A moonbow lights the sky above Iraivan Temple during our recent full moon
We’ve been getting lots of rain these last few days. Here, the setting sun shines through the millions of droplets
A good time for this swan neck agave to conclude its life with its one and only flower bloom
The rain also spurs forth the mushroom. These ones are blooming with a massive cluster
It gets to full size and only lasts a few days
Passion Fruit flowers are some of our favorite. Amazingly complex structures and an indescribable aroma
A scary sight for some! This mother centipede is about 7-8 inches and is coiled around her recently hatched keiki
This species of mushroom can be found all over. Easy to spot in the dark of night.
Our fresh mulch always has a few larger ones
Nimu doesn’t like the thunderous rain very much. He has to sing much louder whenever it pours
Some of our local ringneck parakeets enjoy the fruiting palms
“Everything should be an offering to God. The world is an altar.” – Yogaswami
Aum Namah Shivaya
Today marks the 4th day of our Monastics’ short lunar phase. Meaning the next two days will be our retreat days (like a weekend). As a gentle end to our week of seva, we offer you these photos from around the Aadheenam—appreciating the natural world we enjoy here. From the moon in the night sky above Iraivan Temple, to the plants and mushrooms erupting from the earth beneath us. It’s all a sacred sight to behold. Aum.
A few days ago, Satguru and Yoginathaswami visited the San Ramon Ganesha Temple to attend its Kumbhabhishekam ceremony. The temple was beautifully built under the guidance of Viswanathan Gurukkal. Aum!
Under a sacred tree, Tayumanavar speaks to the Vedantins on his right and the Saivites on his left. Around him, villagers listen as the saint reveals the unity at the heart of both faiths: the eternal Siva within.
Tayumanavar welcomed seekers from every path, embracing the many lineages of India—not only Hindu traditions, but also Jains, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others. His vision of samarasam, or harmony, called for unity beyond sectarian boundaries, affirming the shared quest for truth that underlies all faiths.
In the mystic, devotional songs to Siva, Saint Tayumanavar (1705–1742) beseeched humanity to see the one Divinity within all paths and philosophies. He sought to reconcile the religious conflicts of his day in South India—the Buddhists colliding with the Jains, the Vaishnavites quarreling with the Saivites—not unlike what we see in other parts of the world today. He had a Tamil word for it: samarasam. Samarasam literally means “same taste.” It denotes the harmony of doctrines, the inclusivity of religions, the bliss in which all dualities dissolve. It is, in essence, the high state of awareness that sees the One Divine equally in all beings. It reminds us that the thousand names of God are but echoes of one eternal Silence.
That call for religious harmony and reconciliation is a hallmark of Gurudeva’s teachings,and reaches back to Yogaswami before him. Saint Tayumanavar was deeply connected to our lineage, and sang that he followed the teachings of Tirumular, the second satguru on the Nandinatha Sampradaya.
Tayumanavar sings from within this current. His hymns revere both Vedas and Agamas, the saints and siddhars, and above all the living Guru who embodies their essence. He sees Saivism not as one creed among others but as the meeting point where outer differences are reconciled. For him mauna (silence) is not emptiness but the serene absorption that follows perfect understanding; and samarasam (harmony) is not compromise but the state in which Vedanta’s insight and Siddhanta’s devotion fuse as one path. His language of longing—sivanubhūti, anbu, jñāna, mauna—marks a heart that has passed beyond theology into direct awareness.
Today we share a sampling of his songs and art from the book we are soon to publish.
Songs for Siva
Who was it that gave this egoity so much authority? Does this maya even exist outside of my thought? Will “sky flower’’ and “mirage water’’ ever have a practical use? Even my instructed state is thrown into confusion unless I receive Your grace to seek refuge in You. It performs a conjuring trick in my mind, establishing the illusory world as permanent. When shall I receive the secret of conquering this? Please tell me, O Jnanaguru Who expounds in Your grace the six established faiths and the philosophical unity of Vedanta and Siddhanta for all the worlds in cardinal directions to know. O Mantra Guru! O Yoga Tantra Guru! Mauna Guru who comes in the line of Tirumular!
