Theme : “Krunvanto Vishwam Aryam”
(Let us enoble this earth).

Date : 8th June – 30th June 2005


A group of 11 students of Higher Education from local Universities and Colleges of Malaysia participated in this historic event of Cultural Ambassadors, representing Malaysian Hindu Culture, going to the Hindu Island Bali of Indonesia consisting of 92% Hindus, from 8th June to 30th June 2005 as a contigent of MAHAGRADS (Malaysian Hindu Associate of Graduates), with the theme “Kruvantu Vishwam Aryam” (Let us enoble this earth).

Due to last two years of concentrated efforts of MAHAGRADS, as floated by Hindu Sevai Sangam, inorder to enhance contact with local universities’ and colleges’ students, we could carry out a process of selection for the above project, amongst the Hindu students of these higher educational institutions. 15 students were then selected and they again underwent a series of training programmes.

Training Programmes : On the 23rd May 2005 they underwent a one day seminar where they were introduced and briefed on this whole concept. 11 of them withstood and appeared as finalists. Out of these 11 students 3 of them were girls and of the total, 5 of them had undergone the various training programmes which were conducted by us (HSS) and had been in constant touch since childhood. Of these 5, 2 of them are girls. Again a final training session was held in Cameron Highlands, a Highland area in the northern part of Malaysia. In this session which was held from 29th May to 2nd June 2005 they planned and got themselves trained on the activities that they were going to carry out in Bali.
Some of the Sangh songs and some stories were translated into the common language, Malay spoken by both Indonesians and Malaysians. The meaning for Manthras and Subashiths were also translated. They were also practically exposed as to how to conduct children’s activities and parents gatherings in 2 villages in Cameron Highlands.

Send Off Dinner : A send off Dinner was held on 7th June 2005 at the Kohinoor Palace in Kuala Lumpur for the these students. Datuk A. Vaithilangam the President of Malaysia Hindu Sangam with Shri Radhakrishnan the Deputy President of Malaysia Hindu Dharma Maamandram presided over this dinner and inspired them for this historic expedition. Many of the Sangh sympathisers, well wishers and karyakarthas were present in this event.
On the 8th morning this troupe of 11 Cultural Ambassadors together with 2 of our Pracharaks (Full Time Social Workers) of Malaysia and South East Asia left Kuala Lumpur International Airport with a full zeal of inspiration embarked on this historic expedition to Bali.

Arrival in Bali : This expedition anchored in Denpasar, Bali and all of them were received very traditionally with music, in the Balinese Custom. They were sprinkled with holy water and rice was applied in their foreheads and were garlanded. One Chinese Buddhist Businessman in Bali treated them with a light lunch at the airport itself and then they were taken in vehicles to Ghandi Puri Ashram in Klungkung an outskirts of Denpasar, the capital of Bali.
After some washing up and some food they were briefed by the local host Shri Agus Indra Udayana, the person incharge of this Ashram. Some 15 Balinese University Students and some six Malaysian Hindu Students who are studying in the Udayana Medical University also joined hence forth.

On 9th June 2005 they were made to interact with local Balinese students and in the evening a traditional Balinese ‘Upacara’ which means ritual was initiated with an ‘Havan’ in which the participants would have supposededly undergone cleansing. The Holy water was sprinkled and then all encircled the ‘sacrificial fire’ The young ones prostrated the elders with the recital of ‘Thwam Eva Matha Cha Pitha Thwam Eva’. This was more of a welcome and cleansing ceremony. All the village elders and villagers too participated in this ceremony which ended with a rejoicing feast.

Training Session : From the 10th to the 15th June 2005 all the 11 Malaysian Cultural Ambassadors, 6 Malaysian Students studying in Bali and 15 local Balinese students participated in the training session, where they were trained in physical activities like, Yoga, Suryanamaskar, Traditional Games, Vyayamyok and Parade. They were also trained on how to conduct sessions for children and youth, how to narrate stories, conduct indoor games and so on. They memorised various songs, Manthras, Bhajans and Subashits.

Meeting VIPs : From the 15th to 16th June 2005 this whole team was taken and introduced to the members of Parliament of Klungkung, the Bhoopathi ( who acts as the District Collector ) of Klungkung and the various village heads known as ‘Kelian Desa’ and village cultural heads known as ‘Kelian Adat Desa’. The leaders of Parishada Hindu Dharma (PHD) were also met. PHD is the governing Hindu Body in Indonesia. All these VIPs responded well and encourage this project and requested that it should be conducted annually and showed keen interest in adopting this whole project.

Visit to Lombok : On the 16th morning a 5 hour ferry journey took all of them to Lombok another island off Bali. Reaching here a welcome ceremony was conducted by the Sathya Sai Centre there. Following their usual Satsang, a dialogue session was held with the locals, after a talk by Shri Ramaji, briefing them on the current atmosphere for Hindus the world over. The local youngsters took active part in this very interesting and interactive session. Children enjoyed some indoor games session. Few of the youngsters followed back to the place of stay to continue discussions. On the next morning they visited a kindergarten and a High School and interacted with the students. In the evening there were two sessions one with local University students and one with some 300 senior students of the High School, addressed by Shri Ramaji. In the night was a return 5 hour ferry ride back to Bali.

