Photo courtesy of William Thomas.
Guruji performing prana pratishtha to Rajarajeshvari Devi on Saturday, January 19, 1991 after She arrived to Rochester from the Stroudsburg peetam.
In the picture (from left to right) VP Raghavan, Saru Haran, Sundara, Balasingam Janahan and Haran Aiya.
Below is the excerpt from the Guruji's biography "The Goddess and the Guru" describing this event:
"On Friday afternoon, Guruji, Aiya and a small group of Rochester congregants arrived at the Stroudsburg peetam and were soon hammering together wooden crates to carry the precious cargo. Later that night, Devi Parvati entered the temple sanctum for a farewell puja to Rajarajeshwari and found Guruji sitting in front of her. “He said hello; we exchanged a few words,” she recalled, “and then he very quietly stood and said, ‘Come and stand here.’” Devi Parvati stood at the spot he indicated, very close to Rajarajeswari, and Guruji placed his hand on her head. “He chanted, not for a long time,” she recalled. “There was no ritual. It seemed very informal.” Then he said “Here, hold this”—and Devi Parvati felt a strange sensation enter and spread throughout her body.
Guruji explained that he had temporarily transferred the murti’s energy into her for safekeeping during the move. “He said, ‘You’ll carry her energy to Rochester and then we’ll take it out and put it back into her once we arrive there,’” Devi Parvati recalled. “I said, ‘Wow, why me? How can I do this?’”
Guruji replied, “You are the Goddess. There’s no reason why not.”
Early Saturday morning, the temple was formally deconsecrated, its kalasa, or holy spires, removed from the roof, and its murtis packed into a moving van. By early afternoon the Rochester contingent had set off on the long drive back to Aiya’s home, proceeding carefully along the wintry roads. Oblivious to it all, Devi Parvati sat happily slumped in the back seat of a devotee’s car. “I was in an altered state!” she said. “I was completely euphoric, totally in bliss for the whole day!”
The party arrived at Aiya’s temple at seven in the evening, and immediately commenced the long ritual of prana-prathista—reestablishing the deity’s energy in the image—which they finally completed around 1 a.m. Even after Guruji returned Rajarajeswari’s energy to the murti, Devi Parvati remained disoriented. “It took me a long time to ground myself back into my body,” she said. “Sitting through the rituals, I was still very spaced out. I just sat in meditation through pretty much the whole thing.”
And with that, Rajarajeswari and her entourage established in their new home in Rochester—where they remain to this day."
