Building The Largest Granite Temple In The Southern Hemisphere
Redrawing plans after decision not to move the Moolasthanam
The new Committee under the leadership of Mr Sivanathan Thamboo took on the task of renovations to the Temple and made a grand design to move the Deity to the back of the current temple and provide more space in the front. This was objected to by some members. A resolution to let Vinayagar decide was approved at the AGM in 2018. This decision to let Vinayagar decide was implemented by drawing of lots. Two lots, one stating “to move” and the other “not to move”, was put in front of the Sri Vakratunda Vinayagar, and a random child was asked to pick one. The result was “not to move the Moolasthanam”.
This then meant that the Building Committee under the chairmanship of Mr Sritharan Sathasivam had to go back to the drawing board and redesign the renovation plans. This was quickly redone, and under the guidance and leadership of Mr Babu Akula, the construction for a new Temple with all granite shrines began.
25th anniversary concert by Melbourne YUVA
On 4th March 2018, Melbourne YUVA, under the leadership of president Mr Ganesh Pillai, organised a sell-out Musical program entitled “Kriti” with local artistes and managed to raise over $25,000 which went to the Temple building fund. This was done to celebrate the 25th year of the Temple.
In order to encourage youth participation in the festivals, Melbourne YUVA also took on the annual sponsorship of the Tamil New Year celebrations.
Marking 25 years of the Temple on Aavani Sathurthi
To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the temple, 1008 Kalasabhishekam was done under the guidance of Nithiyanantha Kurukkal, which was a grand success. Over 75% of the Kalasams were sponsored and hundreds of people attended the function, which was done over three days culminating with the Abhishekam on Aavani Sathurthi day in 2018.
To serve the Temple devotees and wider community better, the Temple launched a digital version of its newsletter, under the leadership of Ms Shivali Nayak, The New Saiva Neri. It continues to maintain its digital footprint by providing updates to devotees on its website, Facebook and YouTube page.
While preparations for a granite temple continued, the Temple continued to organise regular poojas for devotees. The annual Sumangali Pooja has now become a big affair with over sixty participants at any one time.
In addition the Temple’s annual Navarathri musical program continues to showcase young talent from various music and dance schools around Victoria.
Farewelling our Chief Priest
Gowrieswara Kurukkal, who had joined the Temple in 2006, decided that he wanted to retire from the daily life of the Temple Chief priest. A significant farewell party was organised on 1st February 2019, and the priest was given a great send off.
It was also the period during which the Management Committee under Mr T Sivanathan’s leadership did extensive work in trying to expand the Temple footprint. Initially, the committee talked to all the neighbours: 1288 Mountain Highway, 6 Conyers Street, 1300 Mountain Highway. For varying reasons, none of them wanted to sell. The committee then decided to buy a property 450 meters away from the temple at 359 Forest Road.
After this purchase was settled, the owner of 6 Conyers Street, reverted to us with her interest to sell her property. This negotiation took over 6 months and was eventually settled on a price of $1,330,000 to purchase No 6 Conyers Street and to sell 359 Forest Road at the original purchase price of $765,000. Subsequent to this agreement, the purchaser of 359 Forest Road reverted and requested a discount of $45,000. This discount was then adjusted against the original agreed price of 6 Conyers Street. This meant that 6 Conyers Street was purchased for $1,285,000.
As in the past, the Temple continued to support the Knox Council in their Community efforts and in 2018, one such effort was the “Global Kitchen”, wherein our very own cook Mr Selvam Sepamalai conducted classes for patrons who attended the food fair. Once again, this was a well done event under the leadership of Mr Thanabalasingam Kandiah that the Council wants us to do it every year.
The Temple has always welcomed visitors from other religions and cultures. The temple regularly hosts many schools, scout and other organisations. Some examples of the schools that have taken advantage of this are:
- Mount Lilydale Mercy College in Lilydale
- Dandenong Ranges Steiner School (Primary) in Emerald
- Beacon Hills College in Berwick
- Basin Primary School in The Basin
- “Venturer” – The Basin Scout Group
- “Cub Scouts” based in Chandler Road
Dr Sundaralingam and his wife had hosted many of these schools. In doing this, the temple has been able to foster improved understanding of the Hindu religion and our rituals, not only amongst other communities, but also amongst the younger generation of multicultural Australia.
