Extreme Divinity - Thaipusam 2009

Today Thaipusam was a beautiful and spiritually charged event. I arrived at the Tank Road Temple at 830am. It was perfect timing both in terms of the volume of kavadis and devotees. It was not too crowded or too empty. The atmosphere was vibrating with the chanting of "Vel, Vel." We accompanied some of the kavadis up the main steps of the temple and were fortunate enough to witness one of the kavadi bearers doing a little dance on the steps of the temple. He was paying his respects to the gopuram before stepping into the house of the Lord. Once inside the sanctum santorium we were also fortunate to have a great audience with the Lord. No one hurried us. The traffic controllers were patient and ensured that the devotees had priority. Not the tourists or the camera trotting outsiders. But the devotees who had come to pray to the Lord. I stood at the sanctum and said my prayers and then I stood by one side to watch some of the other kavadi bearers go down on their knees before Lord Murugan. It was deeply moving to witness this at such close quarters. I was also very fortunate to meet one of my family friends whose son was taking the Kavadi. So we then went to have the divine food - panchamirtham with him as his son removed his piercings and kavadi.

What struck me the most was the power of singing and chanting the traditional Tamil hymns dedicated to Lord Murgan. And the drumming that accompanied it. The drumming and singing has this amazing ability to get the devotees in the right frame of mind and block out all distractions. It has this amazing ability to connect you with the primordial energy of the divine. Hence it was not surprising to see many of the devotees go into a trance. After fasting for 30 days and observing various austerities and then walking 4km with a 45kg kavadi load is an amazing feat. Mind over matter. And is definitely an extreme sport that ranks along with ice climbing and deep sea diving.