Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Fri Jun 05, 2020 11:36 am

Berlin Committee
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/5/20

The Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee (German: Indisches Unabhängigkeitskomitee) after 1915, was an organisation formed in Germany in 1914 during World War I by Indian students and political activists residing in the country. The purpose of the Committee was to promote the cause of Indian Independence. Initially called the Berlin–Indian Committee, the organisation was renamed the Indian Independence Committee in 1915 and came to be an integral part of the Hindu–German Conspiracy. Famous members of the committee included Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (alias Chatto), Chempakaraman Pillai and Abinash Bhattacharya

Background

A number of Indians, notably Shyamji Krishna Varma, had formed the India House in England in 1905. This organisation, with the support of Indian luminaries like Dadabhai Naoroji, Lala Lajpat Rai, Madame Bhikaji Cama and others, offered scholarships to Indian students, promoted nationalistic work, and was a major platform for anti-colonial opinions and views. The Indian Sociologist, published by Krishna Varma, was a notable anti-colonial publication. Prominent Indian Nationalists associated with the India House included Vinayak Damodar Savarkar or Veer Savarkar, Virendranath Chattopadhyaya (alias Chatto), and Har Dayal.

The British government kept track of India House because of the nature of its work and the increasingly inciting tone of The Indian Sociologist, which proposed killing British colonial officials. English detectives followed and watched the student leaders in India House. The speed of Veer Savarkar's activities in London was breathtaking. India House was constantly in the news from 1906 to 1910. Savarkar started regular Sunday meetings to discuss various topics related to India's future. The speeches made during these meetings by Veer Savarkar were deemed seditionist. In 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra, closely associated with Veer Savarkar and the India House, shot and killed William Hutt Curzon Wyllie, the political ADC to the Secretary of State for India. In the aftermath of the assassination, India House was rapidly suppressed. Evidence found showed that Browning pistols were being sent to India in order to bring about an armed revolution. Veer Savarkar was arrested for all this and awarded Life Sentence. His famous arrest in London caused legal difficulties for British Courts and whose case is still referred to in the interpretations of the Fugitive Offenders Act and the Habeas Corpus (Rex Vs Governor of Brixton Prison, ex-parte Savarkar). Other leaders, including Krishna Varma, were forced to flee to Europe. Some, including Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, moved to Germany, while a number of the leadership moved to Paris.[1]

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I, Indian nationalists looked for ways to use the enmities to support their goals. As early as 1912, the German Foreign Office had considered supporting the Pan-Islamist and Bengali revolutionary movement in India to weaken the British position.[2]

The Kaiser had considered the option on 31 July 1914 when Russian mobilisation was confirmed, and the scope of British mobilisation against Germany was becoming evident.[2] In September 1914, the German Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, was authorised by the Kaiser to sanction German activity against British India.[2][3] The German effort was headed by Max von Oppenheim, an archaeologist and the head of the newly formed Intelligence Bureau for the east. He was to organize the Indian student groups into a cohesive group. Oppenheim also convinced Har Dayal of the feasibility of the project.

A group of Indians resident in Germany, headed by M. Prabhakar (then teaching at Düsseldorf after graduating from Heidelberg), along with Abd ur Rahman and A Siddiqui, had issued statements condemning England and France for their support of the Czar in Russia. As these students were political novices, Oppenheim sought to find more prominent revolutionaries who would carry more weight in the community. Otto Gunther von Wesendonck, a young officer of the Auswärtiges Amt, was given the task of organising revolutionary outbreaks along the Indian and Russian border.[4] with the help of their close acquaintance Anna Maria Simon, Abhinash Bhattacharya and Virendranath Chattopadhyaya issued similar statements against Britain and France, which were distributed in Austria-Hungary, Switzerland and the Netherlands in addition to Germany, attracting editorial comments. The duo, with the help of Frau Simon, set up meetings with the Berlin Foreign office.[1]

Berlin Committee

Arriving at Berlin, they were assigned a building in the Schöneberg suburbs, as their new headquarters. In their first meeting with the foreign office liaison Max von Oppenheim, on 3 September 1915, Chattopadhyay (also known as Chatto) identified the goals and requirements of the committee:[1]

• With a view to starting a revolution in India,
o Money, arms ammunition as well as expert advice were needed.
o They should be carried to the Indian coast.
o Early arrangement should be made to send the leaders back to India.
• A large number of 10 Rupee notes were to be forged and sent to India to create some confusion in their money market.
• An Indo-German Committee should be constituted to co-ordinate and carry on these activities.

With the help of Oppenheim, messages were sent out to Indian students in German universities, as well as Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands, who were likely to share the same views. Among those who joined the organisation at the time were Dr. Dhiren Sarkar, Chanji Kersasp, N. S. Marathe, Dr. J. N. Dasgupta, and C. Padmanabhan Pillai, quickly joined by his brother, Champak Raman Pillai. The 'Champak-Chatto' Berlin Committee was founded.[1]

Although the group urged him, Oppenheim refused to approach Shyamji Krishnavarma, then in Geneva, nor did he try to reach Lala Lajpat Rai, then in the United States. The latter was suspected by British intelligence in the United States to be deeply involved in the seditionist movement [5] although he personally refused to enter an alliance with another Imperialist Power.[4] In 1915, Har Dayal and Barkatullah became actively involved in the Berlin Committee and its goals. The committee is known to have sent missions to the Middle Eastern cities of Istanbul and Baghdad, and Kabul, Afghanistan.[6]

Hindu–German Conspiracy

Main article: Hindu–German Conspiracy

The committee soon established contacts with Indian revolutionaries, including Bagha Jatin. They visited armament and explosives factories to identify war material, and met with Indian prisoners-of-war held in Germany to recruit them to the nationalist cause. Lala Har Dayal, who had fled to Germany after his arrest in the United States, was convinced to lend his support to the committee's cause. They established contacts with the Ghadarite movement in the United States. Dr. Dhiren Sarkar and N.S. Marathe left for Washington, D.C. on 22 September 1915 and, through the German Ambassador, Johann von Bernstoff, established links with the Ghadar Party. The culmination of the American efforts was the Annie Larsen arms plot.

