Easan Katir, a Saiva Siddhanta Church senior sishya, has been teaching the Shum language for decades, mostly recently through video conferences. He includes conversational Shum in the seminars. With the help of AI and a student devotee, Akash Katir, he has now created a website with primer lessons for learning conversational Shum. The first three lessons are complete and available here.
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.
“Everyone has some feelings radiating from within, but they are emanations that fluctuate. Because you feel these vibrations coming from them, you can intuit how they are feeling. They do not emanate a constant or a building flow. It is a fluctuating flow of emotional, or astral, energy. The darshan I am explaining is really the energies flowing from the deeper chakras, sahasrāra and ājñā, the seventh and sixth chakras, or psychic force centers, in the head, through the kuṇḍalinī force within the spine. These energy flows do not fluctuate as the emotional odic-force energies do. They go on day and night and night and day through the illumined soul. Those devotees who are in tune with the guru can feel his physical presence when he enters their town because the darshan gets stronger. And it feels to them more ethereal when he is farther away.“
On day three we visited the nursery of Nadesh Krishnan who helps the Spiritual Park garden team in many ways (in blue shirt).
We visited his Murugan temple briefly. He is erecting a Murugan murti in the style of the 140′ tall Batu Caves statue, but three centimeters taller!
A morning with shishyas and students in the newly named Muruga Mandapam.
Swami takes all present through a guided meditation.
After a gathering with all of the sevaks (there are some 50 in all), lunch is served.
An amazing group of Sivathondars who guide the events and projects at the Spiritual Park, some for 40 years
Sadasivanathaswami and Tillainathaswami are in Mauritius the last few days as you saw earlier, spending more time than usual with members, both in groups and individually. As scripture says, nothing brings greater joy to a Sivabhaktar than being with other Sivabhaktars, and the devotees here are amazing. Amazing in their dedication, amazing in their service to others, amazing in their exemplary sadhanas and more than amazing in their rarified presence, a purity derived from decades of putting Gurudeva’s teachings into practice. They have done the work, and it shows. The last photo in the gallery captures the September 30 meeting of the kulapatis. Standing are the senior ones and seated are the newly installed younger leaders. The leadership has thus strengthened significantly, assuring the dynamic growth of the Spiritual Park continues long into the future.
In one of the talks, Paramacharya gave a Gurudeva quote that is worth repeating here: “The Natha Sampradaya has revealed the search for the innermost divine Self, balanced by temple worship, fueled by kundalini yoga, charted by monistic theism, illumined by a potent guru-shishya system, guided by soul-stirring scriptures and awakened by sadhana and tapas.”
A group photo at the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon
Exploring the lotus and lily pond at Kew Gardens
The glass structure is the palm green house, which is well over 100 years old. They will soon rebuild it in the same style.
Inside reminds us of Kauai. Our tour guide talks palms with Paramacharya
Outside are many varieties of happy roses
some amazing trees here as well
Off to the cacti and succulent greenhouse
there’s even a baobab tree in the middle
easy to miss all the amazing little life forms
Satsang at the Santhirapala home
The following day’s visit to the British Museum’s special India exhibit
An explanation from one of the exhibit’s creators
The next day’s visit to the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon
Some expertly sung natchintanai from the temple’s oduvar
London was the next stop for Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami and Sannyasin Tillainathaswami on their way to Mauritius. They had a wonderful time there, hosted by members and enjoying a few of London’s unique experiences. On their first full day there, they went on an outing to Kew Gardens, exploring the many plants. They got some good ideas for small additions and improvements to our sacred gardens around Iraivan Temple on Kauai. In the evening was a satsang at the Santhirapala home. After natchintanai singing from members, Paramacharya gave an inspiring presentation on managing one’s karma and on the mystical insights of Tayumanivar, while presenting some of the Tayumanivar songs that we’ve had recorded for our website.
The following day, members brought our monks into central London to enjoy a special exhibit at the British museum, featuring artwork, architecture and ancient murtis from all across the Indian subcontinent. One of the exhibits creators kindly gave a special introduction to our monks, explaining a bit about the informative experience they were trying to achieve. On the final day in London, our monks visited the Shree Ghanapathy Temple in Wimbledon. They enjoyed brief worship followed by a satsang at the temple’s Yogaswami shrine. The group included several staunch Yogaswami devotees, most of whom had met the Lion of Lanka when they were young. Aum.
A few days ago, the same roofing team that worked on Kadavul Temple completed the roofing for the side shrines of Lord Ganesha and Lord Muruga. Both roofs were previously in poor condition, but they now look significantly improved—cleaner, neater, and much more presentable. Aum.
Our swamis enjoying some artwork (a Van Gogh to be precise) in New York
Manhattan skyline as seen from our plane
Walking trough the Indian section with the Tanzi family
Jai!
Sekhmet, the Egyptian Durga, as far as we can tell
We noticed these conches, as we’re currently editing an article about conch carving in Hinduism Today
Must be a Chinese Muruga right?
Off into the forests the next day for a walk
fairy houses everywhere
Aum Namah Sivaya
Our traveling monks have been making several stops along the way to Mauritius. After they left the Bay Area, they spent a few nights on the East Coast and took a quick journey over to Manhattan to enjoy some of the classic New York experience. The Tanzi family met them at the MET, and everyone enjoyed exploring the towering marbled halls of this world-renowned museum. Apart from the 3000 year old Greek statues, Egyptian sarcophagi and some of the world’s most famous paintings (including a few of Monet’s water lilies!), there was a wonderful display of ancient Indian murtis in both metal and stone. Some of them still had some notable shakti to them, especially Ganesha.
The next day, while waiting for their evening flight to the UK, our monks went to a nearby trail outside of the Newark area to get some much-appreciated time in nature. The trail is known as the Fairy Trail, and features countless little fairy houses to be discovered around every turn. It seems to be a place that families love to bring their young children, as well as a place artists enjoy. There must have been about 20 painters around the trail, each settled down to canvas a different fairy abode. Aum.
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