January 28, 2010 was the day when Rev. Dada J.P. Vaswani was to receive the Sant Shree Dnyaneshwara World Peace Prize at a ceremony at MIT Institute, Kothrud. The prize was being conferred by World Peace Centre (Alandi) and MAEER’s MIT, Pune, India.
Upon announcing the nomination of the Prize for Rev. Dada, the World Peace Prize Committee had noted in their letter - (The prize is) "in appreciation of the noblest mission of promoting World Peace, Love and Hope through the unique institution "Sadhu Vaswani Mission". The Hon’ble Members of the World Peace Prize Committee are also extremely happy to take a note of the highest contribution made by Sadhu Vaswani Mission World Centers under Dada’s kind and able leadership to promote Spiritual Awakening through Indian Culture and Tradition and establishing Peace Loving Society throughout the world.”
The day of January 28 dawned with disturbing news. In the early hours of this morning, Rev. Dada had a fall, due to which he slightly damaged his left shoulder.
Rev. Dada, after his fall, experienced a day of excruciating pain. Despite this, he had a consistent smile on his face.
Dada, today, had been invited to MIT, Pune to receive the Peace Prize. The Committee Members had unanimously elected Dada to be the recipient of this award.
Hence, they were disappointed when they heard about Dada’s injury. The sport that Dada is, he agreed to listen to the entire programme on the telephone.
When it was time for them to introduce Dada, he did not give them the opportunity to say that he was not present. Dada immediately began his talk on the phone and the audience was able to hear him clearly on the loudspeakers.
Dada spoke on peace saying that humanity today was wounded and tortured and sorely needed the soothing and healing balm of peace. To attain this we should place our hope in our children who are the future and in whose hands lies this task. This will be possible only through imparting the right type of education to the children in the home and in the school. Peace cannot be attained until we stop all killing. All violence must cease.
Dada spoke with full force and conviction for around 20 minutes and the end of his talk was greeted with resounding applause.
The function carried on with the release of Rev. Dada’s book, “Many Paths: One Goal”.
After the programme, the entire Award Committee proceeded to the Sadhu Vaswani Mission to bestow the award personally on Dada. Dada was overjoyed to see them. Warmly welcoming them, he said he was glad that he had been unable to come, for this was the Sant Shri Dnyaneshwara World Peace Prize and it was as though Sant Dnyaneshwara had come in person, to bless him.
The Committee Members felt that it was not they who were honouring Dada but rather Dada who was bestowing the honour on the award, by accepting it. Seeing him, they felt as though before them was standing the second Sant Dnyaneshwara.
The award included a long citation recognizing Rev. Dada’s contribution to humanity. Excerpt from the citation read, (To Dada) “Sir, you are an embodiment of Saintly traditions of India, nay, we take great pride and pleasure in acknowledging you as a “TRUE SAINT” of the Modern Era.”
