SPIRIT VIEW OF INDIA'S TROUBLES

　SPIRIT VIEW OF INDIA'S TROUBLES

　SILVER BIRCH'S views on the problems of india were given to a visitor to our circle, Shridhar Telkar, the London corres-pondent of the "Free Press Journal" of Bombay and associated newspapers. The journalist is also a friend of Mr. and Mrs. V.D. Rishi, the pioneers who are propagandists for Spiritualism in India.

　Here is Shridhar Telkar's own account of his sitting with Silver Birch:

　Some strange things happen in our daily lives. We cannot always give reasons for their occurrence. Some people might say, "Oh! it was fate"; others, “It was the will of Providence," and just leave it at that. And so ordinary human beings carry on from day to day unmindful of the great purpose that lies behind the "unexpected."

　I am still thinking why this strange thing happened to me the other day. At the moment it seems to me a mystery, wrapped in an enigma. You see, I am a journalist by profession. I am always on the lookout for something fresh that will interest my news-papers in India.

　Not long ago, an Indian friend turned up at the Press room of the Ministry of Information. I was not expecting him. “Come along to the Savoy Hotel," he said. "There will be some good news for you there.” Together we went to the Savoy, where a Press conference was held by Lord Strabolgi. My friend entered the hall and sat among a group of journalists in the far corner. I waited outside and somehow didn't have the heart to go in.

　Then suddenly Lord Strabolgi came towards me, shook hands and said, “Come along." He took me to his table, and there I sat among Lord and Lady Strabolgi, a Jew and Hannen Swaffer. I had never been so close to Swaffer before, although during my peregrinations I had seen him many times. There was something in him that fascinated me. 

　My mind went back to past days when I was a student and often heard about Swaffer. When we talked for the first time, I realised that here was a kindly soul, a great, warm-hearted, sincere man of the people, with a deep human understanding. When the conference was over, I told Swaffer that I very much wanted to meet him.

　"Come tomorrow at noon,” he said. Going to his flat, I saw him surrounded with books and papers in his "workshop.” For here he juggles with words, turning and twisting them with uncanny skill. You know how pungent, brutally frank and satirical his words can be, how he tells a story in the Swaffer wayーa thousand words condensed into a hundred. I saw him that day at work and I remembered the old saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword.” Well, I had a grievance. I told him all the facts and he took up my cause. His pen worked the miracle! Such is Swaffer, few among men, to whom is given the duty to serve mankind.

　Before I left he arranged for me to visit his home circle. Although I have lived in England for more than fifteen years, I had never been to a Spiritualist gathering, or visited seances or clairvoyants. Being a journalistーand a journalist is always credited with having a shrewd and critical mind—I thought I must not miss this opportunity.

　I was excited when I arrived at the cosy flat where the seances are held. The atmosphere was friendly. Our hosts welcomed us warmly. I was now in a typical English home. But somehow the atmosphere was different. I felt I was with hospitable, kindly Indians. The few people gathered there became my friends instantly. They were all new faces to me. Yet we soon began to talk, laugh and joke like intimate friends joined in a reunion. On the wall hung a striking picture. It was Silver Birch, guide of Swaffer's Home Circle. His deep, penetrating eyes and the glow on his face reminded me of an Indian saint. I kept looking at this amazing picture.... It almost seemed to talk to me.

　We kept on chatting for some time. I sat next to Swaffer and opposite was W. T. Parish, a well-known healer. A sudden silence descended on the room. The talk turned into gentle whispers. I was watching with keen interest the personalities in the room. Besides Swaffer and myself there was another bright-eyed young journalist. It was my newspaper instinct that kept me on the alert.

　The men and women around me were not peculiar creatures, They did not show any signs of being abnormal or eccentric. My talk with them convinced me that they were educated and intelligent. We talked on politics, Socialism and Gandhi. Such people could not be termed "cranks" or "hypocrites” or “suffer-ing from a strange mental disease."

　The medium began to show signs of uneasiness—perhaps uneasiness is a wrong word, but that is how it seemed. His hands rubbed against his cheeks. His eyes had now closed. There was gentle movement of his feet and his whole body and soul, I thought, were being captured by some unknown spirit. A sudden hush—then came the dramatic moment, all eyes were focused on the medium. Silver Birch was speaking.

　There was a prayer by him first. I was struck by its simplicity and depth of meaning. The flow of words impressed me very much. When Swaffer introduced me as a friend of Rishi, Silver Birch replied: "I am very happy to have you here, my son. I have a great love for Rishi and for his wife, for they are doing a great task. ... A small illumination in a vast continent of darkness.

　"They go straight ahead, turning neither to the left nor to the right, but always wanting to be faithful to that sacred trust which has been reposed in them. One man against a continent. One man who thinks that so little headway is being made and yet all the time souls are being touched, freed from the bondage of ancient error and hoary superstition, helped towards the light of spiritual truth.

　"It spreads and spreads....The little stream that meanders, gradually swelling into a river. One day it will become a mighty ocean, yes, even in that continent of yours where so much is known about religion and so little about the truths of the spirit. We see your world filled with human beings who can be turned into instruments of the spirit. Each is a harbinger, or could be, to spread a gospel. And if each succeeds in bringing truth only to one, then at least there is twice as much truth as there was before.

　"After all, if in your short span of earthly life you succeed in helping to lighten the load of only one, if you succeed in drying the tears of only one, if you succeed in lifting the burden of worry of only one, then at least your life has not been in vain. But, alas, there are many who, at the end of their earthly pil-grimage, have done nothing to help others. Don't you agree with that?",

　"Yes," I replied.

