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End of Phase Notice

Another short 4-day phase closes today.

This edition of TAKA will remain up until

Thursday, April 24th.

We send our appreciations out to the sponsor of this beautiful gift from India. Come to Kauai Aadheenam for the darshan of Dakshinamurti!

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Most Recent update: March 20, 2003, "Creating a Generation Free from Prejudice and Hatred." (posted today). Opens in separate Window. Quicktime 6.0 required to view this 30 minute MP4).

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Shailesh and Arundhati Shukla from Los Altos with 4-year-old son Rahul and baby Maya. Shailesh is a subscriber to Hinduism Today magazine. It's their first visit to Kauai. They enjoyed seeing the progress of Iraivan Temple and the newly installed Dakshinamurti.

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Current Overview

After Dakshinamurti was placed yesterday, eight roof beams were also installed.

East side of the temple.

After lifting the 9-ton Dakshinamurti, these 3-ton beams seem like a piece of cake.

It was a long day yesterday, but things went smoothly.

This is the fifth round of hoists and everyone is very comfortable with the whole process.

Sundaram Achari and Karuppaiah standing by. The lovely carvings show up in sharp contrast after a sprinkling from the heavens.

Standing on the scaffold, sthapati see to the perfect placement of the beam. Its point must land perfectly in the center of the Potagai underneath.

Dakshinamurti, the original Sivaguru who breathed out the Vedas, revealing the Sanatana Dharma in silence to the four sages now watches over the construction of Iraivan.

Dakshinamurti means literally "South-Facing Lord." Here He is as we look directly north from the center of the temple. Years ago, Gurudeva located the future inner sanctum of Iraivan in a field of grass through a mystical sign from the devas. After asking the devas where the center of the sanctum should be marked, two birds were seen flying around in a small circle over a tall mound of kusa grass, and Gurudeva knew that was the answer. A stake was driven into the center of the mound of grass. Later we needed to mark out the exact line of due north from the center of the sanctum and discovered it ran directly into this banyan tree. Thus the position of Iraivan was envisioned to be in direct line with this murthi and tree, even before it was started. "All finished long ago."

Incoming roof beam...

Sundaram Achari and Karuppaiah stand in the middle of the temple, listening to directions from Sthapati to move the end of the beam as needed just before unstrapping.

Progress overview to date.

Have a wonderful retreat.

Gurudeva wrote, in Living with Siva, on the Yama of "Purity" Saucha...

"Purity, saucha, number ten of the yamas, is the outcome of restraining ourselves in all the other nine. Purity is the natural heritage of men and women disciplined in mind and body, who think before they speak, speaking only that which is true, kind, helpful and necessary. People whose thoughts are pure--and this means being in line with the yamas and niyamas--and whose bodies are free from incompatible alien obstructions, are naturally happy, content and ready to perform japa. Japa yoga lifts the spiritual energies and annihilates pride and arrogance by awakening within the superconscious areas of the mind an extraterrestrial intelligence, far surpassing the ordinary intellect one would encounter in the schools and universities of the present day. To be pure in mind means to have a bright, luminous aura filled with the pastel hues of the primary and secondary colors under every circumstance and life situation. Those who practice this restraint have realized that thoughts create and manifest into situations, actual physical happenings. Therefore, they are careful what they think and to whom they direct their thoughts."

transcription begins

Date: April_11_2003
Title: Gurudeva's Description of the Self
Category: The Ultimate Goals of Life
Duration: 6 min., 32 seconds
Date Given: February 25, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha

One of the great gifts given to us by Gurudeva is the description of God. In our terminology, we call it the three perfections, three different aspects of God.

Why is this important? Well, it is important because otherwise it can be very confusing. We read scripture and God is described as a person. We read scripture and God is described as Transcendent. We read something else and God is Omnipresent Consciousness. We read something else , we can end up kind-of confused. We try and worship God Siva and we run into our confusion. We say, "What exactly is the nature of God Siva?"

So when it comes to the five actions, of course, this relates to the personal God, Parameshvara and that is one of the perfections. God Siva as a person, who can be seen as a person. Gurudeva's powerful vision of Lord Siva as a person is what we are fortunate to have on our San Marga property, where the Svayambhu Linga is. That is where God Siva as a person appeared to Gurudeva and from that, the Iraivan Temple has come forth. That is one of the aspects that makes the Iraivan Temple very special - it was founded upon a vision. Temples can be founded for many reasons. You want a cultural center, you want a place where it is warm, whatever. Temples are founded for many reasons but when they are founded on a vision, it gives a temple a special quality.

The second concept of God is Omnipresence. That is nicely conveyed in Yogaswami's statement, "Bliss, bliss, bliss. Here, there, everywhere am I." In this case, he is identifying himself with the consciousness, which is God Siva. He calls it an "I" also. When we are in that consciousness because we are attuned to omnipresence, we can't go anywhere or come anywhere. There is no going, there is no coming. There is no movement. We can't travel because we are already everywhere.

Gurudeva would sometimes joke about it. He would be driving along and tell you that he wasn't moving. It was his way of describing what Yogaswami was describing. "I am not moving. Nothing is moving." Because, he was already everywhere. You cannot move if you are already everywhere. You can only move if you are somewhere, going somewhere else. Then you have a sense of moving. But in that state of consciousness there is no moving. We are already there. We could be running down the street and we are not moving because we are already everywhere.

Then, Gurudeva has given us the description of Siva as the Transcendent Absolute, Parasiva, identical with Paramatma, the Transcendent Self.

One of Gurudeva's unique contributions to talking about the Self, is he describes it so precisely. It is very hard to think of transcendent. What does it mean for something to be Transcendent? What does it mean for something to be the Absolute? So, how does he describe it? We all know how he describes it. "Timeless, formless, spaceless and causeless. Like the emptiness on the inside of a empty box, which is not empty but it is the fullness of everything."

The word empty is a very useful word to grab on to. It is an emptiness that is a fullness. Timeless, causeless, spaceless, formless. This is very useful in terms of thinking about it, in terms of searching for it, in terms of realizing it. Because we have a description.

We sit down, we go into the inner light and see all this beautiful inner light. We know that is not the Self . Even though it is blissful and wonderful, we are not confused, "Oh, I found the Self." We get into a state of consciousness where we feel everything is one. "Oh, this is beautiful, must be the Self." No, we know that is not the Self because it is something. It is a thing, it is not nothing, it is not empty. So, we even have to go deeper than those realizations of light and unity of consciousness to get near the Self.

That is a wonderful contribution that Gurudeva has made. It makes realization of the Self a lot easier because it is described so precisely.

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