Blog Archives

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!

Bodhinatha is back at work dealing with the many communications that come to him and the on-going training of the monks. It's good to have him home. He has been leading the morning meditations in a dynamic way... keeping us all sitting for at least an hour or more in perfect stillness as he reaches into the Self.

Bodhinatha's Sun One Video. Most Recent update: September 12, 2003. Bodhinatha speaks on Ahimsa, noninjury, yama #1, which is noninjury in thought, word and deed. The law of karma decrees that it is wise not to harm or hurt others, for we will then receive harm and hurt in exchange in the future. 12 minutes, 29 seconds.

				Live Web Cam Pix!

Then, coming back from the higher reaches of consciousness, here is Bodhinatha at the Pilliyar Kulam, continuing with the training of Sadhaka Jivananandanatha in his capacity of "information manager" which includes all the high-level accounting that Bodhinatha has himself done for many years.

Here are Hemant and Bhavani Patel visiting from Atlanta, Georgia. Their family visited us several years ago and told them they must come.

Yogi Mahadevan gave them a tour... the river at "Bali Hai" is always a delight. Hemant said he was very much reminded of Rishikesh.

Bhavani offers her worship at the Narmada Lingam on the path of the Saivite Saints. Bhavani said that the temple, being surrounded by such beauty of nature, felt like it must have been like this in ancient times in India.

And then Hemant does abhishekam as well.

Here is Sadhaka Dandapani on the left, who is usually behind the camera but drafted a shutter bug to take over for this shot. He is actively working on the next Innersearch and serving in the Ekadanta Kulam helping with the many duties relating to Himalayan Academy students. Sadhaka says, "Dont' delay! There are only four months left before the innersearch departs for the sacred land of Bharat. And wow, do we have a great program design for you. You will simply love it! Click here to go to the web site and sign up today! and if you have any questions or would like to talk it over, I would be happy to give you a call. Just use the email button on the web site and send me your phone number and the best time to reach you."

On the right is Yogi Japendranatha who is a key man in our Ganapati Kulam team. Right now he is working on pages for the new "Island Temple" magazine. He also is responsible to see to the final production details of all our books and maintains the communications links with our book printer in Malaysia. He also works with Paramacharya Palaniswami on the line up of artwork for artists who are working on future projects. And, if that were not enough, he is responsible for our computer network, server maintenance and trouble shooting and general "tech support." Thanks Yogi!

Fall is here and that means just a slight 5 degree drop in temperatures. But we have been having the famed "days of utter, incredible brilliance: for which Kauai is renowned. An artist once told us "I have been to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and on the other Hawaiian Islands... but there is something special about the colors on Kauai..."

Sadhaka Dandapani did a morning shoot just as the sun was rising in the east over the Aadheenam. Here the darkness melts away from giant tall Albezia trees growing by the river which support massive morning glory vines...

A pristine view of Mount Waialeale.

From the path going down to the river... looking up at the Aadheenam.

The banyan tree catching the early rays from the eastern horizon.

Our silpis arriving from their house nearby, coming to first worship at the Kadavul Temple and then off to Iraivan for the day's carving and assembly work.

These torch ginger flowers have to be seen to be understood. What you see here is nearly ten inches across the petals at the base, the large head of the flower looks like it was carved out of red wax and then gilded with orange edges and engraved by God Siva's finest devonic craftsmen.

The Remarkable Vision	Iraivan Temple Progress Update	Join this historic undertaking. Please contribute generously. Sponsor a stone today! Monthly Report Sponsor a stone Iraivan Wonders
	Order Rudraksha Malas from Siva's sacred Hawaiian groves; and also single rudraksha beads ready to put on a chain around your neck. Great for Gifts! All proceeds go to the building fund.
Current Overview

There's a laser focus in the Ganapati Kulam these days as they are producing two magazine in the same time period they normally produce one. One of these is the new edition of the "Island Temple," bringing out a progress report on the Iraivan temple building project.

The classic two page spread with the painting by A. Manivel.

Article cover a wide range of subjects from the Bangalore carving site to various fund raising appeals.

In this issue we are also including a two-page article on the monastery and our monastic lineage, which is important to help new readers understand the context in which this temple project is manifesting.

Those of you out there who are helping with Iraivan fund raising can be thinking about how many copies you will need of this "super tool" that you can use to approach others to give to Iraivan. If you send in your request early, this will help the team here plan out their distribution of the magazine. "Estimated time of arrival" is: we should go to press with this around the 25 of this October and start shipping and mailing approximately the first of November.

