Blog Archives
November 11, 2003 
Religious and spiritual education were a key "plank" of Gurudeva's mission agenda from day one when he started his first "Master Course" lessons in the 1950's. Here are a few quotes:
"Saivism has all of the facilities for the education of humankind back to the Source."
"In Hindu societies, class and caste, which dictates one's occupation and community, is largely hereditary. However, these birth-imposed categories can be transcended by the ambitious who enter new careers through education, skill and persistence."
"The fundamental duty of parents is to provide food, shelter and clothing and to keep their children safe and healthy. The secondary duty is to bestow education, including instruction in morality and religious life."
"A slothful person naturally does not have the inclination to advance himself through education and meditation, and is unable to do anything but a simple, routine job."
"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. "
"....we extend the boundaries of religion to education and to the human conscience of right conduct on this Earth. "
"Hinduism eradicates this cycle by offering knowledge of the states between life and death and then life again. It creates deep impressions within the mind of these individuals, which then bring them out of this syndrome so that they can enjoy months, years, in fact, of education and knowledge in the inner planes of consciousness between births, so that they can come back into a physical body a more awakened soul than when they left their last physical sheath at death. "
Our Beloved and Revered Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
Attained Maha Samadhi on November 12th, 2001
Click to read for Details.
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 really focused also on this all important point:
"We have one duty to perform, which is to pass our religion on to the next generation, the next and the next. And how do we do this? How is this done? It is done by causing the children to memorize the precepts of our scriptures. Our Saivite scriptures are the heritage of the children. They own those scriptures. It is our duty to give them the scriptures. Among others, we now have the Tirukural in the English language, entitled Weaver's Wisdom. It must be memorized by them, by each and every one of them, along with the hundreds of Vedic verses in Hinduism's Contemporary Catechism, Dancing with Siva. The teachings of our other scriptures should be familiar as well. That establishes them in their dharma. The sooner we get our scriptures into the minds of the children, the better we build the children into fine citizens. Crime is very expensive for any nation. Crime is very expensive for any family, for they suffer and the individual suffers. Nothing is gained by crime. Good citizenship comes from a good religious education. A good religious education starts with memory, and it is fulfilled in the realms of reason when the child is older and able to discuss his religion with his elders. We must educate the youth. We must educate them well in the Saivite Hindu religion. Start with the Tirukural. Lord Murugan will help you. God Ganesha will open doors and give you wisdom of how to proceed. Lord Murugan will give you the willpower--He is the God of Will--to perform this one supreme duty, and duty is also dharma, to pass our Saivite religion on to the next generation, the next and the next. "
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.
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Himalayan Academy was Gurudeva's formal way of training those who came to him for spiritual and religious education. Here is Sadhaka Dandapani, preparing the Level One sheets to be sent out to those who have enrolled in Himalayan Academy.
These sheets offer simple guidelines for the daily study of Gurudeva's three books, Dancing with Siva, Living with Siva and Merging with Siva.
As a student advances in their study they want to make a deeper commitment to the Guru Parampara or lineage. This too Gurudeva felt should be a meaningful step in the life a of a person and not just a token statement "I am a devotee." To that end he asked those beginning on the path with him to take three vratas: the Vegetarian Vrata, the Dasamamsha (Tithing) Vrata and the Kailasa Parampara Vrata (dedication to this line of Gurus and the study of their teachings). Here we have signed Vratas from a young lady in India who is taking these steps forward in her life.
Of course, besides a very formal study, Gurudeva, through Himalayan Academy Publications, produced Hinduism Today, all his books and our internet site to provide the teachings to one and all around the globe. Another educational Academy program open is the Innersearch Travel Study Program. These provide an opportunity for intensive immersion in the teachings and are usually coordinated with a trip to far off places and far off Hindu communities. This coming Innersearch program is special because it goes back to India. The India Innersearches have always been special because it is a time to reconnect with your religious roots. This is especially important for new converts and adoptives of Hinduism living outside of India. Coming to India is like a "home coming for the soul," an experience that solidifies our faith and deepens our commitment to the Sanatana Dharma. This year we will be spending a long period stationed in the incredible city of Madurai. The spectacular Meenakshi Temple is what Madurai city is built around. The
temple is home to the powerful and loving Goddess Meenakshi, and Siva as
Sundaresvar. It is interesting that here, the Vahana of the Goddess is Nandi... this is the Vahana of Siva, showing us that Shakti and Siva are the same.
