Blog Archives

Speaking of Innersearch, the Indian Odyssey Himalayan Academy Study Program has reached 90 souls! Amazingly, this is an all-time record for any Innersearch program ever conducted. What a fabulous satsang it is going to be! We still have a few more seats open. Time is short. There are a mere 59 DAYS TO DEPARTURE. So wisdom would declare all who are joining us in Malaysia and India need to apply now! On the roster will be some rare cultural programs including the renowned Murugadas, who sang so many times for Gurudeva and the Innersearchers in the past. This national treasure of spiritual song will be 85 years young just about the day he and his entourage sing divine hymns for Bodhinatha!

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 already working on his teaching program for the Innersearch and you can expect a powerful in-depth study program during the journey.

And click here to see this picture of the incredible halls of Madurai that you will walk in when you join us in India.

If you click on the LEFT arrows, you will see a series of amazing images of the massive goopurams, temple towers, at Madurai. If you click the RIGHT arrows, the photographer takes you to the seaside town of Mahabalipuram, where we will be toward the end of our pilgrimage. This is the art center for stone carvers, and where all of our murthies in Kauai have been carved, including the recent 12-foot-tall Dakshinamurthy. Carvers have found this a haven for millennia, due to the quarries of black granite that lie nearby.

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!

Meanwhile our beloved brother Sadhaka Nilakantha has almost completed his training on an organic farm in New York state. He so endeared himself to the management there that at the end of the season they took him for a trip to New York City and here he is with a statue of Gandhi somewhere in New York City. We look forward to having you back next week, Sadhaka! We need you home!

Today was our Sun One Homa... as always an opening into the inner planes...

Thambynathan Girish Samugam is helping our homa priest, Yogi Mahadevan.

The homa altar arrayed with flowers and decorated with holy ashes.

All prostrate after the final arati is done.

Sannyasin Muruganathaswami takes the flame.

Jothi Sendan applies the sandal and kumkum to his daughter's forehead. Lucky young lady to be present from conception through birth and childhood in the hallowed precincts of Lord Siva Nataraja and the Satguru's of the Kailasa Parampara.

Along the walls of the temple, 108 bronze statues of Lord Siva dancing his 108 Tandava poses.

Gurudeva discovered these as figures in a book on Bharata Natyam and was determined to preserve the legacy of these dance forms by putting them into sculptures.

The Trisula, that presides in the place typically held by the "fierce" form of Lord Siva as the Trident holding Bhairava who guards the temple, warding off from entrance those who should remain outside.

Guests today... a cross-cultural couple...

Stepping back to yesterday's, the second day of our retreat was "Iraivan Day" this month. Top on the list is always the monthly newsletter mailing which takes many hands.

Sadhaka Haranandinatha, our fund raising coordinator hands out assignments to all the monks. Acharya Kumarswami and Sannyasin Arumugaswami work on cards for fund raisers to give out.

These are "Temple Builder" cards

Here is an example...

Yogi Mahadevan and Yogi Japendranatha working on the newsletter mailing. It is also a time for camaraderie and as everyone visualizes the temple in progress.

Girish is making friends with all our feline family... here is Ganapu....

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.
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At the temple site we are finally seeing the early courses of the vimanam above the roof peeping out above the safety barriers we have built.

The temple will rise up above the highest point you see of these wooden risers in this photo.

The 19th course in progress.

Also on Iraivan Day we were able to make some new additions to our Iraivan web site. Various items are being sold on eBay to help Iraivan and also a beautiful statue of Nataraja is available, the proceeds of that purchase will also go to Iraivan. Check out our new web page. You can buy one of these items as a gift for someone else and make two gifts for the price of one! One to Iraivan and one to the recipient. Click here to go there.

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Date: November_11_2003
Title: Putting Gurudeva's Teachings to the Best Use, Part 5
Category: Self Improvement
Duration: 7 min., 8 seconds
Date Given: October 23, 2003
Given by: Bodhinatha

One last topic. This is a point I often use and it is going to relate to the Innersearch Study Program. I will just explain the point.

