London Lord Shiva temple undergoing modernization

(November 18, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Infamous Eelapatheeswarar Aalayam (Lord Shiva Temple) functioning close to the world famous Wembley football stadium for the past eleven years is undergoing extensive refurbishment work according to religious traditions from yesterday.

The major internal restructuring and development work started at the auspicious time with priests reciting Vedic chants and offering special poojas (service).

According to the development plan presented to the devotees, the first stage of the work will be carried out for five months that will involve building a ‘Garbha Griha’, the 'house of the womb,' the ‘source of life’, or the ‘Mulasthanam’ or ‘the inner sanctuary’. The Inner Sanctuary will be constructed surrounded by idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses especially brought in from India. The construction and placing of deities are said to be according to highest consideration by the leading Hindu religious guides from Tamil Nadu, India.

The temple is said to have engaged a leading Aasari (temple internal structure builder) to undertake the restructuring work, attending to intricate details.

The Chairman of the Executive Committee Mr S Thiru Moorthy said ‘the temple will celebrate its major Kumbabishekam in May 2011 with its significance at the most important eleventh year anniversary of the temple’. He further said the ‘Kumbabishekam is special and it recharges the spiritual power of the deity.’

According to the Chairman of Board of Trustees Mr A K Vivekananthan, ‘Lord Shiva who is presiding in our temple as Eelapatheeswarar has given our devotees great cure for many of the sufferings in life. It is our mission to move further to establish the much wanted sanctity of worshiping for our Lord to heighten his greatness’.

The development work is funded by the devotees of the temple and so far according to the Treasurer Mr S Sritharan, they have collected two thirds of the internal development costs from the devotes. He said, ‘the external extension and relocation of the entrance with a Gopuram work is expected to start in May 2011’.

The yesterday’s event is said have been attended by diverse Hindu community and the foundation stones for the inner sanctuary was constructed with the devotees placing bricks and stones with vedic chanting recited by the priests.