Kabul mission

Main article: Provisional Government of India

See also: Oskar von Niedermayer and Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition

The Berlin-Indian Committee (which became the Indian Independence Committee after 1915) created an Indo-German-Turkish mission to the Indo-Iranian border to encourage the tribes to strike against British interests.[7] At this time, the Berlin Committee was in touch with the Khairi brothers (Abdul Jabbar Khairi and Abdul Sattar Khairi) who had settled in Istanbul at the onset of the World War I. In 1917 they had proposed to the Kaiser a plan to lead tribes in Kashmir and North-West Frontier Province against British interests. Another group, led by the Deobandi Maulana Ubaid Allah Sindhi and Mahmud al-Hasan (principle of the Darul Uloom Deoband), had traveled to Kabul in October 1915 with plans to initiate a Muslim insurrection in the tribal belt of India. Ubaid Allah proposed that the Amir of Afghanistan should declare war against Britain while Mahmud al Hasan sought German and Turkish help. Hasan proceeded to Hijaz. Ubaid Allah, in the meantime, established friendly relations with the Amir.

At Kabul, Ubaid Allah, along with some students who had preceded him to Ottoman Turkey to join the Caliph's "Jihad" against Britain, decided that the pan-Islamic cause would be better served by focusing on the Indian Freedom Movement.[8] This group was met by the Indo-German-Turkish mission to Kabul in December 1915, headed by Oskar von Niedermayer and including among its members Werner Otto von Hentig, the German diplomatic representative to Kabul; and Raja Mahendra Pratap, Barkatullah and other prominent nationalists from the Berlin group. Known as the Niedermayer–Hentig mission, it brought members of the Indian movement to India's border, and carried messages from the Kaiser, Enver Pasha, and Abbas Hilmi, the displaced Khedive of Egypt, expressing support for Pratap's mission. They asked the Amir to move against India.[9][10] The mission's immediate goal was to rally the Amir against British India[9] and to obtain a right of free passage for the conspirators from the Afghan Government.[11]

Although the Amir made no commitment to the group, they found support amongst the Amir's immediate and close political and religious advisory group, including his brother Nasrullah Khan, his sons Inayatullah Khan and Amānullāh Khān, and religious leaders and tribesmen.[9] Afghanistan's then most influential newspaper, the Siraj al-Akhbar, took Barkatullah as an officiating editor in early 1916. Its editor Mahmud Tarzi published a number of inflammatory articles by Raja Mahendra Pratap, as well as increasingly anti-British and pro-Central Powers articles and propaganda. By May 1916, the tone in the paper was deemed serious enough for the British Raj to intercept its issues.[9] In 1916, the Berlin Committee established the Provisional Government of India in Kabul.

Its formation infers the seriousness of intention and purpose of the revolutionaries. The government had Raja Mahendra Pratap as President, Barkatullah as Prime Minister, Ubaid al Sindhi as the Minister for India, Maulavi Bashir as War Minister and Champakaran Pillai as Foreign Minister. It tried to gain support from the Russian Empire, Republican China, and Japan. Galib Pasha joined them in proclaiming jihad against Britain.[11]

Following the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, Pratap's Government is known to have corresponded with the nascent Soviet Government. In 1918, Pratap met the Russian leader Leon Trotsky in Petrograd before meeting the Kaiser in Berlin; he urged both to mobillise against British India.[12] Under pressure from the British, the Afghans withdrew their cooperation and the mission closed down. The Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition, with associated liaisons of the German mission had a profound effect on the political and social situation in Afghanistan. It catalyzed political change that ended with the assassination of Habibullah in 1919 and the transfer of power to Nasrullah and, subsequently, Amānullah; the Third Anglo-Afghan War began, which led to Afghan Independence.[12]

End of the Indian Independence Committee

The Committee was formally disbanded in November 1918, with most of the members shifting their attention to the nascent Soviet Russia. Between 1917 and 1920, most of the members became active in communism.

Notes

1. "Champak-Chatto" And the Berlin Committee". Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Retrieved 4 November 2007.
2. Fraser 1977, p. 256
3. Hoover 1985, p. 251
4. Fraser 1977, p. 257
5. Dignan 1971
6. Bagulia 2006, p. 146
7. Ansari 1986, p. 514
8. Ansari 1986, p. 515
9. Sims-Williams 1980, p. 120
10. Seidt 2001, p. 1,3
11. Ansari 1986, p. 516
12. Hughes 2002, p. 474

References

• Newsletter of the Regional Office-South East Asia. German Academic Exchange Service.
• "Champak-Chatto And the Berlin Committee".Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
• Hoover, Karl. (1985), The Hindu Conspiracy in California, 1913-1918. German Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 2. (May, 1985), pp. 245-261, German Studies Association, ISSN 0149-7952.
• Fraser, Thomas G (1977), Germany and Indian Revolution, 1914-18. Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1977), pp. 255-272., Sage Publications, ISSN 0022-0094.
• Ansari, K.H. (1986), Pan-Islam and the Making of the Early Indian Muslim Socialist. Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 20, No. 3. (1986), pp. 509-537, Cambridge University Press.
• Sims-Williams, Ursula (1980), The Afghan Newspaper Siraj al-Akhbar. Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), Vol. 7, No. 2. (1980), pp. 118-122, London, Taylor & Francis Ltd, ISSN 0305-6139.
• Hughes, Thomas L (2002), The German Mission to Afghanistan, 1915-1916.German Studies Review, Vol. 25, No. 3. (Oct., 2002), pp. 447-476., German Studies Association, ISSN 0149-7952.
• Seidt, Hans-Ulrich (2001), From Palestine to the Caucasus-Oskar Niedermayer and Germany's Middle Eastern Strategy in 1918.German Studies Review, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Feb., 2001), pp. 1-18, German Studies Association, ISSN 0149-7952.

External Links

• Liebau, Heike: Berlin Indian Independence Committee, in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Sat Jun 06, 2020 2:31 am

Chapter 23. Politicians versus Saints
Excerpt from "All You Need is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West"
by Nancy Cooke de Herrera
Foreword by Deepak Chopra

Chapter 23. Politicians versus Saints

The late '60s and early '70s were good years for me and my family, with the exception of Tony's sickness. Although he had been off cortisone since 1969, the rigidity of his frame entered his personality. I continually cautioned the children to overlook his crankiness as he became more limited with his body movements.

