Family Day in KL and then off to the Farm!

The Hare Krsna Family Day was to take place in a wonderful park which was about a twenty minute drive away from the KL Temple. 

With most of my rounds done, two hours of chopping under my belt I emerged from the kitchen to find everyone who was going had gone!

“Mataji you must simply ask someone”, I was told when I enquired if there was a way to get to the Park, but asking for help has never been one of my strong points. 

Yes I can ask a stranger for directions, yes I can ask a stranger if they know of a room I can stay in for the night. 

Those things involve only asking for a little of their time, information I need and they might have but to ask someone to 'DO' something for me, well that is a different matter.

As I sat wondering who to ask, I again wondered if this mental hang up was one of my own making. The people around me never hesitated to ask for lifts, ask for glasses of juice, ask for help. When I was asked, I immediately would offer my services if I was able, so where did the thought pattern that made me afraid of approaching people to go out of their way for me come from?

When we are young we learn from the world and the people around us. 

If we are late for school we are punished, if we are not ready when we are called, we are shouted at. As children we constantly strive to be happy, punishment and aggression, no matter how mild, are to be avoided if possible.

Eventually we grow older but the conditioning has been established. 

We no longer need others to punish us if we are late, we can mentally punish ourselves much more effectively than any of our peers did.

But asking for help? What happened in my life to create that thought pattern? I cast my mind back to my childhood but was interrupted by a shout behind me. “Mataji, you need a lift to the Park?”

Philosophy would have to wait for another day..... I jumped into the waiting car and was soon on my way to the Park.

Family Fun Day was definitely the order of the day! I arrived to find ALL the participants had been split into teams while the children had been split into small groups with an older lead person.

In the shade of the trees, mind puzzling games had been devised with team coordination winning the day.

How many times can you bounce a ball without touching it, armed only with a long piece of string?

The teams wove intricate (and some not so intricate!) string webs between their hands to support the ball then proceeded to bounce it!

I wandered down to the where the children were about to be led off to the play area.

The sun was shining, music wafted through the trees and the scenery was divine. 

I walked away from the festivities and explored the Park.

Wonderful waterways wound their way past striking bamboo structures.

Bridges spanned the gently flowing water.

Archways curved over long clear walkways offering shade from the mid-day heat.

At the bottom of the incline was a huge covered area

where skaters rode the ridges

and Graduates posed throwing their caps into the air for prosperity photographs.

Everywhere I looked there were new things to discover.

A light bulb tree!

Its inners viewable from below.

A tree with gigantic roots that spread like a wall from its core.

Lakes of murky green, thick with plankton where fish rippled the surface as they passed.

I returned to the Hare Krsna Gathering in time to witness the final games and to enjoy the amazing prasadam always available at any Krsna event.

The Mataji I had arrived with informed me that the man driving the car that had brought us, had gone to the Library and we needed to find an alternative way home.

Again the fear kicked in. Who to ask? What if they said no? Maybe I could catch a bus and not inconvenience anyone.

By the time I had calmed my racing pulse Mataji was asking her third person, Yes they had space, yes they could take us back!

It looked so easy, you just had to ask!

We shared a lift back to the Temple an hour later with a wonderful family who had just moved from Dubai to Australia! Their family all lived in Malaysia so they had come over for the winter school break.

Back at the Temple I retired to my apartment and set about cleaning another room. I had now cleaned everywhere even though no one, bar myself, could see it!

I returned to chant at the Temple and was invited to sit in the air conditioned shop with the wonderful Devotee who is in charge. He had worked with a transport company for years but had now retired and was filling his days with devotional service.

He remarked upon the many mosquito bites I had acquired, telling me I should not sit outside in the evenings chanting. 

I didn't tell him I had actually been on Skype with my son for that hour using the Temples internet! I asked where the nearest pharmacy was so I could buy some mosquito spray.

He drew me a map!

Asia is amazing!!

Anything and everything you need is here if you just know who to ask!!

I picked up three more strips of antihistamines, two bottles of insect spray and a chocolate ice cream for a grant total of £5.

Lisa and I had been talking about Emelia's Birthday arrangements (via Whatsapp on the Temples internet!) and now in the world of Malaysian shops I popped into the local supermarket to look for balloons.

There were no shopping trolleys in this particular store and as I wandered around it became quite clear why!

Walking space was at a premium let alone trolley space.

I wandered up and down the aisles, not because I needed anything specific, but just because I was fascinated by the amount of stuff one can cram into a shop!

I bought some bubbles liquid for my little Mataji friend, who I had stayed with on my last visit who had now returned to the Temple, and returned to thank the Deities for yet another amazing day!

Monday passed in a blur of chopping, chanting, and cleaning.

 I had been told that morning that the owner of the apartment was due to move back in! 

I packed my bags, had a final sweep through and carried my backpack to the temple, only to be told that, as there wasn't any transport to the Farm until the morning, the owner had said I should stay in the apartment tonight and she would arrive in the morning!

Even when I don't ask people are so kind!!

I mentioned the things left in the apartment, spare bedding, plates, shampoos etc and asked if they needed to be moved out. One of the ladies accompanied me back over to the apartment saying how it was good the owner wasn't coming until morning as we would now have time to clean it.

When she opened the door she smiled. 

No need to clean, the apartment was perfect but the room full of things ….. well that was a different matter. 

She went over the inventory of things that should be there. 

The 30 mattresses, equal if not more sheets and 55 pillows were definitely not on the list!

It was also much too much for us to personally carry to the Temple. She said she would make arrangements with one of the boys and left me there.

For the next hour I packed everything I could into the bags I had found in my cleaning until, apart from the mattresses, everything was in a movable, manageable state.

I swept through one more time and departed to the Temple for the evenings entertainment.

The reading of the Baghavadha Gita in its entirety was taking place. I could not understand the words spoken but the lull of the words chanted in verse, wove a magical spell over the congregation.

Outside under the large awning, seats had been prepared in front of a small stage for a performance by the Temple children.

They danced,

they recited,

they received their certificates for a years work well done

and then they ran around while their parents ate prasadam.

Inside the Temple a Kirtan started, at first calm and rhythmic

But soon ending in the usual euphoric way that most Kirtan seem to end!

I had been in KL for only three days yet it felt like a week! 

In the morning I would be driven to the farm and another chapter would begin.