Rainy Days

Right now the island of Kauai is getting blessings from the sky with a constant light rain that persists just enough to remind you it's wet outside. The monks are ending their phase is a quiet way and getting ready to work on various projects during their two day retreat. Some will harvest noni or carve away at tropical woods; some monks will study scripture late into the night. Satguru will go on his long contemplative walks while others will bake, stir-fry or griddle their way to a savory seva--we get our happiness by making others happy. I foresee an early morning bike ride, web work, app building, astrology reading, budget maintenance and many many other tasks these next few days.

The Deity remains throughout it all, Jiva really is Siva. Our monistic theist-Saiva Siddhanta is unparalleled theology that harnesses the power of creation right into the very heart of your being. While Siva remains detached from the tattvas, the bhogas and all karmic manifestations, He/She remains an ever-grounded part of the whole. From Parashiva, mysteriously to Parashakti and into you and your experience as Parameshwara.

Through sadhanas such as temple worship, yogic meditation and scriptural study, we reign-in the mind's thirst for the gunas and evolve into higher consciousness. The monks are here to root you on as you struggle through the perfect chaos of Parashakti and find your way back to the all-encompassing perfect order of Parashiva.

Love, light and upliftment is our creed. Sacrifice, responsibility and trust is our dharma. The Nandinatha Sampradaya is our lineage, family and history. God Siva is immanent love and transcendent reality. That means Parashakti and Parashiva, that means you, that means me, and that means everything is undoubtedly a perfect one being. Aum.

\"Lord Siva is all-powerful; He has firmly deposited in the God of Fire three energetic powers (Saktis) and He is always motivated to maintain the order and function of each world. Do not deny the existence of such powerful Lord(without whom the worlds could not have continued to exist). Siva, the Supreme Master of all the Gods, is always performing auspicious deeds and showering His grace during the span of created state and that of dissolved state.\"

\"Be worshipping Him; be united with Him; be singing His greatness and glory. Do realize and have the conviction that His feet are the ultimate resort for all the beings. Do recognize that your body and your wealth and possessions are meant to be used for the attainment of His feet. Do not go astray. Lord Siva always remains in oneness with those who are meticulous in retrieving their mind and senses which go astray.\"

\"Lord Siva has pervaded the full extent of all the worlds sustained by His power; He has gone above the thousand-petalled lotus at brahma-randhra and He has enshrined Himself in the heart of each soul. Not only in this birth but also in all the births of each embodied soul, He is continuously following its track by being within it and guiding it. Worship the feet of such great Lord. If you do this, the attainment of absolute oneness with Him would easily be possible to you.\"

\"Simultaneously He is present in this mundane world; in the heaven; in the pure space of consciousness; in the form of Guru who initiates the disciples. He also manifests as the sweet melody of the songs, content of such songs, singer and the one who has enabled the singer to perform the concert. Keeping myself firmly within each of my sense organs, I am in deep love with Him.\"

\"My Lord Nandi, the Great, who appears with ever-glowing effulgence and who is our Master may manifest as a Lord whose form is associated with all the characteristic lineaments pertaining to beautiful young man. Being inspired to the core of my being and being in ecstacy I am chanting His names sometimes regularly and sometimes irregularly; I am depicting His form in the canvas of my heart during day and night; or, I may be in totally absorbed state.\"

\"With the grace of Nandi I had the fortune of being in the body of Mla; with the grace of Nandi, I was elevated to evolve as Sadasiva; with the grace of Nandi I was able to reach the depth of supreme and pure consciousness; with the grace of Nandi I continue to exist through aeons and aeons.\" -Tirumular\

s Tirumantiram'
}

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