Village Contact Programme : From the 18th to 24th June they were made into 4 different groups where they were teamed together with the Balinese students and sent to 4 different villages. They were adopted into the homes of the locals where stayed with them and lived their lifestyle – the Balinese Hindu Culture.They mingled with the local youth and children, taught them Yoga, Suryanamaskar and Vyayamyok (the locals were much fascinated to this and called it Hindu Aerobics). They also played with them both physical and indoor games. They taught them to chant mantras and memorise them. They also took sometime to coach them on their academic studies. They visited all the houses in the neighborhood of the locality, they stayed, and partook food with them. Many of these villagers were in tears when they were visited them, saying it was unlikely for Indian Hindus to visit them.

On the evening of 23rd a simple gathering was held simultaneously in all these four villages where the children and youth of these villages performed what all they captured during those few days. The village heads spoke in these functions and commended the Malaysian students for their talents and for giving their children some value based training.

One of the village headman said “Do not think that this is alien culture, this is actually our Vedic Hinduism practiced by our Rishis’. One parent said “ I’m amused and attracted to the Malaysian Youth who came all the way here to give us Classic Hinduism of which we were left out”. On the overall all the locals were very much enthusiased and overwhelmingly attracted to the activities conducted in their villages for their children and youth. The Malaysian students themselves were very much inspired and felt that they have learnt a lot of values from the elder folks in these villages. The youth from the villages felt they have to learn a lot and felt sad that things have come to such a sudden abrupt end.
Then came the day of separation; 24th June 2005 when the Malaysian Students were to return back after accomplishing their assignments. The whole village sent them back with their eyes full of tears. Many of the youth of the village packed their bags and were ready to follow these Malaysian students and be with them till they return from Bali, on the 30th June 2005.

Our Pracharika (Full time Worker for ladies’ activities) of Malaysia joined this team from the 19th June 2005 onwards and stayed on till the end and helped with the activities and inspired the local girls.


Interaction with Malaysian Students in Bali : From the 25th to 26th June all the Malaysian students ( Cultural Ambassadors ) had some interaction activities with the 70 over Malaysian Indian students studying in Bali Udayana Medical University. They also visited some of the homes of Indians who are there since 4 generations in Medan and Bali.

Sight Seeing : From the 27th to 29th June 2005, they were taken for sight seeing of the various temples in Bali and favorite historical sights. On the 27th at the end of the tour they were taken to a village named Untal Untal of Dalong District. A casual dialogue session was held with the Village Head and other elders of this village. The village head told them that they were being succumbed to conversion activities by Christian Missionaries. Immediately all of them ( Malaysian Students ) decided to forego their tour programme the next day and announced that they were ready to come back and spend at least half a day with the local children and villagers. The head of village agreed to organise a gathering. On the 28th after a half day tour from 2pm to about 6.30pm a short programme was conducted for the children and youth of this village and to the surprise of the village elders the children gave a small physical demonstration, chanted manthras and sang a song which they had only learnt during the last 3 – 4 hours. The village head was very much enthralled and invited these Malaysian students to come back and conduct such a programme on a longer duration of time and that he’ll make all the arrangements. On the evening of 29th June 2005 there was a Farewell Session held at the Klungkung Ghandi Puri Ashram, where heads of the various villages and the village folk themselves gathered with their children to bid farewell to these Malaysian Cultural Ambassadors. It was such an unforgettable scene where practically these Malaysians had to be forcefully taken away from their clasps of Love and Brotherhood.


On the 30th June 2005, the whole expedition came to an end and left Bali to Malaysia.

Welcome to Malaysia : On the 1st July 2005 a special Dinner was hosted at the Passage Thru’ India, in Kuala Lumpur, to welcome home these Cultural Ambassadors. Various Hindu organisation leaders, parents of these Malaysian Cultural Ambassadors, well wishers, sympathisers and Sangh swayamsevaks were present.

All the Cultural Ambassadors narrated their experience and inspired the audience and were very much attracted to them with non step loud applauds.

Many of the leaders also spoke and mentioned that it was such a `timely historic event beneficial not only for these students but the Balinese and it has brought pride to Malaysian Hindus as well’. They mentioned that by hearing their experiences itself they experienced being in Bali and thanked them for bearing the torch of Malaysian Hindu Culture abroad.

They also commended and appreciated Hindu Sevai Sangam for taking up such a Project and moulding such promising youngsters for the future of this society. They requested that these experiences be documented. The chief editor of Malaysia Nanban, a local Tamil daily who was present there agreed to give a full page coverage and to take up the publication of the documentation. The parents were fully contended with tearful eyes, that their children had participated in such an historic event and few of them thanked HSS and openly mentioned that what they could not imbibe all these years, HSS has successfully done within such a short span of time.

Outcome : Through this project we could establish Shaka activities in 5 different places. Youths of the various localities have been identified and trained for this. They have taken responsibility to carry on the work.

One of the participants of the above project has agreed to come out as a Vistharak (Short term Full Time Worker) and is ready to go back to Bali and co-ordinate follow up work there for a month in August.