Kauai Aadheenam

December 2024 Sadhu Paksha

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  • A slightly over-saturated sunset is actually quite natural around here. Can you spot the moon?
  • Happy butterflies frolic in the foliage
  • Some fun with black and white
  • A staghorn fern. But how big is the rest of the plant?
  • Really. Quite. Big. As it turns out
  • Inside the layers of a fern
  • How has our Pillar Banyan been doing?
  • Yep, it’s still eating large pieces of stone
  • Fan palms reach to the sky
  • A grove of construction bamboo challenges the depth-perception of those that peer inside
  • A very special little flower that looks like a glowing paper lantern. It probably has a special name too…

    • Aum Namah Sivaya

    This week the monks begin there two-week-long retreat known as Sadhu Paksha. This is the time leading up to our official change of seasons, from the Jivana Ritau we will enter the Moksha Ritau. Essentially, Sadhu Paksha involves more stringent rules regarding guests’ entry to the monastery grounds during this time, as well as our monastics change in their morning sadhana—performing their practice alone and often out in nature, rather than our usual group routines. During their extra time in our sacred gardens, monks can enjoy the many natural wonders of these sacred lands. The above photos include some recent images from our jungle-gardens, along with a little photo-editing freedom to play with colors.

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    Around the Aadheenam – Nov 29

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  • ‘The smallest thing in this world is an allegory for the whole universe”
  • “Chaos is just another pattern, one that’s too grand for our minds to interpret”
  • Vel Mahalingam visits Iraivan Temple
  • “The mind indeed IS this fleeting world; therefore it should be purified with great effort.”
  • Kavi Cat asks for a head-scratch
  • Freshly harvested, picture-perfect, bananas
  • A green gecko peers out from a tree trunk
  • Bubbles, our uninvited pet duck, enjoys the stream
  • “There’s no scripture that surpasses what you’ll find inside yourself” – Bodhinatha
  • “Desire is life, and the reason we desire things is because we are alive. Desire is energy expressing itself.” – Gurudeva
  • “The easiest way to create big things, is to plant little seeds”
  • “All that is perishable, is only a symbol of an inner form that is truly lasting”
  • Yali Cat finds guests to pet him..
  • “God can be discovered only by God.” – Yogaswami

    • Aum Namah Sivaya


    Today is the last day of our six-day lunar phase (our aloha-Friday, if you will…). Tomorrow, the monks enter a two-day retreat—our lunar weekend—and then begin two weeks of Sadhu Paksha, a time when we observe some variation in our personal morning routines, followed by our official change of season. Until then, we wish you all a good weekend, and hope you enjoy these photos from around the monastery today, along with some words of wisdom. Aum.

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    November 2024 Chitra Padapuja

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  • “When heart and mind are freed of baseness, when desires have been tempered and excesses avoided, dharma is known and followed, and good conduct naturally arises.” – Gurudeva
  • “To accept one’s karma and the responsibility for one’s actions is strength. To blame another is weakness and foolishness.”
  • “It is wise to have a free mind, a clear, serene and relaxed attitude toward life before partaking of food. That is why people on the inner path traditionally meditate for a moment, chant a mantra or say a prayer before a meal.”
  • “Sacred is secret in all religions because if you talk about your inner experiences, you make them outer experiences and you stop the process.”
  • “We’re here to realize the Self, to have that one dramatic experience where everything that we thought was things is turned upside down, and our whole perspective afterwards changes. That is the purpose for living on this Earth.”
  • “The whole mind is finished, all complete, in all stages of manifestation. Man’s individual awareness flows through the mind as the traveler trods the globe.”
  • “The most important rule of honesty is to be honest to oneself, to be able to face up to our problems and admit that we have been the creator of them. To be honest with oneself brings peace of mind.”
  • “Have a view of the direction in which your mind is going, and you will have a good control over the direction of your life’s circumstance.”
  • “Siva is the God of love and nothing else but love. He fills this universe with love. He fills you with love. Siva is fire. Siva is earth. Siva is air. Siva is water. Siva is ether.”
  • “That goal is to realize God Siva in His absolute, or transcendent, state, which when realized is your own ultimate state—timeless, formless, spaceless Truth.”
  • Examine the word “I” and honestly see what it means to you.
  • There is a great wisdom in cultivated affectionate detachment. Let go of the past. Let go of the future. Be a being right now.
  • The energy within our body is the same energy that pervades the universe, and it’s all emanating right out of Lord Siva.
  • You don’t discipline yourself to attain the feeling of love. You attain the feeling of love and then you want to discipline yourself because you love the discipline, because it brings more love.

