A call to fulfil Vivekananda’s noble vision

IT was in late 1945 that I had a glimpse of the famous Vivekananda Ashram in Brickfields when travelling in the GTC bus to Kuala Lumpur. Since then, it had always attracted my attention. What was more interesting was to walk up to the ashram, sit down and read all the numerous magazines in English and Tamil. The ashram served as a community centre as well as a place for meditation and worship.
Whenever I had the chance I would attend spiritual talks given by luminaries from India and Sri Lanka. My favourites were Kirubanantha Variar, Swami Chinmayananda, Mani Bagavathar, Swami Parthasarathy, Thangamma Appakutty and many others. These spiritual activities in the ashram brought me closer to the Hindu faith and my mother tongue, the Tamil language.
The ashram was located imposingly in a large plot of land. It comprised the main historic hall which had the sacred Sivalinga deity on the first floor and the shrine of Swami Vivekananda together with Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in the main hall on the ground floor.
Behind the ashram hall was a hostel building. Behind the hostel was the Indian cultural centre, Sangeetha Abhiviruthi. Across the side road was a large compound for the Vivekananda Tamil Primary School with a kindergarten class which was then in a small temporary building.
This is where in the forties and fifties famous philanthropists, professionals and other prominent citizens of Malaysia had their early childhood education and were introduced to the Tamil language and Hindu scriptures before their parents sent them to English schools.
Malaysia Hindu Sangam headquarters
Sometime in the mid-1980s, the Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) had its headquarters in the ashram compound. This was kindly provided by the former leaders comprising the then board of trustees of the ashram. The Sangam became the parent body for all Hindus, and most Hindu temples and Hindu organisations in this country. It had an excellent relationship with the then board of trustees. Since 1965, most of the central council meetings, general meetings, religious training classes and traditional cultural activities were held at the ashram.
A significant historical beginning in the encouragement of the Hindu religion in Malaysia was, I believe in 1978, when the ashram complex was the venue of the first Malaysian Hindu Thirumurai Festival.
This festival is still being held annually without fail. I must proudly say here that since then more than 250,000 children, youths and adults have participated. The ashram can be proud of having been a part of this venture because most Hindu homes now have at least one person who can recite the Thevarams during prayers at home.
It was during this period that Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami from Hawaii visited the centre with many devotees. They used the premises for courses. This group set up what is now known as Saiva Sithantha Mandram of Malaysia. A spiritual feeling at the ashram was created with the presence of so many Malaysian Hindus and the few American swamis brightening up the place.
Pledge to develop into a cultural centre
Little did we realise that this transfer of the kindergarten to the hostel building was the beginning of the changes to come after about 1985. MHS was one of the earliest to congratulate the present president of the ashram on his appointment mainly because it was overjoyed that the future was going to be in the hands of the younger members of the ashram. But events after that were not expected by the community.
The new president’s initial action was to persuade the trustees to increase the rental stage by stage. At first, we felt that the increase was justified to help the management to ease their own expenses. But the increases went on until one day a written request was made to the Sangam to vacate the premises. At that time, we appreciated the request because we were assured that the aim of clearing the venue was to enable the ashram to rebuild the venue into a spiritual and cultural centre with a new auditorium for cultural events and Hindu weddings with facilities for training.
That was the vision impressed on us. Slowly, we also saw the closing of the hostel and the kindergarten. The closing of the kindergarten was a sad moment because the ashram was well-known by many old students who began their early education in the kindergarten. The ashram hall which was heavily used before, was renovated. After that the rental became too expensive, that too with poor air-conditioning of the hall. The ashram hall became far too expensive for Hindu voluntary organisations.
Kandiah Hall
Soon, out of the blue, came the building of the new Kandiah Hall in the Vivekananda Primary school premises. It took off a chunk of the playing field meant for the secondary school and the primary school. This magnificent hall was built with money retained in the Vivekananda Ashrama funds together with generous contributions from philanthropists and the Indian community.
I cannot deny that this hall has become an important centre for many activities. However, it must be understood that it was at the expense of depriving extra-curricular playing facilities for the schoolchildren. The schools were then doing well in sports competitions at the time. The playing field was an important aid for the personal development of the boys and girls.
For sale
The Malaysian Indian community received their first shock a few years ago when it was learnt that the Sangeetha Abhiviruthi Sabha and the hostel building was going for sale to a private developer with an offer of a 10-acre land in Sungai Buloh. On learning this, the Hindu public in a state of shock strongly protested against the decision of the trustees. The Hindu public felt that the venue should be made a heritage building after serving the community for over 100 years. A few weeks later, the Heritage Department declared that it was considering the venue to become a heritage building. With the indication of the Heritage Department to consider declaring it as a heritage property the proposed project was not continued.
23-storey building
Recently the Hindu community was again shocked when it was learnt that there is now a proposal to build a 23-storey residential apartment complex with a six-storey car park with an assurance that the original Ashram Hall will be retained.
The Vivekananda Ashram will be located beneath the car park in the new development. This was a shock to the Hindu public because it had already taken for granted that the venue was declared a heritage.
The community felt betrayed when the board of trustees announced that it had rejected the Heritage Department’s proposal to declare it a heritage property. This roused the anger of the public especially the Hindu community who had various meetings and demonstrations protesting against the new project. A welcome feature was the announcement by Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that his ministry had decided that the venue should be declared as a heritage property.
There was a time when I had admired the efforts of the board of trustees for having efficiently overseen the three Tamil primary schools and the one national secondary school with building expansion programmes. I was especially impressed with the development of the Vivekananda Primary School in Petaling Jaya.
I was disappointed when the chairman of the board of trustees announced over a TV interview that the Indian community did not help in the maintenance of the schools. I must state that apart from a liberal contribution from the Ministry of Education several Indian philanthropists and members of the Indian public including parents have assisted in the building of the Kandiah Hall and the extension of the building for the school in Petaling Jaya.
Further, the Vivekananda primary schools of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur have been declared as two of the 50 schools which are all receiving special financial support which other government schools will not receive. I know of at least two Tan Sris who have given substantial grants and were willing to continue if approached. Now we have a principal of a private tertiary college coming forward to raise RM 100,000 and willing to raise more if needed. Therefore, I find it unacceptable for the board of trustees to claim that the community was not willing to help the ashram.
Pledge
In my opinion it is the board of trustees who have gone back on the original pledge made in the middle 1980s of turning the proposed venue of development into a great modern Indian cultural centre and by rejecting the proposal by the government to make the Vivekananda Ashram into a heritage building.
This, in my opinion, goes against the original intentions of the founders more than a century ago when the then government granted the property to remember Swami Vivekananda’s visit to the United States and Europe between 1893 and 1897 creating an impact on Hinduism as a great world religion. I ask the trustees to pursue fulfilling the vision of Vivekananda fully in spiritual, educational, cultural and community service activities.
Appeal
I wish to appeal to the board of trustees to look into the original aims of the movement and fulfil the vision of Vivekananda who ignited the world of Hinduism by spreading spiritualism, Hindu philosophies, Indian culture, interfaith dialogue and service to mankind when he attended the first Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Vivekananda’s sayings adorn Hindu establishments all over the world. It is my wish that the board fulfils this vision of Vivekananda to promote Hinduism within the heritage property.
Datuk A. Vaithilingam is a long-time resident of Brickfields and the Klang Valley and a former president of the Malaysia Hindu Sangam.