Paras Ra­moutar

Spir­i­tu­al leader of the Ed­in­burgh Hin­du Tem­ple, Pun­dit Ramesh Ti­wari, led his con­gre­ga­tion in spe­cial prayers and de­vo­tion on Sun­day for "the soul of a bleed­ing na­tion." To mark the Avatar of the Hin­du God, Lord Kr­ish­na, Pun­dit Ti­wari called on cit­i­zens, ir­re­spec­tive of re­li­gious, eth­nic or eco­nom­ic po­si­tion, "to bend on your knees and pray to save the soul as the crim­i­nal el­e­ments have now tak­en over the na­tion. "Sev­en mur­ders in one night is not a dream but a re­al­i­ty that no one could have ever en­vis­aged in our beloved Trinidad and To­ba­go, es­pe­cial­ly as we ob­serve the holy month of Ra­madan, and in a week's time we would be cel­e­brat­ing our 49th an­niver­sary of in­de­pen­dence," he told the con­gre­ga­tion.

Pun­dit Ti­wari, who quot­ed vers­es from the Bhag­vad Gi­ta, the Qur'an and the Bible, ap­pealed to "crim­i­nals to change your minds and habits and go to your re­li­gion to save your­selves and the na­tion at large. "We have to work and sup­port our se­cu­ri­ty forces in their quest to end the mass crim­i­nal­i­ty in our land," he said.

"We have to pray for our fam­i­lies at all times, be­cause we do not know who would be next. "We have to pray even for the crim­i­nals to change their think­ing and to live a life of peace and love, in­stead of hate and vi­o­lence." The Ed­in­burgh Hin­du Tem­ple cel­e­brat­ed its 28th an­niver­sary on Au­gust 14. Lord Kr­ish­na, who man­i­fest­ed him­self on earth more than 5,300 years ago, is cred­it­ed with the teach­ing of the Bhag­vad Gi­ta. "Our com­mu­ni­ty, our so­ci­ety, our world need all the light to end the jour­ney of dark­ness in which the world is now en­gulfed," Ti­wari said. "The uni­ver­sal mes­sage of truth, spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and di­vin­i­ty are the tenets of the Bhag­vad Gi­ta." In re­cent weeks, Hin­dus have been hold­ing spe­cial prayers and de­vo­tions and chant­i­ng bha­jans in rev­er­ence to Lord Kr­ish­na.