The towers and structures of Madurai are simply unbelievable to behold, a testament to the glory of the Hindu religion. One cannot come here and not be transformed in some special way.
Of course there are always fun things to watch out for. Fresh green coconuts are a source of refreshing, thirst quenching coconut water... Beloved by one and all including these rascals. Be careful, they will jump and take a banana right out of your hands, or run away with your bright red scarf!
The tower of the Kudalagar Temple provides an ideal
silhouette for the sunrise over Madurai city. This animated city will be our
home for 6 nights during the 2004 Indian Innersearch Travel Study program, we like to call, "The India Odyssey." Join us... time is running short and there are only a few seats left! Click here to sign up. Click here to sign up.
Today's Inspired Talk |
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Title: Putting Gurudeva's Teachings to the Best Use, Part 5 Category: Self Improvement Duration: 7 minutes 8 seconds Date Given: October 23, 2003 Date Posted: November_11_2003 Given by: Bodhinatha |
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For more information about listening to Gurudeva's talks online and to hear them in other formats, click here. And click here for an Index to All Past CyberTalks. Study Gurudeva's teachings
every day. Visit the Master Course site!
Bodhinatha will be happy to hold "Prasnottara Satsang" -- "Questions and Answers" over the telephone with any Hindu religious societies, Hindu youth groups, Radio talk show hosts etc. All you need is a phone with a speaker and an enthusiastic audience. Arrangements may be made in advance by sending email to Sannyasin Saravananathaswami If you are experiencing any problems listening to the audio, please to go our Audio FAQ page and follow the directions there.
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transcription begins
Date: November_03_2003
Title: Trip to Asia and Collaboration with a Temple
Category: Travels, Pilgrimage and Missions Abroad
Duration: 12 min., 1 second
Date Given: September 20, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha
A little trip story since the talk is so short! I think each country we went to, there was something new developing and different.
In Mauritius, the children stood out. There were lots of them and they sang beautifully and got along beautifully, really enjoyed one another's company. This was apparent at gatherings at the Spiritual Park, as well as, at the different Kutumba meetings. Most of the children are children of members but some of them are just children of Friends of the Spiritual Park, children of students or old members. It was quite a large group and so we are focusing this coming year on our teaching program, which is on Saturday at the Dharmasala. It is going to start up again in January. It has taken a short break. We are working with Rajan Manick and will also be working with one of our newer members Logadasan Peruman, in developing a nice course for the children there, utilizing the material.
So, that is very nice to see and it is a nice potential for future growth for the Church there.
In Malaysia, there is the Core Youth Committee, CYC as they call themselves. A nice aspect of the group there is, there are a number of youth which in Malaysia is anyone up to 30, approximately. Youth is about 18 to 30. Under Arvind Raj's coordination, they are focusing on teaching the Master Course Trilogy and the age group they are focusing on is 16 to 21. They have developed a series of 26 classes to be held every other week for a year. They are just about to launch. They plan to launch in either November or January. They have all of the classes outlined and have shared the outlines with me and made some suggestions, so they are ready to go. It is about 20 in the group that attend the teacher's meetings. They are very serious about doing this in a very organized and precise way. They have a seminar that leads into the classes, a Master Course seminar, that they can hold anytime and then the classes. Once someone starts out, it is every other week for a year. That is the cycle.
They are going to just start with one class in the Klang area and go through that for a year, as a test to work out all the bugs in the system, perfect the materials. Then, after the year is over update the material and we will also look at the material once again more closely and then they will start teaching in multiple places, throughout Malaysia. They want to start a class up in the Penang area, as well.
That is a nice development there, coming up all from this group themselves. They are just really interested in basically bringing in other youth into the Church. That is their motivation. They feel they are the best group qualified, rather than their parents, to bring in other youth. No generation gap! So that is a healthy sign, which should lead to some new members there in a few more years.
