Murugan Temple in Cincinnati, USA

July 9, 2004

Appane Muruga!

Vanakkam!

I am writing this e-mail to express our sincere thanks for the

overwhelming support of our devotees during the three days of

Murugan

Kumbhabhisekam, Cincinnati, OH, USA.

Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (Hawai)- Cincinnati First Talk

Introduction:

My Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, had the gift of bringing down

to earth in a very practical way the guidelines for becoming a

more spiritual person. It is easy to talk high philosophy in

Hinduism. " Man is God. We are divine,” and so forth. It is easy

to say profound things such as “You are a being that has

unlimited power within you.” To bring spiritual teachings down

to the level where we really are a more spiritual person this

year than we were a year ago - that is the challenge and what we

will explore this evening.

The ability to do exactly that is part of Gurudeva's genius. He

gives us these very pragmatic guidelines along with the high

philosophy and in the process keeps us feeling good about

ourselves. We don't take the approach that we have all these

weaknesses and therefore man is weak and sinful. That is not the

point. Man is a divine being, meaning man is the soul or

spiritual being. But we also have these other qualities that

come along with being a person. We have instincts. We have an

intellect. We have an ego and we need to get them all under

control so that our soul, our spiritual nature, dominates over

all. As Gurudeva says, “Peace is control, and control is

freedom.”

The attitudes involved in striving to make progress on the Hindu

spiritual path and the attitudes involved in studying dance and

are indeed the same. Our first topic this evening focuses on

four similarities between the two.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Our first comparison of the spiritual path to the study of dance

is the attitude toward strengths and weaknesses. Does a young

woman become a better dancer by focusing on the movements she

does well? Of course, she does not. She has to focus on the

movements that she does not do well and strive to improve them.

Said another way, she becomes a better dancer not by focusing on

her strengthens but rather by focusing on her weaknesses.

Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take the example of a man

who has wonderful devotion but has trouble being consistent in

performing his daily disciplines. Clearly there is a need to use

more willpower and create a new habit of being consistent every

day

Continue to Improve

A second comparison is the attitude toward improvement. A good

dancer has the attitude that she can always perform a dance

better than she has ever done it before. She feels there is

always room for improvement and that her movements can always be

even further refined.

Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take as our example the

principle of ahimsa, nonviolence in thought, word and deed. It

is indeed a central principle of Hinduism. Of course, most of us

do not indulgence in physical violence. Therefore, we may

conclude that ahimsa presents no challenge to us.

However, let’s look more closely at the definition of ahimsa

which is not harming others by thought, word or deed. This

points out that even though we are not harming others with our

actions, we can take the attitude of striving to improve our

behavior even more by carefully watching our speech and avoiding

harming others through our words. The common forms of verbal

violence are joking, teasing, gossiping and backbiting, and

every reduction we make in harming others less through our words

produces spiritual progress.

Good Conduct

The first category of spiritual practices is good conduct. Good

conduct is the foundation of all other practices in Hinduism. It

is also called developing good character. Good conduct begins

with overcoming basic instinctive patterns such as the

tendencies to become angry and hurtful. A helpful list of these

tendencies is contained in the ten classical restraints called

yamas, which are: noninjury, truthfulness, nonstealing, divine

conduct, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty, moderate

appetite and purity.

This naturally leads into a second set of practices which are

called the niyamas and are of the nature of religious

observances: remorse, contentment, giving, faith, worship of the

Lord, scriptural listening, cognition, sacred vows, recitation

and austerity. Good conduct also includes performing one's duty

to family and community, honoring holy men, respecting elders

and atoning for misdeeds.

Service

The second category of spiritual practices is service. Service

is also called karma yoga or seva and refers to religious

service given without the least thought of reward, which has the

magical effect of softening the ego and bringing forth the

soul's innate devotion. An example of service is performing

simple chores at the temple such as sweeping the floors or

polishing the brass. Another example is holding religious

feedings at a temple once a month.

