{"id":655,"date":"2026-07-05T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/?p=655"},"modified":"2025-07-11T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T03:00:03","slug":"lesson-85-living-with-siva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-85-living-with-siva\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 85 \u2013 Living with \u015aiva"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LwS-Lesson-85.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Recording: Gurudeva&#8217;s cloned voice<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">S\u0101dhana and The Five Duties<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When we study and practice our religion, we are not necessarily performing deep s\u0101dhana. We are simply dispatching our religious duties. These duties are concisely outlined in the pa\u00f1cha nitya karmas, the five minimal religious obligations of Hindus. The first duty is dharma, proper conduct, living one\u2019s life according to the teachings of the Tirukural and atoning for misconduct. The second duty is up\u0101sana, worship, performing a personal vigil each day, preferably before dawn, including a p\u016bj\u0101, followed by the performance of japa, scriptural study, and meditation. The third duty is utsava, holy days, observing each Friday (or Monday) as a holy day, as well as the major festival days through the year. On the weekly holy day, one cleans and decorates the home altar, attends the nearby temple and observes a fast. The fourth duty of all Hindus is tirthay\u0101tr\u0101, pilgrimage. At least once each year, a pilgrimage is made to a Hindu temple away from one\u2019s local area. Fifth is sa\u1e41sk\u0101ras, the observance of traditional rites of passage, including n\u0101makara\u1e47a, name-giving; viv\u0101ha, marriage; and antyesh\u1e6di, funeral rites. <br><br>Another vital aspect of Hindu duty is service. The Vedas remind us, \u201cWhen a man is born, whoever he may be, there is born simultaneously a debt to the Gods, to the sages, to the ancestors and to men\u201d (\u015aukla Yajur Veda, SB 1.7.2.1. VE, P. 393). Service to the community includes helping the poor, caring for the aged, supporting religious institutions, building schools and upholding the lofty principle of ahi\u1e41s\u0101 in raising one\u2019s children. Hinduism is a general and free-flowing, relaxed religion, experienced in the temple, in the \u0101\u015bramas, the aadheenams, at festivals, on pilgrimage and in the home. <br><br>The performance of personal s\u0101dhana, discipline for self-transformation, is one step deeper in making religion real in one\u2019s life. Through s\u0101dhana we learn to control the energies of the body and nerve system, and we experience that through the control of the breath the mind becomes peaceful. S\u0101dhana is practiced in the home, in the forest, by a flowing river, under a favorite tree, in the temple, in gurukulas or wherever a pure, serene atmosphere can be found. A vrata, vow, is often taken before serious s\u0101dhana is begun. The vrata is a personal pledge between oneself, one\u2019s guru and the angelic beings of the inner worlds to perform the disciplines regularly, conscientiously, at the same time each day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NANDINATHA S\u016aTRA 85: THE HOME AS REFUGE<br>\u015aiva\u2019s men devotees, on arriving home from work, immediately bathe and enter their shrine for the blessings of Gods and guru to dispel worldly forces and regain the state of \u015aiva consciousness. Aum Nama\u1e25 \u015aiv\u0101ya.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>S\u0101dhana and The Five Duties When we study and practice our religion, we are not necessarily performing deep s\u0101dhana. We are simply dispatching our religious duties. These duties are concisely outlined in the pa\u00f1cha nitya karmas, the five minimal religious obligations of Hindus. The first duty is dharma, proper conduct, living one\u2019s life according to <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/lesson-85-living-with-siva\/\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-living-with-siva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4905,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655\/revisions\/4905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kauaishindumonastery.com\/mc-daily-lessons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}