Shaikh Juzarbhai Shaikh Hatimbhai Khambati
Hizbe Burhani Jamaat Committee, Goregaon

‘Whoever kills someone without cause, fault or crime,
Whoever creates separatist sentiments,
That person is destroying everybody.’

Lal Bahadur Tripathi
Babulnath Mandir

‘My wish is that every living being stays healthy and happy and has a long life. Wealth and prosperity should grow in equal abundance. We should stay self-reliant, self-sufficient and powerful. Enemies should be destroyed. Our country grows and prospers and our people should show true devotion to God and the country.
Sarv mangal mangale shive
Sarvarthe sadhike
Sharnaye treyambake gauri
Narayani namostate.’

Khushroo Maadan
Parsi Colony, Malabar Hill

Excerpt from Doa Tandorosti
(Avesta language)
‘Vainit ahmi nmane Sraosho asrushtim akhshtish anakhshtim, raitish araitim, armaitish taromaitim, arshukhdho vaakhsh mithaokhtem vachim, asha drujem.
Yatha ahmya ameshaao Spenta Sraoshaadha ashyadha paitishaan vanghush yasnaascha vahmaascha, vohu yasnemcha vahmemcha, huberetimcha, ushta-beretimcha, vanta-beretimcha aadareghaat khvaabairyaat.
Maa yave imat nmanem khvaathravat khvareno frazahit; maa khvathravaiti ishtish, maa khvaathravaitaasna frazaintish; khvaathro- disyehe paiti ashoishcha vanghuyaao dareghem hakhma.’

‘In this country, may obedience smite disobedience. May peace smite discord. May generosity smite niggardliness (or avarice for wealth). May reverence smite pride! May truth (the true spoken word) smite (the word false-spoken) falsehood distorting truth!
May the glory giving comfort and ease, happiness, offspring (and) innate wisdom never leave this country! May the long friendship of ashishvangh which gives comfort and ease never leave this country!’

Sister Christobel
Mother Teresa’s Roses, Santacruz

‘I feel anger, sadness and inexplicable thoughts about why a person - anyone - can be so hurtful to another human being. It makes you wonder what a person has learnt in his life to create such a terrible incident that could hurt so many people from a tiny baby to an old person.’

‘Father forgive them. They know not what they do. We pray that we can put religion aside and look at the person in front of us as a gift from God to us to love and to respect the person as he or she is.’

Acharya Suryoday Surishwarji, Acharya Rajratna Surishwarji Maharaj
Amichand Pannalal Adeshwar Jain Temple, Walkeshwar

‘The way of religion is very different from that of politics.
Religion ordains that we should make our enemies our friends. A 100 guilty people can go free, but one innocent person must not die. Politics or governance demands that we finish off all our enemies. A 100 innocent people can die, but one guilty person shouldn’t go free.
We don’t want to hurt anyone and live, we don’t want anyone to die. Each person should live like a good human being. In the world we live in, it may not be possible to turn your enemies into your friends – in that case, one must punish the evil to protect the good; without it becoming an eye for an eye.’

‘Dushtasya dand : sujanasya seva’

Pandit Shravan Kumar Sharma, Pandit Rajesh Sharma
Arya Samaj Mandir

‘It is a durbhagya (misfortune) that our own (human race) have shed our blood. All human beings are one. They (terrorists) showed sanskar vihinta (disregard for values), all due to agyaanta (ignorance).
Even in the Mahabharata, brothers were enemies. Ultimately, the Pandavas and Kauravas were both destroyed. This has been an eternal shraap (curse) on mankind…. The energy of people is wasted in war. The end point is always a compromise or solution. No one wins in war.

Ram and Ravan were both intelligent, but Ravan misused his intelligence. No government or religion preaches wrongly. The training that the young terrorists received was misguided. They were trained in greed. The people who have been caught are less to blame than those who brainwashed them. This was a waste of energies for all involved – the terrorists, the people watching televison… so much anger and negativity. Energy should be diverted into a positive direction.
The feeling of revenge is wrong. The message of peace should be spread.’

The Gayatri Mantra
‘Om bhur bhuva svah. Tatsaviturvarenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi. Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat.’

Solomon F. Sopher
Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Fort

‘We are a race tormented by unforeseen and uncalled-for hatred, which leads one to question why there should be a disparity between different acceptances of human beings. In our synagogues, we pray for the entire human race, irrespective of caste, creed or religion, and that is the cardinal principle of the human race which should be adhered to by one and all.’