Devotion

The third category of spiritual practices is devotion. Devotion

is also called bhakti yoga and centers around regularly

worshipping the Deity at the temple and inwardly striving to

awaken a profound love of God in our hearts, soften our

intellect and develop a deep sense of humility. It includes

devotional singing, pilgrimage and even performing our own puja

in the home shrine room.

Meditation

The fourth category of spiritual practices is meditation.

Meditation is also called raja yoga or ashtanga yoga as it

consists of eight limbs. Meditation begins with asana--sitting

quietly in yogic posture--and pranayama, breath control.

Pratyahara, sense withdrawal, brings awareness into dharana,

concentration, then into dhyana, meditation. Dhyana finally

leads to samadhi, God Realization. Jnana Yoga is also a type of

meditation that involves philosophical study and discrimination

between the Real and the unreal.

Personally Experiencing God

Our second topic for today is the subject of personally

experiencing God and begins with a story. As publisher of our

magazine Hinduism Today, I provide a two-page opinion piece

entitled publisher’s desk for each issue. In a recent publishers

desk, I wrote on the topic “I Want to See God! Some pertinent

suggestions to sincere seekers on where and how to look for

Divinity.” The reason I chose this topic was to emphasize that

one of the greatnesses of Hinduism is that it is experientially

oriented rather than belief oriented. In other words, the goal

is not to simply believe in God but rather to eventually

experience God. In some religions the ultimate experience the

religion offers is having a strong belief in the existence of

God. In Hinduism, however, believing in God is only a first step

toward an ever deepening personal experience of God’s presence.

The idea for this article came from a visit to the home of a

Hindu family of doctors in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. The

son who had been raised in the US asked the question aren’t all

religions pretty much the same? Does it really make a difference

which religion you practice? I answered the question in a simple

way at the time but keep thinking about it afterwards and

finally developed an analogy that goes like this.

Aren’t all medical clinics pretty much the same? Only if you

have a simple illness. If you have a complex problem and need

the more sophisticated medical equipment and specialists, then

they are definitely not. For example, someone is suffering from

chest pains and goes to his family doctor who lives nearby. The

doctor is not sure what the problem is and suggests he goes to

the hospital to have certain tests taken. He does so and the

hospital after taking the tests is still not sure of the problem

and refers him to a cardiologist living in a large city nearby

for even more tests. Clearly all medical clincs are not the

same. Religion is similar to this. If all you want is to live a

virtuous life, religions are all very similar at that basic

level of practice. But if you have an interest in personally

experiencing God, then only a few religions have within them the

practices that lead to that experience.

A good example of this fact has been occurring in Catholic

monasteries for decades. Some of the monks in these monasteries

have the desire to personally experience God. What do they do to

pursue this? They turn to Hindu scriptures such as Patanjali’s

Yoga Aphorisms to provide them proper guidelines for deep

meditation as there are no teachings regarding this in

Christianity.

Returning to the Publisher’s Desk I wrote, it begins with the

classic story of how Swami Vivekananda when he was still a

college student in Calcutta went around to the religious leaders

in the Calcutta area and asked them all if they had seen God.

None of them gave a satisfactory answer to him until he met Sri

Ramakrishna. The answer that Sri Ramakrishna gave was “Yes, I

see Him as clearly as one sees an apple in the palm of the hand;

nay even more intently. And not only this, you can also see

Him.” This answer deeply impressed the young Vivekananda who

soon after accepted Sri Ramakrishna as his guru.

Though many individuals are inspired by the thought of seeing

God, it seems very distant and unattainable. This is because we

think of jumping somehow from a 0% consciousness of God’s

presence to 100% awareness of God’s presence. This is where our

concept of enlightenment may be a barrier, that enlightenment is

an instantaneous event, coming out of nowhere, totally

transforming us like a flash of lightening. It is more helpful

to think of enlightenment as a gradual process which involves

increasing our control over our instinctive nature, controlling

our thoughts better and experiencing more and more of our innate

divinity.

