Mission: Kumbabishekam

Run around. Collect eight different types of soil viz: sand from sea, river and lake, crab's nest (not sure about this, may be powdered conch), soil from snake's (termite) mound, soil stamped by elephant, soil dug by a bull with its horn, soil where the sacred Darbha grass grows;

Make long and thick ropes by twisting green Darbha grass, long enough to connect the homa(m)peetams to the moola vigrahas- these are the lifelines that transfer the powers that are invoked up by the homams and mantras to the vigrahas, making it fit for worship; the thicker the better;

Do hundreds of such and other things. Put more than a million rupees, coordinate people who don't even sit in the same room for a minute. Do this through a whole year.

Then you can conduct a Temple Kumbabishekam. But you are not finished. You still toil for 48 more days to conduct post-implementation rituals, so the temple fully is fit for worship.

Making this happen, though not comparable to launching a rocket, is indeed a mammoth task.

I was lucky to witness one the week before, and since I knew the family who executed, funded and sweated for it, I got to know all about this directly. If you are the religious type, you will say that they were blessed to have gotten a chance to do it in their lifetime.

The Kumbabishekam was for the 'Meenakshi Sundareswarar' temple of Lord Shiva, who resides with Godess Meenakshi in Kuranguputhur (a small village near Mayiladuthurai on the banks of River Cauvery).

When the germ of the idea solidified into a decision and an agreement was reached in the family to undertake the consecration of the temple, everyone was happy,they felt it was a gift to have such a chance to do a virtuous act, but no one had any clue about how demanding it could be or what exactly needed to be done. Almost everything to do with it was big: the number of things to buy, the number of things to do, the money involved, mobilizing people, getting the consent and support of villagers in sensitive decisions...

When sought, the Gurukkal handed over a 50-page notebook that contained the list of items to be purchased, since it was only a small temple. The steps and processes that make use of these items require a library, most of which the Gurukkal and Vedic Brahmanas know by heart.

Undaunted, the family, along with the support of the villagers, spent more than an year to achieve it. They starting with renovating the old temple, then they installed new moolavighrahas and vimanas, and arranged every other thing. The temple had to be completely re-built, except for the original Shivalinga, the only vigraha to survive a heist that took place a few years ago.

Some years ago, when the temple was closed and kept unused due to various reasons, some (ultra pious ?!) sticky hands managed to check-in empty-handed and uninvited, and took home literally 'heavy' stuff. The villagers say that the person/ gang who stole the things even approached them indirectly, to 'sell' the vigrahas back to the temple for a price since they found it difficult to sell them in the black market; it is also spoken about that the thieves even dumped some of the statues in a lake in the region, that were too huge and heavy to hold and hide).

As all herculean tasks always require, the people who were involved in the kumbabishekam had to jump hurdles, leap fences and penetrate walls and mountains. And they did it, all with grace and great elegance. It is a peerless feat which they have accomplished.

Doing things, making a change- it happens all around us. It might not be glamorous or spectacular, it could be as simple as repairing an old temple. But then, when you get a chance, you need to be a part of it, but not as a spectator.

I brought this home from Kuranguputhur.

Do something. Be happy.