    • Jai Gurudeva!

    During today’s chitra nakshatra, we observed our monthly padapuja to Gurudeva Sivaya Subramuniyaswami. Monks and local members gathered in Kadavul Temple at 6:00am for the puja which was performed by Mayilnathaswami and Sadhaka Shankaranatha. Aum.

    It’s easy to live in the now if you work with yourself a little every day and concentrate on what you are doing each moment.

    – Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

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    Learn the Ganesha Puja

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    Jai Ganesha!

    With our new website, we now have resources for learning the Ganesha puja here: www.himalayanacademy.com/ganesha-home-puja

    There’s a PDF with instructions, and there’s links to the audio of the chants for learning them. If you have the Spiritual Workout app on your phone, you can also find the Ganesha puja in the app’s “Worship” section, complete with audio, instructions and chanting text.

    Ganesha Home Puja

    AUDIO

    By monks of Kauai’s Hindu Monastery

    Note: These items can also be learned via our Spiritual Workout App

    Other Sanskrit chants for your daily worship

    BLESSING CHANTS

    • Shanti Mantra (Peace Invocation): Audio | PDF
    • Bhojana Mantra (Food Blessing): Audio | PDF

    TO THE SATGURU

    • Guru Vandanam (Chant to the Kailasa Lineage): Audio | PDF
    • Guru Mantra (Chant to the Preceptor): Audio | PDF
    • Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Ashtottara (108 Names): Audio | PDF
    • Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami Ashtottara (108 Names): Audio | PDF
    • Mantra Pushpam (Worship with Flowers): Audio | PDF

    Three Chants to Ganesha

    View them Here

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    2024 Annual Founder Event – Part Two

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  • Sadhaka is given instructions for chanting the Namah Shivaya Mantra
  • And a blessing to begin
  • Next Niraj, visiting from London, takes his Vratashishya vows
  • Aum Namah Sivaya
  • The next morning we hold another short padapuja in Kadavul Temple to start the day
  • In the late morning, pilgrims gather to plant a sandalwood tree
  • It’s a clear day
  • But once we begin the planting it rains heavily
  • Thankfully the rain stopped once the planting was concluded
  • Some fertilizer is added
  • and some more water

    • Jai Gurudeva!

    Our 2024 Annual Founder Event continues. Yesterday morning we observed several diksha ceremonies. The first being for Sadhaka Shankaranatha who received his Samaya Diksha, or “Mantra Diksha” by which he is expected to chant the Panchakshra Mantra, “Namah Shivaya” every day. Following the diksha, Niraj, who is visiting from London, sat before Satguru to take his vows as a vratashishya of the Kailaisa Parampara after many years of preparation. Jai!

    Today we began at 6:00am in Kadavul Temple with another padapuja to Gurudeva, performed by Sannyasin TIllainathaswami and Nirvani Tejadevanatha. Later in the morning, pilgrims traveled out to San Marga with Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami to plant a sandalwood tree near Muruga Hill, is a small grove in which we intent to have several such trees. The group worked together to add the perfect mixture of soils and to place the little tree in the ground, during which time the clouds opened up for a heavy rain. After the planting was completed, the sun came out and a small blessing was performed for the tree.

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