Gandhi's birthday 2012 : Prayer for peace

Gandhi’s Prayer for peace

On October 2012 the world marks the 143^rd birthday of a great man, Mahatma Gandhi, whose words and deeds have become a conscience in the hearts of many. I would like to share something that was so dear to him – peace, a commodity and which is so badly needed in our world today.

This is what Gandhi had to say of peace, “If we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have the struggle, we won’t have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.”

He struggled for peace, a peace that was so badly lacking in his own country and the world. He called himself a soldier of peace not war and this is his fervent prayer for that peace in the world among people of diverse origins and believes. The following is his prayer for peace.

Gandhi's Prayer for Peace

I offer you peace.
I offer you love.
I offer you friendship.
I see your beauty.
I hear your need.
I feel your feelings.
My wisdom flows from the highest source.
I salute that source in you.
Let us work together.
For unity and peace.

At a time of great turmoil and hate among peoples in the world and the increasing racial and religious polarization and tensions in our own country, Gandhi’s prayer for peace has becomes very relevant to us today. As his prayer goes we must offer peace, love and friendship to others especially those of different race and creed. We must see their beauty, hear their needs and sense their feelings. Our wisdom comes from God whom we must see in them to be saluted. It is with these attitudes in us that we work together for lasting peace with one another. 

This prayer of Gandhi should be adopted by men all over the world. It is in offering our peace and appreciating the inner beauty and needs of others, especially our adversaries that leads to peace in a world torn apart by hate, jealousy and vengeance.

Mahatma Gandhi may be gone but the legacy he left behind for mankind should continue to live in us and the generations to come. He might not have realized fully the peace he envisaged for his country but the teachings he left behind will definitely bring some inner peace within us. 

In our own country, our community and our families we all want peace but what are we doing to bring about that peace? Do we have that inner peace to be offered to others? How willing are we to offer that peace to those around us in particular to those of different race or creed? Real peace comes from within us and unless we can harness and share that with others, there can never be lasting peace.