Sharing the sacredness of life

Kia Scherr, who lost her husband and daughter in the Mumbai terror  strike, moved swiftly and started preaching ways to honor the sacredness of life, by living a life with love, compassion and forgiveness. Her husband Alan Scherr and their daughter Naomi were among the six Americans killed when gunmen opened fire at the Oberoi Hotel.

Associated with the 25-member One Life Alliance (OLA), a group of terror attack victims, Kia believes life is meant to be lived in harmony. It was the same philosophy that has prompted her to publicly forgive the terrorists.

“India is like a mooring point for me. This time my stay is much longer as I want to expand and bring people together in the circle of love,” she told Deccan Herald.
 One Life Alliance was formed in November 2009 after the terror strike.  Master Charles Cannon, founder and spiritual director of the Synchronicity Foundation for Modern Spirituality, was leading a meditation retreat in Mumbai with a group of people from across the world. Kia remembers it was Cannon who helped her form the group.   “It is going to be a long journey. And people, even the victims of a mindless attack or a holocaust have to get along and move ahead in their lives with love, tenderness and empathy. It is all about being pro-active in our lives,” she says.

 Elaborating her organisation’s philosophy of pledges, Kia said children are asked to take one pledge a day and that can be just smiling or being polite and considerate towards fellow beings. “Every day, new pledge is added. People who do it find their lives changed and become more sublime and beautiful. One of the reasons I like to focus on children is because they are the future of the world. I feel that inculcation of love and empathy and being wakeful to the moment is easy for children. For them, the world and life is a miracle,” she says. 

According to her grown-ups take their lives for granted and become a sort of robots. “At St.Andrews College in Bandra , the students took up a pledge to work in a slum. Some students want to work in a Muslim locality and dispel the myths surrounding the community,” she said.