Dear Signatories,

Diwali means many things - painting/cleaning one’s home, family time, festivities, Diya/candles, gifts, sweets, new Hindu calendar year resolutions and of course Lakshmi pooja. In sync with the Diwali spiritual ethos, I’m sharing, some powerful prayers, beginning with the Pavamana Mantra - an ancient Indian prayer from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad:

asato mā sadgamaya        -   From Evil            lead me    to Good

tamaso mā jyotirgamaya   -   From Darkness   lead me    to Light

mṛtyormā'mṛtaṃ gamaya  -   From Death         lead me    to Immortality

Lead, Kindly Light -  a similar hymn written in 1833 by Saint John Henry Newman. As a young priest, Newman became sick while in Italy,  unable to travel for almost 3 weeks. At last when he set off for Marseilles, they were becalmed for a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio, and it was there that he wrote this now-famous hymn:  

Lead, Kindly Light, amidst the encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

In the Early Buddhist Texts there are various mentions of luminosity. Says Buddha:

“If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path.”

I conclude with Saint Francis of Asissi’s prayer:  

               Lord make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope. Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness joy.
O Divine Master Grant that I may not seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand; To be loved, as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
And it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

The above carefully selected prayers sum up the essence of the effort of our Initiative # ChooseNonviolentDefence which you have signed! Do help forward the Initiative to your family and friends. As Gandhi affirms:

“The strength of Nonviolent Resistance lies in its numbers.”

Suman Khanna Aggarwal

President, Shanti Sahyog Centre for Nonviolence (CFN)