“We need peace and spirituality even more now in these trying times, ever since such a lot of violence is being propagated all over the world under different garbs. We need to infuse new faith and spirituality into people even more now,” says Bishop Valerian D'souza.

He was speaking on the occasion of the Yesu-Utsav, a two-day event that focuses on reaffirming faith and spirituality. The event, which began on January 24 will conclude today. Speaking more about the event he says, “The event is titled Let Your Light Shine, which mainly aims at reiterating the belief of Jesus Christ, among the participants, which is basically the ability to forgive people and help one another unquestioningly and uncomplainingly.”

On what prompted the need for this event he says, “With the recent happenings in Mumbai we need to spread the word that life is sacred. Moreover there is a feeling of resentment amongst the citizens after what has happened. We need to bring it out to everyone that hatred is not the answer and violence only begets violence. We have to work towards wiping out this hatred and not towards hurting innocent people. It is for all these reasons that this Utsav is being held. The people who are attending this event will go and spread the message of peace and bringing in light to dispel the darkness to everyone.”

One of the speakers for the event, Rev.Fr. Robert D'souza, says, “We need to search for spirituality within ourselves. It is something that doesn't come from just going to the church or the temple or the mosque but something that comes only by being able to understand our own imperfections and working towards improving it. A society can become free of malice and hatred only if it reforms itself on an individualistic level, and that is precisely what this event is aimed at." The event aims at reforming a society, one individual at a time. The emphasis is on cultivating goodness and forgiveness which according D' Souza itself will be a reason enough to uproot hatred from this society.

Conrad Saldana, another speaker at the event says, “I am not a member of the clergy so my talk will be for the common man and will be aimed at mainly changing their perspective towards religion and spirituality. Since the common man is more easily influenced by happenings around him it’s of prime importance that he learn the importance of being able to react to the happenings around him in a proper manner and not in a way in which others around are either hurt or harmed.”