Love, Light, Grace, Strength – Multi-faith prayers for every child (Talking Cub, 2025) is a little hymn book that contains a curated set of prayers, carefully chosen to illustrate powerful, simple thoughts. Think of it as a beautiful collection of prayers, hymns, songs, and aphorisms all together from different faiths.
The verses have been arranged thematically. Prayers and poems on themes of light, peace, love, grace and strength are presented across the pages. Hymns praising god, prayers calling for peace, verses highlighting timeless philosophical principles, and words that invoke a love for nature, all find a place here. The illustrations by Maheshwari Janarthanan add a serene charm to the pages. After each theme, there are a few blank ruled pages, where the reader can write down their own choice of prayer. This is something that helps the reader make the book truly their own.
I love the versatility of the collection. Amongst the many favourites, I must mention “Khwaja mere Khwaja” by Javed Akhtar (the song remains one of my most favourites); Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless poem “Where the mind is without fear”; a Wiccan prayer invoking the beauty of nature and many more! I also found a couple of hymns that used to be in my school prayer book, and that was a pleasant surprise for me!
The choice of the prayers highlights our rich cultural and religious diversity. There are hymns from the Vedas and Upanishads, the Quran, the Bible, school songs, evergreen and popular poems, bhajans, prayers from works of Guru Nanak, words from modern spiritual masters, such as the Dalai Lama, and so on. It is indeed quite an interesting mix.
Many of the works have been translated from different languages. The book is meant for children, aged 10 and above. However, I believe that adults would also enjoy this book. I think of it as a spiritual poetry book, and would love to dip into it from time to time to read words that are infused with timeless beauty, relevance and wisdom.
