On December 29^th 2013, a suicide attack on a train station in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd has killed 17 people. Then, the next day in the same city, at least 14 people have lost their lives at a trolleybus blast. One of the foremost leaders of ISKCON Russia Bhakti Vijnana Goswami reflects on the unfortunate series of events:

The tragic events in Volgograd makes us wonder about the nature of terrorism. The saddest thing is that people explain or justify terrorism with God, and with the name of God.

From time immemorial, people did just that – quoted God to justify the most heinous acts.

But we must understand that God, by definition – is absolute good, and his name should not follow evil. Evil comes from the absence of God. From the absence of God in human life.

Therefore, the Vedic scriptures especially make people think about who they are. If they understand their own nature and understand the relationship with all the things, and recognize that the only source of all things is the all-loving God, then they can give this love to others.

God, by definition, is love and absolute good. And when a person gets closer to God, he begins to reflect this quality. This quality is evident in his heart. He starts to share good.

People, if they are truly spiritual, never judge others. They judge only themselves. They do not try to blame other people. They are not trying to act as a judge in this world, remembering that “do not judge and be not be judged by anyone”.

The judge is God. And even God, in essence, does not judge. God, above all, is ready to forgive, ready to love. Therefore, the nature of terrorism – is the absence of God. And when people try to leave God out, the void in the heart gives room to other reasons to explain hatred based on religion – and it is the worst thing that discredits the idea of God.

God is the absolute love, the absolute good and the absolute beauty. This absolute beauty creates harmony in this world and in our hearts. And if we get closer to God, we feel this harmony, this satisfaction and happiness, and we want to share this happiness. However, if a person carries pain and misery, it sows around wreaking pain around him, it means that inside him there is no God, but merely void. If a person connected with God, who is love and beauty, he or she will give love and goodness.

Therefore, the most important thing we can do in order to save people from this evil is to help them come closer to God, and to let them feel the presence of God.

When people feel His presence, it will be out of the question of hurting others. They will naturally give warmth, light, and love that come from God. They become agents of eternal love, eternal beauty and eternal goodness emanating from God.

Click here to watch Bhakti Vijnana Goswammi’s original YouTube mssage in Russian: