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Sorry that I have not written earlier but I wanted you to have a little breathing space for the experiences of the past few months before I would interject my thoughts upon the monastery. I felt at first sadness but then joy at hearing the news about Gurudeva. How can I feel sad when a Human Being achieves his full potential and achieves the greatest thing possible — mergence with the Absolute? I always respected Gurudeva for being forthright, concise, logical, and absolute with his answers regarding anything.

Whenever I was around Him, I felt this energy. The best way I could describe it was the feeling of walking on the edge of a sword. I was always a little nervous around Him, not because I was nervous but because I was afraid of totally losing control of myself around Him. The moment was and still is always so intense and Now around Him. I remember at the book signing in Memphis we all were taking pictures with Gurudeva. I was standing right next to him. The energy was so intense, like being next to the Sun. And I remember thinking to not touch Gurudeva since some Gurus did not like being touched without permission. At that exact moment , He leaned into me and put His arm around me. I still remember Him smiling at me and I promise that I could hear Him laughing gently in my head.

As I am writing this, emotions of love and happiness flow over me. I could not in writing express everything Gurudeva has done for me. I just feel so blessed to have met Satguru and many of His monks. Love and best wishes to Bodhinatha, and all the other great souls at the monastery.

Love always,

Jai Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami ki Jai!

Paramacharya Palaniswami explains: “these are the illustrations created by S. Rajam in Chennai for Dancing with Siva, for the 2 by 3 inch rectangles on the left hand facing title pages. They are being colorized in Malaysia by Sarkunavathy Sockanathan. So, an example of international collaboration, of traditional black and white art from India and Photoshop expertise from Malaysia. ….Aum Namasivaya! “

This small piece will fall on page 208 of Dancing with Siva…. preceeding a chapter on marriage:

” The two purposes of marriage are: the mutual support, both spiritual and material, of man and wife; and bringing children into the world. Marriage is a religious sacrament, a human contract and a civil institution. Aum”

The Remarkable Vision

Iraivan Temple Progress Update

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Here is a picture from Bangalore showing one of the “Pothigai” stones… these are fabulously lovely pieces that will be on the ceiling at the top of some pillars. Please help, sponsor a stone today!

Study Gurudeva’s teachings. Visit the Master Course site!

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Date: December_05_2001
Title: Deeper Perspectives and Monastic’s Realization of the Self
Category: Change and Transformation
Duration: 7 min., 39 seconds
Date Given: November 24, 2001
Given by: Bodhinatha

Deeper perspectives are also given in ‘Merging with Siva’ as to ‘who am I’. The ultimate perspective of course, is being the transcendent aspect of God or Parasiva, the Self, the Absolute. The advantage of that perspective is shown in Gurudeva’s statement, as to how you look at everything that is not the Self. In ‘The Self God’, he says, “The mind is form, ever-creating form, preserving form, destroying form. That is the mind, the illusion, the great unreality.” Right?

So, if you are actually holding that perspective because of having realized the Self, then you are not only able to accept everything that comes to you as karma, but you are detached enough from the world to realize that whatever happens in the world is a result of what has been set in motion in the past. The present is what was set in motion in the past. Likewise, the future is influenced by what is set in motion in the present. It just keeps going along that way, going and going and going, like an old car bouncing along a road with pukas in it. It is kind-of a bouncy road, going along, ups and downs and it is just what it is. You know, joys and sorrows, this and that. You cannot fix it. You just have to kind of detach yourself from it because if you are totally attached to it, it is very frustrating. Stock market goes up today, crashes next month. You get a big bonus this month, next year we lose our job. Up and down, up and down, like a car.

There is a song, I am thinking of Larry Rivera’s song, called ‘The puka, puka road’. You get this feeling you are driving along and bounce, bounce, bounce. The County was not fixing the roads so he wrote a song about it, trying to motivate them to fix the roads because they were so bouncy.

That can be life if you are totally attached to it, if you are clinging to it. It has that feeling of up and down, up and down, joy and sorrow. Boy, what a ride! But, the more you can detach yourself from it, the more stable you are. You don’t want to detach yourself too much, you will end up in the monastery. Just enough, so you are not clinging to it. What happens in the external world is not your total source of joy and happiness, because on some days everything goes wrong and you just can’t prevent it. Why? Because, events done in the past are influencing the present.

So the perspective of Parasiva, the Self, typically for the monks, is an excellent perspective to hold. We are that which transcends the whole mechanism. The mechanism being anava, karma and maya, an individual acting in form, experiencing the reaction to his or her actions. Anava, karma, maya – that is all it is. It is a wonderful statement about monastic life in, ‘Living with Siva’, Gurudeva’s latest book and first one in full color. It is very interesting that Gurudeva chose to put it here because it comes from a writing called ‘The Saivite Sastras’, which normally we don’t put in our public books. It is something we read and don’t even print it. We just read it to visitors to the monastery, usually. But He felt this was so central, He put it in the book so everyone would read it. It explains the Monastery in terms of its connection to the Inner Worlds, in our tradition. It answers the question, “What hooks the Monastery up to the Inner Worlds?” It also answers the question, “What would cause the Monastery to loose its hook-up to the Inner Worlds?” Very important questions, answered here.

“A legacy of devas from the entire Parampara accompanies our Monastic Order, providing silent, unseen, inner guidance and protection for old and young alike, as long as at least one person within the entire group of mathavasis is going into and coming out of Parasiva once a day. The doorway to the Third World remains open to the hereditary entourage of Devonic forces that has been building up for over two thousand years. This is because the Brahmarandra, the door of Brahman at the top of the head remains open when Parasiva is daily experienced within a Mathavasi community. It could be within the oldest monk or within the youngest. This great realization occurring time and time again, within someone, day after day, keeps the door of Brahm open for the entire prana chakravala of monastics, keeping vibrantly strong, the inner actinic connection with all Gurus of our Parampara as well as with other Sadhus, Rishis and Saints who have reached these same attainments and with the Sapta Rishis themselves who guide our order from deep within the Inner Lokas.”

Isn’t that beautiful? It just states it so clearly and it is wonderful having it in the book, so everyone will remember it, read it and understand how it works.

I was thinking, the ‘Door of Brahm’ open is like a hole in the head being open to the Inner Worlds. So, it is a new definition for a ‘holy man’. A holy man is one who goes through the hole at the top of the head. Holy man. God.
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MORE UPLIFTING THINGS		Innersearch postponed Due to the horrific tragedies of September 11th, Himalayan Academy has indefinitely postponed the Canadian Innersearch scheduled to leave next July. Please be assured, we will re-schedule the Innersearch, but only when the present insecurity around the world settles down. Until then, if you are planning to go on a future Innersearch program, continue to set aside a little income each month in a special fund. www.innersearch.org
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