The Link between the physical and the supernatural or Divine.

The priest or spiritual elder evoking the aid of Divine powers to assist  the devotee getting him ready to face the ordeal ahead. The Elder evoke perhaps the essence of energy of Lord Murugan the Deity in whose honor the Thaipusam is being held for the past hundred years in this country. With ashes and incense he and the recitations of ancient mantras, he sets the stage and the mind of the devotee upon complete absorption of the Divine. 

For so longas there is suffering in this world mn will be given the respite to transcend  this realm into the next by total submission to the Will of the higher forces Hinduism more than any other religions have more numerous numbers of deities that the devotees worship and Lord Murugan can be said to be the patron Lord of  this country who grants every wish and desires, heal what cannot be cured by conventional ways,  

In essence the Elder man was in  a trance, possesed by a spirit on one form or another of his own choosing and he is transmitting this transic state to the devotee. It instills the feeling of awesomeness and reverence in the devotee's mind and heart 

When I watch these  rituals being carried out for every devotee about to carry the 'Kavadi' I  was transported back in time when I was a child and Tahipusam was one of the most special event in my life; The act of calling upon forces of the unseen to be present  in this time and space to intervene  is to me primordial; a very ancient ritual.

It takes tremendous amount of energy as well as physical tensions for one to be in the state of consciousness in order to become a medium, a channel or a conduit for energies to become manifest from within one.  In many other cultures and religions this ability is what marks the stages  or 'Makam' , that a spiritual man is at in his life. .

When the Essense or spirit that was evoked left the body the Elder falls to the ground exhausted .

When he has totally recovered himself he bowsbefore the shrine of the Lord in reverence and for protection and acceptance..