Traveling in Malaysia

Traveling through Sri Lanka, India and Malaysia, we are amazed at the number of people who fondly recall meeting Gurudeva. Everywhere we go memories of Gurudeva open unexpected doors for us, in small village and major cities. Gurudeva's presence is very strong in Malaysia due to a number of people who were initiated by him and are still staunch devotees and members of Saiva Siddhanta Church.

After an early morning arrival, we are treated to lunch by the Valluvan family. That evening we go to the home of Kulapati Guhan Sivalingam, Yoginathaswami does puja at the home shrine.

A question and answer satsang afterwards.

Early next morning we are visited by relatives of Nagarajan Pillay. His mother (green sari) worked on preparations for a traditional breakfast for over two weeks, buying spices, drying and grinding them, personally preparing the meal, then bringing it to our hotel.

We have lunch at the beautiful home of Vijay and Umayal Easvaran. We are so charmed with their collections of Hindu art and artifacts that we forget to get any pictures. We visit Vijay\

s office building and are off to one of the best known temples in Malaysia, Batu Caves. '

We climb 270 steps up to the shrine of Lord Murugan and get there in time to see the end of the abhishekam. The Deity is just a very simple Vel but afterwards he is covered with this \"kavacham\" which transforms the Vel into Lord Murugan himself.

That evening, another puja, this time at the new home of Bala Sivaceyon.

Dinner and another informal satsang.

We are up at 4 AM for a special ceremony at the Selva Vinayakar Temple in Tepi Sungai, Klang.

The puja was a very traditional Agamic puja, quite similar to the format we follow on Kauai, so Yoginathaswami and the chief priest had much to talk about.

Nagaswaram and tavil concert at the temple. The lead tavil on the left is Karunakaran Pillay and his son is Ravi Shankar, the nagaswaram player on the left. They are very accomplished and have performed at temples around the world.

The Teluk Pulai Subramuniya Temple is maintained by the local Sri Lankan community and was visited several times by Gurudeva. The are now completely rebuilding the temple. This gives us an opportunity to see the basic structure of a gopuram before the outer layer is put on.

On to the Sree Maha Mariamman Temple in Kalumpang which is both remodeling and also building an adjacent Siva temple. The Siva Lingam is on the left side of the photo near the small girl.. They had questions regarding temple construction and consecration (kumbhabishekam) and the temple management committee had a long conversation with Yoginathaswami. Part of their plan is to invite Satguru Boddhinatha for the consecration and they wanted to know the proper procedures for doing so.

Another view of the temple renovation.

Some of the devotees connected to the temple.

At the Courthill Ganesha temple we arrive just at the beginning of a 1008 conch abhishekam for Lord Ganesha.

This is an extremely popular temple in Malaysia and the reason is obvious. An elaborate abhishekam is performed twice daily. The five people on the left have sponsored the ceremony and here are passing fresh coconuts up to bath the Diety. The two daily ceremonies are fully booked a year in advance.

A line of volunteers automatically forms to systematically move 108 kumbhas or pots of water and special herbs and 1008 of the tiny conches up to the main shrine where the Deity is bathed.

We are astounded by Ganesha\

s garland.'

The chief priests are two brothers who are hereditary priests from the huge Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple in India. Their brother has come over to Malaysia to help consecrate a new gold covered chariot for the Utsava murthi, the murthi that leaves the temple sanctum and goes out to the devotees.. The were very gracious with their time and fondly recalled meetings with Gurudeva and Bodhinatha.

This is a particularly nice alankaram dipam.

The final waving of flames in front of the Deity, seeking his blessings and invoking the presence of inner plane Beings. This is the final stop of our pilgrimage and we pray for the smooth completion of Iraivan Temple and the good timing and progress for our many other duties at Kauai Aadheenam.

A final dinner with the kulapatis, elders, of our church mission in Malaysia

An intrepid few see us off in the early morning hours at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport

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