Temple begins ground-work to help in crime fight

Yesterday morning the villagers of Ste Madeleine were awoken by the rhythmic sounds of drums and the offerings of Hari Om Sharan, as members of the Lakshmi Saraswatti temple took to the streets in an effort to bring the community together to fight crime in their neighbourhood.

Led by the hardworking guru Surindra Maharaj and the elders in the temple Dhanpat Angatesu, Ramesh Karapan and Indal Harricharan, the children turned out in large numbers to urge the community members to attend worship on Sundays and to join together to make their future safe. It was a very moving experience for the villagers who were receiving little children at their doorsteps begging them to come to worship. Community activist Ramesh Karapan speaking to Newsday said: “We have a temple in Corinth that is very active and we want the youths and elders in the area to come to worship. We are not saying that you can only be saved by coming to the temple, you can also go the churches but our message is get out the house and to a place of worship.”

Karapan added, “We have many Hindus in the area and we are sending a message to them that they must come out to our temple and lay the groundwork for the future generation. As you know crime in Trinidad and Tobago is very prevalent at the moment and we think that getting to the youths is a major way to alleviate the problem. “We would like to see the masses coming out to worship and getting involved in community work so that we can come out and put an end to the violence that is enveloping our society.” Karapan was high in praise of Angatesu who he said was the exemplar in the community and urged others to emulate him.