I just completed a one week visit to Malaysia from April 29 – May 5. It was my first visit since 1987. Although its so near to India, a 3 hrs. flight from Kolkata to Kuala Lumpar (KL), for some reason I have never dropped in. I have made relatively frequent trips to Australia but always transited through Singapore. This time I am glad I didn’t. Its one of the most dynamic yatras in ISKCON.

My old friend Ajamila prabhu invited me over. He was my first temple commander in Sydney when I joined in 1972,

that’s him standing in front of the bus

and the leader of the Malaysian yatra for many years, Simheswara prabhu

obliged with a ticket and a tour program.

I flew in by AirAsia, a cheap but well run airline, although we were 1.5 hrs. late and with a 2.5 hrs. time difference it was 2.00AM by the time we reached Ajamila’s flat across the road from the temple.

Ajamila prabhu keeps himself busy with a thriving business designing vaastu compliant houses

KL still has the same 2 story house I stayed at in 1987, but it has been impressively transformed and almost doubled in size.

Now called Sri Jagannatha Temple they have beautiful Deities of Gaura Nitai and Lord Jagannatha and His brother and sister.

I was amazed to hear that Malayasia has 35 ISKCON centers and 35 rathayatras every year! The preaching here has vastly expanded since the early days. It is one of the hidden gems of ISKCON.

My first classes on Friday 29 morning and evening were well attended  with over 100 devotees in the night session. Many devotees work in the day so 8.00PM-10.00PM was the best time in all the temples I visited.

The morning sessions were less well attended but well received nevertheless

I delivered my usual introduction on my seminar series,  Srila Prabhupada The Living Bhagavatam, and the devotees chose the topic of Chanting as the theme, which I kept as I traveled in subsequent days. I spoke again in KL on May 30 morning before heading south on a 4.5 hrs. drive to Johor Bahru for a Saturday evening program.

Apparently we have less devotees in the south but still the program was well attended by about 50+ devotees

The devotees rent a small hall and have beautiful Deities of chota Gaura Nitai and  Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra

At the end there was a happy birthday celebration for a one year old member of the community, attended by this sadhu, whom I spoke with later and learned his name is Swami Devananda.

He hails from Badrinatha. He was friendly, deeply appreciative of ISKCON and Srila Prabhupada and amazingly, he told me he was 92 years old! He said his guru is still alive and over 140 years old.

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