Venue: Rakiraki
President – Raratapu Jyoti Ramayan Mandali;
Trustees and Members of the Committee;
Members of the Raratapu Community;
Invited Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Bula Vinaka and a Good Evening to all of you.
It is a privilege to be present here today at the Rarapatu Kali Mata Mandir to we celebrate with you the Annual Kali Mata Pooja, an important event on the Hindu calendar.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As you all know Goddess Kali, the divine protector, dons several avatars to protect the weak. She uses her cosmic powers to destroy the evil forces that threaten the world. Her most well-known appearance on the battlefield is in the sixth century Devi Mahatmyam. The deity of the first chapter of Devi Mahatmyam (Glory of the Goddess) is Mahakali, who appears from the body of sleeping Vishnu as goddess Yoga Nidra, to wake him up in order to protect Brahma and the world, from two demons Madhu and Kaitabha.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are lucky to call home a nation so rich in different cultures and religions, and I am especially grateful that in Fijian society we so openly share in the traditions and celebration of our fellow Fijians, as we do so today. Gone are the days where Fijians were distinguished by their race or religion and my invitation to this auspicious event is a sign of that progress.
The story of the great Goddess Kali is also a story of teamwork, unity and camaraderie. Values that have built the Fiji we know and love today. Values that bond us together in our great journey forward as a nation. And values that we have enshrined, for all time, in the Fijian Constitution. A Constitution that, for the first time, establishes common and equal citizenry in Fiji, regardless of our background, our beliefs, our socioeconomic status, or where we live.
Under that Constitution, united in common purpose, the Fijian people have taken our nation to unprecedented heights – at home, as we’ve grown our economy for eight straight years, and abroad, where we’ve assumed global leadership on causes critical to our secure future. We’ve shown that when we respect one another, when we work alongside our fellow Fijians and embrace our differences, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We have just entered the fifth month of this year, as we look ahead to the rest of 2018, it is more important than ever that we continue to stand together – as one nation and one people – in building the new Fiji.
We will be holding our national elections later this year, and, as we have seen before, we will again be confronted with old forces that seek to divide us and hold us back from our journey into the future. Again, we must reject that backwards way of thinking. Again, we must choose progress over prejudice and dirty politics. And again, we must renew our commitment to one another, as Fijians and as men and women dedicated to the betterment of our nation.
We must continue our work to make Fiji a better, safer and more inclusive nation. We must continue the sound financial management and planning that has carried our economy to such success. We must continue opening doors of opportunity for our young people, through free education, subsidised bus fares for school children, and record funding towards scholarship programmes. We must continue our work to create a more knowledge-based society, one that rewards on the basis of merit, and merit alone. And we must continue to hold our great belief in what this nation can accomplish, as we strive to make every year an even better year to be a Fijian.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
With those words, my sincere thanks once again to the Trustees and Members of the Raratapu Jyoti Ramayan Mandali Committee for continuing the tradition of Kali Mata Pooja in the Rakiraki community and I wish you all a wonderful festival celebration.
Vinaka vakalevu. Thank you.