PANDIT Satish Prakash, spiritual head of the Arya Samaj Pratinidhi Sabha, has been presiding over a National Day of Prayer which has evolved into a calendar event in Guyana.

On this designated day, participants assemble at the Vreed-en-Hoop stelling from 07:00 hours to begin a march to the Joe Vieira Park from 07:30 hours, preceding the joint bands of the GDF and the GPF.

The ceremonials then begin with an inter-faith religious ceremony conducted by leaders of all the religious bodies who choose to participate, as all denominations of all faiths in Guyana are invited to participate. Later in the day, the various arms of the Hindu religion in Guyana conduct a multi-kund havan, and all participants are requested to walk along with their kunds and havan sarjam, as well as rugs or chairs on which to sit.

The Arya Samaj spiritual head said the situation in Guyana has increasingly been constraining his attention to a sphere outside of the box of orthodox religion and Hindu tenets – moving away from the dogmas to incorporate the social dynamics of the country, with its multiplicity of religions and cultures; to focus less on theology and more on social problems.

Pt. Satish elucidated that this focus concentrates more on the role of God in human life, rather than in the form of worship by any religion or denomination. The differences in how Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, or any other religion conceives of God are irrelevant; the only imperative is that this family of humanity recognizes that there is a universal rock on which Mankind can stand, and what should not create divisions is the basic foundation on which all religions are premised and take root, he posited. This is the sublime message underpinning his mission – to carry a message of unity in purpose to all religious and social communities; all-embracing and all-inclusive of religious covenants.

According to Pt. Satish, his organisation has been trying to reach out to the Christian and Muslim fraternities of religions, to join forces and lift a collective voice in a National Day of Prayer in Guyana.

“All Guyanese need to stand together on one spiritual rock and feel comfortable,” he said. “Rishi Dayanand wanted this interfaith unity too.”
He said: “The philosophy of what we are expounding seeks to accentuate what unites us…. There is an element of belief and practice that unites all Guyanese and all humanity in terms of what we believe in, and in terms of what we practice. For example, no religion advocates divorce, or separation of families; nor does the Supreme Father advocate in any religious pathway that hatred rather than love is the way to seek His favour; but God embraces all of us and tells us to put our palms together and call His Name – the Name by which we know Him — and be inspired deep within to find solutions together. That is something (on which) all religions are on the same platform, the same page.”

Acknowledging that one cannot divorce politics from social issues, Pt. Satish said it is his firm belief that only the spiritual pathway can resolve national problems, because it is where the confluences of all the national dynamics can find a common rock on which everyone can feel comfortable and at one with each other under the unifying force of the Universal Lord.

What has become a parliamentary pastime – creating gridlocks that hamper the nation’s developmental processes — is surely a negative synergy that makes imperative a National Day of Prayer, because Guyanese are a deeply spiritual people, and maybe the entire nation would feel comfortable to leave mediation on national issues in the Hands of the Lord. Surely, if we search the scriptures, answers could be found on vexing and perplexing problems that are hampering and inhibiting the upward trajectory of our country.