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Surprising parallels between the Hindu Swadhyaya Family and the Focolare Movement
Christian-Hindu Dialogue
04/01/2003
 The first contact between the Swadhyaya Family and the Focolare Movement occurred in Assisi at the interreligious World Day of Peace held on the 24th of January last year.
On the 16th of January 2003 in Mumbai, a new step was taken. Didi Talwakar, daughter and spiritual heir of the founder, before an audience of 50,000 young people gathered together in the Thane Stadium in north of Mumbai for a sports festival, introduced the figure of Chiara Lubich with these words: “Originally, I met Chiara at the great interreligious meeting for peace in Assisi in January 2002. We were the only women who spoke during that event. I think of her as a mother and I really wanted her to speak to all of you. We have to be one human family: this is their ideal and it is also ours.”
Chiara, in her talk, referred to Assisi as well as to the present day urgency to create "oases of fraternity" everywhere. She then encouraged everyone to spread love, mutual love which generates fraternity. This is the only force which has the capacity to bring about the sharing of goods and so contribute to healing the imbalance between rich and poor, perhaps one of the salient factors which can bring about a culture of revenge and terrorism. With our love we have to generate a rainbow of peace over the world.” This fraternity between Hindus and Christians was already a reality experienced because of the many parallels between the two movements.
In a successive meeting, Didi Talwakar and Chiara Lubich decided to deepen the relationship between the two respective movements. “There are so many things we share,” Ms Didi said, “that it’s hard not to think that God has a special plan in mind.” And Chiara Lubich too felt that the Holy Spirit was at work. As the Pope wrote in his letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, “The spirit of God ‘breathes where it wills’ bringing to life signs of his presence in the universal human experience, despite its multiple contradictions.”
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