No Audio Today

transcription begins

Date: July_31_2003
Title: Improving Our Behavior with the Help of the Guru Part 3
Category: Self Improvement
Duration: 7 min., 1 seconds
Date Given: July 09, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha

OK, that is pretty good!

The idea is that no one would think of making spiritual progress. Sometimes we just think about all the wonderful, uplifting parts of spiritual life, meditations and being in blissful states, going to the temple and experiencing the Deity and so forth. But, an important part of making spiritual progress is to improve our weak areas. Just like a dancer. Now, how does a dancer become a better dancer? By focusing on the weakest areas and improving them.

So, sometimes it is hard to want to do that when it comes to ourself. It is hard to want to look at our weakest areas but it is important. This exercise of using the yamas and niyamas is a simple way of improving our behavior through self-reflection. Meaning, we don't have to have anyone else's help. We can do it ourselves, it is quite useful.

Moving on, we are still in Ahimsa. We are moving on to a related topic, which is anger.

Non-injury and anger are closely related. There is a tendency to respond to the challenging situations by becoming upset, angry and finally harming others with our fists or our words. Therefore, understanding and controlling anger is an important part of practicing ahimsa.

Here is a story to illustrate anger. This really happened right here, not in this room but out back.

The monastery is a very controlled spiritual environment. So, the first hand experience of anger is rare. Where am I going to find an example of anger? However, a few years ago there was a great opportunity for first hand observation which was when two carpenters were building a house next door to the monastery. One of the carpenters was more prone to anger than the other. Every few minutes when something didn't work right, he would start loudly swearing at length. This really happened. Then, about once a week there would be a huge argument and he would stomp off the job and drive away, with his tires squealing in defiance. It was definitely a very interesting study in anger and human nature.

Gurudeva in 'Living with Siva' makes reference to the eight forms of anger from the book, 'Angry All the Time'. These are called the eight rungs on the ladder of violence. So that is the sheet we are passing out to everyone. I will read that.

Step 1: Sneaky anger: The goal of sneaky anger is to totally frustrate somebody. For example, regularly forget what someone wants you to do. You can be angry without even having to admit to the person you are mad at him or her. This, of course, is the most subtle form of anger and may be hard for the other person to even realize that you are angry at them, being so subtle at it. They ask you to do something and you always forget or you purposely do it and leave out something. You are purposely not fulfilling things in a correct way because you are angry at the person. It is called sneaky anger.

Step 2, The cold shoulder: "I am mad at you and I am not going to talk about it. So there! That will show you." That is more obvious. "No way are we going to discuss things, I am just mad." Cold shoulder.

Step 3, Blaming and shaming: Angry people often blame others for their problems. It takes the form of saying that, "There is something wrong with you. I know it, I am going to say it. I want you to feel bad because I am angry with you."
Sometimes that happens from parents to children. The children just frustrate the parents so much, they blame and shame just out of frustration, not really on any factual basis, just getting angry.

Step 4, Swearing, screaming and yelling: The previous step of blaming and shaming was verbal but it was controlled. This step involves losing control over our speech. This is where we are starting to lose control, which is an important part of serious anger because the more angry you get, the more control you lose over yourself.

Step 5, Demands and threats: This is again verbal and involves demanding that someone behaves as you want or threatening you they will do something pretty drastic if you don't. Of course, the most drastic thing is, "I will kill myself. If you don't do this, I will kill myself."

People actually get in that state. I get emails occasionally saying the very same thing. "He threatened to kill himself or she threatened to kill herself. She got so angry."

It is amazing. It is a state of mind that everyone can go through. No one is immune from it and everyone experiences pretty much the same thing. They lose control.

Step 6, Chasing and holding: This is the first step that involves physical contact, that consists of restraining someone against their will.

Step 7, Partially controlled violence: This is physically striking someone but without losing control.

Step 8, Blind rage: This is physically striking but with total loss of control and sometimes memory too. You don't really remember what you did clearly. You lost so much control that you lose it so.

Of course, we are not thinking that any of us are down here in Step 8, 7, 6 or even 5. But the top four are something that people who come to Gurudeva do occasionally or regularly experience, depending on their nature. People are very different when it comes to anger. Some people just never anger and other people are always angry to some degree, even though they are interested in spiritual life.

So the idea here is that, one of the stages can easily degrade into the next.

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