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A Sree Vijayanayagam from Penang is devastated.
The human resources consultant had been faithfully fulfilling his vow to Lord Muruga by wearing the kavadi, and later the “paal kudam” (pot full of milk), while in a trance on Thaipusam day each year for the past 47 years.
This year, it was unable to do so due to the motion control order intended to slow the spread of Covid-19.
However, as in all previous years, a cobra crept up and looked at him during the period he was fasting before the day of Thaipusam.
Sree Vijayanayagam, 71, born in Tapah, began wearing the kavadi in 1973 to fulfill a vow made by her sister.
“You see,” he tells me, “I was in the last six years at Anderson High School, Ipoh, and I was very sick. I had bronchial asthma and then the doctors told me I had pneumonia. “
When the STPM exam came in, he was already sick and in the hospital. Fortunately, Ipoh General Hospital is a very short distance from her school, so a friend took Sree Vijayanayagam from the hospital to the school to sit and read the first two newspapers on different days. When he had to sit down for the third trial, he was discharged.
“In 1972, my older sister swore that if she cured me, she would wear the kavadi for three years. I agreed with this. Miraculously, shortly after, I did not have any respiratory problems. So the following year, I brought the kavadi to the Kallumalai Arulmigu Subramaniyar temple in Ipoh. “
After wearing the kavadi for three years, she said she felt an intense desire to keep doing it and even when she moved to Penang, she returned to Ipoh to fulfill her vow, piercing her cheeks and tongue.
However, as of 1983 he decided to do it in Penang and began to wear the “paal kudam” but still with his tongue pierced with a spike in the shape of Muruga’s spear-shaped weapon, the “vel”, which represents intellectual discernment. . with which one must undertake the battle of life.
“Every year, the moment the prayers begin, I go into a trance. Trance comes easily to me, ”says Sree Vijayanagam.
In the early years in Penang, his wife and two daughters accompanied him to the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple, better known as the waterfall-top temple. His daughters did it until they left to continue their studies in Australia.
Do you feel pain when your tongue is pierced with the skewer? “No, not at all,” is the answer. “I don’t even realize my tongue has been pierced. There is no pain or blood. After removing the “vel” from my tongue, I can eat and swallow food immediately ”.
Since kavadi transport is about developing discipline and overcoming pain so that one is better prepared to face life’s challenges, I ask how do you prepare for it.
Initially, he says, he fasted and observed the required discipline for a month, but later shortened it to 15 days.
For 15 days, Sree Vijayanayagam has milk and fruits for breakfast and dinner and rice for lunch. Everything is vegetarian.
He sleeps on a mat on the floor; you do not shave, smoke, drink liquor, or have negative thoughts about yourself or others; does not get angry or angry or have any negative emotions; and tries to keep his mind on Muruga.
Has wearing the kavadi and “paal kudam” helped? Yes, he says. “I find that obstacles in my path, whether at work or anything else, disappear easily.”
He cites the time he was a senior general manager for human resources and corporate communications at Leader Universal Holdings Bhd and had to manage thousands of workers at plants in Malaysia, China, India, Cambodia and the Philippines and how he could somehow negotiate. even in the worst cases.
“In the Philippines, it was difficult to run the union and some of the workers carried weapons and threatened me. But despite everything, by the grace of Muruga I did it. Even locally at the Tikam Batu plant in Kedah, when I had to lay off a worker or two, some of the workers would come with parangs.
“More importantly, I feel like I have become more spiritual. Now I have a strong sixth sense and I can see things that others may not see. I feel a sense of peace, especially during the 15 days that I observe the Thaipusam discipline ”.
Then he mentions something strange that has been happening since he started wearing the kavadi: every year, without fail, he would see a cobra.
“Once a year I have been seeing a cobra and it always happens during the period when I fast just before Thaipusam. I don’t know what to do with it. Some say it is a bad omen, but others say it is a good omen, as Muruga has a snake with him. “
In each representation of the image of Lord Muruga, there is a peacock and a cobra.
The cobra, an important symbol in Hindu tradition, is also associated with Lord Shiva and Goddess Shakti. In meditation, it represents the sacred energy coiled at the bottom of the spine that must rise to reach enlightenment.
During the first year of her fast, Sree Vijayanayagam would visit the Kallumalai temple every night for the 30 days and then jump to a Murugan shrine set up in a cave a short distance away.
One day, while lighting a piece of camphor before the deity in the cave, he saw a cobra and, screaming, fled.
Her scream attracted the shrine keeper, who ran to assure Sree Vijayanayagam that the cobra was always in the area and had never hurt anyone. Still, he was scared.
Over the next few days, he noticed the cobra spread its hood, look in his direction, and then walk away, and slowly his fear began to dissipate.
When he moved to Penang, he was also surprised to see a cobra every year, either near bushes or in drains. And it would always be during the period of his Thaipusam fast. Each time too, the cobra would spread its hood, look in his direction and walk away.
Interestingly, he would never see a cobra at any other time.
In 2010, he got anxious when no cobra showed up. “It was already the eve of Thaipusam and I had not seen any cobra. I was on sick leave that day, but I had to go to the BCM Electronics plant in the Kulim High Tech Park where I was working then, to resolve an urgent matter.
“After settling it down, I was walking around the plant when a cobra suddenly appeared down a drain. Then he went his way and I mine. “
What about this year? I asked him. “This year, on the fifth day of my fast, I saw a cobra in the drain in front of my house. I’m no longer afraid of the cobra because I know it won’t hurt me.
“Since I was young I have had an affinity with Muruga, who is my“ ista devata ”(chosen deity). So I was depressed and upset when it was announced that due to the MCO, the Thaipusam celebration had been canceled and that I would not be able to wear the “paal kudam” as I have done these 47 years. I still am. “
But there was a saving grace. Sree Vijayanayagam was so disturbed by the prospect of not being able to fulfill his “annual obligation” that he went to a nearby Murugan temple on the eve of Thaipusam to ask if they would accept a pot of milk to perform the ritual prayers of the deity inside. .
The priest, feeling compassionate, told her to leave the milk at the temple gate early in the morning and that is exactly what Sree Vijayanayagam did yesterday. In fact, he left milk in two temples.
“Well at least I was able to do that, although I’m still not satisfied.”
