oldchakra.com

A Report from New York City
by Romapada Swami

[reprinted from the Free Forum]

20-September, 2001

Dear Devotees,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

The whole world has paused to contemplate the awful disaster that took place on Sept 11 in New York City and Washington DC, under the direction of evil forces on this planet.

Since many devotees have expressed their concern for the welfare of the devotees in New York and have volunteered assitance in various ways, I would like to offer this brief report to you. To our knowledge, no temple devotees or close congregational devotees were killed or hospitalized that we are aware of. On the contrary there were many whose lives were miraculously saved by Krishna's divine arrangements, and those narrations will come later. However, the devotees in the New York temple as well as our immediate congregation know too well the pain of many New Yorkers who did lose their friends and relatives; overall, the entire city has been in a state of shut-down and shock.

A dedicated day of sincere and heartfelt prayer to Krishna's Holy Name, on the part of our entire international movement, in honor of those who lost their lives in this tragedy and for the bringing of peace and the protection of God-abiding persons of the world, is being planned. The date for this event is September 29. All temples are being requested to arrange for an outdoor or an indoor harinam sankirtan event, ideally from noon to 3 PM, or whatever works best depending upon your local circumstance. Because of the nature of this tragedy, a grave and solemn mood amongst the devotees participating is very important if the event will be outdoors. A sign reading "Hare Krishna Prayer for Peace" is recommended, and as many congregation members participating will be best. Our GBC Chairman encourages all temples to try to make local arrangements for this, to express to the world and to Lord Krishna our concern for the severity of these circumstances. Anuttama Prabhu will be sending a brief press release on this event by September 26, to help temples who may want to inform the media of our concern and efforts. He will also offer some tips on preparing the devotees who participate in this event to speak in a very compassionate way regarding the victims of the terrorist attack of Sept 11.

A team of a few devotees, deliberately small in number and sedate and prayerful in their presentation, headed by Chandrashekara Swami of New Vrndavan, are going out daily into Manhattan to provide our Krishna Conscious response to this situtation, and to provide spiritual counseling to whoever they meet. Depending on the response they receive, others who are VERY expert in dealing with such sensitive situations may also want to join in. We will try to keep you posted.

Several other efforts are being made to reach out to our congregation, to hospitals, to fire stations—offering solace, counseling the griefstricken, and so on.

A very wonderful plan to reach out to the families of the New York City firemen who lost a father or husband or family member in the firemen's attempts to protect the rest of New York from the horrible flames and the explosion at the World Trade Towers is being carried out by Ramabhadra Prabhu. You will be hearing of this plan from him soon. I request you all to support him in this noble and compassionate gesture.

Your servant,

Romapada Swami
GBC New York

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