The contractor team is close to two thirds done with building the eight-food-wide road around Iraivan Temple. They started at the front entrance with the apron connecting hillside steps to the granite staircase, and have since been working their way around both sides of the temple at once. Three concrete trucks came a couple days ago, four yesterday, two more tomorrow, and some more will come several days after that.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.
“We must live in the now to follow the path to enlightenment. In the lower realms of the mind, where time and space seem very real, we are worried about the past or concerned about the future. These two intermingle and limit conscious awareness. Living in the past or the future obstructs us in this way: the past, by reliving old experiences—mainly the negative ones, for they are vividly remembered—clouds our vision of the future. Living in the future overactivates the intellect, the emotion and the desires. The future is little more than another form of mental fantasy. Past and future are equally unreal and a hindrance to spiritual unfoldment. A person functioning in the now is in control of his own mind. He is naturally happier, more successful. He is performing every task with his fullest attention, and the rewards are to be seen equally in the quality of his work and the radiance of his face. He cannot be bored with anything he does, however simple or mundane. Everything is interesting, challenging, fulfilling. A person living fully in the now is a content person.“
A contractor team has arrived to begin two to three weeks of work to create a concrete road around Iraivan Temple, replacing the temporary crushed asphalt we have there now. Some time after they are done, another team will cover the road with quartzite tile. Besides allowing vehicles to conveniently drive around, the road can serve as a circumambulation path for pilgrims doing sadhana, and occasional parades.
Today the main focus was to dig out the area that will connect the stairs coming up the hill to the temple granite staircase, where more technical precision is needed to ensure that the eventual quartzite tile layer will be at just the right height next to the first granite stair. They will pour this area on its own first, then the rest of the road later.
Auspiciously, today also happened to be the monthly Gurudeva Chitra pada puja.
Also, we continue to have a flock of nene geese moving about the property.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.
“How can we know when we’re ready to know the Self? How do we know when the soul is spiritually mature? When we begin a journey and clearly define our destination, then we must begin from where we are, not elsewhere. Clearly defining our destination requires knowing where we are, requires determining whether or not we want to go there at this time. We must ask whether we have the means, the willpower, to get there. Are we ready to leave the world, or must we fulfill further obligations in the world and to the world? Have we paid all of our debts? We cannot leave the world with karmas still unresolved. Perhaps we desire something more, some further human fulfillment of affection, creativity, wealth, professional accomplishment, name and fame. In other words, do we still have worldly involvements and attachments? Are we ready for the final journey life has to offer? Are we prepared to endure the hardships of sādhana, to suffer the death of the ego? Or would we prefer more pleasures in the world of “I” and “mine”? It is a matter of evolution, of what stage of life we have entered in this incarnation—is it charyā, kriyā, yoga or jñāna? When the soul is spiritually mature, we know when we’re ready to know the Self. “
Our newest book, Tayumanavar’s Songs to Siva, is now on our website here. You can peruse it for free in three ways: PDF file, a ePub format that has a layout similar to a printed book, or you can click the “Read” button to go through each chapter of text and graphics on the website itself.
What is it that is immeasurable effulgence, perfect bliss, filled with grace? What is it that willed to contain the countless universes in boundless space and there flourishes as Life of life? What is it that stood transcending thought and word? What is it that remained as the ever-contentious object of countless faiths claiming, “This, my God,’’ “This, our God’’? What is it that exists as omnipresent and omnipotent, love-filled and eternal? What is it that knows no limits of night and day? That indeed which is agreeable to contemplation. That indeed is what fills all space in silentness. That indeed is what we in meekness worship.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami gives his weekly upadesha in Kadavul Temple at Kauai’s Hindu Monastery in Hawaii. It is part of a series of talks elaborating on the inspired teachings of Satguru Śivaya Subramuniyaswami as found in his book Merging With Śiva.
“Never have there been so many people living on the planet wondering, “What is the real goal, the final purpose, of life?” However, man is blinded by his ignorance and his concern with the externalities of the world. He is caught, enthralled, bound by karma. The ultimate realizations available are beyond his understanding and remain to him obscure, even intellectually. Man’s ultimate quest, the final evolutionary frontier, is within man himself. It is the Truth spoken by Vedic ṛishis as the Self within man, attainable through control of the mind and purification. “
