The Indian Weekender, 2 April 2021

4 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, April 2, 2021
The Indian Weekender
Bhajan Satsangh Trust to organise Koti
Vishnu nama Prayer for universal peace
SANDEEP SINGH
An Auckland based charitable
organisation Bhajan Satsangh Prayer
Group Trust, is organising a three-day
prayer event that will see devotees chant special
verses in reverence of Lord Vishnu – the Hindu
god epitomising perseverance, sustenance, and
continuity of life.
Scheduled to be held in Shri Shirdi Saibaba
Sansthan (Temple) in Onehunga, from Friday,
April 23 to Sunday, April 25 later this month,
it will be one of its kind of event witnessing
a large number of people gathering together to
offer prayers in a staged manner, for universal
well-being and welfare. Members of the
community interested to be part of this one
in a kind event in New Zealand can register
themselves at http://bhajansathsangh.org/
registration-form/. Devotees using WhatsApp
could also use https://formfacade.com/sm/
SvOBbkVNc to register.
Vishnu Sahasranama means the list of the
thousand names of Lord Vishnu to (wherein
‘Sahasra’ means thousand and ‘nama’ means
name) and is a part of the Anushasana Parva of
the great ancient Indian epic - the Mahabharata.
It is widely believed that devotees chant
Vishnu Sahasranama to reap health-related
benefits, including increasing calmness and
improving focus towards other mundane
endeavours in life.
Notably, in the Hindu pantheon lord, Vishnu
is one of the three most important deities
along with Brahma and Mahesh (Shiva), who
represent sustenance, creation and destruction,
respectively.
Bhajan Satsangh first came up about 20 years
ago in New Zealand as a loosely organised
group of enthusiastic people to serve the
religious and cultural aspirations of around
300 families through regular events of bhajans
before formally emerging an organisation
registered under the Societies act in 2009.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender,
Venkatachalam Subramanian, one of the
spokespersons of Bhajan Satsangh, said, “As a
prayer for universal peace and welfare, with the
unconditional support of various likeminded
“
For this endeavour, we are
calling upon interested
devotees to register online
and pick up time and slot of
their choice and convenience
to come and chant Vishnu
Sahasranama prayer
organisations, Bhajan Satsangh has organised
mass chanting of Vishnu Sahasranamam
with the aim of achieving Koti Vishnu Nama
Parayanam (10 million times chanting of Lord
Vishnu’s names).”
Explaining further how they intend to
collectively achieve such a mammoth
number of recitations of Lord Vishnu’s name,
Subramanian said, “it is going to be a collective
effort of a number of people.”
“Chanting Vishnu Sahasranama once is equal
to chanting 1000 Vishnu Namas and constitutes
one avarthi.”
“500 people chanting 20 times
(avarthi) equals 10 million Koti Namas,”
Subramanian said.
“For this endeavour, we are calling upon
interested devotees to register online and pick
up time and slot of their choice and convenience
to come and chant Vishnu Sahasranama prayer.”
“The devotees will get an opportunity to feel
being part of something larger than individual
and pray for collective, universal good.”
“Chanting Vishnu Sahasranamam creates
positive energy and peace of mind for the
whole family at home. Doing so in the
temple energises the temple and provides
peace of mind to the whole community,”
Subramanian said.
Hundreds of managed isolation
vouchers now available for April
RNZ
Hundreds of managed isolation
vouchers have come free for April,
and authorities are urging travellers to
snap them up.
They say the booking system for places
in border facilities has not had this level of
vacancies since October last year.
Except for travellers cancelling their
reservations, no vacancies were expected until
June.
“For the first time in a number of months,
demand for managed isolation vouchers is
down and a number of vouchers are available
in April and beyond,” a managed isolation and
quarantine (MIQ) spokesperson told RNZ.
“MIQ wants to make the most of the rooms
in managed isolation and get as many New
Zealanders home as possible. For anyone
looking to come home, we encourage them
to get on to the Managed Isolation Allocation
System (MIAS) website and book their
space now.
“We have not had this level of MIAS
vouchers available in the upcoming few
weeks since late October 2020, when we saw
a significant increase in demand ahead of the
summer months.”
Capacity in the next fortnight is forecast to
fall as low as 3500 rooms - about 1000 lower
than the system’s operational capacity. Half of
the rooms at the Pullman Hotel - 150 - are still
out of action after guests contracted Covid-19
there in January.
Empty rooms come at a cost to taxpayers,
who paid $499 million towards managed
isolation last year. MIQ did not explain
the possible reasons for so many
vacancies emerging in April.
Seasonal demand from
New Zealanders, who are
less likely to visit in autumn
and winter, could be one
explanation - although
managed isolation had been
booked out until 31 May.
When MIQ released June
and July spaces earlier this month the website
crashed because there were about 1m hits. But
following that rush, vacancies
"MIQ
wants to make
the most of the rooms in
managed isolation and get as
many New Zealanders home as
possible. For anyone looking to come
home, we encourage them to get on
to the Managed Isolation Allocation
System (MIAS) website and book
their space now"
have remained.
Managed isolation has
been mandatory since
November, causing
chaos when it
started - as not
everyone who
had bought flight
tickets knew about
it - and heartache
when the places
started running out in the run-up to Christmas.
The managed isolation booking system was
getting about 100 formal complaints each week
and a wait-list was under consideration to
manage demand.
The opposite problem occurred in October,
when the average daily vacancy was 1291.
Overseas workers
New government figures are forecast to show
that at least one in 10 managed isolation rooms
has been allocated to overseas critical workers
since January.
It came at a time when New Zealanders
wanting to return had faced huge challenges
getting accommodation at the border.
A government spokesperson said it had
introduced a target to allocate 10 percent of
spaces in managed isolation facilities to honour
an election pledge.
“The target was put in place from 1 January
and is being monitored on a quarterly basis.
Information for the first quarter of 2021 will
be available shortly but current indications are
that, on average, at least 10 percent of MIQ
capacity is being allocated to critical workers -
in line with the government’s election manifesto
commitment.”
That election pledge was among a slew of
announcements in one week in September.
Temporary visa holders, such as workers and
students, are being charged more towards their
stay from last week to try to recoup a greater
share of the costs.