SSC sishyas Erasenthiran and his son Naavalan have arrived from mainland USA for a month to serve in the Siddhidata Kulam at Kauai Aadheenam during Naavalan’s summer break from school. In today’s photos, Naavalan is picking Abiu fruit that is abundantly in season right now. He says he enjoys being out in nature, with the cooling trade wind breeze and birds chirping.
A group of Nene geese also decided to visit the nearby avocado orchard this morning.
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.
“Why would you ever want to place demands of perfection upon yourself? You now walk the path of perfection, and you must be so to walk that path. What is this perfection? First, it is a clarity of cognition. Second, it is a bursting of actinic love for your fellow man. Third, it is an openness and willingness to serve and fit in, in any capacity. Fourth, it is living a contemplative lifestyle better every day. Fifth, it is mastering all of your yoga disciplines given to you by your guru. Sixth, it is the ability to hold responsibility, maintain a continuity of your own karmayoga, yet have the mobile quality to be ever ready to do something different without losing continuity of what you have been doing in holding your responsibility. ¶If you can gear yourself to accomplish all this, you are on the path of enlightenment and you will surely prove to yourself, when you have your realization, that you are a free man in a free world, subject to nobody, to no power, even the power of karma. How could That which is formless and causeless be subject to anything?“
The next Kauai’s Hindu Monastery monthly newsletter wrapped up editing, and now it’s being printed and folded. Today Yogi Haranandinatha is learning how to manage the finicky folding machine. In a few days, many of the monks will gather at our monthly “Iraivan Day” to stuff the newsletter in envelopes along with vibhuti packets.
The final image is of another addition to our hybrid hibiscus collection.
For a long time our English-only version of Tirukural, called Weaver’s Wisdom, has only been available in black and white. Our editors decided to upgrade to full-color, using artwork by the late S. Rajam for each chapter, and new art created through AI to begin each section of the book.
This second edition is in hardcover for durability. The photos above show a “proof” copy we received from Amazon to check for any final issues to fix. We found several mistakes, fixed those and the book will shortly be available at amazon.com and our minimela.com website.
The final [bonus] photo shows one of our new hybrid hibiscus harvests.
We are running low on copies of the Good Thoughts book of Yogaswami’s songs, so it’s time for a reprint. These days we are using Amazon’s printing service for more books because of the flexibility to print only a few copies at a time (at the same price as many copies).
This third edition will be in hardcover for durability (especially for carrying it around to satsangs and temples), 220 pages and features several new graphics. The photos above show a “proof” copy we received from Amazon to check for any final issues to fix. Soon the book will be available at amazon.com and our minimela.com website.
The third [bonus] photo is of Lord Murugan at the end of Vaikasi Visakham puja the other day.
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.
“Devotees occasionally ask, “When you experience a thought you don’t like, should you go around the thought, or go to the center of the thought and find out why you don’t like it?” Look at thoughts as people. I see thoughts when I’m in the world of thought like a school of fish. I’m there in the ocean, sitting and looking, and a school of fish goes by, right in front of me. Well, look at thoughts as people. You are aware of other people, but you are not other people. You are just aware of other people. So, when you see someone you do not like, you don’t have to do anything about it. Let him be. It’s the same with thoughts. When a thought comes passing by that you don’t like, let it go. You don’t have to glue yourself onto it and psychoanalyze it; it doesn’t do the thought any good to be psychoanalyzed by you!“
