A Sree Vijayanayagam of Penang is devastated.
The human resources consultant had been faithfully fulfilling his vow to Lord Muruga by carrying the kavadi, and later the “paal kudam” (milk-filled pot), while in a trance on Thaipusam day every year for the past 47 years.
This year, he was unable to do so because of the movement control order aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19.
However, just as in all previous years, a cobra slithered by and looked at him during the period that he was fasting prior to Thaipusam day.
Tapah-born Sree Vijayanayagam, 71, started carrying the kavadi in 1973 to fulfil a vow made by his sister.
“You see,” he tells me, “I was in upper six then at Anderson Secondary School, Ipoh, and very sickly. I had bronchial asthma and later doctors told me I had pneumonia.”
When the STPM exam arrived, he was already sick and in hospital. Fortunately, the Ipoh General Hospital is a very short distance from his school and so a friend fetched Sree Vijayanayagam from the hospital to the school to sit for the first two papers on different days. By the time he had to sit for the third paper, he was discharged.
“In 1972 my elder sister vowed that if I was cured, I would carry the kavadi for three years. I agreed with this. Miraculously, soon after, I didn’t have any breathing problems. So, the following year, I carried the kavadi to the Kallumalai Arulmigu Subramaniyar Temple in Ipoh.”
After carrying the kavadi for three years, he said he felt an intense desire to continue doing so and even when he moved to Penang, he returned to Ipoh to fulfil his vow, piercing his cheeks and tongue.
However, from 1983 he decided to do it in Penang and switched to carrying the “paal kudam” but still with his tongue pierced with a skewer in the shape of the spear-like weapon of Muruga, the “vel”, which represents intellectual discernment with which one is to take up the battle of life.
“Every year, the moment the prayers start, I’ll go into a trance. The trance comes easily to me,” says Sree Vijayanagam.
In the early years in Penang, his wife and two daughters would accompany him up the Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple, better known as the Waterfall Hilltop Temple. His daughters did it until they left for further studies in Australia.
Does he feel pain when the skewer is thrust through his tongue? “No, not at all,” comes the reply. “I don’t even realise they have pierced my tongue. There is no pain and no blood. After I remove the “vel” from my tongue, I can immediately eat and swallow food.”
Since kavadi carrying is about building discipline and overcoming pain so that one is better prepared to face life’s challenges, I ask him how he prepares for it.
Initially, he says, he would fast and observe the discipline required for a month but later he 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; he doesn’t shave, smoke, drink liquor or have negative thoughts about himself or others; he doesn’t get angry or upset or have any negative emotion; and he tries to keep his mind on Muruga.
Has carrying the kavadi and “paal kudam” helped? Yes, he says. “I find that obstacles in my path, whether regarding work or anything else, easily disappear.”
He cites the time he was group senior general manager for human resources and corporate communications for Leader Universal Holdings Bhd and had to handle thousands of workers at plants in Malaysia, China, India, Cambodia and the Philippines and how he would somehow be able to negotiate even the worst cases.
“In the Philippines, it was tough to handle the union and some of the workers carried guns and would threaten me. But through it all, by the grace of Muruga I managed. Even locally at the Tikam Batu plant in Kedah, when I had to dismiss a worker or two, some of the workers would come with parangs.
“More importantly, I feel I have become more spiritual. I have a strong sixth sense now and am able to see things that others may not. I feel a sense of peace, especially during the 15 days when I observe the Thaipusam discipline.”
He then mentions something uncanny that has been happening since he began carrying 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 that I fast just before Thaipusam. I don’t know what to make of it. Some say it is a bad omen but others say it is a good omen as Muruga has a snake with Him.”
In every depiction 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 coiled up sacred energy at the bottom of the spine which has to be raised to attain enlightenment.
During the first year of his fast, Sree Vijayanayagam would visit the Kallumalai temple every evening for the 30 days and then hop over to a Murugan shrine ensconced in a cave a short distance away.
One day, while he was lighting a piece of camphor before the deity in the cave, he spotted a cobra and, shrieking, fled.
His scream attracted the shrine’s caretaker who rushed up to assure Sree Vijayanayagam that the cobra was always in the area and that it had never harmed anyone. Still, he was scared.
Over the next few days, he noted the cobra spreading its hood, looking in his direction and then slithering away, and slowly his fear began dissipating.
When he moved to Penang, he was astounded to see a cobra every year too – whether near bushes or in drains. And every time it would be during the period of his Thaipusam fast. Each time too, the cobra would spread its hood, look in his direction and move away.
Strangely, he would never see a cobra at any other time.
In 2010, he became anxious when no cobra made an appearance. “It was already Thaipusam eve and I hadn’t seen any cobra. I was on leave that day but had to go to the plant of BCM Electronics at the Kulim High Tech Park where I was then working, to settle some urgent matter.
“After settling it, I was walking around the plant when a cobra suddenly popped out of a drain. It then went on its way and I mine.”
What about this year, I asked. “This year, on the fifth day of my fast, I spotted a cobra in the drain in front of my house. I no longer fear the cobra as I know it will not harm me.
“From young I have had an affinity with Muruga, who is my “ista devata” (chosen deity). That is why I was depressed and upset when it was announced that due to the MCO, the Thaipusam celebration had been cancelled and that I would not be able to carry the “paal kudam” as I have done these 47 years. I still am.”
But there was one saving grace. Sree Vijayanayagam was so disturbed by the prospect of not being able to fulfil his “annual obligation” that he went to a nearby Murugan temple on Thaipusam eve to enquire if they would accept a pot of milk to be used to perform the ritual prayers for the deity inside.
The priest, feeling compassion, told him to leave the milk at the gate of the temple early in the morning and that’s exactly what Sree Vijayanayagam did yesterday. In fact, he left milk at two temples.
“Well, at least I was able to do that, although I’m still not satisfied.” - FMT
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