For God and Country

Together'. True of any family, but especially true of SASAC family. We are old, young, not so young, male, female, of high castes, low castes, outcastes, myself no caste. We are of many religions. We hold different beliefs, but we share the same faith in an ever-present, loving, compassionate God. Each evening we pray for the poor, the sick, the unemployed, the neglected, and the despised. We ask God to forgive us for anything we've done to hurt, harm or hinder each other. Above all we thank Him for His daily gifts of peace, joy, love. We sing homemade Nepali Hymns: Poetic, heart-warming, melodious. The music delights the Lord. For He made His Nepali people human nightingales!

When we built our school, our aim was to give the best education we could to the poorest children we could find. Soon poor children taught me an obvious, but often forgotten, truth: hungry children can't learn. From that day, we've made sure our poor get first of all enough to eat. In our SASAC family of 95, we eat the same food as the poor: rice, 'dal' (a lentil), vegetable curry. The difference is we get enough of it! We have meat once a week, fruit or sweets once a month. It's a healthy diet as this picture proves. This photo also proves: "He who breaks bread with me is my brother, my sister." These children are Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim. Making them one in friendship is a precious gift our SASAC family gives them.

How can we make the world's peoples more equal? The poor have fallen behind -- far behind -- in so, so many ways. How can we bring them up to date? How can we stop the chasm between the rich and poor from becoming wider and wider? SASAC has two guiding principles: "The best education we can give to the poorest children we can find." "Help the poor help themselves". So we try to teach them how to make much better use of the resources they have here and now: land, animals, most important of all the resource between their ears. Young people in poor countries can't develop step by step as their peers in the west did. They must leap frog generations. Their parents can't even write. They must become computer wizards!

In India the dance is an essential element in our culture. More than that, it is the loveliest way of expressing our faith, reverence and love of God. Whenever we have a seminar -- like this one on "Save Our Forest" -- our SASAC daughters perform the dance of light. Through their graceful, devotional movements, they ask God's blessing. "Enlighten our minds, Lord, show us the way, inflame our hearts, Lord, give us the love and courage to follow the way". Our seminars remind us we are all children in the same family of God. In them our poor learn something from us but I think we learn much more from them -- especially when we are praying together. In all religions it is the poor who  know how to pray!