Even though Tony and I now lived like brother and sister, we were a good team. I threw my energies into my family, the SRM [Spiritual Regeneration Movement], traveling, and entertaining for Tony. His energy went into music and the law. I continued with my lecture series and also was a judge for the Miss California beauty contest each year.

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Nancy as Ambassadress of Fashion (Swedish Life Magazine, 1957)

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Staebe-Seger's farewell party for me, with the "West Berlin Couturiers" (Berlin, 1958).

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The Ambassadress of Fashion with the Princess Marcella Borghese (Rome, 1958)

Occasionally, we took a month's vacation to Honolulu or some place where Tony could swim. He always returned vastly improved, but then he would return to his workaholic ways. Several doctors commented that his mind was killing his body, but Tony would not listen. He took in more partners, and the money rolled in. He didn't consider the personal cost to him and to his family life.

Maharishi taught, "You judge the effectiveness of your meditation by how your life flows." Life was flowing for us financially, if not in health. My children had come through the frantic '60s drug-free, happy, well-balanced young people with a sense of direction and joy in life. The boys missed Vietnam by flunking their health exams-two had extra vertebrae and one a heart murmur. Rik had graduated from UCLA and gone off to architecture school in Oregon; Starr was finishing Stanford; Brett still attended Yale; and Maria Luisa was happily at Westlake. I had so much to be grateful and thankful for. The only negative we had was Tony's delicate state of health.

I did a lot of traveling with the children. Brett, Maria Luisa, and I visited Spain, Italy, and Greece; Tony joined us in London. Another trip with Brett and Maria Luisa was to Berlin, where I was still working with German couture. With Brett's ability to pick up languages, he was a joy to travel with.

But no country pulled me back like India. I returned regularly to work on different secular projects -- I helped design fashions that would be attractive to Western buyers and I originated itineraries for India's Minister of Tourism. The Indian travel industry had no idea of how to present their incredible country. In 1969, under the supervision of S.K. Roy, still the Director General of Tourism, I brought 20 friends to India and gave them a 30-day "fairyland" tour. My Indian friends entertained us; we stayed in Maharajahs' palaces; we went from the untouched beaches of Trivandrum to the high peaks of Nepal. They all came back confirmed Indiaphiles.

Because of the success of my Indian trip, the airline gave me three free round-the-world passes.
So, in 1970, Tony, Starr, and I went to Rishikesh together. Brett and Maria Luisa were in school, so they could not join us. The ashram had a new image. In order to accommodate the increasing numbers attending courses, the blocks had been closed in, and the porches made into rooms. Unfortunately, it was not well done. We were given The Beatles' old block. What luxury in comparison to what I'd experienced in '68. Now there was a new ashram kitchen and dining room complex -- very nicely done, except it leaked in the rain. I was so happy to have Tony along and prayed he would enjoy the trip.

At the end of two weeks of resting and meditating, Tony looked like a different person; his aches and pains were gone. I began to hope I might get my "real husband" back, but once back in the highly competitive world of law and business, the advances soon disappeared.

It was the last time I saw Maharishi at the ashram; he was now giving most of his courses in Europe. Because of tax problems with the Indian government, he did not return to India for many years. I frequently told my Indian friends, "You have driven away your best export. You should attract Maharishi back to India. Think of the money India is losing. The thousands attending Maharishi's course would have, and should have, come here." I guess they felt TM was a flash in the pan.

Throughout this period India continued to intrigue me. No other country offers such a range of contrasts. It is a mosaic of not only people, but of traditions, climates, cultures, and scenery.

Each time I went to India I returned to the ashram to see Satyanand. In spite of letters and phone calls advising of my arrival, the result was always the same. I would climb the hill, be greeted by peons, and nothing was ready for me. Everything was uncared for. New buildings had gone up instead of taking care of what was there. It had gone "Indian" in spite of Satyanand's supervision.

Several times returning home from India I called on Maharishi, who usually was in Italy, Spain, or Switzerland. I begged him to send a European couple to take over management of the ashram, but it fell on deaf ears.
His courses grew in number and the organization became prosperous in spite of the press, who continued to print any scandalous rumor about Maharishi that came their way -- no thought was given to authenticity.

[Mia Farrow] accused Maharishi Mahesh Yogi of hitting on her when she visited the guru with The Beatles in 1968.

The Fab Four flew home from India in disgust after Mia fled the Maharishi’s cave in tears claiming the supposedly celibate swami had grabbed and groped her.

“Boys! Boys! What’s wrong? Why are you leaving?” the Maharishi shouted after them, John Lennon later recalled.

“If you’re so f - - king cosmic, you’ll know,” came Lennon’s scathing reply.

Lennon expressed his disillusionment in “Sexy Sadie” — originally titled “Maharishi” but changed to avoid legal problems — singing, “Sexy Sadie, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone.”


-- Mia Farrow claimed Beatles pal groped her, by Richard Johnson


One who did come to Maharishi's defense often was the world famous nutritionist, Dr. Gayelord Hauser. This vigorous, young 70-yearold had sold over 70 million books and was responsible for bringing yogurt to the Western world. During the fifties when I first met him in Paris, he had his followers on the blackstrap molasses, wheat germ, and yogurt kick. He had a huge following around the globe, but lived most of the year in Beverly Hills; we had become intimate friends.

He once said to me regarding lecturing, "Honey, just remember five little words, 'What's in it for me' -- that's what an audience wants to hear." His 6'3" physique was trim and tan, no fat on him. His thick, gray hair crowned a large head that was always held erect. His blue eyes were surrounded with laugh lines.

"That little guy," he said, referring to Maharishi, "really has something. People in Germany (Gayelord's place of birth) were prepared to laugh at him, instead they started to follow him."

He paused and said in a soothing voice, "Girls and boys," as he loved to address his audience, "he knows that tension is one of the worst sicknesses of America. If you meditate, tension leaves you."


Side Effects of Meditation With Possible Adverse Reactions

Depersonalization, Derealization...Hallucinations, Fear of persecution, Disorientation, Poor insight and judgment, Reduced food intake...Insomnia reported as complete sleep loss...Delusions of grandeur, Thought disorder...Feelings of anxiety, Feelings of intense dysphoria, Feelings of mania...Increased epileptogenisis susceptibility...Double vision, Grandiosity/elation...Feelings of depression, including Attempted suicide...Restlessness/extreme agitation...Reports of psychosis...Decreased life motivation/boredom, Increased negativity/self-judgment...Panic and/or tension...Disorientation/confusion, Feelings of meditation “addiction”, Reports of pain ...Religious delusions...Intense fear and loneliness...Feelings of mania, including Increased talkativeness, Overactivity/restlessness, Distractible, Sexual disinhibition, Reports of psychotic symptoms, including Thought disorder with flight of ideas.

-- Mindfulness Meditation Research: Issues of Participant Screening, Safety Procedures, and Researcher Training, by M. Kathleen B. Lustyk, PhD; Neharika Chawla, MS; Roger S. Nolan, MA; G. Alan Marlatt, PhD


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At seventy-five, a young Dr. Gayelord Hauser. He died in 1985 at age ninety.

Once, during one of his lectures, he introduced me to the 3,000 staring faces, "This is my friend Nancy. She introduced me to Maharishi and then taught me meditation, one of the great gifts in my life." A nice plug from a world figure.

Slowly I reconciled myself to the fact that my marriage situation was not going to change or get much better. I rationalized, "I have a happy secure base for myself and the children; I've already had more romance in my life than most people; socially I belong to the best organizations and groups in the Beverly Hills/Los Angeles area-any outsider would think I lead a very glamorous life. I think so too, so what do I have to complain about?" If I were going to have a love affair, it would be with travel.

My friend Carroll Righter, the astrologer, had advised me when I'd told him of my plans to marry Tony, "Well, take lots of trips. Cancer and Aries are not a good combination -- water and fire getting together produce steam -- you'll need an escape valve for sure."

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Carroll Righter (February 2, 1900 – April 30, 1988) was known as the "astrologer to the stars." He wrote a syndicated daily advice column for 166 newspapers around the world and was reputed to be an advisor to Ronald and Nancy Reagan. Righter, who liked to be called the "gregarious Aquarius,' began doing charts for Hollywood notables in 1938 and became a columnist in 1950. Prior to that, he was a lawyer in Philadelphia.

Righter was mentioned in President Reagan's 1965 autobiography Where's The Rest of Me? and, according to former White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan, Mrs. Reagan turned to astrologers to help determine the president's schedule. Asked specifically whether he believed in astrology, President Reagan said, "I don't guide my life by it" but he added, "I don't know enough about it to say, is there something to it or not...and I don't mean to offend anyone who does believe in it, or engages in it." When Righter was asked in 1985 if he consulted with Ronald Reagan on astrology, he replied, "No comment."

Righter claimed he warned Marlene Dietrich to avoid working on a studio set one day because she might get hurt. His advice was not heeded, and Dietrich broke an ankle while reaching out to save a falling child. Word of the accident and Righter's advice led other celebrities to the astrologer, ensuring his fame. Among those who sought his advice were Arlene Dahl, Rhonda Fleming, Jane Withers, Hildegard Knef, Joan Fontaine and Grace Kelly. At one point in the late 1930s, the then-young Robert Mitchum worked as a ghost writer for Righter.

Righter wrote several books, including Astrology and You, the Astrological Guide to Health and Diet, and the Astrological Guide to Marriage and Family Relations.

-- Carroll Righter, by Wikipedia


He was right; my trips were this valve. Tony encouraged our trips; he liked the quiet times when we were away. The house was well run, and he could have his beloved Bach blaring at ear-bursting levels.

My mother once asked, "How can you stand that continual loud sound all the time when Tony is home? It would drive me mad." Houseguests often complained and asked that the music be turned down. Sir John BarbiroIIi, the well-known conductor, once provided ammunition when he said, "Tony, turn that music down! Music is to be listened to, not shouted over." Tony was Sir John's lawyer so he had to respond.

My solution was to wear earplugs, or I'd go into my bedroom and shut the door in order to concentrate on whatever I was doing. It seemed a sensible solution, now that our marriage had assumed the platonic level Dr. Bieler had predicted.

That Tony enjoyed having the house to himself was confirmed, when, against everyone else's advice, he encouraged me to go to India, just weeks after the Pak-Indian war came to an end in 1972.

"Go and present the U.S. side to our Indian friends." He loaded me down with all sorts of information and data and practically pushed me out the door.


It wasn't a happy trip. None of the children could go with me, so this time I went alone. Once back in India, I did nothing for six weeks but argue that President Nixon had tried not to take sides in the war. Originally, Pakistan and India had been offered the same armaments deal. The former accepted, while the latter haughtily turned it down. U.S. columnists Leon Frankel and Jack Anderson, with their violently anti-Nixon views, had done much to erode friendship between India and the U.S. As the only U.S. journalists heard from in Indian newspapers, India judged the U.S. attitude by their writings.

My friend Piloo Mody tried to explain these attacks. "The Indians, having won what on a world scale was a small military battle, are now plumped up like proud pigeons. Don't let them get to you, Nancy."

Then my Parsee friend added, "And don't forget, Nancy, arrogance comes easily to an Indian."


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Piloo Mody (14 November 1926 – 29 January 1983) was an Indian architect and politician and one of the founding members of the Swatantra Party....

The Swatantra Party was an Indian classical liberal political party, that existed from 1959 to 1974. It was founded by C. Rajagopalachari in reaction to what he felt was the Jawaharlal Nehru-dominated Indian National Congress's increasingly socialist and statist outlook.