Holding as real this body that is evanescent, like a flash of lightning, holding as real the pleasures of flashy women who intoxicate the senses with their collyrium-painted eyes, holding as heaven the stately mansion and mounting riches, holding gold as an imperishable treasure that waxes high, putting on false appearances to an excessive degree, abandoning to the winds the virtues of patience, wisdom, renunciation and charity, to be possessed of greed, miserliness and other demons, to walk about here below caught in the faith of the materialist—with a single word, in compassion, You kept me from all these that I might receive the grace of the great Vedanta-Siddhanta accord and enjoy the life eternal. O You Jnana Guru! O Mantra Guru! O Yoga Tantra Guru! Mauna Guru who comes in the line of Tirumular!
Mayilnathaswami performs the blessing to our new vehicles
Jai Ganesha!
As some may know, care for the Aadheenam’s vast acreage is greatly assisted by our small fleet of mostly electric utility vehicles. These little machines are used for everything from gardening and hauling tools to showing around special guests and providing simple, quick transport from A to B. These vehicles are in constant use, and at times we don’t have enough available for all the countless projects taking place. Thankfully, we recently acquired two new additions. The smaller blue one is in great condition and was offered to the monastery at a very low price, while the larger one was a gift. It had stopped working, and its owner said we could have it. Our monks quickly fixed a tiny problem and had it running again like new.
Before any vehicle or large piece of equipment enters service, our monks perform a traditional blessing for it. Last week, the monks of the Siddhidatta Kulam gathered at the large Ganesha outside their office and blessed the vehicles for a long, safe, and productive life of service.
Namaste and welcome to our various websites and mobile apps, through which we endeavor to provide accurate, useful and contemporary information on Hinduism.
Thanks to Digital Dharma Drive donations, the monks continued their steady push to create additional AI recordings in Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s voice of his writings that he did not himself record. This is especially appreciated by individuals who regularly listen to audio files, such as when traveling to work. We have a new presence on Instagram, where snippets from Path to Siva and Gurudeva’s Spiritual Toolbox appear each week thanks to development and publishing tools that have been acquired. AI has been adopted by many of the monks who now use it to aid in communications, publications, web development, image creation, troubleshooting, computer learning and research tasks. Donations also cover the professional fees needed to continue to upgrade and expand our digital offerings. Our most exciting news is the completion, after 13 years of work, of our own translation and commentary of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. And it’s illustrated!
The material on our websites and mobile apps continues to be available for free. Our Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, insisted that all of his books as well as our other publications be available in digital formats without charging readers to access this material. For example, all issues of our magazine, Hinduism Today, are available online without cost.
We do, however, follow the model of Wikipedia of asking for donations during the last two months of the year. For fifteen years running, you have responded generously to our Digital Dharma Drive, and after another year of dynamic digital progress, we are back again with our 2025 appeal.
In our “How the Funds Are Used” page, https://ddd.himalayanacademy.com/how-the-funds-are-used/ we detail what we did with your past generosity, and what we hope to accomplish in the coming year. Digital Dharma Drive funds do not pay staff salaries or administrative overhead, since our sites are created and maintained by selfless monks who happily work for free and live simply in our remote monastery on the island of Kauai. This allows us to accomplish major projects with relatively small cost.
Ten percent of your tax-deductible contribution goes into the permanent Digital Dharma Drive Endowment, which now stands at $319,764 after fourteen years of fundraising. This follows Gurudeva’s vision that ultimately, in the future, all major aspects of our work will be supported by endowments. As the endowment accumulates, it will provide an ever-increasing income for decades to come, protecting the digital future of Hinduism, your religious heritage.
We urge you to donate today, and empower us to improve Hinduism’s global English-language resources—for the benefit of this and future generations. Our plans, projects and publications can be made manifest with your help.
Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami Guru Mahasannidhanam of Kauai Aadheenam Publisher of Hinduism Today
