The 1996 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

RESPONSE of Rev. Pandurang Shastri Athavale

Your Excellency, President; Mrs. Magsaysay, and all my divine brothers and sisters.

I accept most gratefully the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. I am honored because this award carried the name and the spirit of a truly great Asian of the twentieth century. The late Ramon Magsaysay was a step ahead of others and he lived for his ideas. He tried to cultivate a sense of self-respect and self-esteem in the people of his republic.

I too have been trying to live and work for similar objectives. However, my philosophy is based on the principles of the indwelling God and devotion to Him. Human beings can feel close to each other if we accept the idea of “the indwelling God generating and operating everyone’s body.” Consciousness of the nearness of God helps in developing self-respect in individuals and overcoming human pains and problems. I consider devotion to God a “social force.” The expression of gratitude to God by way of offering one’s time and efficiency can result in collective activities, which in turn create community resources and their just distribution for the common good. However, we, Swadhyayees, undertake these activities to reorient individual perspective towards life and collective existence that builds self-esteem and confidence. Without this, one can neither achieve individual development nor ensure a healthy community life.

In conferring the award on me, you have appreciated the importance and relevance of my philosophy in the modern times and the selfless work carried on by Swadhyayees the world over.

Once again, I express my gratefulness to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, personally and on behalf of the millions Swadhyayees around the world.