Blog Archives

"The causal plane is the world of light and blessedness, the highest of heavenly regions, extolled in the scriptures of all faiths. It is the foundation of existence, the source of visions, the point of conception, the apex of creation. The causal plane is the abode of Lord Siva and His entourage of Mahadevas and other highly evolved souls who exist in their own self-effulgent form--radiant bodies of centillions of quantum light particles. Even for embodied souls, this refined realm is not distant, but exists within man. It is ever-present, ever-available as the clear white light that illumines the mind, accessed within the throat and cranial chakras--vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara--in the sublime practices of yoga and temple worship. It is in the causal plane that the mature soul, unshrouded of the physical body's strong instinctive pulls and astral body's harsh intellectual stranglehold, resides fully conscious in its self-effulgent form. The Sivaloka is the natural refuge of all souls. The Vedas intone, "Where men move at will, in the threefold sphere, in the third heaven of heavens, where are realms full of light, in that radiant world make me immortal." Aum Namah Sivaya."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
End of phase notice:
Today is the last day of this phase.
This edition of TAKA will remain in place
until dasama tithi, Sun One, Thursday, August 21st.

We are pleased to announce the web release of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's monumental work on Hindu culture and lifestyle:
Living with Siva.
Click here for the entire text and artwork, now on-line!

The Jivana Ritau is the period of year when we look closely at the Nandinatha Sutras. If you haven't ready these you can read them on - line in the recently posted "Living with Siva" (link opens in new window) or download the Nandinatha Sutra's ebook.

Gurudeva said: "As we look at this great line of satgurus--coming from Lord Siva Himself through Nandinatha and countless ones before Nandinatha, to Rishi Tirumular and countless rishis after him to the Rishi of Bangalore, to Kadaitswami, Chellappaguru and Yogaswami--we see the same spiritual force flowing. We see an undaunted, rare succession of individuals who considered adversity as a boon from the Gods, wherein all the accumulated karmas to be wiped away come together in one place to be taken care of all at once. Nathas don't run from adversity; nor do they resent it. They take it within themselves in meditation and deal with it, dissolve it in the clear white light within themselves, every tiny little bit of it. They consider it a boon from the Gods that it all came at one time rather than strung out over a period of many years. The mysterious Nathas have their own way of handling almost everything, and much of that is revealed in the Nandinatha Sutras."

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Most Recent update: July 30, 2003.

Bodhinatha speaks on Japa, Mantra Repetition, niyama # 9, elucidating the many dimensions of the sacred science of mantrams, chanting a holy syllable, word or sentence again and again.

Japa may be done silently or aloud. Sometimes it is best to begin aloud, so the mind is more focused, then slowly let it become internalized as concentration improves. Often japa is done right after attending a puja. Japa is not used to acquire worldly things. Instead, prayers are used for that. People who anger should not practice japa.

The simplest japa is A-U-M. This is the primary sound of the universe. Initiation is important before starting the practice of japa yoga. Once initiated it is essential to continue the practice, to strive consistently and to chant as instructed by the guru.

14 minutes, 2 seconds

No Audio Today

				Live Web Cam Pix!

This was the last day of the phase, tour day and brought many guests. Here is the Palaniappan family from California. They are longtime subscribers to Hinduism Today and supporters of Iraivan Temple. They used too attend puja in Gurudeva's Muruga temple on Sacramento Street in San Francisco over 20 years ago, as well as our Murugan temple in Concord. They had a nice chat with the silpis as they are originally from the same area of Tamil Nadu. Palaniappan's grandfather restored an ancient temple in Trichy so temple building is a family tradition.

Their daughter plans to contribute an article for the youth page of Hinduism Today. Son is studying Journalism and will soon be helping out at an internet radio station.

Guests Roxanne MacDougall and Diane Zachary.
Diane recently moved from Maui to Kauai after being hired as the first President of the Kauai Planning and Action Alliance (KPAA). The KPAA was formed within the last year to help Kauai's nonprofit organizations better coordinate together and with the Kauai County government to accomplish targeted goals, like tackling Kauai's drug problem, promoting economic growth through better education, and more. Bodhinatha is serving as one of the board members of KPAA. Roxanne has spent the last couple years organizing the KPAA to its current state.

transcription begins

Date: June_02_2003
Title: Affirmation Part 2 -- Remolding the Subconscious
Category: Self Improvement
Duration: 6 min., 51 seconds
Date Given: March 04, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha

There is a very relevant sutra by Gurudeva on this subject, which he calls 'Remolding the Subconscious', Sutra 308.

