home and expresses it against his wife. Angry, verbal outbursts happen and hopefully nothing more.
This is quite common in some homes. It is just a pattern. Frustration builds up at work, the man comes home, releases it at home. It happens again and again. It is a pattern.
The false concept is that, "This in no way inhibits my spiritual progress. No, I am going along just fine on the spiritual path. I just have this little way of getting rid of my frustration. I happen to go home and dump it on my wife."
What is wrong with that? Well, he is not understanding that when you get angry at your wife, you are hurting her with your words and threats and this is creating a new negative karma, definitely. It is against ahimsa to hurt somebody with your words. It is creating a karma. It is causing her to experience to one degree or another, the lower emotion of fear and insecurity, drawing her consciousness down rather than raising it up. So, this again is creating a karma.
For the man himself, expressing anger stimulates the lower chakras which draws energy out of the higher chakras, above the muladhara. So the muladhara chakras and above are losing energy to the chakras below the muladhara.
The whole point of spiritual practices is to get the energy in the chakras of the muladhara and above. Anger is putting it below the muladhara. So what do we have? Two simple analogies.
It is like spending all day filling a bathtub and then emptying it. Filling the bathtub is like doing the spiritual practice, we getting energy above the muladhara. Emptying the bathtub is like getting angry. So, after the whole day is done, have we made any progress? Obviously not. The one action is countermanding the other. Even though we are doing spiritual practice during part of the day, the benefit is being destroyed during the other part of the day. At the end of the day, we have not made progress.
Another example, it always makes sense to those who are Capricorns. Working hard to make $200 in cash and then lighting it on fire! Okay, here we work all day, we got our $200 in cash. We come home and we burn it. Have we made any progress during that day? Obviously not. All the fruits of our efforts all day long have been destroyed in this one little action of burning up the cash, $200. Put it in the little pot and burn it up. It is gone!
That is just like working at spiritual activities, getting up in the morning, doing our puja and so forth and then letting ourselves get angry in the evening. We are destroying the results, the benefits of what we did in the morning.
Obviously, we are not making any progress. Obviously, outbursts of anger are not acceptable if you want to make spiritual progress and really say you are on the path. We have to control anger.
transcription ends
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