The devastating Earthquakes in Christchurch and in several parts of Japan and the tsunami have left hundreds dead and injured. There was panic among many New Zealanders as the Civil Defence warned of a possible tsunami to hit the coasts of New Zealand last week. Luckily the fears did not come true.
However, the tremor in Christchurch, first on September 4, 2010 and the second on February 22, 2011, and a series of aftershocks in between have placed all of us in a state of anxiety, knowing not what the morrow would bring. We observed National Silence on March 1 and we will join Canterbrians on March 18 in morning the dead and praying that their soul rests in peace.
This parade of Nature’s fury in New Zealand, Japan and in many other countries over the past two or three years should make us and pause and reflect on what could be wrong, and where. While scientific theories may place the cause of these calamities to human and natural factors including nuclear implosion, tampering with the atmosphere through satellites and space travel and disturbances or shifts to tectonic plates. Whatever the reason, the effect is cataclysmal. The affected regions would take a long time to recover, if at all.
Hindus believe that such major upheavals occur when humans across the world perpetrate serious acts of impropriety and breach tenets of justice and decency. According to them, when the evil gets the better of the good, Nature becomes ferocious, and remains agitated, until people join hands to appease it with prayers.
Indian Newslink has spoken to Hindu Council of New Zealand President Vinod Kumar to consider through the Hindu Organisations, Temples and Associations (HOTA) the possibilities of conducting a mass prayer (called, ‘Yajna’) to save humanity from further chaos and destruction. While he, HOTA and the New Zealand Temple Society Secretary Ilango Krishnamoorthy work out the details, we hope that this would become an interfaith event with the participation of people of all religious convictions.
Watch this space for more.
