RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

A promi­nent Debe pun­dit and his wife have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

Since his hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion, many of his fam­i­ly, friends and devo­tees are now scared that they too may have con­tract­ed the virus.

A rel­a­tive who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty said yes­ter­day that both the pun­dit and his wife are ward­ed at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal and were said to be do­ing well.

Both were picked up at their home by po­lice last week Thurs­day and were tak­en straight to the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal af­ter they be­gan ex­pe­ri­enc­ing symp­toms con­sis­tent with COVID-19.

How­ev­er, the rel­a­tive said al­though the pun­dit was hos­pi­talised Hin­du devo­tees from Ra­mai Trace were con­tin­u­ing to have hour-long prayer ses­sions on Fri­day nights which are at­tend­ed by 30 to 50 peo­ple.

“Peo­ple seem to think that if they pray and do poo­ja they will be safe but they are not re­al­is­ing that the on­ly way to be safe is to stay in­side and do not con­gre­gate,” the rel­a­tive added.

Mean­while, the spir­i­tu­al head of SWA­HA Inc, Para­macharya Pun­dit Hard­eo Per­sad, called on Hin­dus to up­hold so­cial dis­tanc­ing.

“At present, many cit­i­zens are cel­e­brat­ing or are prepar­ing to cel­e­brate some re­li­gious oc­ca­sion: East­er, Ra­madan or, in the con­text of Hin­dus, Nau­raa­tum and up­com­ing Raam Nava­mi and Hanu­man Jayan­ti cel­e­bra­tions. It is in­deed por­ten­tous that such a flour­ish of re­li­gious oc­ca­sions co­in­cides with the cur­rent pan­dem­ic that plagues. Al­though mass con­gre­ga­tion can­not and should not hap­pen now, we can and should con­tin­ue to wor­ship in the safe­ty of our homes,” Per­sad said.

Say­ing Dhar­ma or du­ty is a quin­tes­sen­tial prin­ci­ple of Hin­duism and one that ought to steer peo­ple for­ward at all times, Per­sad said, “It is in this light that civic du­ty or civic re­spon­si­bil­i­ty is of ut­most im­por­tance in cur­rent cir­cum­stances—stay at home and pray with in­creased rev­er­ence, de­vo­tion and sanc­ti­ty.”

He not­ed that for Hin­dus, Ram Nava­mi and Hanu­man Jayan­ti are two key up­com­ing re­li­gious cel­e­bra­tions.

“Let us pre­pare our minds and bod­ies to ful­fil our spir­i­tu­al oblig­a­tions while main­tain­ing the laws of the land. God is om­nipresent and can, there­fore, be wor­shipped any­where. I, there­fore, urge you to cel­e­brate these oc­ca­sions in your homes, us­ing any of the fol­low­ing meth­ods pre­scribed in Hin­duism,” he said.

He en­cour­aged Hin­dus to in­ten­si­fy their de­vo­tion and abide by the re­stric­tions at this time.

“There are many ben­e­fits to be gained in max­imis­ing this soli­tude. It is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­flect on your spir­i­tu­al growth and the ways in which you can ad­vance men­tal­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly,” he said.

“Let’s not waste this pe­cu­liar op­por­tu­ni­ty that we have been giv­en. Re­mem­ber that to every be­gin­ning there is an end. Every cloud has a sil­ver lin­ing and the dark­ness that hov­ers over our land will even­tu­al­ly pass.”