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 says he has 33 lessons for Innersearch. Join him for a powerful intensive period of study in the holy land!

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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Sadhaka Dandapani and Paramacharya Palaniswami meet every day to coordinate innersearch activities. With a staff of 8 monks and 82 participants (with a few more in the wings...) they are going to be busy. Here they review the layout and design of the study guide which contains reference materials for the lessons that Bodhinatha is preparing.

Are you still wondering if you should go or not? Don't hesitate! Apply today for the trip of your life. Go to our own Innersearch site for lovely pictures from South India. Of course, it is not really about site-seeing... it's about pilgrimage, cutting loose from your karma, going to a far off place to sit in the presence of God, Gods and Guru and be forever changed!

Every day our network and server admin team, Yogi Japendranatha and Sadhaka Jivanandanatha, gets together to work on the technical issues of the day. Thanks to them we have a really top-notch network here running from an Apple Xserve running Mac OS X Server on a Gigabit Ethernet network throughout the Aadheenam. Here they are working on configuring a new server we are beginning to use that is located in Austin, Texas. Living in the middle of the Pacific, the monks know what it means to work remotely.

Yogi working on our own server.

Thank you, Yogi Japendranatha for all the service you give to the whole monastery. He really has a lot of patience to be on "tech support" call a lot of the time and he does it so calmly and sweetly!

Paramacharya Palaniswami writes:

"There are two trees in this box, gifted to us today by Ronald de Fao of Honolulu. Thank you, Ron, for continuing to add to the monastery's collection of sacred and remarkable trees.

"This is an amazing tree, the national tree of India in fact. We have been looking for it for years, and it came today, just hours after we sent 250 Rudraksha Trees to India, a gift to Sri Sri Balagangadharanathaswami of Bangalore. Swami visited Gurudeva on Kauai in 1991, and fell in love with the Rudraksha Forest. He has loaned us the land on which we built the carving village for Iraivan, and the little forest we sent was a thank you to him. Just as Gurudeva always taught us, you can't really give anything away, for the law of karma works relentlessly and will return all giving to the giver with interest. So, amazingly as soon as we shipped the trees off to India, we received the banyan tree we have hoped to have! Karma's law at work."

[See more about this amazing banyan tree below].

Though we expected November to be quiet, a steady stream of guests and pilgrims continue to flow. Here is a wonderful family from the mainland.

Taking pictures of the fish in our koi pond.

Arriving at the outdoor site of the Swayambhu Lingam is an experience of "great peace."

Pradakshina: walking around the site three times.

Prostrating before the lingam... A beautiful mandapam is being planned for this area in the future.

Overlooking the river is the "Orchid Mandapam" Years ago Gurudeva asked one of the monks to print out on canvas and hang up the 12 Beliefs of Saivism, which visitors can read after they have taken in the incredible view of the river below.

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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Today was another stone lift day... always a joyous and exciting time for Iraivan... Larry Conklin on the job again with his crane, his expertise.

Stones going up today for the 20th course.

Also lumber for an extended work platform is lifted up as well.

Incoming planks.

Larry is now finely tuned with our team. They completed the lift of stones, lumber and sand in just two hours flat.

Thambynathan Girish Samugam on hand to help and participate in the event.

More planks on their way up: giant 4 by 12's..

The Siddhidata Kulam has a "cool zip lock top" on the tent that covers the temple work area.

Thambynathan Girish and Sadhaka Tejadeva on the ground rigging team.

Two straps on either end of the stone.

Up he goes!

This one had to come in through the side.

Other interesting small moments at the Aadheenam: here is a sample of some items recently received from India. A crystal Sivalingam.

A gift of the CDs that Mark Riffle of Ohio sent to us today. They are full of hundreds of Aums he designed from our collection on the web. We share a few below to show you his creativity.

He is the same man who did an OM font for us, and which we made available on the web to all TAKA visitors earlier this month /fonts/. He wants someone to create a website with these many hundreds of Aums and fonts and such, OM patterns, OM wallpaper, etc. Anyone want to tackle that one? Thanks, Mark!

Here is a picture of the mature tree that will eventually be growing from the small gift we received today mentioned above:

This tree is also called the Pillar Root Banyan, and it a bit different from the banyans in front of Kadavul, which are called Ficus benjiminalis. The specimen below shows the massive roots that drop to the ground.

National Tree - Banyan: Indian fig tree, Ficus bengalensis, whose branches root themselves like new trees over a large area. The roots then give rise to more trunks and branches. Because of this characteristic and its longevity, this tree is considered immortal and is an integral part of the myths and legends of India. Even today, the banyan tree is the focal point of village life and the village council meets under the shade of this tree.

banyan (Banian) The Indian fig tree (Ficus bengalensis of the Urticaceae), a shade tree remarkable for the enormous area that a single tree often covers, since roots are developed from the branches, which descend to the ground and take root. Inasmuch as each descending root in time becomes a tree trunk with branches of its own, which in their turn send roots to the ground, the gradual spread of the tree is theoretically indefinite and can reach more than a hundred yards in diameter. It was named tree of the merchants, as it was customary in olden times to hold markets under the shelter of these trees, called bar in Hindi, vata (covering) in Sanskrit.

The nyagrodha (Ficus bengalensis) a.k.a. banyan is one of the truly massive trees of north India. When mature, its branches are so stout that the largest birds can perch on them without their breaking yet they are believed to be vulnerable to the tiny tailorbird who can peck its life away. Its bark is the colour and texture of an elephant's hide, and its base forms caves and channels where it is possible to take shelter from the rain. It is a tree that grows up like most others of its kind, but also down as aerial roots which emerge from the branches descend to implant themselves in the soil. Therefore one tree can form a grove all by itself.

In Hong Kong, people tie wishes inscribed on paper strips to oranges and then fling them up into the branches so that the tree is decorated and draped in red and gold.

Ayurvedic medicine recommends the use of a concoction made with its astringent milky sap to arrest miscarriages. Therefore, the tree is associated with healing, protection, sensitivity, reliability and generosity.

The Hindu scripture, Chhandogya Upanishad (c. 800 - 500 BCE) begins with a parable about the nyagrodha that is much misunderstood. It is regularly misapplied to support the existence of God or of a universal soul [Skt: atman] when in fact it does no such thing- no pun intended.

A father says to his son that for a Brahmin 12 years of book-learning is not enough to attain wisdom.The father sends him, now 24 years old, to fetch a fruit from the nyagrodha tree. He asks him to break it open and tell what he sees there.

There were the tiny seeds.

He then asks his son to crush a seed and tell what he saw. " Nothing" replied the boy.

Yes, there is nothing there but yet inside the tiny seed resides the power to produce a giant nyagrodha tree with all its massive branches.

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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
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