Donation for AVN New Gurukulam

Please send your donation by cheque/bank draft favouring "Arsha Vidya Nilayam, Malaysia" or bank-in to account AVN, Malaysia. All payments and donation will be acknowledged, through an official receipt.

Account Number :-

CIMB -0803-0017190-056

For further information, call contact H/P 012-5898839

NOTE:- Click on picture to enlarge

Future Gurukulam of Arsha Vidya Nilayam, Malaysia

This pictures are the computerized view and look of our coming new Gurukulam building which is currently under construction.

Front view

Side view with dining hall and kitchen

Entrance of the gurukulam

The hall view with the deity Dakshinamurthi as the main deity

Back view with the Daksinamurthi temple goburam

Prayer Before Construction Start

Here is the Vaasthu pooja and invoking the Lord to remove obstricles and for the completion of the new building.

New Gurukulam Building Progress

Here's the progress of our new Gurukulam building - right from the clearing the ground up to the current construction.

The ground is being cleared for construction purpose

Piling works have been started and being done

Concretes have been poured

The building have been done for a few percent

Almost more than half of the building have been build

More concretes are being get ready so the building can be structured

 

The building is being built up 

The Purpose of Prayers

The Purpose of Prayer

Prayer is a process of thinking, a particular type of thinking. In a prayer, there is someone who prays and an altar to which the person offers his or her prayers. There is also a mode of prayer involved, which differs from person to person.

A prayer can be said in simple words or it can be an elaborate ritual, highly traditional and scripturally sanctioned. It can be purely oral or purely mental. Ramana Maharishi, in Upadesa Saram, describes prayer as three different forms of action (karma): physical (kayika), oral (vacika), and mental (manasa). Ritual is a physical form of prayer. Singing in praise of the Lord is an oral form of prayer. Chanting a mantra silently is a mental form of prayer.

Prayers always have a purpose, as does any fiction. You pray because you want something. Without an object of desire, there is no prayer. You may want something specific or you may want mental clarity (antahkarana suddhi). Or you may pray, “Let the Lord be pleased with my prayer,” because you want to be in the Lord’s good books, you want Him to glance at you now and then. He seems to look upon others all the time, but when it comes to you, something happens – He blinks or He closes His eyes all together.

It may look as though you cannot pray for another person just as you cannot eat for another person. Even though prayer is an action, it is not like eating; it is more like bathing. Not only can you bathe your own body, you can also bathe your child’s body. I can pray either for the sake of achieving something for myself or for the sake of someone else. Yet even when I pray for the sake of another person, the prayer is still my prayer. When I see someone who is unhappy, who is suffering, I also suffer – because I am human. I am affected by the condition of that other person and I can’t stand it. I want the person to be happy, which really means that I want to be happy. Therefore, a prayer for others is also for the sake of my own happiness.

All prayers, then, is only for my sake. When I pray for my wife and also child, when I say, “Let my family be protected,” there is an extended me, a me that gets affected all the time. In the same way, one need not be an American to be affected by an American being taken hostage. Any human being will be affected, once he or she knows the possible consequences of such an action.

Author:- Sri Swami Jitatmananda Saraswati

Defination of Thaipusam Festival

What is Thaipusam Festival?
A festival occurring in the Tamil month Thai (January-February), the day of the star Pusam around Pournami (Full Moon) is celebrated as Thai Pusam. It is a special day for worship of Lord Muruga (also known as Subrahmanya or Thendayuthapani) and is celebrated in a very grand manner at all Murugan temples, especially at the 'Aaru Padai Veedu' of Murugan (These are six temples in India especially dedicated to Lord Muruga). This festival honours Muruga or Subramanya, the son of Shiva.

The Kavadi
Generally, people take a vow to offer the Lord a Kavadi for the sake of tiding over a great calamity. Though this might, on the face of it, appear a little mercenary, a moment's reflection will reveal that it contains in it the seed of supreme love of God. The worldly object is achieved, no doubt, and the devotee takes the Kavadi; but after the ceremony he gets so God-intoxicated that his inner spiritual being gets awakened. This is also a method that ultimately leads to the supreme state of devotion.