The arrival of the gold-plated, lightweight vahanams
The first two gold-plated, lightweight vahanams arrived in 2018 in time to be used for Sanghadahara Sathurti and Murugan Thirukalyanam. The gold- plated Annapatchi arrived in 2019 and an order has been placed for the Pallaakku which is expected to arrive in 2021. All items were sponsored by devotees.
The lightweight vahanams make it convenient for fewer devotees to carry on special days. We understand from the vahana sthapati that we have set off a trend where other international temples have given similar orders.
The Construction begins
A building permit was obtained in August 2018 to construct the granite Moolasthanam. Once this was done, a competitive bid was launched to find the best person to construct the granite moolasthanam. After looking and discussing with several sthapaties, two were short-listed, who have had experience in Australia. Eventually Purushothaman Sthapati was selected and construction of the moolasthanam began in earnest in India.
Work progressed in India, with the Sthapati buying the stones, and getting them cut and followed by sculpting them. He then had to buy the silver oak wood from Salem in India, heat treat it in Pondicherry and subsequently organise the carpenters to create the crates to ship the stones. Finally, he needed to coordinate the shipments of the stones to Melbourne from Chennai.
Meanwhile, the Management Committee decided to build all the shrines in granite and, after significant negotiations with the architect, agreed on prices for the granite transformation.
Whilst this was happening in India, work on the Australian side began earnestly. The application for planning permit was submitted to the Knox Council for Planning approval in November 2018. Final planning approval was obtained in April 2019, whilst budgets were prepared, approval from trustees was obtained.
In the second quarter of 2019, the Victorian state elections were underway and Alan Tudge, Minister for Population, Cities and Urban Infrastructure, was hosted by the Temple.
First Balasthabanam and Bhoomi Pooja
Once detailed engineering and architectural drawings were complete, and the planning approval obtained, the Management Committee under the leadership of Mr Thanabalasingam Kandiah as President, decided to undertake the construction in a staged approach. The Management Committee started with the Hanuman Block first. In order to do this, we had to demolish the old Hanuman and Nagathambiran shrines; this meant that the first Balasthabanam had to be held as soon as possible and the earliest date of 29th May 2019 was chosen.
The first Bhoomi Pooja was conducted soon after the first Balasthabanam, on 27th June 2019. This marked the ground-breaking for the works, with the start of the piling for the Hanuman Block.
Mr Pillai, Mrs Pillai and Mr Purushothaman visited Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal of Kanchi Mutt, in India on 8th August 2019, and obtained a date for the Kumabhabhishekam, which was given as 7th June 2020.
Aavani Sathurthi celebrations were held on 2nd September 2019 and it was the last event held in the Temple before preparations to move the deities to the Balalayam (temporary temple) began.
Second Balasthabanam
The second and main Balasthabanam was held from 4th September 2019 to 8th September 2019 while the Balalayam (temporary temple) was constructed in the multipurpose hall. The construction of the Balalayam was expertly executed by Management Committee member Mr Jeeva Balasingam.
Athri poojas for granite stone sponsors
Soon after the Balasthabanam, works began to speed up and commitment for the donations began to come in. All donors for the various stones participated in the many Athri poojas held between October and December 2019 along with a Ko pooja and a Lakshmi pooja, which was only for the first Athri pooja held on the 25th October 2019.
We also had a visit from the Bayswater Victorian Member of Parliament, Mr Jackson Taylor, whose assistance in getting the visas for the workers was invaluable.
Granite Moolasthana works
Shipments from India were executed in a staged fashion, initially, the Kalkaram level of the Moolasthanam, followed by the other shrines. The first stone laying ceremony was held on 15th December 2019 prior to the commencement of Moolasthana works.