It had a number of distinguished leaders, most of them old Congressmen, for example, C. Rajagopalachari, Tanguturi Prakasam Pantulu, Minoo Masani, N.G. Ranga, Darshan Singh Pheruman, Udham Singh Nagoke and K.M. Munshi. Right-wing groups and parties had existed earlier at the local and regional levels, but Swatantra’s formation was the first attempt to bring these highly fragmented right-wing forces together under the umbrella of a single party. The provocation was the left turn which the Congress took at Avadi[11] and the Nagpur Resolutions. Swatantra stood for a market-based economy with the "Licence Raj" dismantled, although it opposed laissez faire policies. The party was thus favoured by some traders and industrialists, but at the state-level, its leadership was dominated by the traditional privileged classes such as zamindars (feudal landlords) and erstwhile princes. Located on the right of the Indian political spectrum Swatantra was not a communal party; its membership was not restricted on the basis of religion, unlike the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Jana Sangh. In 1960, Rajagopalachari and his colleagues drafted a 21-point manifesto detailing why Swatantra had to be formed, even though they were hitherto Congressmen and associates of Nehru during the struggle for independence. The Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was highly critical of Swatantra, dubbing the party as belonging to "the middle ages of lords, castles and zamindars".

-- Swatantra Party, by Wikipedia


In 1975, at the time of the Emergency in India, Mody was arrested on the orders of the Indira Gandhi government, using the controversial powers granted by the Maintenance of Internal Security Act.

After an absence of a year from parliament, on 10 April 1978 Mody joined the Rajya Sabha and served there until his death in 1983.

-- Piloo Mody, by Wikipedia


But, eventually, it did get to me. I couldn't understand why all of India seemed so anti-U.S. We did have a record of trying to help them over the years with a massive educational and agricultural aid program. Was this all forgotten, or was it just an illustration of this story:

"One day, Confucius, walking with a friend, nodded in recognition to a man coming toward him. The other man defiantly ignored his acknowledgment. Confucius turned to his companion, 'What strange behavior; I don't remember having ever helped him.'''


However, one evening, while dining with Goodie and Bikki Oberoi in their penthouse suite at the Oberoi Intercontinental,...

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Goodie Oberoi


an energetic, hawk-nosed, mustachioed man strode into the room, carrying a plastic bag full of greens.

"Here, enjoy this lettuce. It was raised in my garden, and I can guarantee no bloke has ever peed on it." He was introduced to me as Uncle Sam, my escort for the evening. He had a forceful, outgoing personality. When he heard I was on my way to Israel, he asked me to get some information on solar heating and water collection methods. I agreed and asked his full name and address.

Goodie laughed, "Ail you have to put on the envelope is Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, India. He's the general who won our war."

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Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, MC (3 April 1914 – 27 June 2008), widely known as Sam Manekshaw and Sam Bahadur ("Sam the Brave"), was the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal. His military career spanned four decades and five wars, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in World War II....

Having already commanded troops at division, corps and regional levels, Manekshaw became the seventh chief of the army staff in 1969. Under his command, Indian forces conducted victorious campaigns against Pakistan in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which led to the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan, the second and third highest civilian awards of India. In January 1973, Manekshaw was conferred with the rank of Field Marshal, the first army officer of independent India to be so honoured.

-- Sam Manekshaw, by Wikipedia


He had attended Sandhurst with the Pakistani President, General Yaya Khan and had psyched him out on every tactic, knowing exactly how the general's mind worked. At one moment, when Sam had Delhi practically surrounded by tanks, an anti-Gandhi sympathizer reportedly asked him, "Why don't you just take India." Sam replied, "Who wants it?"

He was presently the only Indian Field Marshall. How different his attitude was. He spoke with warmth and admiration for the U.S. and excused the Indians' excessive pride over their "little skirmish." He even spoke well of Ali Bhutto who, becoming Prime Minister of Pakistan, had the job of soothing the wounded national pride of his countrymen over the loss of Bangladesh -- a loss that Bhutto later confessed to me had probably been a blessing.
This was during a trip I made to Pakistan in '74.

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Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Sindhi: ذوالفقار علي ڀٽو‎; Urdu: ذوالفقار علی بھٹو‎‎; 5 January 1928 – 4 April 1979) was a Pakistani barrister and politician who served as the 9th Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1973 to 1977, and prior to that as the fourth President of Pakistan from 1971 to 1973. He was also the founder of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and served as its chairman until his execution in 1979.

Born in modern-day Sindh and educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Oxford, Bhutto trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn, before entering politics as one of President Iskander Mirza's cabinet members, and was assigned several ministries during President Ayub Khan's military rule from 1958. Appointed Foreign Minister in 1963, Bhutto was a proponent of Operation Gibraltar in Kashmir, leading to war with India in 1965. After the Tashkent Agreement ended hostilities, Bhutto fell out with Ayub Khan and was sacked from government.

Bhutto founded the PPP in 1967 on a socialist platform, and contested general elections held by President Yahya Khan in 1970. While the Awami League won a majority of seats overall, the PPP won a majority of seats in West Pakistan; the two parties were unable to agree on a new constitution in particular on the issue of Six Point Movement which many in West Pakistan saw as a way to break up the country. Subsequent uprisings led to the secession of Bangladesh, and Pakistan losing the war against Bangladesh-allied India in 1971. Bhutto was handed over the presidency in December 1971 and emergency rule was imposed. When Bhutto set about rebuilding Pakistan, he stated his intention was to "rebuild confidence and rebuild hope for the future".

By July 1972, Bhutto recovered 43,600 prisoners of war and 5,000 sq mi of Indian-held territory after signing the Simla Agreement. He strengthened ties with China and Saudi Arabia, recognised Bangladesh, and hosted the second Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Lahore in 1974. Domestically, Bhutto's reign saw parliament unanimously approve a new constitution in 1973, upon which he appointed Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry President and switched to the newly empowered office of Prime Minister. He also played an integral role in initiating the country's nuclear programme. However, Bhutto's nationalisation of much of Pakistan's fledgling industries, healthcare, and educational institutions led to economic stagnation. After dissolving provincial feudal governments in Balochistan was met with unrest, Bhutto also ordered an army operation in the province in 1973, causing thousands of civilian casualties.

Despite civil disorder, the PPP won parliamentary elections in 1977 by a wide margin. However, the opposition alleged widespread vote rigging, and violence escalated across the country. On 5 July that same year, Bhutto was deposed in a military coup by his appointed army chief Zia-ul-Haq, before being controversially tried and executed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 1979 for authorising the murder of a political opponent.

-- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, by Wikipedia


Finally, getting fed up with politics in the capital city of India, I decided to travel south to check out some new potential tourist attractions and several holy men I'd been hearing about. In Madras, I had a delightful spiritual encounter. I sought out the Shankaracharya of that area. It reminded me of the quests Tom and I had made together.

Though advised that I'd never find him, and even if I did, he wouldn't see me, I took a young Indian guide, Vigi, and we set out in an Indian-made Ambassador. Having no air conditioner, we had to leave the windows open, so we arrived at the marketplace of ancient Kanchipuram hot and covered with dust.

Crumbling sandstone temples surrounded a square filled with exotic colors, pungent smells and people hawking their wares. Southern Indians seem smaller and darker than Northern Indians, and in Madras they speak Tamil, not Hindi. Most of the young women had woven fragrant flowers in their hair. We bought bright orange flower garlands mixed with sweet narcissus, and asked for news of the aged sage whose only mode of travel was walking. If he were nearby, the people would know it, as he was one of the most revered saints in India.

"Yes, he is here. He arrived yesterday." So the tip we'd been given was correct. A skinny arm pointed the direction.

The Swami's place of refuge was a small building with a thatched roof. In front was a water well. A group of people stood waiting. A white-robed Indian explained to Vigi in Tamil, "Tell Memsahib Swami does not see Europeans."

I persisted, "Please explain to the Shankaracharya that I am a follower of Maharishi's and the wisdom of Shankara. I do my puja every day and I have come to receive his darshan."

He disappeared, then came back to say, "It is all right, Memsahib, please stand behind these people."

I felt so happy as we waited for the Swami to appear. I studied the group in front. All were men, and by the sacred threads around their shoulders, they were of the Brahmin caste. Many times I had seen Maharishi give deference to a Brahmin over another of a lesser caste.

A hush fell over the group as a white-haired old man slowly emerged and stood at the other side of the well. His skin was dry and parched from years of walking in the relentless sun of Southern India. His hand grasped a staff. He looked at us with pale eyes and said nothing. His aide motioned to the first Brahmin. He prostrated himself on the ground and, rolling back and forth, wailed out his story.

"He has a very sick wife," Vigi explained.

Each came forward and repeated a similar tale. He hardly acknowledged them.

Then my turn came. Vigi told me it was not expected for me to roll on the ground. I went toward the well and gave my flowers to the aide. Vigi explained who I was and what was in my heart as I spoke my words in English. The old Swami beckoned me closer to the well. He peered at me closely with seemingly blind eyes. Then his parched face cracked with a slight smile, which revealed toothless gums. He moved forward and put the Brahmin's garlands around our necks. Then he turned and slowly left us. A tremendous surge of love filled my being.

Vigi and I wordlessly got back into our taxi. Months later, he wrote, "I had not been to the temple for a long time, and my family was upset with me. Now I go regularly and am studying our scriptures. My family is happy and joyous over the change that has taken place in me since I had the good karma to go with you to Kanchipuram."

Before leaving Kanchipuram, I bought an exquisite sari -- one typical of that place, so I would always have a material reminder of that experience with the old Shankaracharya. Experiences such as these were the jewels I gathered in India.

My love affair with India continued. Friends, who consider me an expert on the "subcontinent," frequently ask to "tag along" on my next trip. So, several times I took a group of friends to India; Rik went as my assistant. With one year of architectural school behind him, Rik became convinced that photography would be his profession, and architecture his hobby. These trips provided a good opportunity for selling photos to magazines.

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Ambassador and Mrs. Shankar Bajpai (Beijing, China, 1980)

In 1970, Shankar Bajpai wrote, suggesting we visit him in Gangtok, Sikkim. He had been the Indian Consul General in San Francisco in the '60s, and we'd met through B.K. Nehru. Now he was the Political Officer of Sikkim, which meant he ran the place, as India provided the small mountain country with its foreign policy, currency, and military presence. (Later, India swallowed it up as it did Goa, all the time criticizing the U.S. for expansionist policies in Vietnam.) His letter was provocative, "Two hours from Gangtok there is an exotic monastery in Rumtek. The top boy is a very important Tibetan Lama. Rik will get dramatic pictures and you can have the thrill of knowing another saint."

He loved to kid me about my holy friends.

We decided to do it and put a group of friends together. Taking people to India was turning out to be a new hobby for me. Shankar and his wife, Meera, were delighted. He wrote again, "Before you leave Darjeeling, call me. It's always a frightful bore at the border. Just to be on the safe side, I'll have my men waiting for you. And by the way, do you suppose you could bring me about 12 pounds of fresh pork? If so, we'll have an authentic Tibetan dinner for you."

He went on to name a few other items impossible to get in the tiny kingdom.

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K Shankar Bajpai (l), Indian ambassador to Pakistan in New Delhi on July 20, 1976.


Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has named K. Shankar Bajpai—who served as India’s ambassador to Pakistan, China and the United States—as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library’s John W. Kluge Center.

At the Library, Bajpai hopes to explore the roots and history of Indo-American relations, and to examine more closely the question of post-colonial attitudes towards the colonial experience. Bajpai’s appointment started in mid-June and will run approximately three months, until September 22.

Bajpai also served as India’s Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, the country’s top diplomat, from 1982 to 1983. The son of India’s Agent-General to the United States during World War II, Bajpai spent many of his formative years in Washington, D.C. An expert in security issues, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1952. Bajpai served in Germany, Turkey and Pakistan. He was named ambassador to Pakistan from 1976 to 1980, to China from 1980 to 1982 and to the United States from 1984 to 1986.

On retirement from government service in 1986, he entered academic life, working as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and as the first professor of non-Western studies at Brandeis University. He has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the co-founder and chairman of the Delhi Policy Group, an independent policy analysis center in India. The author of numerous articles on diplomacy, foreign affairs and national security, Bajpai was editor of “Democracy and Diversity: Comparing India and the United States” (2007)...


