Hongkong

OUR next place of visit was Hongkong, an island near the Chinese mainland, under the administration of the British Government. As our plane from Tokyo reached Hongkong airport, we were received by Mr. Dinshawji Paowalla, who is known also as Ramdas, Mrs. Banoo Ruttonjee, Sri N. C. Patel, Sri M. H. Mahatani, Mr. S. L. Yen and many other friends. Their joy on seeing us was indeed great. Mrs. Ruttonjee was simply overflowing with devotion. We were taken directly to a hotel at Kowloon where we were comfortably lodged.

The same evening we were invited to the house of Mrs. Ruttonjee where Dinshawji Paowalla also lived. Mrs. Ruttonjee and other members of the family warmly welcomed us and took us to their big drawing room where visitor friends were also present. As the names denote, Mrs. Ruttonjee and Mr. Paowalla are Parsis. The readers know the Parsis form one of the most prominent communities in Bombay. They are forward in all business and industrial enterprises and have contributed largely towards the material progress of India by their keen sense of duty and unflinching application to business activities. Sir J. N. Tata’s is a name to be conjured with in the industrial and manufacturing field of India. The Parsi community has also deservedly earned the fame of being one of the most generous-natured people of India. We were treated to a nice vegetarian meal by our hostess Mrs. Ruttonjee. A few questions were put to Ramdas by the friends gathered here, of which the following are some:

World Teacher comes when called

Q: Is it true that there is a world-teacher coming soon?

Ramdas: If all people wish that such a great teacher should come, he will surely come. Such teachers come by the wish of people. Avatars are but the unmanifest Reality appearing in flesh and blood at the call of the people. You know the sloka in the Bhagavadgita:

Yada yada hi Dharmasya glanirbhavathi Bharatha | Abhyutthanamadharmasya thadathmanam srujamyaham || (IV–7)

[Whenever there is a decline of Dharma, O Arjuna, and ascendancy of Adharma, I incarnate myself.]

Whenever there is unrighteousness in the world and people are calling upon God to liberate them, He assumes a body and liberates them from the sufferings they are passing through.

Q: Does He not come by His own wish?

Ramdas: He does not come unless we call Him. God is everywhere. Just as milk is everywhere in the cow and through the udder alone we get the milk, so although He is invisible, pervading everywhere, we cannot have Him as an Avatar unless we call for Him.

Q: Human beings can by their endeavour get emancipation. How about animals?

Ramdas: Animals can evolve into human beings and then struggle for emancipation. In the animal state they cannot do anything themselves to gain final emancipation. They evolve to higher forms of life, become human beings some day and in that state they will strive for liberation and attain it.

A word here about Ramdas, the Parsi friend, will not be out of place. He is given to a purely contemplative life and is engaged in spiritual practices. He is looked upon by Mrs. Ruttonjee and the family, as also by other Paris and Hindus, as a spiritually illumined soul—a man of renunciation who does not care either for money, position or celebrity. We found him bright, smiling and carefree, which are the qualities of a person who has attained inner light and peace. His talk always revealed the fact that his heart was with God. Our going to Hongkong was solely due to the attraction which this friend exerted on us. We had known him by name and by correspondence for many years, and our magazine The Vision has been regularly going to him.

Aurobindo Philosophical Circle

N.C. Patel was a new friend who was also responsible for our visit to Hongkong. He is a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and has started a Philosophical Circle in the name of that great Yogi. With such loving friends in Hongkong our stay there could not but be quite happy.

During our stay in Hongkong, besides the invitations we had for lunch and evening meal at the houses of Sindhi, Punjabi and Parsi friends, we had only two meetings, one at Sri Aurobindo Philosophical Circle, started by N. C. Patel, and the other at Sri Lakshminarayan Temple, newly erected by the Hindu community at Hongkong. These meetings were held on the same day. First we went to the rooms of N. C. Patel in one of which the meeting was held. The room was too small to hold the people who came in large numbers. However, sitting in the midst of these friends, Ramdas freely talked for an hour, which was followed by some questions and answers. The following are a few of them:

Object of discipline

Q: Our ultimate end is freedom, and we have to be free of disciplines. Discipline is therefore the cause and result is freedom. We start with discipline and our final aim is freedom. Is it not?

Ramdas: Discipline is the means and the end is freedom. A bird is caught in a cage and struggles to be free. What is the means of attaining freedom? Breaking the cage. Discipline is breaking the cage.

Q: Are you under any discipline now?

Ramdas: No. When you have broken the cage and come out, where is the question of breaking the cage any more?

We are the Reality

Q: Since you say we are from that supreme Reality...

Ramdas: We are the Reality and not from the Reality.

Q: How and when did we find we are individuals?

Ramdas: You do not see the beginning of it, but it is there. How it came and why it came, our intellect is unable to find out. That question does not therefore arise, and the intellect is too poor to gauge the ways of the Infinite. But we know we are caught and our concern is only how to get out of the cage.

Ramdas was in a state of overflowing ecstasy when he was speaking. He transcended the time-limit fixed for him, as he was carried away by the lofty tenor of the subject he was dealing with. Among the audience there were several Chinese friends who loved to hear Ramdas’ talks.

