My Beloved Mumbai

(Image Courtesy : www.msnbc.com)

The TV reports that the siege has ended, the terrorists have either been captured/killed, the hotel guests either freed or being carried out in body bags, the soldiers and policemen either standing down or being buried.

It almost too surreal. Having worked in Mumbai several years ago and having walked down the very lanes and edifices that have been attacked so brutally by the crazed maniacs who so heartlessly mowed down people like weeds, I am still unable to believe it.

As Dad put it : The rakshasas of the olden days are still alive - they are called terrorists today.

Taj Hotel where I attended training, Metro where I watched movies, CST where I use to alight on my way to the Queen's Necklace.....memories come flooding back. Mumbai has been a victim to terror many times before and this horrible incident too shall fade in time from public memory, but the pain I am feeling right now is unfathomable.

Death spares no one . Usually such incidents in India affect the middle classes and the poor as previous incidents were mostly due to bombs set off in public places. This time the well heeled, Bollywood actors, corporate honchos, tourists, security personnel, the common man mowed down at VT - have all been victims.

Terrorism has no religion. A newspaper reported about how 6 members of a muslim family were mowed down at the VT railway terminus by the devils-in-human-form who were ostensibly doing this for the betterment(sic) of that community in this country.

Mumbai will arise again(it already has) as it has on many previous occasions, politicians will start the blame game, the heroes will be buried, and life will go on. But has anything been really learnt from this incident ?

There have been calls for a core group to handle just terrorism and better infrastructure and training to police. A lot of technology and intelligence will be thrown at this problem.

But as the lessons learnt from 9/11 and Virginia Tech last year tell us, no amount of technology can fathom the depths of evil in the human mind or hatred in ones heart. Only when minds are healed and hearts are won, can this war against evil be won. All the more reason to meditate and bring more people to the path of meditation and service.

Sri Sri says :

If every child in the world learns a little bit about all cultures, a little bit about all values, the whole scenario will be different. Then one will not think, 'Only I will go to heaven. Everyone else will go to hell'. This wrong education or lack of education has caused so many problems in the world. A sense of belongingness with the whole world - it doesn't matter what colour or race you are - is that shared value that we are talking about today. Even if one pocket in the world remains ignorant of these shared values, common values, the world will not be a safe place. So we need to address these issues with a lot of patience. It is not a job that we can do overnight, but through education and creating that sense of community, through inspiration and example .

- Sri Sri

We can clearly see the effect of some pockets of the world being used to indoctrinate youth in the name of religion, fooling them into believing that they are somehow better than the others, that they are the chosen martyrs who will achieve God by murdering others. Ironically these are our fellow human beings who are being misguided and used to promote terror.

A time for meditation and prayer, a time to honor the fallen, a time to rededicate oneself to the practice and promotion of human values around us.

Jai Guru Dev,