-- K. Shankar Bajpai Named Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, by Library of Congress, July 21, 2009


Months later, through the Tenduf-las, the owners of the old-fashioned, cozy Windemere [Windamere] Hotel in Darjeeling where we stayed, it was possible to find everything.

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The hotel started out as boarding house for bachelor British tea planters in Darjeeling, in what was then British India, were built in 1841 and opened up as a boarding house in the late 1880s. The property named Adda Villa is owned by the family of Robin Mookerjee. It was leased to Tenduf La, a Sikkimese of Tibetan descent, who turned it into a hotel with the name Windamere. The hotel became more widely known as Darjeeling became the Bengal Presidency's summer capital. It expanded and took over a new wing, formerly the Loreto Convent, where the actress Vivien Leigh had spent some years in childhood.

In 1959, Palden Thondup Namgyal, Crown Prince of Sikkim, met his future wife Hope Cooke for the first time in the Windamere Hotel.

The hotel is also known for its views of the tea plantations below and of Mount Kangchenjunga, the third highest peak in the world.

-- Windamere Hotel, by Wikipedia


From our hotel on the highest part of Darjeeling, our group caravan dropped over the backside of the mountain on a winding road down to a turbulent river. Crossing the gorge, we started the climb up the next mountain to enter the Kingdom of Sikkim-about a four-hour scenic drive. Bajpai's men were there, and we passed through the official gate with no problems.

As we approached the official residence, we saw the Bajpais sitting in lawn furniture in front of the government house, having tea. Shankar's round face broke into a wide smile as he welcomed us to Gangtok in his flawless English. Light reflected off his baldpate; he looked like a Buddha in his warm, monk-like robe. Meera had a woolen shawl around her sari. The mountain air was cool.

"Come join us. I'm sure you're all ready for a good hot cup of tea." We blessed the British. And what an enchanted tea it was. Good conversation was as available as good food when around the Bajpais. Oxford-educated Shankar was a popular diplomat for India. His next ambassadorial posts were to China, Pakistan, and the United States.

The next morning, the sun backlighted Kachenjunga, the huge mountain worshipped by the Sikkimese. Through the leaded windows of my room in Raj Bavan, another colonial gingerbread house, I watched the spectacular sunrise. Often the magnificent mountain was hidden by cloud cover, but not this morning. There it was, soaring 29,000 feet into the air, dwarfing the rest of the Himalayan chain. It was so cold as I stood there that I had my electric heater in my hand. Luckily it had a long cord and went everywhere in the room with me, including the bathroom. I set it next to the tub while I splashed hot water over myself from a bucket. The huge, marble bathtub would have taken a week to fill.

Starting out for Rumtek monastery, we were bundled in our coats as we bounced along in our Land Rovers. An hour later, coats were discarded. It had become a lovely, sunny day in the mountains. There was no way to alert the monks that we were coming; we'd just arrive, all 18 of us. We switchbacked over several mountains, until the driver of the front vehicle stopped and pointed to the top of a distant peak.

"Monastery, Memsahib." At that distance we could see nothing. Swinging back and forth on the winding road, we passed between barley fields tended by farmers winnowing grain. Oxen walked slowly in circles, around and around, as they had for centuries. The tidiness of the land bespoke of their care. Bright-cheeked Sikkimese and Tibetan girls called out their traditional greeting, "Jole."

"Mom, stop the car here. I have to take that picture!" Rik demanded. "Those fields with the girls' costumes are great."

There was the monastery-bright red, glistening in the sun. On both sides were rows of prayer flag trees, similar to those I'd seen at Govinda's in Almora on my first visit to India. Behind the monastery, providing a silent frame, were more mountains. My friends were filled with excitement; none had been to a Tibetan monastery.

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Monks and Korshak Bakula (Leh)

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His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa performing the Ceremony of the Vajra Crown (Black Hat) (Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, 1972)

As we drove to the entrance, the round wooden door, divided in the middle, stood open in welcome. Three burgundy-robed monks stood by to receive us. A high-cheekb-oned Tibetan introduced himself.

"My name is Tashi. We are most happy to welcome you. It is very auspicious. You have arrived just in time for the Black Hat Ceremony. This event takes place once a month at the time of the full moon." We thought it a coincidence; the monks thought otherwise.


"Please follow me." We crossed the enclosed courtyard. Ahead stood the main building. Through the painted doors we could see a high-ceilinged room, filled with long benches on which sat monks of all ages from ancients down to those of five- or six-years-old. A huge, golden Buddha watched over ail. The ceiling held bells of ail descriptions. Long, brocaded panels, statues, butter lamps, and old thangkas cluttered every available spot. Incense curled through the air.

We were led up a worn and uneven wooden staircase to a spacious, high-ceilinged room at the top of the monastery. Both ends of the room were opened to the temple below. We had no sooner seated ourselves on the floor than the ceremony began. We had arrived at curtain time.

Darkly clad monks slowly paraded in with long copper horns, at least eight feet in length. Standing to the side of a high, throne-like chair and platform, they blew long, discordant, sonorous notes. Soon another group arrived, escorting to the seat of honor a stocky young man, who wore a high-peaked, brocaded lama's hat. Adjusting his heavy, gold-embroidered cape, he beamed happiness down upon us. He nodded his head to the monks to proceed.

"That is His Holiness, the Gyalwa Karmapa," Tashi informed me, handing out some papers of explanation. The Karmapa was the sixteenth incarnation of a Tibetan saint, recognized as the embodiment of Avalokitesvara (the Buddha of compassion) who attained enlightenment in one lifetime. His followers are called the Karma Kagyus. The Black Hat, which was made of human hairs in the eleventh century by devoted followers, was believed to have tremendous healing effects for viewers. "The Karmapa and the Dalai Lama are the two God-Kings of Tibet. Sikkim and Bhutan revere especially the Karmapa's line," explained Tashi.

An elaborate brocade box was carried in with much fanfare and presented to the God-King. After opening the box and putting the stiff, black, onion-shaped hat on his head, the Karmapa, with one hand holding the hat in place, closed his eyes in meditation. It was signaled that we follow suit. With my eyes shut I thought to myself, a God-King-how impressive for my friends. Shankar doesn't know this. How lucky we are to be here! Later, as we were each introduced to His Holiness, we presented white prayer scarves, khatas, which Shankar had advised us to take along.

