The light of candles permeated the darkness on Low Steps Wednesday night as a group of students, faculty, and campus spiritual leaders gathered to honor the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
The candlelight vigil—organized by a collaboration of Columbia spiritual student groups, such as Hillel, the Muslim Students Association, and the Hindu Students Organization, among others—gave members of the Columbia community the opportunity to come together to mourn and reflect on the terrorist attacks on the Indian financial hub. Launched on Nov. 26, the attacks claimed the lives of nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more in gunfire and grenade attacks on two five-star hotels, a train station, a Jewish center, a movie theater, and a hospital.
“Their [the terrorists’] targets were indiscriminate,” Sonia Sethi, BC ’09 and officiator of the ceremony, said. Sethi spoke on the need to use the arbitrariness of the attacks as motivation to join together. “Now more than ever we are not bound by our faiths, backgrounds. We are joined by humanity.”
The crowd, comprised of people from all different religions, races and cultures, stood still at Sethi’s urging for a moment of silence, as members allowed the enormity of the tragedy to wash over them. For one, the grief was too much. The silence was broken as a woman in the crowd collapsed, and had to be escorted to the side of the gathering.
After the silent reflection, more congregants advanced to the front of the group and offered reflections and prayer, many of them echoing Sethi’s initial sentiments.
“We must turn tears into action,” Rabbi Yonah Blum of the Chabad Resource Center at Columbia, urged. “What would happen if ten of us here would work with the same single mindedness [as the ten terrorists] to achieve good,” Blum questioned. “I would like to find out.”
Gadadhara Pandit Dasa, Columbia’s Hindu chaplain, agreed, adding that even in the midst of mourning it is important to come together. “Perhaps we can still, individually, collectively, from whatever tradition we’re from, offer our prayer,” Dasa suggested. Many in the crowd murmured with agreement.
“It was moving to me to see in the face of tremendous adversity that people could overcome cultural and racial boundaries that have divided our country for centuries,” Dan Schwartz, CC ’12, said.
As candles began to flicker out, Sethi closed the ceremony, insisting that “we can’t let this bring down humanity.”
The organizers are collecting donations in support of families who suffered losses in the attacks.
COMMENTS
Comments will be moderated in accordance with our comment policy