Shaky Isles

The islands of New Zealand lie on the margin of two colliding tectonic plates, the Pacific and Indo-Australian Plates. New Zealand records some 20,000 earthquakes a year but up until 4 September 2010 only 200 of them were generally felt. Since that time there have been over 7700 earthquakes in Christchurch, 22 February 2011 being severely damaging. Although we seldom feel the earthquakes with a magnitude less than around 3.7, we have felt hundreds of earthquakes over the last few months. Sadly the February 22nd earthquake destroyed the original The Lotus-Heart cafe and our Gandharva Loka world music store. The restaurant in Cathedral Square is closed indefinitely as there has been no public access to the central business district (where all 3 of our Enterprises dwelt) since that date. While we wait on the uncertain future of the the central city, we have embarked on the project of setting up a brand new restaurant in our Centre building. Through the whole experience our spiritual lives have deepened in unimaginable ways. The oneness, love, kindness and generosity of our Sri Chinmoy Centre world family has carried us this far. For this we are eternally grateful.