All Is Well

All is well in Itarsi on this early Sunday afternoon. We worshiped this morning with Itarsi Monthly Meeting in George Fox Hall here on the campus of Friends Girl School. There are many similarities in worship with programmed Friends in the States. One innovation is having an extended time during the two-hour worship for anyone to share a song, scripture, or a message. While one elder used this as an opportunity for a very lengthy sermon, a number of Friends of all ages used the time to sing a song, including Devdas who has a beautiful singing voice. I'll write more later about the contrasts.

Samantha took the train yesterday to Delhi; she arrived at the ashram safely, and we've just confirmed that everything is fine. In fact, Dilawar Chetsingh called to explain that Samantha had called him and they have made good arrangements for late tonight in the event that her flight does not leave Delhi because of the massive storm in New Jersey. Probably, they will divert the plane to another city if it can't land in Newark. However, Dilawar and his wife will host Samantha overnight if the plane does not depart from Delhi. Jack leaves to go back to Delhi on Tuesday during the day. He will stay for a couple days at the ashram and then return on the direct flight to Newark NJ on Friday. Surely, the storm will have passed by then!

We move to Friends Rural Centre, Rasulia where there may be less access to Internet connections. When it's possible I'll post more.

6th All India Friends Gathering Begins

Mid India Yearly Meeting Friends welcomed us in Itarsi MM's George Fox Hall yesterday afternoon as drummers passed by in the street for a major Hindu holiday that seemed to bring all of the world into Itarsi. Our delegation of PYM Friends - Jack, Sammantha and Scott - arrived by car together at the same time as four young Friends from Nepal who had traveled three days and two nights by train from the valley of Katmandu.

Archana, who had kindly helped both the Americans and Nepalese groups of visitors find our way here, then gave the opening address at nine o'clock this morning on the theme of this gathering - "Loving Your Neighbor as Yourself." Quoting from Matthew, John, and Luke, Archana gracefully and effectively reminded us that love is greater than faith and hope; love is patient; love is kind; love does not envy; love is not rude; love is not self-seeking.

We met afterward in small "home" groups of five or six, often with members from different yearly meetings. I shared my experiences as a member of London Grove MM after hearing about three different Indian Monthly meetings and the Nepalese meeting. We are now about to hear the report of YM's and the Asia West Pacific Section of FWCC.  Devdas has asked that I share a bit of news about Philadelphia Yearly Meeting to complement the brief reports from each of the other yearly meetings represented here at the Gathering.

Trying to explain a spiritual leading

I left for India this past week in the middle of my first semester of graduate school in an intensive program at the University of Pennsylvania.  I brought with me on the plane a backpack full of books, with the intention of finding the time here to stay on top of all my readings and assignments.  I'm thrilled to be here now, but I want to back track a bit to explain the process of deciding to join this 4th delegation to India. 

In the summer an email invitation from Scott Rhodewalt came my way forwarded three times from Scott to a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and from the CPMM mailing list to the West Philadelphia Worship Group listserv.  If I remember correctly, I ran straight outside, and told my mom I think in the fall I am going to India! Confused, she asked politely, "What for?"  And I replied, "Simply because I was invited." 

India was never a country on my long list of must-visit places.  I study East Africa and have been focused most recently on trying to spend more time in that region.  If I said I was going to Tanzania, no one would have been surprised.  But India was suddenly on my radar and the more I read about the trip, searched in myself for answers to the questions Scott asked of potential delegates, and read about the influence of Gandhi in the Kenyan Independence Movement, I felt that the spirit was leading me there. 

Quakers easily accepted this answer, but others questioned me relentlessly.  "Why India?"  "Why are you skipping school?"  "What do you mean you are going to meet other Quakers?  How many Quakers can there possibly be in India?" ( Luckily,. it was easy to justify my trip to my professors.  My program is an MSEd in International Educational Development, and when I get back I'll be giving three powerpoint presentations (which will hopefully end up posted here!)).  Unwilling to give in to questioning of God's will, I continued to tell naysayers and skeptics that I was going because I felt led to go, and that was all I really needed to know. 

Here now, I feel very confident that I ended up where I needed to be.  I've put a lot of trust in God thru Scott, Archana, Dilewar, Devdas, and others, my only real responsibility before getting to India being to book my plane ticket.  It's a huge departure from the way I usually travel, but I am so grateful for their hard work and planning.  It's been a great lesson in letting go, and letting God.  We haven't even gotten to the Gathering yet, and I'm already feeling quite spiritually fulfilled!

Hold Unami MM Family in the Light

Please hold Randy and Marietta and their family in the Light as Randy's mother nears the end of life in connection with a major medical crisis. Randy regrets not being able to join our delegation as he had planned to do. We know that Randy will be with us in spirit as we travel together to the All India Friends Gathering in Itarsi.

Tonight Jack and I will go to the airport to greet Samantha, a Swarthmore MM member who worships with the West Philadelphia Worship Group while attending graduate school. Archana, our host who is traveling north to Delhi by night train, will meet us at the ashram on Saturday. On Wednesday we look forward to two Central Philadelphia MM members joining our delegation when we meet Buzz and Francis in Itarsi.