To experience God, do we sit on a mountaintop, go into a cave or

simply close our eyes? Where do we go to see God? Perhaps the

easiest place to start is to see God in great religious

teachers. We feel a spiritual aura about them that is different.

We see a light in their eyes we do not see in others. The mere

sound of their words encourages us to live a more spiritual

life.

Another way to see God, which is a little more difficult, but

still easy to do, is too look deeply into the eyes of another

person. Look beyond the individual’s personality, go deeper than

his or her intellect and see the individual’s pure life energy

as God. The great saying or Mahavakya that describes this

approach to experiencing the Divine is “God is the Life of our

life,” or in the tamil language “uyirkuyir.” This practice does

not stop just with people but should also include trying to see

the life energy in trees, birds and animals. This is because God

is our life. God is the life in all people. God is the life in

the trees, in the birds and in the animals. Becoming aware of

this Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God's

presence within us. There is a beautiful verse from the

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which elucidates this concept. “He who

knows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear of

the ear, the Mind of the mind - he indeed comprehends fully the

Cause of all causes.” In Hindu culture we have an opportunity

everytime we greet another person through the traditional

gesture of namaskara to practice looking deeply enough into the

eyes of the other person to see God within them as the life of

their life. This is fulfilling the deepest meaning of namaskara

which is “I greet the God in you.”

Having traditional Hindu temples in our community provides us

with one of the most important ways to see God, through the

Deity’s image in the temple. This is the devotional or theistic

approach. The Hindu temple is not simply a place we go to listen

to a lecture on Hinduism. It is a sacred place, built and

maintained in such a way, that we can go there to experience the

Divine. Gods and devas are in the inner, spiritual worlds and

able to bless us through the image in the temple. The image is

like a temporary physical body they use during temple

ceremonies.

Though occasionally a devotee may have a vision of the God, the

more common way we experience the Gods and devas is as an

uplifting, peaceful, divine energy, or sakti, that radiates out

from the image. It is easiest to feel their blessings at the

high point of the puja when the flame is held high. Also their

blessings are strongest on their major festival days such as

Maha Sivaratri for Lord Siva.

Meditation is internal worship, looking within to experience

God. Here’s a story to illustrate. I remember coming out of

meditation at a temple in South India a number of years ago and

a young man coming up to me and asking what I had been doing. I

responded by saying just as God can be experienced when we go

into the temple we can also experience God when we go inside

ourselves. The person was not convinced by my answer.

This is the monistic or meditative approach to experiencing God,

going deeply enough into ourselves to find that part of us that

is identical with God. At first we experience God as peaceful

and blissful feelings, later as a brilliant clear white light

and later still as a consciousness that permeates all and

finally as a transcedent reality that is timeless, formless and

spaceless.

The key to deepening our experience of God is the regular

practice of spiritual disciplines. And it is fair to say that no

other religion contains such a vast range of spiritual

practices, from such fundamental virtues as noninjury and

purity, to temple worship, advanced yoga practices and

meditation.

I was recently asked a question by a New York radio show on

Hinduism as well as by Hindu pilgrims to our Hawaii monastery.

The question is this: we are all so very busy with the demands

of modern live there is little time left for spiritual

practices. What do you consider the most important practices to

be followed.

The answer I gave was to do two things. Establish a shrine in

the home and worship there every morning. And secondly, go to

the temple once a week. A popular saying in English is that the

family that prays together stays together. In Hinduism, ideally

this refers to all members of the family participating together

in the morning worship in the home shrine as well as the weekly

worship at a local temple.

The religious vibration of the home shrine can be strengthened

by going to the temple regularly. Specifically, some of the

religious atmosphere of the temple can be brought home with you

if you simply light an oil lamp in the shrine room when you

return home from the temple. This simple act brings devas who

were at the temple right into the home shrine room, where from

the inner world they can bless all family members and strengthen

the religious force field of the home.

The home shrine works best when it is an entire room and not

just a corner of the living room or bedroom. In the shrine room

offer fruit, flowers or food daily. Learn a simple puja and the

chants. Even the older children can learn to do a simple puja.