Bushfire Appeal
In late 2019 and early 2020, many parts of Victoria were engulfed by massive bushfires. This was a once in a decade event and many Victorians were gravely impacted by this fire. Many CALD communities responded to the bushfire appeal made by the Victorian government. The Salvation Army was at the forefront of the relief effort. This prompted Melbourne YUVA to donate $10,000 of their youth funds towards Salvation Army’s Bushfire Appeal on 10th January 2020.
Fundraising
As the construction works began to take effect, the Committee worked with the Sthapati to identify items that could be sponsored by devotees. These were priced and sponsors were sought. The Committee was indeed surprised at the level of community enthusiasm and support for the works. For example, all of the sixteen granite Vinayagars were sponsored within a week of being available.
Immediately after the first Balasthabanam in late May 2019 to the start of the second Balasthabanam, the Temple received commitment of over $500,000, in a matter of four months. This was followed by another $500,000 in commitments by December 2019. The Committee launched a video of the new temple, to provide clarity about the changes that would take place during granite transformation. This led to more people coming forward to donate.
Meanwhile, to garner more support and commitment, the committee announced that all devotees who donated $50,000 and above will have their names inscribed in the Moolasthanam. This led to over 20 people coming forward to donate. We were able to reach a commitment level of over $2M before the end of February 2020. By the end of August 2020, more than 80% of the $2.1M committed had already been received. The budget for the project is now forecast to be around $4M because all the shrines are now being constructed in granite.
Fundraising by Natya Praana
At the same time, Lakshanya Vasan offered to conduct her debut school program as a fundraiser for the Temple’s granite transformation. This was a stunning success, and a hall of over 400 seats was all sold out. Her school, Natya Praana, donated $6000 towards the building construction.
COVID-19
As this book went to print, like the rest of the world, Australia had been struck by COVID-19. This meant that the Management Committee had to look at other ways to engage with the community. As such, all special poojas were live telecast on YouTube and Facebook. For the first time in its history, the temple conducted the ‘Mahotsavam festivities’ in the Balalayam and this was live telecast to the general public. Devotees not only saw this live, but also downloaded the videos for later viewing. COVID-19 restrictions had also resulted in e-poojas being conducted. Devotees could call and ask for an Archanai to be done and to see this either live or recorded. Perhaps this pandemic inadvertently introduced us to a new way of interacting with our favourite temple.
In August 2020, Victoria went into Stage 4 lockdown with a curfew from 8 pm to 5 am, because of a second wave of infections. This once-in-a-century event meant that the Kumbhabhishekam, which was already postponed from the original date of 7th June 2020, had to be further postponed.
Fundraising for Victorians affected by COVID-19
As the pandemic took a toll on all Victorians, the temple decided to support the needy, by collecting money from devotees and members and buying food parcels. This effort was a surprising success, and both devotees and members donated more than $10,000 towards this great cause. The temple was able to give over 400 food parcels to the needy, containing rice, dhal, sugar, chickpeas, soy meat, milk and face masks.
Aavani Sathurthi 2020
Meanwhile, the temple continued to function without the ability of devotees attending in person, but only seeing events via YouTube or Facebook. The 2020 Aavani Sathurthi was one such event. This was surprisingly well-attended on YouTube.
Sangadahara Sathurthi (Maha Mantra Jabam)
The Sangadahara Sathurthi that falls on a Sunday each year, will be the day when we perform the Maha Homam. In 2020, as we were unable to carry out this event in the Balalayam due to COVID-19, it was felt that we should do a Maha Mantra Jabam. This was done on 6th September 2020 - the Aavani Sangadahara Sathurthi Day. For the Jabam, the temple invited 100 priests from all over the world to participate via Zoom, and this was telecast on YouTube.
The idea was to say this mantra 100,000 times (100 priests saying it a 1,000 times). This was done to be rid of the Coronavirus all over the world and for the Maha Kumbhabhishekam to be held as soon as possible.
Publicity
The temple received a great deal of publicity for the granite construction on local, national and international media. We have included excerpts and cover pages here for posterity.
