TONGA: NUMBER OF MISSING RISES IN FERRY SINKING

FERRY SINKS OFF TONGA;
DOZENS MISSING, FEARED DEAD

NUKU'ALOFA, Tonga — Giving women and children the comfort of cabins while men stayed on deck may have doomed them to be trapped inside an overnight ferry that capsized in heavy seas off Tonga, officials said Thursday. Dozens are missing and feared dead. "No women or children made it," said a passenger after he was brought ashore with the other male survivors who managed to cram aboard the ferry's seven or eight lifeboats. The missing passengers, mainly Tongan women and children who were sleeping in cabins below deck, likely would have gone down with the ship, he said, so chances they would be found alive "are not great." A lot of boats traveled between islands of the archipelago every day and "the ratio of accidents to trips is quite small," Sevele said. Tongan boats immediately rushed to the area on a search and rescue mission, and New Zealand — which has responsibility for maritime emergencies in Tongan waters — sent a military plane to join in, overflying a trail of debris some 10 miles (15 kilometers) long for most of Thursday. Most survivors were picked up from lifeboats within a few hours of the search starting, although no more survivors had been located by sunset Thursday.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

In Bhagavad-gītā (2.13) the first instruction given by the Lord is:

dehino 'smin yathā dehe
kaumāram yauvanam jarā
tathā dehāntara-prāptir
dhīras tatra na muhyati

"As the embodied soul continually passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. The self-realized soul is not bewildered by such a change."
We are not the body; we are spiritual beings trapped in the body. Our real interest lies in understanding this simple fact. Then we can make further spiritual progress. Otherwise, if we remain in the bodily conception of life, our miserable material existence will continue forever.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 6 - Chapter 15 - Verse 3"