16 January 2010.

Hare Krishna. 

In the morning there was worship of mother cow followed with cooking 31 Pots of ponggal. The 1 pot which was of much bigger size that the 30 identical pots was given to the BCC Youth Boys and myself. Like us, many cooks were caught off guard since cooking off clay pots using firewood was not as easy. Especially so when those who arranged and set the fireplaces and wood(undried wood) were youth boys who had hardly any experience using traditional methods of cooking. Though a lot of smoke was created the whole event actually took off very well encouraging lots of cooperation from cooks, youth boys to help fan fires and while youth girls were assisting cooks. It was fun time with lots of crying due to the terrible smoke. The skills of our robust National photographer HG Mulakaranam prabhu were tested. At times Mulakaranam could not go anywhere near the smokefilled air where the ponggal cooking was being done. Ponggal pots were all offered to Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga and Sri Sri Jagannatha, Baladeva & Subadra Devi and Sri Sri Radha Krishna. Everyone is looking forward to next year's ponggal and the BCC Youth boys are not going to take it lightly. This year ISKCON Sitiawan finished first on the Ponggolo Ponggal!!!!

After worship of cow and ponggal, devotees took breakfast and quickly moved to the temple floor of the work in progress Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple of Devotion & Understanding building. The temple floor however did not look like it was under construction. The BCC Youth group who had worked all night long had done such detailed decorations that guests were moved to feel that they were actually at a completed temple. Devotees had brought their personal and home Deities, mostly Nitai Gauranga Deities and placed on the actual location of the altar. It was a sort of a Nitai Gauranga convention. HG Ajamila Prabhu a senior disciple of Srila Prabhupada, a Vastu consultant and a learned astrologer gave a class on Lord Caitanya's 500th Sannyasa Anniversary and the science behind the construction and design of the Temple of Devotion & Understanding. Ajamila Prabhu also mentioned that donors can take advanatage of their birth timings to choose accordingly the donation scheme which allows sponsors to choose their sponsorship locations in Sq. Ft. based on the diresction, Dasavataras and planets.

After HG Ajamila Prabhu concluded his talk HG Mani Bhusan prabhu conducted a homa while guests were simultaneously registering their names for the Heaven-on-Earth sponsorships. About RM 400,000-00 was raised in cash and pledges. HG Sri Gauranga prabhu and an anonymous donor pledged RM108,108-00 for 1 Sq Ft each of the Sri Sri Radha Krishna section. Mr. Ramanathan donated RM35,000-00 for his 1Sq. Ft of the Sri Sri Nitai Gauranga section and 6 more Sq. Ft. of other sections while about another 125 Sq. Ft. sponsorships were taken up by other sponsors. 

Much more needs to be done to get all the spaces sponsored to help build the RM6 Million temple complex. We encourage our well wishers to encourage their friends to also participate in the Heaven-on-Earth sponsorship scheme and get the benefit of serving Sri Sri Radha Krishna.

The Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri has just approved our application for Tax Exempt for Donations to the temple project. As such donors can ask for Tax Exempt Receipts and provide their NRIC numbers and names according to NRIC.

Please contact: Simhesvara dasa (012-3798743), Kalesa dasa (019-4411008) or E-mail CLOAKING for more information.

Photos courtesy of HG Mulakaranam prabhu.