The two baskets hanging at each end of the Kavadi contain rice, milk or other articles that the devotee has vowed to offer the Lord. The more devout among them, and especially those who do it as a Sadhana, collect these articles by begging. They travel on foot from village to village, and beg from door to door. The villagers offer their articles directly into the basket of the Kavadi. The Kavadi-bearer continues begging until the baskets are full or the avowed quantity is reached, and then offers the Kavadi to the Lord.

Some keen devotees undertake to walk barefoot from home to one of the shrines of Lord Subramanya, bearing the Kavadi all the way and collecting materials for the offering. They have to walk a hundred miles sometimes! The people who place the articles in the baskets also receive the Lord's blessings.

The Kavadi-bearer is required to observe various rules between the time he takes up the Kavadi, and the day of the offering. He has to perform elaborate ceremonies at the time of assuming the Kavadi, and at the time of offering it to the Lord. He also puts on the dress of a Pandaram, a Saivite mendicant. It consists of a saffron-coloured cloth, a conical scarlet cap, and a cane, silver-capped at both ends. Lord Siva, the Supreme Pandaram Himself, loves to wear this dress. The Pandaram lives on alms only. The bare chest of the Kavadi-bearer is covered with several rudraksha malas.

The Kavadi-bearer observes strict celibacy. Only pure, Sattwic food is taken; he abstains from all sorts of intoxicating drinks and drugs. He thinks of God all the time. Many of the Kavadi-bearers, especially those who do it as a spiritual Sadhana, impose various forms of self-torture. Some pass a sharp little spear through their tongue, which is made to protrude out of the mouth. Others may pass a spear through the cheek. This sort of piercing is done in other parts of the body also. The bearer does not shave; he grows a beard. He eats only once a day. The spear pierced through his tongue or cheek reminds him of the Lord constantly. It also prevents him from speaking. It gives him great power of endurance.

The Kavadi-bearer enjoys a high state of religious fervour. He dances in ecstasy. His very appearance is awe-inspiring; there is divine radiance on his face. Devotees often experience the state of feeling united with the Lord. Sometimes the Lord enters them and possesses them for some time.The Kavadi has various shapes and sizes, from the simple shape of a hawker's storehouse (a wooden stick with two baskets at each end, slung across the shoulder) to the costly palanquin structure, profusely flower-bedecked and decoratively interwoven with peacock feathers. In all cases the Kavadi has a good many brass bells adorning it and announcing it as the Kavadi-bearer draws it along. As the Kavadi-bearer very often observes silence, the bells are the only eloquent signs of a Kavadi procession.

Photographer:- Hasunesh (Thaipusam 2011 at Ipoh)

Arsha Vidya - A Tradition of Immediate Blessing

The knowledge of the Vedas is Arsha Vidya. It didn't start at a given time. The Vedic tradition that has been coming down to us in an oral form has no beginning. Therefore, we say Arsha Vidya is beginningless.

It is not a mystic tradition, a set of beliefs, which will die when the person holding it dies. Any belief's survival requires organization. But here, without organization, without hierarchical structure, without a papacy, without diocese, without congregation and parish, it has survived. To do this, it must have intrinsic worth. It is not simply beliefs handed down; it is knowledge handed over.

This teaching, "I am the whole" is the knowledge or the vision of the Rishis. This is not the only knowledge given to us by the Rishis; they have given us a lot. But this is one thing that cannot but fascinate everyone - even a dull person. This knowledge, the Arsha Vidya is the most fascinating, the most hopeful, the most yearned for. Once one has gained this vidya, one can make the other also see it.

Arsha Vidya is communicable. It is a vision that can be communicated and shared by a person who himself or herself has been exposed to the sampradaya, methodology of teaching . This methodology of teaching is so thorough , it doesn't leave anything to be desired. Arsha Vidya is a tradition of immediate blessing. It is not something that blesses you later. It is a tradition of immediate blessing and that is why it works.