Bodhinatha in a joyful moment with guests today in the Guru Peedam.

Now we go back to the last day of this phase and pick up from Maha Sivaratri night, then a retreat “walk about” our property and then today’s events….

Four of our silpis shaved their heads in the afternoon of Maha Sivaratri day… a traditional sacrifice many Hindus make for the more “austere” festivals for Siva and Lord Muruga

They feel blessed to be “monks for one day” as Bodhinatha described Maha Sivaratri later in his talk…

We got a box of orchids and it was incredible that they were packed one by one in perfect formation.. and it seemed like thousand came out of that one small box. The monks make garlands for the celebrations during the night.

After some bhajans in the temple, at 8 PM, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami is ceremoniously paraded into Kadavul temple.

The evening ceremonies begin with a homa…

Then Paramacharya Ceyonswami guides the whole group is a meditation… the inner vibration in the temple was “out of this world.”

After a break, the group listens to a talk over the speakers by Gurudeva and then Bodhinatha give a wonderful upadesha on realizing the Self, and how close the Self really is… not something to get, or become, but something you already are….

Then the amazing Siva abhishekam begins with Paramacharyas Palaniswami and Ceyonswami first doing vibhuti abhishekam.

This year we have a spot light on the Siva Lingam and though it is small devotees could observe the rites from all the way out in the mandapam.

Bodhinatha is seated just in front of the shrine.

The vibhuti is removed and will be sent to devotees around the world as prasadam from Kadavul. Many are the testimonies of the miracles that this vibhuti has brought into people’s lives.

Next, while some of the swami and monks are chanting Rudram, other come in pairs for the milk abhishekam.

This year the offering is the fresh milk of our dear cow, Amma Chaturthi… who just gave birth…

Bodhinatha chants Sri Rudram along with the monks.

The image of the main sanctum is “rahasya,” (Lord Nataraja is never to be photographed…. ) so we cannot offer more photos. Suffice it to say it was as always, a profound and mystical night.

As always the sense of spiritual renewal that comes with Maha Sivaratri and the immense peace that follows in the days afterward is like the famed “sugar candy… cannot be described, only known by those who have tasted it….”

Our retreat followed and someone took off for a tour of the river… From above we see the ever amazing 100 foot tall Ablaze trees which are hosting tons of Morning Glory vines that provide an image that is daily awesome, even after years of seeing it again and again…

Descending down the path… a close up of the mammoth cloak of vines.

We’ve had several weeks of relatively dry weather …

and the river is very low and calm.

The falls is a small flow now…

The camera spies Bodhinatha off in the distance on Guha day having a morning meditation …

…overlooking the river from the Orchid Mandapam

Look up and zooming in on the Ganapati Kulam Publications Building… who would know that inside there and through the monastery runs 100BaseT ethernet, a giant Mac OS XServe with terabytes of space and G4’s and dual processors which talk to the world via a T1 line…to our server in Connecticut…

Finally coming to today’s morning homa… the unfailing routine of Kadavul’s pujas is the immovable anchor that Gurudeva established for us years ago…

Aum Namasivaya!

Bodhinatha meets with long time devotee of the Kailasa Parampara… Vinaya Alahan from Santa Rosa California.

Narayandas and Sangeetha Klamath who joined us for Maha Sivaratri have darshan and a discussion with Bodhinatha.

They are avid readers of Hinduism Today. Natarajnathaswami shows them the latest issue.

They share with Arumugaswami the situation of young people in Toronto slowly losing their ancestral language and more and more knowing only English.

Also they detailed the amazing history of their family from the days when their ancestors lived on the banks of the ancient Sarasvati River thousands of years ago, to today where they have landed in Canada.