The Aurobindo Ashram is an oasis of calmness and gardens in the heart of India's capital city. Part of its mission is to help travelers connect with their spiritual lives through yoga, meditation, and service. Each morning we have continued our "sana" by watering the many planter boxes on the top two floors around the atrium of each of the four or five towers that make up the ashram. Another part of the ashram's mission is to honor the wisdom of the Mother who taught Sri Aurobindo's philosophy to others during much of his lifetime in Ponicherry. 

Aurobindo Ashram Welcomes Guests

Jack arrived in Delhi last night at the airport where I met him after his long flight from Newark. We went to the Aurobindo Ashram, which is such a good place to make the transition from the States to India. It is a very welcoming community of fellow travelers, many of whom seek spiritual renewal through the Mother's interpretation of Sri Aurobindo's wisdom.

At lunch today I learned that Aurobindo was among one of the earlier Indians to speak out against the British Raj's empire in India. The British arrested him at one point, and sent him to a trial. Aurobindo, an Indian who had graduated first in his class at Cambridge University, found himself sitting in a courtroom where the judge was the person who had graduated second in the same class at Cambridge. Once he was released, Aurobindo went to the French colony of Pondicherry to establish his ashram in southeastern India along the Bay of Bengal where the British could no longer interfere with his work.

Dilawar Chet Singh will meet our delegation at the ashram on Saturday morning at 9:00 and take us to the Lott Carey Baptist Mission's agency that works closely with HIV/Aids patients. We will return to the ashram at noon when Archana will have arrived from her night train from Itarsi. At 3:00 in the afternoon our group is fortunate to be able to meet with Subba Rao, India's leading Gandhian who will have just returned from Assam in northeastern India where he has been doing peace work.

Reflecting on first couple days in India

Today is my second morning in India after my journey across the Atlantic to London and then on to Delhi where I arrived just before midnight on Tuesday. What a change in the Indira Gandhi airport since I was here nearly four years ago - it's all so new and spacious! I've settled into the Dan and Clover Home, a vegetarian bread and breakfast type lodging very close to a community park that is great for walking. On Wednesday I visited the last day of  the India Habitat Centre's exhibit "Walking, a dialogue between art and social movement" and I met the photographer, Simon Williams. Simon told me about British Quakers' support of "Action Village India," a small British charity which includes supporting Ekta Parishad's work in India. The coordinator of the exhibit, Fran Wilde, told me how grateful she was to the British Quaker family - the Cadburys - for their financial support of this exhibit on the work of the Ekta Parishad Gandhians.  I learned that Jai Ran Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development, is negotiating right now with Ekta Parishad to convince them to have the landless and tribal marchers (originally hoped to be 100,000) return home instead of continuing their walk northward from Agra (where they are now) to Delhi.

There are some remarkable parallels between the landless and Tribal people's current Jansatyagraha March and nonviolent direct action work that we see among Palestinians and also our own son's nonviolent direct action against the New York Police Department's "Stop and Frisk" law that targets Blacks and Latinos.  Morgan and three other activists are facing a jury trial in Queens this week for civil disobedience that they did about a year ago in a Queens (NYC) police department. All three of these nonviolent direct actions are coming together for me right now. It seems like a good lesson in the power of nonviolent direct action, especially when it is spirit led from the heart as all three of these on-going actions are.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine on Saturday and Sunday (6-7 Oct) in New York was powerful. Ian, Morgan, Susan and I all participated and we learned a lot. What becomes increasingly clearer is the extent to which both the Israeli and U.S. governments work hard to make their unjust actions against Palestinians seem just and also how the Israeli and American governments work equally hard to make their illegal actions in Palestine seem legal. I learned that from an articulate speaker, Diane Butta, who is the daughter of Palestinian-Canadians. She was so persuasive as she talked to the "jury" in the Russell Tribunal. There are those who say the same thing about the central government's actions here in Delhi against the people of Kashmir. What is striking is the extent to which the military in this country have learned their way of controlling what they view as insurgents in Kashmir directly from military officials in Israel who control the militarily occupied territories in Palestine.

Meanwhile, here are current plans for our India Friends Working Group delegation. Jack arrives in India on Monday night (15 Oct) and he and I will be staying at the Aurobindo Ashram. Then Samantha  and Randy  arrive on Friday evening (19 Oct); Archana is also arriving at the Aurobindo ashram on Friday. On Saturday afternoon we will meet with Subba Rao, India's leading Gandhian who spoke with our delegation of Wilmington Friends School students in 2009. Mr. Rao will be returning to Delhi on Saturday morning from peace work he has been doing in Assam. Then on Sunday we will worship with the Delhi Friends Worship Group, and on Monday (22 Oct) we travel south to Bhopal by shatabdi. We are very much looking forward to the All India Friends Gathering in Itarsi and the Young Adult work/Study camp that follows.
                                                               (posted by Scott on Thursday morning, 11 Oct)