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THE FAMILY AND THE NATION
Acharya: This has to come out of education from childhood learning in schools and through association with great Acharyas. What was the second experience? Kalam: I visited an ancient Christian monastery in RILA, located in the hills of Bulgaria. It is the biggest Bulgarian Revival spiritual and cultural centre with a 16,000-volume library, including 134 manuscripts from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. This holy site played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the complex was rebuilt later and is now surrounded by a big fort. While in that divine environment, amidst the Reverend Fathers aged between eighty and ninety, I felt like praying. I went to the altar and asked permission of the Reverend Bishop to recite the part of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. The prayer was repeated by all the people present in the monastery. Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace; Where there is hatred let me sow love; And where there is injury, pardon; And where there is doubt, faith; And where there is despair, hope; And where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. For it is in giving that we receive; ...it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; ...and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Acharya: Kalam, your mind has been trained with beautiful events and spiritual thoughts. Let me pray for your success in the mission of promoting world peace. May this beautiful divine message of love enlighten your life.
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