9th Annual Festival
June 21, 2015
Begun in 2006, this year marked the 9th anniversary of SHARANYA’s Yoni Puja Festival. Designed to welcome newcomers and initiates alike, the community provides spiritual seekers of all backgrounds an introduction to the Divine Mother as the Goddess of Life, Death and Rebirth. We came together on the night of June 21, 2015 to sing Her praises, offer our devotions, worship Her and receive the divine nectar of Her bliss, the yoni tattva. As Maa Kamakhya, She holds the power of the cosmos and the liberating potentials of the female as birther of Her creation.
Many devotees filled the temple singing Her names, assembling with reverence and respect to honor Earth, women, Goddess and the Feminine. Opening through the gateways provided by age-old spiritual techniques, we together came to understand ourselves, one another and the Divine more deeply through our communion and worship. Jai Maa!
…As one’s breath slows and one’s eyes close under the measured rhythm of chanting, Kali is made to expand and fill the room. She is in every flickering flame and in the glinting bronze, she is in the incense and in the mounting rhythm of the chant, she is in the bodies of the people present and in those who are missing but are thought of. She is in the Sanskritic root mantras and in the ordinary English syllables, which sound so extraordinary when said with new meaning and new purpose. She is in one’s mind and in one’s body, and though she is a goddess, her body is also somehow present and tangible and real.
Maa’s Altar
Welcoming the spirits of heart within the home of our temple, we gathered on June 21, 2015 to awaken Maa within us. Circle cast, water blessed, open to the Mystery, we commenced our 9th Annual Yoni Puja Festival. Jai Maa!
Approaching the Divine
Be with us as we were then. Approaching Maa our breath deepens as our heart quickens. We receive flowers. The scent of flowers fills the air and our lungs are inspired to take in Her essence.
Inside and Out We Are Her
From each side of the altar we move to center, and we bow before Her.