Blog 7 Kuala Lumpa Temple

Our first stop before the journey to Kl was the car wash.

After the past few days of rain, mud filled every crevice of the van both inside and out. With music pumping and unmatched enthusiasm for their work, two boys hosed, scrubbed and polished the truck back to its respectable glory.

The drive to KL in the truck took just under an hour and a half. Alex dozed gently in the front of the pick up while I gazed out of the windows in the back. Gopesa, a man of few unnecessary words, put on a CD and we were accompanied for the entire journey with wonderful rhythmic chanting.

The temple in KL is slightly off the beaten track in a quiet area up a long winding hill. Gopesa dropped us off with the instruction to take prasadam as it was meal time.

Metal trays were piled high with food as people around us sat on the floor and ate. Krsna food is amazing food and if anyone ever gets the chance to stumble across a temple or Krsna organisation project, please, please step inside and try some. The giving of prasadam (food made for Krsna) is one of the instructions given by the founder Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. 

The other main instruction was to chant the Hare Krsna mantra.

While we ate the amazing food I explained some of the principles of the foundation to Alex. She seemed interested so I explained that one of the things they teach people is that we are all basically servants of someone or something, government, our children, parents, work.

We are also all basically looking for a friend to share our lives with. In Krsna Consciousness that friend is Krsna, an incarnation of Visnu, God. As we take pleasure in serving our friends, serving Krsna is seen as a great privilege, and everything done for Krsna is seen as a blessing.

As a result everyone in the temple wants to serve each other as everyone is part and parcel of Krsna. When everyone WANTS to do things for everyone else the whole place becomes a place of giving. A place, that to me, feels totally  wonderful.

We finished our food, washed and put away our trays before going in search of Simheswara to find some work to do. 

The only problem with everyone wanting to give to each other is that there isn't much work available that someone else hasn't already done!!!

We eventually found some pots and pans to wash and for the first time in days we worked up a sweat as we scrubbed, rinsed and put away the pile of pots and pans from lunch!

With no more work to do Alex and I decided to walk down the huge hill to see what was in the area. 

We left our bags at the room we had been allocated to sleep in which was situated just up the hill (a room that Simheswara called his office) and without a care in the world we headed off to explore.

Three hundred meres down the road the heavens opened for about ten minutes as we huddled beneath the trees for shelter!! 

The nice thing about KL is that like Singapore the rains arrive and then depart just as quickly. Steam mistily rose from the road ahead as the humidity soared, leaving us just as wet as if we had been caught in the actual rain!

At the bottom of the hill we found a food hall and treated ourselves to peanut and chocolate ice cream on a stick.

There was not much else to see, so slightly refreshed we started back up the hill stopping for photos shoots along the way!

When we eventually reached the Temple, (it seemed a lot longer going back up the hill than it was going down) a San Kirtan (congregational chanting) was taking place as a group of Russian devotees enthusiastically played an assortment of instruments for the Deities. I stayed to join in while Alex returned to our room.

If one feels the desire to have a belief system then Krsna Consciousness must be said to be one of the happiest to be part of. 

Hell is said to be our existence on Earth. 

Heaven can be reached by singing and dancing and eating great food!

I spent about two hours singing and dancing before it grew dark and it was time to eat again!!

Alex joined me and with a firm '6am start' set for tomorrow from Simheswara, we retired to our beds in the office!

Day 4 of our hard volunteer work completed!