RALPH BAN­WARIE

The ex­ec­u­tive of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha on Thurs­day held pu­rifi­ca­to­ry and atone­ment rit­u­als at the Cara­po Shiv Mandir in Ari­ma, fol­low­ing the des­e­cra­tion and van­dal­ism of the tem­ple re­cent­ly.

Pun­dit Rishi Ma­haraj, who of­fi­ci­at­ed at the prayer ser­vice, not­ed that the cer­e­mo­ny was nec­es­sary to beg for for­give­ness over the dis­re­spect, dis­hon­our and van­dal­ism of the tem­ple.

Al­so at­tend­ing was Dr Ram­per­sad Paras­ram Dhar­ma­charya.

At­tor­ney and MP for Ch­agua­nas West Pun­dit Di­nesh Ram­bal­ly, speak­ing dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, called for uni­ty of all re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions and cit­i­zens re­gard­less of po­si­tion, creed, re­li­gion or race to unite to “free our­selves of the evil plagu­ing the coun­try.”

“By this uni­ty, we do not ex­pect that there will be a re­moval of all of our dif­fer­ences, but we do ex­pect that we can mu­tu­al­ly re­spect our sec­tar­i­an dif­fer­ences and ap­pre­ci­ate the spir­i­tu­al truths,” Ram­bal­ly said.

He added: “The biggest blow which we can strike against the evil in our land would be unit­ing of our peo­ple of all races re­li­gions and com­mu­ni­ties. By this, we will again be­gin to fos­ter an acute dis­po­si­tion to­wards be­ing our broth­er’s keep­er, some­thing which seems to have be­come lost on us.”

The Carapo Shiv Mandir, which was vandalised and desecrated by unknown intruders.

RALPH BANWARIE

He said the Cara­po Mandir has played an im­por­tant part in de­vel­op­ing Hin­du spir­i­tu­al­i­ty.

“The re­cent des­e­cra­tion has not set it back. If any­thing, this mandir now serves as a bea­con of faith and re­li­gious per­sis­tence. It has shown us how to abide by our dharmic du­ties in face of ad­ver­si­ty It has shown us the depths of Hin­du con­cepts and tra­di­tions so that up­com­ing gen­er­a­tions will have a prece­dent to fol­low,” he said.

He said on a na­tion­al lev­el, the des­e­cra­tion of the mandir and the mur­tis il­lus­trate the grow­ing evil in so­ci­ety.

“This evil is no longer out­side our homes and our places of wor­ship. We can­not out­run this evil. We can­not make a dash past it and then lock our­selves in­side the safe­ty and com­fort of our homes and tem­ples. This evil, if left unchecked, will con­tin­ue to break down doors as they did in this tem­ple,” he said.

He said when, “we see the in­creas­ing crimes be­ing com­mit­ted against our moth­ers, fa­thers, sis­ters, daugh­ters and sons in such a cal­lous, heinous egre­gious and evil man­ner, we must ap­pre­ci­ate that T&T is no longer a par­adise.”

Ram­bal­ly added, “We know that the per­pe­tra­tor of this crime is bright enough to know that beef is a pro­hib­it­ed item in the Hin­du way of life be­cause the cow is sa­cred to Hin­duism. To cook beef in the tem­ple is a very cal­cu­lat­ed at­tack on Hin­dus. Nonethe­less, we have done the nec­es­sary prayers to ask for­give­ness from the di­vine and for atone­ment so that the ef­fects of such wan­ton des­e­cra­tion can be mit­i­gat­ed.”

SEE AL­SO: Pan­dits to chant 5,000 mantras for pu­rifi­ca­tion of des­e­crat­ed tem­ple

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