Source: HPI
PORT LOUIS, MAURITIUS, September 12, 2008: Sunday, September 14 will see the long-awaited Maha Kumbhabhishekam of the Bala Dhandayudapanee Tirukovil on Monneron Hill, in the Vallee Pitot region of Port Louis.
Since 1961, members of the local Tamil community have been worshipping and observing their festivals in the nearby Gupteswarnath Mandir, thanks to the generosity of its owner and president, the late Pandit Sooner, who exemplified the wonderful spirit of Hindu solidarity that prevails in Mauritius.
In 1979, the Tamil community set up and registered the Vallee Pitot Tamil Cultural Circle (VPTCC) and promptly applied for a plot of land for the construction of a Kovil and a Tamil School, eventually obtaining a lease on the Monneron Hill site. In 1985, the association invited Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, known as Gurudeva among his followers and founder of Hinduism Today, to bless the land. During his visit, he placed a Vel under a tree, announcing that a Kovil would soon manifest on that mountain if the devotees maintained their faith and kept the vibration alive. To that end, he advised members of the association to have weekly prayers and keep on lighting a lamp where the Vel had been implanted. In April 2008, the VPTCC asked Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami to bless the construction site, and he told the members that the Maha Kumbhabhishekam would take place this very year.
And so it shall. Prayers and ceremonies have been ongoing since Wednesday, commencing with a huge Ganapati homa. On Saturday, devotees will be allowed to apply oil to the murtis. The actual consecration of the temple with the murtis will take place Sunday.