NADI, FIJI, July 3, 2006: At least 5,000 Hindu devotees were at the Sri Siva Subramanya Swami Temple, in Nadi, yesterday to be part of their 12th year Mahakumbhabhishekam celebration. The festivities and the religious ceremonies, which began on Wednesday, ended yesterday with the final re-consecration of the temple at the Suva end of the Nadi Town. Temple president Dorsami Naidu said this was done to mark the completion of the renovation of the temple. The renovation is done every 12 years, he said. The large temple was built in 1994 after being moved from the opposite end of Nadi where the original small temple had been built in 1920. There were 21 priests from India joining local pundits led by chief priest Sri Ravi Gurukkal of Tituttani, Chennai, in India, who performed the traditional Vedic and Agamic rites. Mr. Naidu said the reconsecration was the process of infusing divinity and spiritual power into the vigrahas or images of Deities of a temple. Mr. Naidu said in order to facilitate the renovations of the temple, there was a ritual by which their divinity could be transferred into vessels of holy water. Once the renovations are done, we will re-infuse the divinity back into the Deities and the Divine returns to the sanctum sanctorum, he said. Mr. Naidu said though the religious events would be over, they would still have 45 days of mandalabhishekam or the closing part of the ceremonies. In addition to the religious events, there are cultural and educational events going on in parallel, he said.
A daily summary of world news for Hindus and non-Hindus alike