THE Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga Centre on Georgetown’s Main Street hosted an evening of Remembrance for Peace and Non-Violence last Sunday as part of activities to mark the anniversary of the founding of Brahma Kumaris.

The occasion also saw the launch in Guyana of the “7 Billion Acts of Goodness”, a worldwide initiative of the Brahma Kumaris.
Main speaker at the event, Ram Singal, a survivor of the 911 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in the USA, is here as part of a regional visit to launch this initiative.

Teachers and students of the centre and other invites were led in a period of meditation before Singal’s presentation. An engineer by profession, Singal said he became involved in the Brahma Kumaris nearly 40 years ago, and it has helped him find inner peace. He explained that it was that peace that allowed him to lead others to find their way out of Tower Two on September 11, 2001 following the terrorist attack.

Reminiscing on that experience, Singal said the persons in Tower Two were unaware of the tragedy that was unfolding in Tower One when the first plane hit that tower. When the aircraft hit the building, he said, everyone initially thought it was an earthquake, as the building was shaking. When they were informed what had happened, they began to evacuate the building. Explaining how he got out, Singal said everyone went to the stairs as the power went off, and he remembers someone shouting, “Second plane!” as they started descending the stairs.

“I remember water gushing down the stairs, and it was so hard that we had to hold on or we would have been flushed down the stairs, because all the pipelines were broken.” He said.

Singal said he made it out of Tower Two, one and a half hours after the first plane had struck Tower One and just about five minutes before the collapse of Tower Two. “If the building had not collapsed inward and had fallen sideways, we would have been crushed,” he explained.

Singal spoke about the horror he saw in the eyes of the people as they were making their way out of the building, the hate and vengeance that he heard being spoken by people in the days following the attack, and his refusal to watch the television coverage, saying that the hate he heard being spoken allowed him to forgive himself as he recognised that revenge would only lead to more acts of violence, as everyone would be seeking revenge after an act of violence, thus continuing the cycle.

Addressing the reason for his visit, Singal said the Brahma Kumaris had embarked on an initiative aimed at creating goodwill and happiness in the world. The initiative, named “7 Billion Acts of Goodness”, is intended to have persons evaluate their actions to others. It requires persons to pledge to engage in three “acts of goodness” every day. This, he said, would allow every person to perform more than 1000 acts of goodness per year.

The hope is that, as people begin to experience the acts of goodness, they would return the favour to another person, thereby creating a chain reaction of goodness and happiness.

He explained that an act of goodness is considered a deed someone does which is above and beyond what that person would normally be required to do. He said that the initiative was started in the USA, and has also been introduced to other countries, including India. His visit to this Region would include Trinidad and Suriname.

Ram Singal was born in India, but migrated to the USA after completing his studies. He is a practicing Civil Engineer, and has also travelled around the world promoting the ideals of Brahma Kurmaris’ meditation. He would be the presenter at a special workshop to be hosted at the centre on Wednesday, January 21, at 18:00hrs. The workshop, attendance of which is free, is open to members of the public and would deal with the topic of domestic violence, “Empowering the Abused and the Abuser.”

Additionally, the public is also invited to participate in the weekly workshops on Mondays during the month of February. The Brahma Kumaris organisation was established in Guyana in 1975, and presently has centres in Georgetown, East Coast and East Bank Demerara, West Coast Berbice, and in Essequibo. Courses offered at the centre or at other venues are free of charge and include studies on Meditation, Self Esteem, Positive Thinking and Stress free living.