4TH TYPHOON IN MONTH LASHES PHILIPPINES

FOURTH STORM TO HIT THE PHILIPPINES IN A MONTH
HAS LASHED THE REGION BRINGING HEAVY RAIN AND WINDS

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - The fourth typhoon to lash the Philippines in a month brought pounding rain and winds to the eastern coast early Saturday as it barreled toward Manila along the same path as an earlier storm that left the capital still partially submerged. Thousands were evacuated from their homes in the eastern province of Quezon, where Typhoon Mirinae made landfall after midnight, as rains threatened to unleash mudslides. Typhoon Mirinae, locally named Santi, packing 150 kph winds, is expected to make landfall Saturday at the eastern portion of the island of Luzon.

The typhoon was expected to pass south of the sprawling city of 12 million later Saturday morning with winds of 93 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and gusts of up to 115 mph (185 kph). Mirinae was tracking the same route as Tropical Storm Ketsana on Sept. 26 when it dumped the heaviest rains in 40 years in and around Manila - a month's worth in just 12 hours - leaving hundreds dead and thousands stranded in cars, on rooftops and in trees. The northern Philippines is still struggling to recover from back-to-back storms that killed 929. About 122,000 people remain in government-run evacuation centers, and many communities in Manila suburbs are still under water, with residents moving around on makeshift rafts and foot bridges.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

In the Seventh Canto, Chapter 1 and Sloka 26 of the Bhagavatam, Sri Narada addresses King Yudhisthira as follows:
As the Lord is never perturbed even by abuse and ill-speaking about Himself, therefore if one fixes one's mind on the Lord either with a feeling of animosity or without animosity, or out of fear or from affection or from desire for self-enjoyment and self-gratification, one realizes the Lord in accordance with the nature of one's mind-fixation on the Lord.
This shows that the mere fact of mind-fixation on the Lord brings on the Lord's Grace even where the determining motive is something different from Bhakti in the Lord for His own sake.

Srila Bhakti Hridaya Bon (Vana) Maharaja :
"Sri Rupa Goswami’s Bhakti-Rasamrta-Sindhuh"
"Sadhana-Bhakti" - Commentary on Text 3