Blog Archives
June 16, 2003 
"Great souls have always taught that, among all the forms of giving, imparting the spiritual teachings is the highest. You can give money or food and provide for the physical aspects of the being, but if you can find a way to give the dharma, the illumined wisdom of the traditions of the Sanatana Dharma, then you are giving to the spirit of the person, to the soul. Many Hindus buy religious literature to give away, because jnana dana, giving wisdom, is the highest giving. Several groups in Malaysia and Mauritius gave away over 70,000 pieces of literature in a twenty-month period. Another group in the United States gave away 300,000 pieces of literature in the same period. Many pieces of that literature changed the lives of individuals and brought them into a great fullness of soul satisfaction. An electric-shock blessing would go out from them at the peak of their fulfillment and fill the hearts of all the givers. Giving through education is a glorious fulfillment for the giver, as well as for the receiver." -- Gurudeva
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
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Mystic Mouse Coloring Book Now available
Today's sample page. ----- Click here to get your copy today!
Bodhinatha had good news to share today with us at the morning Sun One homa, about the progress of disseminating Gurudeva's teachings on "Good Conduct." Bodhinatha has been bringing these forward in a very structured, teachable "multi-denominational" presentation. Sivakumar in Singapore and the team there have done such a great job presenting classes at the Hindu Center, they have been invited to teach at other locations.
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Title: Yama #9 - Mitahara, Moderate Appetite |
Cybertalk: Bodhinatha begins with a note about Mother's Day, Father's Day and Grandparent's Day. He offers the key that we should be openly appreciative of our elders, and the more specific we can be, the better. Then Bodhinatha spoke on being moderate in our appetites, mitahara. By controlling our appetite, we can control other instinctive tendencies. Instead of indulging in foods when we become sad or moody, it is better to go to the temple and spend time in worship of Ganesha, to lift our consciousness that way. Part of eating well is not eating meat, and Gurudeva gave five reasons for not eating meat.
Cybertalk Ends"
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It was a blissful Sun One yagna, beautifully performed by Yogi Mahadevan.
More news from Asia: the pocket book version of Dancing with Siva has been printed. 5,000 copies are available. This marks a new era in "re purposing" Gurudeva's teachings to penetrate a very broad audience.
Cybernews for audio technocrats: we have two days more of audio that we will be distributing in three formats: soundclip.mp3, soundclip.wav, soundclip.ra.
Lord Agni carried many prayers to the inner worlds today in the homa fire.
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The big news is the return of our beloved and masterful Shanmugam Sthapati. He had a great time in India, attended his son's wedding and presided over the inauguration, opening and house blessing for his recently complete new home in Chennai. Now he is back on the job, taking a few days rest as the other silpis are only arriving tomorrow.
To give you an idea of how fortunate we are to have this many with his. Take a look his last accomplishment before coming to Hawaii. One of the Wonders of the World, the giant stone statue of Saint Tiruvalluvar that now stands on small rock island off the Southern tip of India at Kanya Kumari. Shanmugam is the man who supervised the assembly of this master piece.
Talk about a feat in stone look at these stone feet! which will give you an idea of the scale of this incredible project.
It too Shanmugam Sthapati ten years and 300 men to put this together. Don't miss it when you go to India... you can even climb up a small stairway inside the stone statue and look out through Tiruvalluvar's eyes at the Indian Ocean.
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Date: February_09_1999
Title: What is Sadhana?
Category: The Spiritual Path
Duration: 5 min., 40 seconds
Date Given: February 9, 1999
Given By: Gurudeva
Today at Kauai Aadheenam, February 9th.
Our retreat has ended. We had a wonderful two days, again reflecting on what we did and reflecting on what we are going to do, and trying to live in the moment. Actually, all we have is the moment.
Now the doors of our Cyberspace Ashram are open and everybody in 57 countries has one kind of sadhana to perform or another. Questions have been coming in about sadhana.
"How can I perform sadhana when I am so busy? The stress and strain of working and then coming home, and the stress and strain of a family." Or another question, "How can I perform sadhana when I am going to school? I have my exams."
Answering both questions is with a question - what is sadhana?
Sadhana is the deliberate control of yourself, by yourself. That is something only you can do. Deliberately controlling yourself, by yourself. That is sadhana. There are various kinds of sadhana. Chanting mantrams, performing pujas, going on pilgrimages. Basically, your entire life is a sadhana. Let us get our priorities straight. Why do we go to school? We go to school to learn, to graduate and to get a good place in the world because of what we have learned, make a living and serve the community. You don't go to school to make friends. You don't go to school to have conflicts. You don't go to school to participate in social issues. You go to school to learn, to graduate, and then take what you have learned into one kind of occupation or another and serve the community.
When you are working and serving the community, be a professional. Keep your mind on what you are doing. You do not take employment to have conflicts, mental arguments with your fellow workers. That is not professional. You join some organization or another, some business or another, to serve the community along with everyone else. But keep your independence. Don't tangle with anyone. Now that is a sadhana, keeping your independence without tangling with anyone. Going to school, keeping your independence without tangling with anyone. Don't get sidetracked. That is a sadhana which you can practice in the school, in the work place, and also, at home.
What is a home? It is a family togetherness where everyone is helping everyone else. If nobody is helping you, you help them. If nobody is giving you happiness, give them happiness.
I hope that answers these questions. The summary is that sadhana can be performed all the time, even when you are sleeping, even in your dreams you can perform the sadhana of controlling your instinctive mind, controlling your intellectual mind. That only you can do.
Here at Kauai Aadheenam, we have a constant stream of guests which you can see. We try to get pictures of them, for you to meet them as well and feel a part of this wonderful spiritual movement here in a small ashram, in the middle of nowhere, on a little island in the Pacific Ocean.
We are looking forward to travelling to Alaska to open a Ganesha temple with the Hindu community in Anchorage, on a big boat. Come on board everyone! We are on our way for seven days of getting acquainted, studying together, analyzing together, and improving our lives together from Vancouver to Anchorage, Alaska. That happens in June. I think most of you in cyberspace have received the invitation. If you haven't, send me your name and address and we'll see that you get an invitation.
Thank you very much for tuning into our electronic ashram. We are very, very happy that we have been together today and have deeper understanding of how to perform sadhana.
transcription ends
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