　As a Socialist and a firm believer in the universal brotherhood of man, Silver Birch's concluding remarks, I thought, could be a message to all suffering humanity. It would be well for some people in this world to take these words to heart. For man's inhumanity to man is growing and baffles our imagination. In the name of God and truth much crime is being perpetrated. "Might is right," and the eternal laws of the universe are thrown to the winds. Yes, if “each is a harbinger to spread the gospel of truth," then at least our lives will not have been in vain.

　I asked Silver Birch this question: "I feel that human beings everywhere ought to be free. My people at the moment are suffering a lot. The soul of India is in agony, as I see it. We have some great men in India today, great, spiritual men who are trying their best to bring the spiritual consciousness of our people to such a high pitch that they may have a reservoir of great spiritual strength, so that they may be free from British rule, and enjoy peace, happiness and liberty. Is there any method, any way, for our people to attain that state?"

　Silver Birch answered: “There is a very fine man here, a fine spirit who says that if I say that you worship his poetry you would know him.” It was Tagore, our greatest poet, the man who inspired millions of our countrymen by his poems.

　"My son," said Silver Birch, "you must remember that your country is reaping what it has sown. The universe is ruled by law, the law of cause and effect. My voice—and the voice of those who are already liberated from the servitude of earth—is always cast on the side of freedom, liberation and tolerance.

　"But you cannot at one stroke solve complex problems that are the results of internecine war. You cannot free people who do not want any freedom except that which they say is freedom, for freedom must always be qualified, it cannot be unfettered. There is no such thing as 'free' freedom, for freedom must be restricted to enable others to enjoy liberties which would be infringed upon if freedom were completely free.

　"In your country, for centuries, there has been the darkness brought about by allegiance to their own creedal beliefs. Millions have worshipped false idols to which they have given divinity and supreme power, and have refused to recognise that any other idols have an equal status to their own. The spirit, the human spirit, has been cramped, subjected and repressed. It has been enmeshed in complicated and complex doctrines that are be-wildering in their tortuous conceptions.

　"Now they have to be rescued. But you cannot undo the work of generations in one day. They have not yet learned the lesson of tolerance, the lesson that every human being is equal in the sight of the Great Spirit, that none is the recipient of divine favours unless that one has earned it by a life dedicated to selfless service, that the possession of any religious label confers upon the holder rights of superiority and privileges which are denied to others.

　"There is so much to be undone, for those who have dwelt in darkness for a long time cannot afford to have the full blaze of the light of truth. They would become blind. The task is for each man to free himself from the bonds which are his prison. Having burst these bonds, he can enjoy then the larger freedom, the freedom that tolerates the rights of others.

　"India is a large continent and there is room for all. Once there is a majority who realise that there is a quality in the tie of the spirit that binds us all, despite creed and caste, that they are one brotherhood of the spirit, there is no power, no ruler who can subject such a people. For they would have arrived at the stage where they would demand the freedom which they had earned for themselves.  

　"A few honest men with the desire to serve could cut through many knots and bring much light into the darkness. But they will have to rise above self, above religion, above creed and caste, and recognise in all simplicity and humility that each is part of a vast universe, and each has a part to play in it. So much religion and so much darknessーwhat a paradox! So much richness and so much povertyーwhat a paradox!"

　"But we have a great many souls in India," I pressed,"men like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who are still in prison, detained for political reasons, men like Gandhi and other great saints. The people in India think that the whole question is the domination of one race over another."

　"But that is not true, my son,” replied Silver Birch. "The problem does not consist only in what you call the domination of the race, for if that domination were removed at once there would still be no freedom. Freedom has to be earned. Freedom has to be won. Great reforms have been accomplished by single individuals, from the Nazarene downwards."

　As I listened to the words of Silver Birch, I could not help feeling that there was a great deal of truth in what he said. I was thrilled by the wisdom of his teaching, his spiritual message for India. While agreeing with the essence of his philosophy, I must differ from him in other incidental aspects of the problem. The majority of the masses of Indian people are Hindus. Hinduism, as practised today, is not the pure Hinduism of the Vedas and the Upanishads. The present Hinduism is corrupt, demoralised. The Hinduism of the Vedas and the Upanishads teaches us exactly what Silver Birch said.

　The Hindus will come into their own. It is only a matter of time. Great men like Gandhi have already regenerated a force that has stirred the millions of my country as never before. The nation is resurgent now. Millions have already disowned the false gods and false prophets.

　Indians may be partly to blame for their present state of political subjection. But the major blame rests with the con-quering power who came with the sword in one hand and the Bible in another. It planted in India its own false idols and false prophets. The cumulative effect was more confusion in the hearts of my countrymen. Their broken spirits were still more tortured, even the free spirit of India seemed almost chained to the chariot wheel of a foreign power.

　In India today there is more brotherhood of the spirit than any-where else in the world. I cannot help feeling that the spirit of man today seems to tremble before the sword. Despite caste and creed, Indians recognise "each is part of a vast universe and each has a part to play in it."

　How true are the words of Silver Birch: "Great reforms have been accomplished by single individuals." Gandhi and Nehru are great reformers, too. Their politics you may criticise, their economics you may consider quaint, and their asceticism too exacting. But they have captured the hearts of India's multitudes as none since Buddha.

　They will cut through many jungles of creed and bring free-dom to my unhappy country. But other great souls in various countries must also help to bring about this unity of spirit. A weak man can still render assistance to a powerfully-built wounded person.

　So I end my story with this note: I am not a Spiritualist in the strict sense of the word. But my visit to the circle was a wonder-ful experience. I am still learning, observing and seeking guid-ance. The road may be hard and long. But it is worth reaching the journey's end.