It goes like this. "My devotees succeed by remolding subconscious magnetic forces. They purge the dross through Vasana Daha Tantra, writing and burning past transgressions and current problems. Then use positive affirmations."

It is a two-step process. We are focusing on the second step today. The first step is Vasana Daha Tantra, writing down the past, burning it up. Gurudeva has given us a very systematic way of doing that, which we have talked about in the past. Of course, it is one of our themes for this year, to make sure we are all up-to-date on our Vasana Daha Tantra, including last year. With Gurudeva's passing, it has some extra sorrow hidden in there for us all.

After we have done Vasana Daha Tantra, cleared out the subconscious mind of a lot of emotional debris, then it is time to rebuild it, remold it, change its form, change its magnetic content through the power of affirmation.

The first affirmation that Gurudeva gives in the chapter on 'Affirmations' in 'Merging with Siva' is the one we just read. "I can. I will. I am able to accomplish what I plan."

There are a number of other very good affirmations in the chapter, but due to limited time we will just focus on that one during this talk.

An affirmation such as this, the idea is we repeat it quite a lot. Gurudeva says 50 to 100 times a day, that is a lot! Because we are trying to change how we look at life. We are trying to change our core belief from 'I can't' to 'I can'. This is work. This is like starting with no muscle at all and building it back. We have to do some serious exercise here. We can't just walk around for 5 or 10 minutes, when we don't have any muscles. We have to exercise seriously everyday, in a very regular way. Similarly, when we don't have any confidence, we have to put a lot of energy into affirmations, serious affirmation time.

Gurudeva gives us a very important key to being successful in the use of affirmations. It is a three-fold key. It is when repeating the affirmation to simultaneously think, visualize and feel. Three actions to do at the same time - think, visualize and feel.

What does that mean?

Think means consciously being aware of what the affirmations means. Not thinking would be to repeat the affirmation out of habit while thinking about something else. So, that is self-evident. If we are fully focused on what we are saying, we know what it means. But it is easy when you do an affirmation say, 100 times a day, after a while your mind is thinking about, "What am I going to eat for breakfast? What am I going to do about this or that?" Your mind has become divided. If we have a divided mind, if we are thinking about something else at the same time, we are not grasping the meaning. We are just repeating it out of habit. So, we have to be careful to have the full mind on the one thought and therefore we are thinking, we are understanding the meaning intellectually.

Visualize. Visualize means to create a mental picture illustrating the affirmation. For example, see yourself sitting at a desk making a plan to earn some extra money to remodel your home. See yourself earning the money and doing the remodeling. So, we make up a little visualization. It doesn't always have to be the same one, sometimes it is nice to change it. That again keeps it from becoming a habit. We need to picture something in our mind which is an illustration, just like drawing on paper. This illustrates the concept of, "I can, I will, I am able to accomplish what I plan." Somehow, we need to see ourselves planning and accomplishing something. A visualization, a picture in the mind, at the same time as we are understanding what the words mean. That is the second element in a successful affirmation.

The third element is feel. Feel means to have the same feeling you will have when this is consistently happening in your life. In the case of this affirmation, it is the feelings of confidence and success from being able to accomplish what you plan. You need to feel now how you will feel in the future when you are successful and confident. This is the part that people sometimes leave out because they don't realize that it needs to be done. It is not self evident. Visualization is common. At least, thinking about what it means would always be done. But, this subtlety of feeling now, how it will feel to be successful, having the feelings of confidence and success. What does it feel like to feel confident and successful? We have to think that way. What does it feel like? Maybe we don�t know, maybe we never felt that way. So, we have to find those feelings of confidence and success and have those present while we are doing the affirmation.

Then, we have the three-fold practice. We think, we visualize, we feel. This is a wonderful key given to us by Gurudeva. He says feeling is the most important part of making affirmations successful. He says that feeling is more important than the other two, by far.

transcription ends

MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		2004 Indian Odyssey Join Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami on an 18 day Innersearch to South India, from Jan 19 to Feb 5, as we pilgrimage to ancient monasteries, magnificent 1,000 plus year old sacred temples and meet with India's holy men in a life-transforming adventure. Click on the above link for more details.
	Check our children and youth section for new items for the young and young at heart!
1. SIGN OUR GUESTBOOK and receive a FREE GIFT
2. Newest Book: LIVING WITH SIVA
3. Visiting KAUAI'S HINDU MONASTERY
4. Contribute to THANK YOU, GURUDEVA FUND