Meditate after each puja. Visit your shrine before and after

leaving the house. Worship in heartfelt devotion, clearing the

inner channels to God and the Gods so their grace flows toward

you and loved ones. Parents can train their younger children to

worship in the home shrine before any important event in their

life such as an major exam at school.

Worship that is conducted in the home shrine is called

Isvarapujana. Isvarapujana also refers to worship we conduct for

ourselves rather than worship done by a priest for us. It

includes actions as simple as offering a flower to as advanced

as performing a full puja. The type of puja done by a lay person

is called an atmartha puja, personal worship rite, whereas the

puja done by the priest in a temple is called a parartha puja,

public liturgy and worship.

Some Hindus are afraid to do an atmartha puja because they feel

they don't have enough training or don't understand the mystical

principles behind it well enough. Most Hindus depend on the

priests to perform the pujas and sacraments for them, or to

train them to perform home puja and give them permission to do

so through initiation, called diksha. However, simple pujas may

be performed by anyone wishing to invoke grace from God,

Mahadevas and devas. In my Guru’s book “Loving Ganesha”, he

gives a Ganesha puja that can be performed by anyone.

After the atmartha puja is concluded it is customary to sit for

a few minutes in meditation, internal worship, taking in to the

soul level the refined feelings, the prana, that the puja has

created and which still remains in the room. In this way we

receive maximum blessings from the puja.

-----------------

I will mail his second talk in next e-mail. Thanks for spending

time to read this.

Thanks,

Kurinji

July 12, 2004

MURUGA SARANAM

Dear Kurinji..

Thank you for the very informative mail. The simple steps to keep us

on track of spiritual upliftment are helpful to follow regularly.

Especially it was good to learn the importnce of keeping a separate

room for puja, praying together with family, the details of athmartha

puja and regular offerings and so many other things.

Please keep posting such mails.

MURUGA SARANAM

Thaks and Best Regards

Meyyappan S

dhandapani , Kurinji illam <kurinjii>

wrote:

> Appane Muruga!

>

> Vanakkam!

>

July 12, 2004

Thank you so much for your most informative message!! I'm thankful to God for teaching me such valueable insights thru' you as His instrument.

I plan to read it more slowly later (as I'm caught up with deadlines in my business of day-to-day survival in material world) and clarify any doubts or thoughts by e-mail.

Once again, thank you very much for your message

Patricia

hank Kurinji illam <kurinjii wrote: Appane Muruga!Vanakkam!I am writing this e-mail to express our sincere thanks for the overwhelming support of our devotees during the three days ofMurugan Kumbhabhisekam, Cincinnati, OH, USA.Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (Hawai)- Cincinnati First TalkIntroduction:My Guru, Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, had the gift of bringing downto earth in a very practical way the guidelines for becoming amore spiritual person. It is easy to talk high philosophy inHinduism. "Man is God. We are divine,” and so forth. It is easyto say profound things such as “You are a being that hasunlimited power within you.” To bring spiritual teachings downto the level where we really are a more spiritual person thisyear than we were a year ago - that is the challenge and what wewill explore this evening. The ability to do exactly

that is part of Gurudeva's genius. Hegives us these very pragmatic guidelines along with the highphilosophy and in the process keeps us feeling good aboutourselves. We don't take the approach that we have all theseweaknesses and therefore man is weak and sinful. That is not thepoint. Man is a divine being, meaning man is the soul orspiritual being. But we also have these other qualities thatcome along with being a person. We have instincts. We have anintellect. We have an ego and we need to get them all undercontrol so that our soul, our spiritual nature, dominates overall. As Gurudeva says, “Peace is control, and control isfreedom.”The attitudes involved in striving to make progress on the Hinduspiritual path and the attitudes involved in studying dance andare indeed the same. Our first topic this evening focuses onfour similarities between the two.Strengths and WeaknessesOur first comparison of the

