After coming down the concrete road between the huge palm trees before Rishi Valley, on the right side there is a side dirt path for accessing fruit trees, landscape maintenance and connecting to other roads. A stream runs right through this area next to a huge breadfruit tree. For a while the stream ran under the path naturally. It was damp, but we could usually drive over it without getting stuck. Over time the path became more water-logged and finally unusable. One of our employees just installed a culvert to properly channel the water at a certain depth, seen in the photos above. There is some more work to be done for solid stability.
At Satguru’s behest, two web pages have seen upgrades over the last few months. On the new “Shum Language of Meditation” page, we present the seven dimensions, the full alphabet and a overview of how words are formed, calligraphy, proportions of images and rules for connecting images. The slideshow above displays the short word kasi and then expands to finally become iinsimliamkasi. Subsequent slides show all the rules for connecting images when writing the full version of letters.
On the “Twelve Shum Meditations – Level One” page we have the original collection of meditations for each month of the year plus related reading material or additional Shum words selected by Satguru to round out the meditation. This page has existed for a while but needed cleaning up and added the shum script for each meditation collection.
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.
“Man is like an egg. He lives and moves within the shell of his own concepts; and within a certain area of the mind that is comfortable to him he finds security. Within this area of the mind there are certain strata of thought flow with which he becomes familiar, emotional stresses that he has adjusted to as he matured. Within the eggshell he finds the pressures of his maturing pressing upon the boundaries of his accustomed area of mind and emotion. One day the shell breaks, and man steps out in all his glory. “
Another area of land that was getting overtaken by trees and brush is a mini-isthmus with a pond on either side, at the north end of the Path of the Satgurus, behind the statue of Chellappaswami.
An employee is gradually clearing the brush from the area, so visitors can once again view the banyan tree charmingly sending roots down into the pond, the large Australian Tree Ferns on the isthmus and a small waterfall exiting a culvert underneath, while listening to bird chirps and the gurgle of moving water. One of many pristine pilgrim-accessible areas of our grounds.
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.
“Being on the path is a marvelous thing, but it is a path. There are jungles on either side, and if we wander off into the jungle, taking too many liberties, continuity of the vibration of our unfoldment will begin to wane. Suppose you are meditating regularly in the morning and at night, day after day. Perhaps they’re not long meditations, but they are regular. You are generating a certain vibration out of it. If you then stop that routine and take your awareness into feeling sorry for yourself or mentally arguing with a friend, you lose the subtle thread of superconsciousness. You’re going through an old, old pattern and it will be difficult to get back into the vibration of meditation. Your dreams at night may become nightmares. Your circle of friends may change. This is called, in a sense, spinning out into a different area of the mind. If you have not yet experienced this yet, it’s not a recommended experience on the path. And if you have experienced it, you know what I am talking about, and you know the importance of protecting yourself and your meditations. Psychic protection, to sensitive people, is extremely important. It involves every detail of life—your home, friends, clothes, diet, even your dreams. You should live in places that are clean, very clean. Paint your place. Assure yourself that the inner atmosphere is clean and unpolluted. “
