Our 2018 Tiruvembavai Festival

Many many devotees from all over the Earth came to Kauai Aadheenam to celebrate the New Year, worship Kadavul Nataraja and be with Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami. On January 1st the long-awaited ceremony took place in the lush tropic setting of Hawaii. Many days and hours of prep took up most of the Siddhidata Kulam work, whilst devotees helped decorate the temple and oil the granite murtis outside.

Please sit back, relax and enjoy a long slideshow of how Kauai Aadheenam celebrates Tiruvembavai.

Nataraja stands in the distance, reminding us all of his wild dance. He madly moves throughout creation at will, beating the damaru drum and holding the very nature of truth. Coconuts sit in front of Him waiting their destiny of abhishekam.

Yoginathaswami, Nirvani Tejadevanatha (taking a sip) and Natyam Dayanatha cut the tops of the coconuts in preparation for the coconut abhishekam line. Divyesh Pillay, behind Swami, cuts, delivers and brings whole fruit to the choppers.

The exposed tips are dunked in citrus juice before being placed on the waiting table. This soaking prevents them from browning.

Approximately 130 coconuts are prepared for the line of monks to take and pass one to another in hopes of pleasing this God of love

In the kitchen a few hours later, Nirvani and Natyam, along with Divyesh, slice through hundreds of fruits in order to make buckets of naivedyam

Divyesh is an award-winning public speaker, in French no less, but happily does any job that needs doing. He is a humble Sivanadiyar and loves basketball.

More fruit processing...

And on to the bananas. These Aadheenam grown fruits are about to be processed and made into the holy item panchamritam.

Now the milk. Over 108 gallons of milk will be offered to Nataraja. Here the team begins to open and pour into buckets.

These buckets are kept in a back room near the shrine, opened and then passed from monk to monk with smiles and joy. From those hands and up into the shrine to be offered by the head pujari of the festival.

Pilgrims, devotees and Kulapati\/Kulamata begin to decorate the temple on the eve of the big morning. Kulapati Ravi Visswanathan ties thoranams for all to enjoy.

Simply a priceless moment. Nagarajan Pillay, coming from Canada, begins to spray both the Nandi Peetham and, unknowingly, his wife Shamini. Oh my.

Mango leaves enhanced with chandanam and kumkum

Kulamata Sheela Visswanathan hands some thoranams to her husband Ravi. Their two children Aarti and Mayuresh are helping clean up a few feet in front of them, just outside the temple.

Nandi sits and worships his Siva with a thunderous calm, much like the low-booming thunder of a large storm in the making. This kind of devotion, this kind of dedication is something to remember.

Monks now gather around the nooks and halls of the cavernous temple and prepare the carpet

Our trusted taskforcer Trey is enjoying his first MahaArdra prep and will soon enjoy his first MahaArdra abhishekam

Dishanna Pillay sweeps the temple\

s entryway as her big sister Archana finished putting the polish on the base of the banana tree. Dishanna\'s broom might be bigger than she stands but is certainly not mightier than her will. '

We have arrived at the festival morning; the brilliantly quiet sunny moon shines over the mountains and the stars follow along as the moon\

s appurtenances for the moment and enjoy a theatrical reveal by its very light. '

The homa begins

Remember the back room we were telling you about? The items wait patiently like soldiers on the front line. As soon as the intensity reaches its peak the lids are removed and shakti power in the form of prana blasts out onto the deity, only to return to the devotee watching in awe.

Meanwhile Natyam Dayanatha puts the finishing touches on some fresh naivedyam, to be served steaming-hot just for Nataraja. Natyam builds 11 or so dishes with perfection, enough sweetness and rich flavor to knock the deity Himself over in relishment.

The fire builds and the room grows warm. A homa has multiple meanings that define its mystical nature, but on a cold morning we can all clearly understand the warmth of a fire. This act of nature brings with it solidarity unbound by rules and culture. Food and fire can make any group sit closer and laugh a little louder.

Satguru sits close by and stokes the holy fire with prayers. These inner-world messages are heading straight into the hands of unseen devas.

Sri Rudram is passionately chanted by monk and member alike. The tintinnabulation of their voices can be heard all throughout the property like a large bell being run in the center of town. While walking toward the temple this vibrant ring of Sanskrit can often pick up ones pace like entering two doors before they close shut.

This festival brings stillness within the being, nothing more and nothing less. What happens with that stillness is up to you, your karma and your indomitable will to dive in farther than ever before.

The shrine made up with flowers and powders like a famous dancer on a stage; divinity itself encased in these small containers.

The final arati pours over us all and a deep reverie takes over the room

Only the aftermath of our coconut-linked chain can be found and recorded, to see it you must be here

The temple is filled with devotees

Brahmanathaswami leads bhajan during alankaram or decoration of the deity. Swami gets swept away into an avalanche of devotion and gets taken away by the meaning of the song.

The carpet gets less visible as pilgrims crowd in and get ready for the final arati

There is a line out the door

What happens next is beauty unseen, only to be appreciated in real-time. Our cameras cannot capture earth-shattering shockwaves of bliss no matter how precise the lens is. There is only one person on this carpet, only one monk and only one form that can perform this way. \"It\

s one, it\'s two, it\'s neither one nor two.\" Days of heart-felt preparation, the swift moving firelamps and throat-scratching chants are actually the result of yugas and lifetimes and years of work that only now begins to manifest. Much like the movement and history of the universe, we can only experience the delayed-reaction of oneness after it actually stole our vision and concept of what we thought was true. Like a thief in the night, that unique God of Dance takes ego away for as long as we can stand and returns things the way they were without notice. But is everything the same? Are things back to normal? No. From here on out life will be different; so we keep dancing because we no longer have a choice. '
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