spiritual path to the study of danceis the attitude toward strengths and weaknesses. Does a youngwoman become a better dancer by focusing on the movements shedoes well? Of course, she does not. She has to focus on themovements that she does not do well and strive to improve them.Said another way, she becomes a better dancer not by focusing onher strengthens but rather by focusing on her weaknesses. Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take the example of a manwho has wonderful devotion but has trouble being consistent inperforming his daily disciplines. Clearly there is a need to usemore willpower and create a new habit of being consistent everydayContinue to ImproveA second comparison is the attitude toward improvement. A gooddancer has the attitude that she can always perform a dancebetter than she has ever done it before. She feels there isalways room for improvement and that her movements can always

beeven further refined. Looking at the spiritual path, let’s take as our example theprinciple of ahimsa, nonviolence in thought, word and deed. Itis indeed a central principle of Hinduism. Of course, most of usdo not indulgence in physical violence. Therefore, we mayconclude that ahimsa presents no challenge to us.However, let’s look more closely at the definition of ahimsawhich is not harming others by thought, word or deed. Thispoints out that even though we are not harming others with ouractions, we can take the attitude of striving to improve ourbehavior even more by carefully watching our speech and avoidingharming others through our words. The common forms of verbalviolence are joking, teasing, gossiping and backbiting, andevery reduction we make in harming others less through our wordsproduces spiritual progress. Good ConductThe first category of spiritual practices is good conduct. Goodconduct is

the foundation of all other practices in Hinduism. Itis also called developing good character. Good conduct beginswith overcoming basic instinctive patterns such as thetendencies to become angry and hurtful. A helpful list of thesetendencies is contained in the ten classical restraints calledyamas, which are: noninjury, truthfulness, nonstealing, divineconduct, patience, steadfastness, compassion, honesty, moderateappetite and purity. This naturally leads into a second set of practices which arecalled the niyamas and are of the nature of religiousobservances: remorse, contentment, giving, faith, worship of theLord, scriptural listening, cognition, sacred vows, recitationand austerity. Good conduct also includes performing one's dutyto family and community, honoring holy men, respecting eldersand atoning for misdeeds.ServiceThe second category of spiritual practices is service. Serviceis also called karma

yoga or seva and refers to religiousservice given without the least thought of reward, which has themagical effect of softening the ego and bringing forth thesoul's innate devotion. An example of service is performingsimple chores at the temple such as sweeping the floors orpolishing the brass. Another example is holding religiousfeedings at a temple once a month. DevotionThe third category of spiritual practices is devotion. Devotionis also called bhakti yoga and centers around regularlyworshipping the Deity at the temple and inwardly striving toawaken a profound love of God in our hearts, soften ourintellect and develop a deep sense of humility. It includesdevotional singing, pilgrimage and even performing our own pujain the home shrine room. MeditationThe fourth category of spiritual practices is meditation.Meditation is also called raja yoga or ashtanga yoga as itconsists of eight limbs. Meditation

begins with asana--sittingquietly in yogic posture--and pranayama, breath control.Pratyahara, sense withdrawal, brings awareness into dharana,concentration, then into dhyana, meditation. Dhyana finallyleads to samadhi, God Realization. Jnana Yoga is also a type ofmeditation that involves philosophical study and discriminationbetween the Real and the unreal. Personally Experiencing GodOur second topic for today is the subject of personallyexperiencing God and begins with a story. As publisher of ourmagazine Hinduism Today, I provide a two-page opinion pieceentitled publisher’s desk for each issue. In a recent publishersdesk, I wrote on the topic “I Want to See God! Some pertinentsuggestions to sincere seekers on where and how to look forDivinity.” The reason I chose this topic was to emphasize thatone of the greatnesses of Hinduism is that it is experientiallyoriented rather than belief oriented. In other words, the

