HWPL brings religious leaders and young people together ahead of the International Day of Peace
By: Laymah Kollie
A tree stood at the front of a hall here, its branches covered in handwritten cards. Each card carried a message about peace, written by someone in the room. The writers came from different faiths and different generations. By the end of the evening, their messages hung together on the same branches.
Ahead of the International Day of Peace on September 21, the organization Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL) held the “2026 Nagpur RPA (Religious Peace Academy): Building Peace Together” on September 18 at the conference hall of the Babasaheb Ambedkar National Association of Engineers (BANAE) in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
Hosted by HWPL and co-organized by the Jeevak Yoga Treatment and Vocational Training Institute and BANAE, the event drew about 110 members of the local community, including religious leaders, educators, community figures, youth, students and peace activists.
The program opened with welcoming remarks from Beniram Koche, President of the Jeevak Yoga Treatment and Vocational Training Institute, followed by a congratulatory address from Er. Arvind Gedam, President of BANAE, on the theme “The Role of Education and Civil Society in Promoting a Culture of Peace.”
Asking Different Scriptures About ‘Peace’
Under the theme “Peace in Religious Scriptures: The Role of Youth in Building a Peaceful Society,” religious leaders representing different faiths shared teachings on peace drawn from their respective scriptures.
Participants discussed the values of peace, compassion, respect and coexistence found across the different traditions, and explored how those teachings could be put into practice in their communities today.
The session placed particular emphasis on the role of youth, framing peacebuilding not as a task for religious leaders alone but as a value to be built together with the generation that will carry it forward.
“As a young artist, I never imagined that one day I would be speaking about building peace through my art in front of so many wonderful and talented people,” said youth speaker Muktanjali Koche. She said hearing different perspectives on the same topic had inspired her, and voiced hope that more young people would take part in future events to learn, share their views and carry forward HWPL’s legacy of peace.
From ‘Listening to Peace’ to ‘Practicing Peace’
The second half of the program opened with a celebratory performance by the Anjana Mansa Foundation, followed by the “Peace Tree” activity.
Participants wrote what peace meant to them and the actions they intended to take, then placed their messages on the tree. As notes from different religions and generations came together on a single tree, they gave physical form to the event’s theme, “Building Peace Together.”
HWPL said it intends to carry the gathering forward through follow-up programs rather than let it stand as a single interfaith dialogue. A Peace Leadership Training, to be held online over three sessions on October 3, 10 and 17, is designed to build the leadership skills needed to put the values of peace into practice in daily life and local communities, with a certificate issued on completion. Organizers also introduced follow-up programs offered by individual religious communities and youth peace initiatives run by the International Peace Youth Group (IPYG).
The conversations about peace that began that day with different scriptures came together, in the end, on a single Peace Tree.
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