A Moderate Muslim Country

Coming to the end of a week in Malaysia, where we have just returned to Kuala Lumpar after working on the new temple in Penang state, which is four hours to the north. Having been born to Australian RAAF parents in Penang in 1969, it is also nice for me to return to the place where I was born. Some people say that there are invisible connections between a person and his birthplace, and when they return they get some strength back. I am not sure about this, but its certainly nice to go there.

The temple is to be called the Sri Sri Radha Krishna, "Temple of Devotion & Understanding" , and you can read about it here http://www.iskcon.com.my/Phases/temple-project-update.html

The temple is unique, in that it will have the ten incarnations of the Lord as murties surrounding the main temple area which houses the form of Sri Sri Jaganatha Baladeva and Subhadra. We are designing 16 multimedia presentation which will sit within the alcoves of the octagonal temple, showing the pastimes of the ten dasavataras, as well as Lord Rama, Balaji, Ranganatha, Varaha-Nrsimha, Lord Caitanya and Jaganatha.

The project is being headed up by my dear senior Godbrother Simheswara Prabhu, and his vision is that the project will be an educational centre to showcase the Vedic culture and philosophy to all parts of Malaysian society. Malaysia has a unique mix of races and religions. While it is officially a Musiim country, it is a very moderate Muslim country, and there is a high degree of religious tolerance. In fact, the government has recently started a campaign that they want to go beyond religious tolerance, and they are promoting religious respect. Muslim Malays, Chinese Buddhists, and Hindu Indians, all live and work together in harmony.

Malaysia gives a good opportunity to share the Vedic teachings with Chinese also. Last night I met a Chinese man who asked about my religion, and when I told him I was a Hare Krishna, he said, "Oh, I am officially a buddhist, but I also worship Hindu gods, I have faith in Hindu gods."

I asked him to tell me more, and he explained that he was once in India on a business trip, and he had a mystical experience in a Ganesha temple where he had a vision of a lotus and two eyes within his mediation in front of the Deity.

After that he brought back over 200 Ganesh muftis for his shop, and he has since sold all of them - and surprisingly 95% were sold to other Chinese. It seems the Chinese buddhists are quite open to worshipping some of the Hindu gods if they see that there is  benefit there.

In our mulitmedia presentations in the new temple, we are placing the subtitles in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese; and we will present the Vedic evidence that Krishna is the source of all incarnations, and only He can give the ultimate benediction of freedom from repetition of birth and death, and His eternal loving service.

In Penang we also attended a nice pandal program and 3 hour bullock cart Harinam procession, where the chief guests were the local Muslim rulers, and the class was translated into Tamil. It reminded me of the Caitanya Caritamrita how the Muslims are in government, but they are very tolerant of the Hindus practices.

Yesterday,  back in KL temple, I heard some Bengali devotees talking, and it was the first time I had heard Bengali in 3 months, because I have been teaching in Australia for the past 3 months. It was so nice to hear it again, and I excitedly had a nice conversation in Bengali with the devotees. It was like meeting old friends again to meet the Bengali devotees - very sweet.

This morning in the KL temple I was very surprised to see Hari Sauri prabhu in the temple, and he greeted me warmly. It was so nice to see this stalwart Prabhupada disciple, and Prabhu gave a very nice class on Srimad Bhagavatam verse from second chapter about how one should not use religious or occupational duties to cultivate material gains, and if material gains do come, a practicing devotee should not use them to cultivate sense gratification.

Hari Sauri Prabhu gave a nice insight into this verse also: he said that when one Professor who was studying Srimad Bhagavatam had come to meet Srila Prabhupada, and asked Prabhupada what was the essential part of the Bhagavatam, Srila Prabhupada had quoted this verse 1.2.9, saying this is the essence of Srimad Bhagavatam. Hari Sauri Prabhu was also saying how, as devotees, we have to very careful to weed out desires opposed to devotional service from our hearts, otherwise, gradually we lose our taste for service, and it becomes painful to be in the association of pure devotional service, and we will make some excuse or other to leave the association of devotees.