Have you ever tried to explain to another what the purpose of our Hindu practices was? Tried to explain Hinduism to somebody who does not understand it? Have you ever been successful in explaining Hinduism to someone who does not understand it?

Usually, we explain things in too complicated a way. Quite often, I have to give a talk to a non-Hindu group and explain Hinduism. We have a nice group that comes regularly. Billy's group, a metaphysical group that comes. So they are very open and all. But, you start throwing terms - dharma, karma, samsara, moksha - and they are lost.

You cannot do that , so what I say here is, of course, we can offer a philosophical answer such as, the purpose of Hinduism is to resolve our karma, realize God and be liberated from reincarnation. That is the right answer, right? But if you are talking to a child or someone that does not understand the terminology, it does not make any sense at all. Therefore, I found a simple answer, that anyone can understand. It says the same thing in three different ways.

Hinduism teaches us, how to become a better person.

Everyone can understand that. Hinduism teaches us how to become a better person. We are trying to improve and become a better person, improve our behavior.

Live as spiritual beings on this Earth.

That is what Hinduism is about. It is surprising if you say it like that, people say, "Oh, I want to do that too! That sounds great. I want to be a spiritual being. I want to improve my behavior."

It is a nice definition, it relates to this last one. I have a working title for my upcoming India classes. This is an Ad to go on the Odyssey, anyone that has not signed up! But it also shows you what I am working on. I am trying to get a series based on this principle. The working title, and we tried this out at Guru Purnima and it worked out very well, this principle. The working title is, 'Becoming a More Spiritual Person', through applying Hindu philosophy, principles and metaphysical tools to our life. That is what we are working on for the India program. I have eleven classes on the India program. But I found that if I did a series I could give it anywhere. It could be a very interesting approach because quite often you go to lectures and they are not practical. You go out singing 'Jiva is Siva', it is not going to help you be a better person. As soon as you quiet down, you will be yourself again. You have not taken out something specific that you have applied to your life. You have not said, "Okay, I realize I have to do this a little differently in order to really conform with the Yama of Ahimsa. I am kind of breaching it, in terms of how I talk to people. I am being nasty sometimes, that is harmful. I am harming people with my words."

That kind of understanding, a new application of a principle that you know very well to your life, refine them in your life. This is what we are striving for and that way we become a more spiritual person.

There is a nice example of that. I gave the talk in Concord to the members there, it was on Ahimsa. Gurudeva defines it so beautifully, "not harming others through thought, word or deed." Beautiful definition. I always say, it is easier to not harm others through deed, otherwise you would be in jail. May harm others with words occasionally and that is good to focus on and even your thoughts. I gave you some examples.

I was driving with someone and afterwards he said, "You know, when someone cuts in front of me on the freeway, I sure harm them with my thoughts."

He took it to a new level. He realized that he was having nasty thoughts towards this person and that was not in accord with Ahimsa, because the cardinal principle of Ahimsa is everything we think about someone should be designed to help them. We don't want to hinder people by thinking negative about them. But actually they feel the thoughts. They could get in an accident if they were a sensitive person.

So, even how we think about other people, needs to be in line with the principle of Ahimsa. It a subtlety, something you may not have thought about before.

In this kind of seminar, I say, you take that kind of principle and you apply it to your life. You refine your behavior, you figure out how to refine your behavior even more in that area, as a result. Therefore, you go out the door not singing 'Jiva is Siva', but with a concrete tool in your hand. It is written down on a piece of paper and you take it home. You have got something to make yourself a more spiritual person. You have found a weakness, an area in which you can improve. It is like a dancer, "Oh, I found new weakness in my technique. Now I can work on that and become a better dancer!"

Thank you very much.

Aum Namah Sivaya.

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