goalis not to simply believe in God but rather to eventuallyexperience God. In some religions the ultimate experience thereligion offers is having a strong belief in the existence ofGod. In Hinduism, however, believing in God is only a first steptoward an ever deepening personal experience of God’s presence.The idea for this article came from a visit to the home of aHindu family of doctors in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Theson who had been raised in the US asked the question aren’t allreligions pretty much the same? Does it really make a differencewhich religion you practice? I answered the question in a simpleway at the time but keep thinking about it afterwards andfinally developed an analogy that goes like this. Aren’t all medical clinics pretty much the same? Only if youhave a simple illness. If you have a complex problem and needthe more sophisticated medical equipment and specialists, thenthey are

definitely not. For example, someone is suffering fromchest pains and goes to his family doctor who lives nearby. Thedoctor is not sure what the problem is and suggests he goes tothe hospital to have certain tests taken. He does so and thehospital after taking the tests is still not sure of the problemand refers him to a cardiologist living in a large city nearbyfor even more tests. Clearly all medical clincs are not thesame. Religion is similar to this. If all you want is to live avirtuous life, religions are all very similar at that basiclevel of practice. But if you have an interest in personallyexperiencing God, then only a few religions have within them thepractices that lead to that experience. A good example of this fact has been occurring in Catholicmonasteries for decades. Some of the monks in these monasterieshave the desire to personally experience God. What do they do topursue this? They turn to Hindu

scriptures such as Patanjali’sYoga Aphorisms to provide them proper guidelines for deepmeditation as there are no teachings regarding this inChristianity.Returning to the Publisher’s Desk I wrote, it begins with theclassic story of how Swami Vivekananda when he was still acollege student in Calcutta went around to the religious leadersin the Calcutta area and asked them all if they had seen God.None of them gave a satisfactory answer to him until he met SriRamakrishna. The answer that Sri Ramakrishna gave was “Yes, Isee Him as clearly as one sees an apple in the palm of the hand;nay even more intently. And not only this, you can also seeHim.” This answer deeply impressed the young Vivekananda whosoon after accepted Sri Ramakrishna as his guru. Though many individuals are inspired by the thought of seeingGod, it seems very distant and unattainable. This is because wethink of jumping somehow from a 0%

consciousness of God’spresence to 100% awareness of God’s presence. This is where ourconcept of enlightenment may be a barrier, that enlightenment isan instantaneous event, coming out of nowhere, totallytransforming us like a flash of lightening. It is more helpfulto think of enlightenment as a gradual process which involvesincreasing our control over our instinctive nature, controllingour thoughts better and experiencing more and more of our innatedivinity.To experience God, do we sit on a mountaintop, go into a cave orsimply close our eyes? Where do we go to see God? Perhaps theeasiest place to start is to see God in great religiousteachers. We feel a spiritual aura about them that is different.We see a light in their eyes we do not see in others. The meresound of their words encourages us to live a more spirituallife. Another way to see God, which is a little more difficult, butstill easy to do, is too

look deeply into the eyes of anotherperson. Look beyond the individual’s personality, go deeper thanhis or her intellect and see the individual’s pure life energyas God. The great saying or Mahavakya that describes thisapproach to experiencing the Divine is “God is the Life of ourlife,” or in the tamil language “uyirkuyir.” This practice doesnot stop just with people but should also include trying to seethe life energy in trees, birds and animals. This is because Godis our life. God is the life in all people. God is the life inthe trees, in the birds and in the animals. Becoming aware ofthis Life energy in all that lives is becoming aware of God'spresence within us. There is a beautiful verse from theBrihadaranyaka Upanishad which elucidates this concept. “He whoknows God as the Life of life, the Eye of the eye, the Ear ofthe ear, the Mind of the mind - he indeed comprehends fully theCause of all causes.” In Hindu culture

we have an opportunityeverytime we greet another person through the traditionalgesture of namaskara to practice looking deeply enough into theeyes of the other person to see God within them as the life oftheir life. This is fulfilling the deepest meaning of namaskarawhich is “I greet the God in you.”Having traditional Hindu temples in our community provides uswith one of the most important ways to see God, through theDeity’s image in the temple. This is the devotional or theisticapproach. The Hindu temple is not simply a place we go to listento a lecture on Hinduism. It is a sacred place, built andmaintained in such a way, that we can go there to experience theDivine. Gods and devas are in the inner, spiritual worlds andable to bless us through the image in the temple. The image islike a temporary physical body they use during templeceremonies. Though occasionally a devotee may have a vision of the God,

