23 June 2013 - QA 15

An unprecedented calamity hit Kedarnath and thousands of people lost their lives and have been misplaced. All of them went to the pilgrim to pray and have faced this calamity. The faith of many people may be shaken at this stage. How do we deal with this?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: First of all, let us understand that God is impartial. Nature is impartial. It does not see what is mine and what is yours. God is not living only in Kedarnath. He is all over. He is in your heart. He is everywhere.

The pilgrim spots where many tourists have been going, do not have enough amenities to handle the crowd and there has been a lot of negligence at all our pilgrim places around the country. They need better facilities, better roads, better communication systems, and this has not been attended to as it should have been.

Many incidents come where faith is shaken, but come what may we should hold on to our faith that truth will triumph, and good will find its rightful place. This is the time for prayer. When disasters happen, when fear overtakes our mind, prayer helps. Do not lose your heart. Every place belongs to the Lord. Calamities happen and in times of calamity your faith is tested. Hold on to your faith and see what you can do for people around you.

So many lives have been saved. Be thankful for those lives. And for those who have lost their lives, pray for the peace of their souls and their families. Let their families come out of this great tragedy. Let God give them the strength to overcome this tragedy. This is what we must pray. Pray for those who are saved and thank God for saving them in this horrible situation that they have gone through.

There are no words to describe the human tragedy. We must now wake up and make proper alternative arrangements knowing very well that the terrain is so hard and so difficult. We should place proper roads and proper communication and transport systems. This is an urgency. People have been going there since ages and this tragedy will not stop them from going back there.

Let us learn from this tragedy. Let this tragedy not repeat itself anywhere else in the planet due to human negligence. Beyond that we cannot predict or say anything. So we should reduce our human negligence as much as we can.