Sarvajiva Sukham

The quintessence of genuine prayer, as I have realised, is the heart8217;s earnest desire for the welfare of all beings 8220;Sarvesham Man...

The quintessence of genuine prayer, as I have realised, is the heart8217;s earnest desire for the welfare of all beings 8220;Sarvesham Mangalam Bhavantu8221;. And this is well reflected in the beautiful prayer, Sarvajiva Sukham, which invokes the Almighty8217;s blessings on all beings without any discrimination. It is a prayer that seeks the well-being of not only human beings, but all that is within the cosmos 8220;Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina8221;.

This prayer is all the more relevant in the modern world when we face a serious crisis of ecological sustainability. It is the result of our changed attitude towards the earth. The earth and its resources are no longer viewed as gifts of God to be respectfully used but they are today increasingly looked at as a source of economic gain. The earth has lost its sacredness to modern eyes. Its plunder goes on unabated.

For too long a time we have been appropriating the resources of the earth for ourselves, neglecting the fact that there are other living beings which also depend on the same mother earth for their survival and sustenance. At best, beings other than humans are viewed as just a means for satisfying human needs.

It is this over-emphasis on human well-being that is sought to be corrected in this prayer. It is a prayer that seeks to unite all beings in the pursuit of happiness, for the welfare of the world is incomplete if it addresses only human concerns. It has necessarily to embrace all beings within its ambience. In fact, an earth with only human beings in it will be an impoverished one; it becomes rich and colorful only when other beings also inhabit it alongside. When human beings are able to accept the rightful place of other beings on earth, it will open up a new way of viewing the world. The world around us then is not characterised by its material nature alone, there is something more to it: a spiritual aura around it, as Sri Aurobindo, a modern Indian thinker and mystic, would suggest. If only we are able to develop a sense of the sacred that is hidden in the depths of even a material object, it will take us into higher levels of the consciousness of cosmic unity. We have a heritage of several myths that extol the value of recognising this sacredness of all beings, and the need to foster happy co-existence of the human beings with all beings. Well, today we may not be able to revert to the lifestyle of the ancient days, but the spirit of living in harmony with all beings is relevant and perhaps even urgent to retrieve.

The writer is the new spokesperson, Catholic Bishop8217;s Conference of India