themore common way we experience the Gods and devas is as anuplifting, peaceful, divine energy, or sakti, that radiates outfrom the image. It is easiest to feel their blessings at thehigh point of the puja when the flame is held high. Also theirblessings are strongest on their major festival days such asMaha Sivaratri for Lord Siva.Meditation is internal worship, looking within to experienceGod. Here’s a story to illustrate. I remember coming out ofmeditation at a temple in South India a number of years ago anda young man coming up to me and asking what I had been doing. Iresponded by saying just as God can be experienced when we gointo the temple we can also experience God when we go insideourselves. The person was not convinced by my answer. This is the monistic or meditative approach to experiencing God,going deeply enough into ourselves to find that part of us thatis identical with God. At first we

experience God as peacefuland blissful feelings, later as a brilliant clear white lightand later still as a consciousness that permeates all andfinally as a transcedent reality that is timeless, formless andspaceless.The key to deepening our experience of God is the regularpractice of spiritual disciplines. And it is fair to say that noother religion contains such a vast range of spiritualpractices, from such fundamental virtues as noninjury andpurity, to temple worship, advanced yoga practices andmeditation.I was recently asked a question by a New York radio show onHinduism as well as by Hindu pilgrims to our Hawaii monastery. The question is this: we are all so very busy with the demandsof modern live there is little time left for spiritualpractices. What do you consider the most important practices tobe followed.The answer I gave was to do two things. Establish a shrine inthe home and worship

there every morning. And secondly, go tothe temple once a week. A popular saying in English is that thefamily that prays together stays together. In Hinduism, ideallythis refers to all members of the family participating togetherin the morning worship in the home shrine as well as the weeklyworship at a local temple. The religious vibration of the home shrine can be strengthenedby going to the temple regularly. Specifically, some of thereligious atmosphere of the temple can be brought home with youif you simply light an oil lamp in the shrine room when youreturn home from the temple. This simple act brings devas whowere at the temple right into the home shrine room, where fromthe inner world they can bless all family members and strengthenthe religious force field of the home. The home shrine works best when it is an entire room and notjust a corner of the living room or bedroom. In the shrine roomoffer fruit,

flowers or food daily. Learn a simple puja and thechants. Even the older children can learn to do a simple puja.Meditate after each puja. Visit your shrine before and afterleaving the house. Worship in heartfelt devotion, clearing theinner channels to God and the Gods so their grace flows towardyou and loved ones. Parents can train their younger children toworship in the home shrine before any important event in theirlife such as an major exam at school. Worship that is conducted in the home shrine is calledIsvarapujana. Isvarapujana also refers to worship we conduct forourselves rather than worship done by a priest for us. Itincludes actions as simple as offering a flower to as advancedas performing a full puja. The type of puja done by a lay personis called an atmartha puja, personal worship rite, whereas thepuja done by the priest in a temple is called a parartha puja,public liturgy and worship.Some Hindus

are afraid to do an atmartha puja because they feelthey don't have enough training or don't understand the mysticalprinciples behind it well enough. Most Hindus depend on thepriests to perform the pujas and sacraments for them, or totrain them to perform home puja and give them permission to doso through initiation, called diksha. However, simple pujas maybe performed by anyone wishing to invoke grace from God,Mahadevas and devas. In my Guru’s book “Loving Ganesha”, hegives a Ganesha puja that can be performed by anyone. After the atmartha puja is concluded it is customary to sit fora few minutes in meditation, internal worship, taking in to thesoul level the refined feelings, the prana, that the puja hascreated and which still remains in the room. In this way wereceive maximum blessings from the puja.-----------------I will mail his second talk in next e-mail. Thanks for spendingtime to read

this.Thanks,Kurinji