Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror
up to where you're bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look,
and instead here's the joyful face
you've been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes
and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist
or always stretched open,
you'd be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence
is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced
and coordinated as bird wings.

~Rumi~
with thanks from
The London Spirituality Network

I see God walking in every human form. When I meet different people, I say to myself, "God in the form of the saint, God in the form of the sinner, God in the form of the righteous, God in the form of the unrighteous."
Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), guru of Swami Vivekananda

Perennial joy or passing pleasure?
This is the choice one is to make always.
The wise recognize these two, but not
The ignorant. The first welcome what leads
To abiding joy, though painful at the time.
The latter run, goaded by their senses,
After what seems immediate pleasure.

-Katha Upanishad

Somnath To Return To Its Glory, Says Temple Trust
Source: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/5571

SOMNATH, GUJARAT, July 12, 2008: The historic temple of Somnath in Gujarat is all set to regain its old glory as a golden temple by 2010. The famous temple's Trust is carving and gold-plating the Sabha Mantap, the place where devotees gather, and will also embed porous Bellastones on the outer structure that will be coated with fungus resistant paint. The Somnath Temple that is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas (shrines devoted to Lord Siva) and located at Prabash Patan in Gujarat's Junagadh district.

The temple has been destroyed and looted many times, the most notable being the ones by the invading Turks led by Mahmud Ghazni and centuries later by Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb. It was reconstructed in 1947 for the seventh time and the proper shape lasted till 1995. In the last decade, little renovation work has been undertaken. "The gold plating of the temple is unique which will enhance the identity of the temple. Before Mahmood Ghazni attacked it, the temple was golden but they escaped looting all the gold from the temple. "We are showing our old culture and traditional temple (sic). The interior of the temple where people worship Somnath and Parvati is being gold-plated. Pilgrims and tourists have appreciated the work and they say if the entire temple is plated with yellow metal, it will be like a golden temple," said Ashok Sharma, Secretary of the Sri Somnath Temple Trust.  - from: HPI with thanks.

"The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our circumstances." - Martha Washington 
 

Indeed,
I am neither bound nor free.

An end to illusion!
It is all groundless.

For the whole of creation,
Though it rests in me,
Is without foundation.

-Ashtavakra Gita 2:18

Great Temple of Somnath as Described by Muslim Historians
Source: http://www.hinduismtoday.com/hpi/2008/7/22#2.shtml

KAUAI, HAWAII, July 22, 2008: HPI note: As part of Hinduism Today's research in Indian history, we have been exploring the eight-volume set "The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians" edited by Henry M. Elliot. This 19th century book contains translations of extracts from mostly Muslim chroniclers of the Muslim times in India. The following extract is from "Wonders of Things Created, and marvels of Things Existing" by Asaru-L Bilad, a 13th century Muslim geographer. It contains the following description of Somnath temple and its destruction:

"Somnath: celebrated city of India, situated on the shore of the sea, and washed by its waves. Among the wonders of that place was the temple in which was placed the idol called Somnat. This idol was in the middle of the temple without anything to support it from below, or to suspend it from above. It was held in the highest honor among the Hindus, and whoever beheld it floating in the air was struck with amazement, whether he was a Musulman or an infidel. The Hindus used to go on pilgrimage to it whenever there was an eclipse of the moon, and would then assemble there to the number of more than a hundred thousand. They believed that the souls of men used to meet there after separation from the body, and that the idol used to incorporate them at its pleasure in other bodies, in accordance with their doctrine of transmigration.

"The ebb and flow of the tide was considered to be the worship paid to the idol by the sea. Everything of the most precious was brought there as offerings, and the temple was endowed with more than 10,000 villages. There is a river (the Ganges) which is held sacred, between which and Somnat the distance is 200 parasangs. They used to bring the water of this river to Somnat every day, and wash the temple with it. A thousand brahmans were employed in worshipping the idol and attending on the visitors, and 500 damsels sung and danced at the door-all these were maintained upon the endowments of the temple. The edifice was built upon fifty-six pillars of teak, covered with lead. The shrine of the idol was dark. hut was lighted by jeweled chandeliers of great value. Near it was a chain of gold weighing 200 mans. When a portion (watch) of the night closed, this chain used to be shaken like bells to rouse a fresh lot of brahmans to perform worship.

"When the Sultan Yaminu-d Daula Mahmud Bin Subuktigin  went to wage religious war against India, he made great efforts to capture and destroy Somnat, in the hope that the Hindus would then become Muhammadans. He arrived there in the middle of Zi-l k'ada, 416 A.H. (December, 1025 A.D.). The Indians made a desperate resistance. They would go weeping and crying for help into the temple, and then issue forth to battle and fight till all were killed. The number of the slain exceeded 50,000.

"The king looked upon the idol with wonder, and gave orders for the seizing of the spoil, and the appropriation of the treasures. There were many idols of gold and silver and vessels set with jewels, all of which had been sent there by the greatest personages in India. The value of the things found in the temples of the idols exceeded twenty thousand thousand dinars. (Elliot's footnote: The enormous treasures found at Somnat have been a theme of wonder for all who have written on that conquest.)

"When the king asked his companions what they had to say about the marvel of the idol, and of its staying in the air without prop or support, several maintained that it was upheld by some hidden support. The king directed a person to go and feel all around and above and below it with a spear, which he did, but met with no obstacle. One of the attendants then stated his opinion that the canopy was made of loadstone, and the idol of iron, and that the ingenious builder had skillfully contrived that the magnet should not exercise a greater force on anyone side-hence the idol was suspended in the middle. Some coincided, others differed. Permission was obtained from the Sultan to remove some stones from the top of the canopy to settle the point. When two stones were removed from the summit the idol swerved on one side, when more were taken away it inclined still further, until at last it rested on the ground."  - from HPI

Sitting peacefully on a cushion day and night seeking to attain Buddhahood, rejecting life and death in hopes of realizing enlightenment, is all like a monkey grasping at the moon reflected in the water.

-Shoitsu

Om. Meditation on the whole of the Saman is good. Whatever is good, people say it is Saman; and whatever is not good, people say it is not Saman. Thus people say: He approached him with Saman, that is to say, He approached him in a becoming manner. Again they say: He approached him without Saman, that is to say, He approached him in an unbecoming manner. And they also say: Truly this is Saman for us, that is to say, It is good for us, when it is good. Again, they say: Truly this is not Saman for us, that is to say, It is not good for us, when it is not good. He who, knowing this, meditates on the Saman as good-all good qualities will approach him quickly, ay, they will accrue to him. - Chandogya Upanishad II,1 - Meditation on the Fivefold Saman (I),1 - 4