Front Line

Friendly Visit With Different Religious Groups

Bombay, the commercial capital of India, is actually the most westernized and cosmopolitan city in this country. It is a modern city, yet it is wedded to the cultural and religious traditions of the ages.

Modern Indian people living in such a hurried and competitive society can hardly afford to even think of searching for a spiritual path, sighed a venerable spiritual practitioner of Radha Swami. This spiritual practitioner was enlightened when she came to know that even living in a fast-paced modern city, our fellow initiates, who follow Supreme Master Ching Hai to practice the Quan Yin Method, have been regularly joining group meditation at least once a week. It is a good example, she expressed, that modern people can also enjoy a balanced harmonious life between material and spiritual comfort, as long as they have an experienced living guide to show them the know-how. You are all lucky children of God to follow a living Master and a beautiful One!"

While saying this to us, she picked up from her wallet a photo of our Master, which she got some years ago and has always been carried with her since then, showed it to us with a triumphant smile, and said, With Master's blessing, others might have trouble, but I don't.

This venerable practitioner also concisely introduced us to the main religious and spiritual groups to be visited. Although I have followed my own spiritual path, she said, I am honored to bring other truth-seekers to your Master. That is the humility commonly shared among those most pious Indian spiritual practitioners.

The first place we visited was one of the most renowned Hindu ashrams in Bombay, Arya Samaj Mandir. Here, Hindu pilgrims often congregated to perform religious rituals, have lectures or group meditation in its solemn, spotless prayer hall. Coincidentally, on the same day, its leading elderly members from different cities held its regular meeting to study the Vedas -- the oldest revealed scripture. Our fellow initiates were welcomed by their General Secretary, Mr. Sangeet Sharma, to join their holy gathering. To remove all darkness of ignorance and illuminate true wisdom is our purpose of studying the Vedas, said Mr. S. Sharma. He continued to say, The Vedas show us that all creation should be regarded as one universal body and all religions come from the same source. To come back to that original source, we need to follow the guidance of an enlightened Guru, instead of worshiping outer forms and images or blindly following any man-made religious dogmas.

Mr. S. Sharma also invited us to share Master's teachings with all their members. They all thought that Master brought the same essential teachings as are in the Vedas into the daily lives of modern people. It proves that your Master has taught you the true path of enlightenment, concluded one of its elderly leading members. At the end of their gathering, they held a holy ritual -- to remind themselves that as spiritual practitioners they should purify themselves and sacrifice for other people.

On the same afternoon, we were invited to visit the Rama Krishna Temple and were warmly welcomed by the administrator of the reception department, Swami H.G. Kapicades and other swamis. They were glad to know that in February of 1991, Master was invited as an honored guest by their headquarters to attend the international conference and anniversary celebration held in the City of God (their headquarters in West Virginia, U.S.A.) where She even gave lectures to many of their swami disciples. After exchanging spiritual books and teachings, they invited us to visit their gorgeous grand temple, reminding us of the glorious temple of God within everyone.

Unexpectedly, on the following Sunday, we received a friendly invitation from the Bombay Church of Christ to join their Sunday Service. Most of its members are young, open-minded intellectuals who have been enthusiastically propagating the teachings of Jesus Christ through the study of the Bible, especially the New Testament. After the Service, we also invited some of their Bible-talk co-leaders to our hotel to exchange different views on spiritual practice.

During our pleasant discussion, Master's words of logic and wisdom cleared the doubts they had in the study of the Bible; therefore, many of them eagerly applied to learn the Convenient Method. While practicing the Convenient Method, they all had good inner experiences. Some of them saw the inner light sparkling and shooting from all directions like a big parade of firework; one of them saw a brilliant beautiful lady (the manifestation body of Master) standing on a boat above a transparent ocean, calling his name a few times. The inner experiences convinced them that the true way of praying should come from being in the closet (the wisdom eye) and praying secretly, and that the true baptism should be done with 'fire'(the heavenly light). One of their co-leaders confessed, I believe the positive energy of enlightenment, obtained from daily practice of this meditation method, will sustain me to go further in fulfilling the Christian mission.

The East Indian's Open-Mindedness In Respecting The Truth

Apart from visiting spiritual groups, we also went to some academic and art institutes. We distributed sample booklets, as well as contributed Master's books to their central libraries. Most of the librarians were surprised when they realized that we had come such a long way to offer books of Master's spiritual teachings as gifts. We hope our readers will find the Key of Immediate enlightenment in these holy books of your Master, said the administrator of David Sasson Library. We were impressed and surprised by the way Indian people respected all spiritual teachings.

For example, when distributing sample booklets at Bombay University, we stayed outside the main gate to do the distribution, because on campus there was an important national academic conference at which many renowned VIPs of different academic fields were present. However, about half an hour later, a gentleman wearing a tidy police uniform with high-rank badges came to us, saying, I am the chief of the police authority of this university. It is a divine thing that you are doing. Please come in to do your work properly. He also kindly suggested that we stayed longer until the conference was over, so that we could give Master's booklets to all the big shots . Before saying good-bye to us, he requested one more booklet, because his colleague had taken the one he was given.

A similar story happened at the local airport when its security policemen demanded a thorough check of our over-loaded luggage. As the luggage was opened, Master's photo on hundreds of sample booklets appeared before his eyes. We told him, This is the spiritual book of our Guru, to be distributed to the Indian people free of charge. So we gave him one. He received it with joined palms and respectfully pressed Master's photo on his wisdom eye. Thus, we passed through without any further checking.

Master's Photo Conveys Mystical Power

Master's photo helped us a lot in building good affinities with people, especially with those spiritual practitioners who have reached certain levels of self-realization. They immediately recognized who Master really is when coming in contact with the great magnetic field transmitted from Her photo.

While distributing booklets at the entrance of the Prince of Wales Museum, we met a Hindu swami, an expert in researching physiognomy, who had a small stall nearby. When we offered him a booklet, he gazed at Master's photo for a long moment and then began to ask many questions about Her. About an hour later, he came to one of our initiates, praising with his thumbs up, Very, very high Guru, and asked for some more booklets to be placed on his stall. Later, we found that when there were no customers around, he always fixed his gaze on Master's photo.

Once on the bus, a middle-aged lady seated opposite our fellow initiate kept looking at him and then she suddenly bowed to him with joined palms. Our fellow initiate felt puzzled by her action, but still came over to her with a sample booklet. Later, during the conversation, this lady explained that she has been practicing the art of channeling for many years and is able to see people's auras and feel their magnetic fields. The moment our fellow initiate got on the bus, she felt a strong magnetic field emitting from Master's photo on the necklace hanging on his chest, so naturally she bowed to Master's photo as a gesture of respect. Aside from asking some spiritual questions, she also expressed her sincere wish that one day she could meet Master in person.

Master's Love Permeates Bombay

Another story shows that even the sensitive birds can feel Master's blessing power. On the day of initiation held at a local hotel, a flock of pigeons had gathered on the balcony outside since early morning. It was not a common phenomenon because that hotel was located in the city center and was surrounded by tall buildings, where pigeons seldom stay or gather as a big flock. However, they even remained at our hotel the whole day long and dispersed after sunset when the initiation was over. Those lucky pigeons, which represent peace, also came to share with us Master's blessing power.

The second day after initiation, before leaving Bombay, we held a farewell group meditation with the Convenient Method practitioners on the grassy area in front of the Gateway of India where we enjoyed the cool sea breeze, rhythmic ocean waves and true inner peace.

We sincerely express our gratitude to Master for gifting us with such a rich, valuable spiritual journey in Bombay.