In today's concluding blog sharing Hindu "flowers of faith" I am sharing two beautiful prayers for unity and peace, one from one of the most ancient sacred texts of Hinduism, and one from a contemporary spiritual leader, Swami Omkar, head of the Shanti Ashram in South India.
When enough people (including you? and me) make these prayers our own, with a fervor and sincerity that causes them to shape our lives in significant ways, the human longing for Divine Unity and Peace will find fulfillment.
Here is the prayer from the Rig Veda.
May we be united in heart.
May we be united in speech.
May we be united in mind.
May we perform our duties wisely and well, as did the sages of old.
May we be united in our prayer.
May we be united in our goal.
May we be united in our resolve.
May we be united in our understanding.
May we be united in our offerings.
May we be united in our feelings.
May we be united in our thoughts.
May there be perfect unity among us.
Om, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
This is the prayer of Swami Omkar.
Adorable Presence,
Thou who art within and without,
above and below and all around,
Thou Who art interpenetrating
every cell of my being,
Thou Who art the Eye of my eyes,
the Ear of my ears,
the Heart of my heart,
the Mind of my mind,
the Breath of my breath,
the Life of my life,
the Soul of my soul,
Bless us, dear God, to be aware of Thy Presence
now and here.
May we all be aware of Thy Presence
in the East and the West,
in the North and the South.
May peace and good will abide
among individuals, communities, and nations.
This is our earnest prayer.
Om, Shanti, shanti, shanti.
Peace be to all.
My concluding reflections after walking with you through the Hindu Garden of Faith.
Hinduism is such a huge, rich, diverse, and deep spiritual tradition, it is hard to say succinctly
what its essence is. I can, of course, speak only for myself when I say that to me, the" soul" of Hinduism is the soul/Soul: what it is, it and how it may be found, experienced, and expressed in all our living.
As I reviewed the readings for this blog and the book I am writing, it was clear to me that Hindu spirituality gives primary importance to the soul. The word "soul" itself seems sometimes to refer to God, sometimes to our own inner essence or spirit. That is because this mysterious essence or spirit in our hearts is also the One Being at the heart of the Universe.
To use language from my Christian heritage, it is as if God is saying, through all these inspired Hindu scriptures, "My I AM is your I am. My Being is your being." You could meditate on that for a long time!
Over and over, Hindu sages urge us not to identify ourselves with our constantly changing bodies, minds, feelings, and experiences. For careful observation reveals that what I like to call my "little old me" is made up of all these things that just "come to pass." What IS always there in us is aware will, pure being-ness,
One Divine Presence which is also your presence, and mine, because it is both transcendent and immanent, utterly beyond us, and completely with/in us.
To me, this is a paradox and a mystery, but when I take it as Truth, meditate on it, and try to live it day by day, I find that the promise of the Hindu scriptures that it will set me free and transform me and my life is the way it is. The challenge to me and to you is not to just believe what is offered to us as true, but test it by experience.
Perhaps you will find, as I have, that we can gladly gather flowers of Divine Wisdom from the Hindu Garden of Faith, and take a beautiful bouquet home with us into our hearts and lives.
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