Then in Singapore, we had a new phenomenon, the Senpaga Vinayagar Temple there, a Sri Lanka Ganesha Temple, it is on Ceylon Road, is looking to us in developing a children's course that they want to release in November. It is kind of an unheard of time frame. They want it all done in a couple of months. We were talking to them and the Course is in the Tamil language, so the children are also learning Tamil at the same time. We were talking about the Course and finally I asked the direct question, "Well, how would you describe the Course? What is its focus? How do you envision it?" They said, "Oh, we wanted a Course on Saiva Siddhanta." This is unusual because most temples don't want to teach Saiva Siddhanta. They just teach some general form of Hinduism or something. It is the first temple that said we wanted a Course on Saiva Siddhanta.
We emailed back immediately right during the meeting. We sent one of the monks there to email back from the room to get some materials sent over. So they are going to be using our Saivite Hindu Religion Children's Course as well as other materials we are providing, copy of the Tamil translation of 'Dancing with Siva' that we have and the Modern Tamil 'Tirukural', as well. They have never seen that! Other things will be sent over in the next few weeks as well.
That was really inspiring that they are turning to us. Of course, the Hindu Center in Singapore already turned to us for help in their children�s course. We are calling that an 'All-denominational Course on Hinduism." They wanted a non-denominational course and Arumugaswami talked them out of that, by explaining that there is no such thing. Hinduism is denominational. You can't teach it without referring to the denominations. There is no such thing as non-denominational Hinduism. So, they agreed and so we have been teaching all-denominational Hinduism, under the coordination of Sivakumar Saravan.
We pointed out the material in the October issue of 'Hinduism Today', which is on the four denominations. It is a center section of the four denominations, beautiful artwork and write-ups. The material comes from 'Dancing with Siva' but it is much more impressive when it is in color and illustrated. He is asking for those files so he can make a poster for the Hindu Center and stick it on display there. The Hindu Center is promoting the four denominations.
It is turning into an important theme, the four denominations. Because, quite often Hinduism is being presented without that fact. If you don't know that Hinduism has four different ways of looking at things, Hinduism can be very confusing. You run into lots of contradictions and lots of misunderstandings can develop.
The Hindu Endowment support for example, has a Shivan Temple there and they had a big sign on Hinduism, a poster on Hinduism at the front entrancen there. I was reading it with Dohadeva and going through each paragraph and commenting like a school teacher, "Oh, this is wrong, that is wrong, this is right, that is good." They had some very good points and they even used the word superconscious and I said, "Where did they get that word? Must be from Gurudeva's writings!" They said the superconscious revelations of the Rishis produced the Vedas or something like that, right out of our work. They had some very good points but then when it came up to describe Hindu worship they presented just the Smarta point of view. You know, "All the Gods are really the supreme being and different symbols of the supreme being." Something like that. So I said, "Wait a minute." I was going through it with Dohadeva and I said, "You know that is Smartism and what they should have there is the four denominations, so it is clear." Dohadeva said he would send the Hindu Center a copy of the magazine and see how they responded to that.
Also, we are working with two museum-like presentation of Hinduism that are being developed. One is for the Vishnu Mandir in Toronto. They are spending probably about a million and a half US dollars to build the building that the exhibit is in. It is beautifully conceived with waterfalls and skylights, very nice structure. We looked through their material and there is nothing on the four denominations. So, I want to send that to them with a covering letter, now that we have it in print. There is a long explanation of the six schools of Vedantic thought, that is something that isn't really that useful to know and is more historic than anything else.
There is another exhibit being developed outside of Chicago for a Center that hasn't been built yet and then again they left out the four denominations. They are a very important part of understanding Hinduism and its practice. Philosophy is useful, but you won't understand Hindu practices, unless you grab onto the four denominations. It gets very confusing.
That is just some general news. You can see that our Church is developing nicely abroad, continuing to bring in some new members.
Have a wonderful phase everyone.
Aum Namah Sivaya!
transcription ends
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2004 Indian Odyssey
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