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March 15, 2010
Hinduism Today's
15-festival issue
is released
This is it!—our
April-May-June 2010
issue that brings you all the information you'll probably ever need about our magical Hindu festivals. And it brings a fourth in our series of Hindu history lessons—another important breakthrough for presenting Hinduism fairly and accurately to school children.
15 articles
for 15 festivals!
—in one issue!
In response to a great need, our editors spent over two years gathering information, conceiving and beautifully designing this 15-part, 36-page super-article. It covers 15 of Hinduism's major festivals, of all parts of India and all denominations.
The result is illuminating, inspiring and is, in effect, a window onto the heart and spirit of Hinduism. You will want to share it all with your family, friends and yes—even the media.
Each article was formatted so as to be easily used by newspapers and magazines. PDFs of any and all of the articles may be downloaded without charge (note list beneath photo). These are ready to print, newspaper-sized posters, as in the photo. You are encouraged to approach local religion editors and offer these to them, preferably a few weeks before a given festival. They will be most receptive and you will have done much to promote understanding. Within a few days, you will also be able to download the same articles in a 2-page format appropriate for magazines—same URL as above.
Our fourth Hindu history lesson covers 1850 to 1947, a time of ruthless British domination and economic exploitation—and a time when Indians developed a national consciousness that blossomed into independence.
Here is your accurate and unbiased alternative to the aberrant, often degrading, material offered in school textbooks. Have the children read these lessons. Distribute them at your temple, send boxes to your contacts abroad. Have the schools in your locality use them in the classroom. This is a most noble cause.
Order
Lesson 4
and previously published
Lessons 1, 2 and 3, singly or in bulk.
Copies / subscriptions
•
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single, bulk or back copies of Hinduism Today
•
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to the print edition
•
Download
the PDF edition of this issue—FREE
MiniMela: a store like no other
It's an information center. It's a welcome center. It's a place to chat, to relax and enjoy a cup of coffee. It's our Himalayan Academy bookstore--a Hindu bookstore, metaphysical bookstore, a gift shop. It's a place where you may perchance meet the satguru, or the editor of Hinduism Today and, always, our congenial volunteer staff—seasoned spiritual adepts who love to make your day.
It is our brand-new MiniMela building which opened last September, after 7 years of intense planning, visualizing, research, intricate construction and lots of perseverance. The result is a most welcoming, comfortable and functional place. It is brightly lit, air conditioned and super-green, solar energy supplying all its needs and that of other monastery buildings.
The MiniMela's array of attractive items includes our premier item, Gurudeva's Trilogy (see below), a complete collection of Himalayan Academy books, booklets and posters, prints by artist S. Rajam, puja items, deity statues, crystals, gift/souvenir items and yes, even flowers you can pick for our 9 am puja. We have a wide selection of rudrakshas, from single beads on a string to intricate malas with silver, gold and semi-precious stones. Some of the beads are gathered from the monastery's own rudraksha forest, which you may visit any time of the day (the MiniMela is open each day, 9 am-noon.)
The MiniMela is duplicated digitally (except for the coffee) at MiniMela.com—nearly all the items in the one being in the other. Revenues from sales go strictly back into reprinting Himalayan Academy's books or publishing new ones. We publish 1, 2 or 3 new books per year, and our latest release is described in the following article.
Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions.
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's (Gurudeva's) lifetime of remarkable accomplishments derived from constant communion with his own superconscious faculties and with our great devas and Gods. His whole life, day and night, he lived in those rarified realms, receiving insights, instructions, guidance and occasionally a vision of a God.
In his writings, the satguru touched but briefly on this aspect of his life, preferring that his readers and students focus on the more urgent task at hand: to grow themselves in character, improve their karma and thus make their way up the path. But he did share some of his experiences, especially with his monastic disciples.
In
Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions, successor Bodhinatha shares 15 great inner moments of his master's life—such as happened in 1968, when he brought forth from within himself a new mystical language—Shum—that has been an invaluable tool of self-discovery and understanding for his disciples ever since. Read about a
Shum class
currently happening, below. It is a jewel of a book, exquisitely written, designed and illustrated with vintage early photos of Gurudeva, S. Rajam's delicate watercolors and esoteric motifs by Gurudeva himself.
95 pages • order from our
MiniMela.
Bodhinatha: coming travels & satsang
•
March 19 to 26,
North India—Rishikesh, Haridwar, Delhi
•
March 27 to April 4,
South India
•
May 29 to June 6,
Malaysia
•
June 7,
Singapore
•
August 14-15,
Maryland, USA
•
August 18-22,
Trinidad, Guyana
•
November 12-27,
India, Singapore, Malaysia
On November 20-21, Bodhinatha and Paramacharya Palaniswami will be guests of honor at Golok Dham, in Delhi, the ashram of Swami Gopal Charan Devacharya and will officially remit Swami the Hindu of the Year 2009 award. At a later time, they will visit the Iraivan temple worksite near Bangalore.
• Stay up to date with Bodhinatha's travel plans,
here.
• More about Bodhinatha
here.
• Formal invitations for him to visit your area are
received here.
everything!
Easan Katir has never been the same since. When he was 19, he met Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami (Gurudeva) who introduced him to the Shum language. That did it. Easan's been an unapologetic Shum meditator ever since. Gurudeva brought Shum from his inner mind in 1968, describing it as the “language of meditation.” He continued to develop it until his passing in 2001 (see Gurudeva's Spiritual Visions, above). Shum's structure and vocabulary are inner rather than external, or meditative rather than ordinary. It was given out only to close devotees until successor Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami released the book, Twelve Shum Meditations in 2006.
Inspired, Easan began teaching from the book to a small band of bright souls in Davis and Silicon Valley, California. The course was originally set to last 12 weeks, but the students asked for an extension, then another, and another... and today, it is still going—with enthusiasm higher than ever. The students especially appreciate Shum's lofty point of view (named the Shum perspective) from where life and being are seen entirely differently. "Shum is a way to dive into your magnificient self," Gurudeva would summarize.
Twelve Shum Meditations r contains 12 key Shum meditations that the guru crafted to describe and map the principal areas of the mind (i.e. consciousness, i.e. existence) that the meditator strives to experience. The book requires no prior knowledge. All definitions, explanations and instructions are included • 99 pages • spiral bound • abundant color • order from our MiniMela.
for that of your family,
own the collected teachings of
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
The Trilogy is a 3000-page compilation of Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami's teachings preserved over his lifetime—from the deepest mystical truths to practical advice for daily living.
•
Dancing with Siva, Volume 1, is a thorough overview of Hinduism's most basic teachings.
•
Living with Siva, Volume 2, is Gurudeva's guide to how to live—inwardly as well as outwardly to create a fulfilling future.
•
Merging with Siva, Volume 3. Emphasis is on Hindu metaphysics: the inner bodies of man, the evolution of the soul, meditation, God-Realization and much more.
The three books may be ordered separately. But the three books together come with a substantial discount plus FREE SHIPPING.
The Trilogy is also available, in slightly abridged form, as pocket books. Keep the full set in your shrine or meditation room, and take the pocket books along when you go.
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- See our February '10 newsletter here.
- See our December '09 newsletter here.
- See our September '09 newsletter here.
- See our June '09 newsletter here.
More resources at minimela.com
Or call 1-877-255-1510
Himalayan Academy
Kauai’s Hindu Monastery | 107 Kaholalele Rd
Kapaa, Hawaii 96746-9304 USA