Lakshminarayan Temple

in the evening we were taken to the Lakshminarayan temple. It is a beautiful artistic structure, where all the skill of the architect is displayed. The images of Lakshmi and Narayan installed in the temple, chiselled out of white marble, are most attractive and charming. After Pooja and Bhajan Ramdas was asked to address the assembled devotees. In the course of his speech Ramdas said:

People do not know what the Name of God can do. Those who repeat it constantly alone know its power. It can purify our mind completely. No other Sadhana can do that. While the other Sadhanas can take us only to a certain stage, the Name can take us to the summit of spiritual experience.

As our Hotel was situated in Kowloon, in the mainland, and all the programmes of meetings and visits to houses were in Hongkong, we had to cross the strait by a motor-boat. Hongkong is a beautiful place. It has one of the finest harbours and it is a great trading centre.

Buddhist Monastic Disciplines

An important item in the programme at Hongkong worth relating here was our visit to several Buddhist temples situated in the New Territory in the mainland. The leader of our party was our Chinese friend Mr. S. L. Yen. In these temples we saw huge images of Buddha and also of other deities. We could observe that a good deal of the rituals of other religions was mixed up with the Buddhist forms of worship. Buddha’s teachings and edicts had undergone such changes in their application that we could see the original teaching of Buddha hardly prevalent anywhere in these so-called Buddhist shrines.

We got admission to every part of the temples and met the monks presiding over them. The monks were kind and solicitous. Buddhism is in a state of decadence in these places. Still, by the very fact that Buddha’s votaries held Him in the highest reverence, there is in all these places of worship a sanctity which the visitors could not but recognize. At one place we saw a huge book of hundreds of sheets containing the Pali texts of Buddha’s teachings written by hand by a monk whose whole life mission was to do this work as a principal part of his discipline. In the same place, we were told, that for self-purification through the repetition of a Mantra, the aspirant had to forego sleep for 90 days. All the time he should be on his legs and moving about in a room uttering the Mantra given to him by his Master. Often the aspirants failed in the process of Sadhana and collapsed because during that period they were not permitted to take rest or even sit for a short time. This strenuous discipline, in spite of its unattractive, nay, repelling nature, is adopted by so many Buddhist novices for the attainment of Nirvana or enlightenment.

The struggle of the human soul for the achievement of the supreme liberation from the thraldom of bondage or desire has assumed innumerable forms. It is perfectly true that, until we conquer the flesh, the spirit cannot be released from the meshes of Maya or illusion. Such self-mortifying and rigorous Sadhana, we find, is common to all religions which have among their injunctions the espousal of a monastic life detached from the world, aiming at the transcendence of the limitations set by the human mind and taking flight into the infinite existence—Truth. Man can raise himself from the human to the divine plane only when the Spirit triumphs over matter and the human consciousness gives place to the divine consciousness. God, Truth or liberation is the eternal quest of humanity, because the goal of everyone is the attainment of supreme and everlasting peace.

After visiting the Buddhist temples, at midday we reached the house of Miss Tsang Pik Shan, a Chinese school mistress who had prepared lunch for us. Mr. Yen and other Chinese friends also joined us in the lunch. Here we saw how the Chinese took their food with the help of chopsticks. We had heard about it but had no occasion to see how it was done. With two sticks held between the forefinger or the middle finger and the thumb, they convey boiled rice into their mouths in a most skilful manner. We attempted to do so, but utterly failed. This was natural because it needs long practice to perform this act.

Women Saints of the World

After lunch we were taken to a Buddhist nunnery. In the nunnery we saw a grand worship-hall with a shrine wherein were installed the images of Sri Gautama Buddha, Medicine Master Buddha and Amitabha Buddha. Excepting in Buddhism and Roman Catholicism we do not hear of women becoming nuns dedicating their lives entirely to God, and living in monasteries all by themselves with the object of undergoing severe discipline for inner purification and illumination.

Just as man has aspiration for the Divine, woman also has. So women must be given ample Opportunities to walk on the path that leads to Nirvana or salvation. We had in India many cases of women who have reached the highest spiritual attainment. We had our Maitreyi, Gargi, Anasuya, Sabari, Gopis of Brindavan, Mirabai. Janibai, Muktabai, Andal, Avvayar and Sarada Devi. Europe had St. Theresa, St. Clara, St. Mary, St. Monica, St. Barbara and many others. In the present day also we are having in our midst Ananda Mayi, Mother Mira, Godavari Mata, Rama Devi and Krishnabai. Among the illumined women of the present day in Europe and America we may mention Mrs. Gertrude deKock, Sister Daya and Gayatri Devi. These contemporary women saints are scattered over several parts of the world. They have a large following who receive light and inspiration from them on the spiritual path. Most of them are the heads of spiritual institutions which are open to all persons who choose to go there to receive inspiration and enlightening influence.

The drive through the New Territory was a most pleasant one, for we had a vast and sweeping view of that part of the country which formed part of the Chinese mainland. Going further we found ourselves on the border line between the New Territory and Communist China. We returned to the hotel by evening. Next morning we left Hongkong for Bangkok. Great many friends were present at the airport when we boarded the plane.