One of my friends could hardly contain himself. "Wait 'til you hear what happened to Winnie." It seemed while his wife was sitting with closed eyes, she had the cherished "golden sun" wash over her entire being. She was still in shock, but radiant.

After the Karmapa left, Tashi asked us, "Would you like to meet our sister?" We, of course, said yes and followed him along an outside ledge to a corner room. It was a breathtaking view as we looked down into the valley over the winding road we had followed. All we could see were brown mountains in every directions.

"You must come back again later, when the mountains are green." Following Tashi through a narrow frame door, I stepped into a small hall; to the left a larger room opened out. As I entered, I gasped in surprise. On a low platform sat an English woman in monk's robes. She appeared to be in her sixties and her large, pale blue eyes looked enormous because of her shaved head.

"Come in, I am Sister Palmo. It is a joy to welcome you."


Recovering from our start, we formed a circle around her on the floor. As we gathered confidence, we asked questions about herself and the significance of the ceremony we had just witnessed.

"What good fortune, coming here on this particular day. It was not accidental; every movement of even a grain of sand is planned." She gently explained some of the basic Buddhist beliefs and traditions to us.

Time flew by, and, unfortunately, being on a tight schedule, we could not remain long enough. Rik took me aside.

"This place is sensational. We simply have to come back here and spend more time with Sister Palmo."

While the group had tea in another room and ate the picnic sandwiches we'd brought, we made our plans with the English nun.

"Yes, yes, do come back. I knew you would want to. We are meant to become friends. If you would be so kind as to bring me a few things from the Gangtok marketplace, I would be so happy. Then you can have lunch here with me."

We decided that Avi, who had joined us in Gangtok, could take the group to Calcutta the next morning, and we'd follow a day later. Shankar had suggested it earlier, "Take more time here. You can use my car and driver to go to the Bagdogra airport any time." In the jeep returning to Gangtok, we chattered like mapgies, awed by our experience at the monastery.

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Sister Palmo at the Rumtek Monastery (1972)

That evening, we celebrated with a Tibetan dinner. The table was heaped with all sorts of succulent, hotly spiced vegetable and pork dishes. The Bajpais had outdone themselves, and they seemed proud of us as a group. We came from Argentina, Washington D.C., New York, Beverly Hills, Honolulu, and Hamburg. Included were top social names, a former U.S. Ambassador, a famous choreographer (Tony Duquette), the head of the Beverly Hills Testavant Chevalier (elite gourmet Society) and a woman astrologer, the grandniece of the legendary flying ace of World War II, Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (the Red Baron). Yes, we were an interesting assortment. We, in turn, were honored to meet the Chogyal with his American wife, Hope Cooke, and the General who had accompanied the Dalai Lama on his escape from Lhasa. The Chogyal was charming, Her Highness was shy and aloof, and the General complimented me, "That turquoise amulet you are wearing is an extremely good one."

I had bought it the day before in Gangtok. A Tibetan in dusty robes, wearing one long turquoise and coral earring had tugged at Rik's shirt. We followed him down a little alley and up a broken staircase to a tiny little room where two elderly Tibetan women sat. From under their bed, they pulled out a trunk and carefully unwrapped their treasures wrapped in dirty clothes. The minute I saw the delicate amulet, I knew I wanted it. The price was reasonable, but Rik said, in Spanish, "Mom, you've taught me to bargain. Seventy dollars is a lot in Sikkim, you will get it for less."

By bargaining, I got it for $80. We laughed at the reverse psychology of the Tibetans. The minute we started to bargain, they knew we wanted it and upped the price.

Our group left us early the next morning. Shortly afterward, I initiated Meera Bajpai into TM. Shankar scoffed, but added hastily, "I will not oppose anything that might interest her," remembering my criticism of years before. On his arrival in San Francisco as Consul General, he had been asked about Maharishi by the press. He had replied, "Oh, we laugh at all these holy men who come to the U.S. to make a fortune." I had jumped on him, "Shankar, you have never met Maharishi or taken his course. Why didn't you just say you knew nothing about him?"

By 8 A.M., the marketplace was open. Vegetables, eggs, spices, and all sorts of foodstuffs were spread out on canvasses in front of flimsy stalls. We laughed as we watched one owner beat a cow on the head as he tried to retrieve a bunch of carrots from its mouth. Succeeding, he brushed the orange roots and put them back in place-a sort of Julia Child attitude about a few teeth marks.

Soon we had our baskets filled with bread (a luxury in Rumtek), tomatoes, butter, cream, and all the requested vegetables and fruits. It was time for our return to the monastery.

"How nice to be alone!" Rik said.

Although we enjoyed our group, nearing the end of a 30-day trip, we looked forward to being on our own. Now we were off on the kind of adventure we dearly loved. It was about 11 A.M. when we drove up to the monastery door, giving us at least eight hours of daylight for a nice long visit.

Anila, Sister Palmo's tiny attendant, took our parcels from us with joy and the quick, silent movements of a bird. Sister Palmo was sitting, as she had been when we left her the day before.

"Good morning, what a treat to get all those lovely foods. Come sit near me. Are you sure you wouldn't like chairs brought in?" We assured her not.

She told us a bit about herself. She had been married to an Indian whom she had met while both were students at Oxford. They had three grown children. Their photos were beautiful.

"This one, my son Kabir Bedi, is a leading cinema star in Bombay. He's gone through a painful divorce, but is coming out of it. My husband was a businessman, but now has become a Hindu holy man and psychic healer. At present, he is touring Italy. We meet occasionally, when I go to see my children, and are good friends."

We asked how she had become a nun. "For years I followed Gandhi. One day I was attending a conference, and while walking with some friends, a voice from within spoke to me. It gave me instructions about what I was to do-I was to renounce the world of activity and become a nun in a Buddhist monastery."

Her full face glowed as she remembered. "My husband understood. He had felt the tug himself. It was a natural, happy parting, and we now travel different roads to the same destination."
She must have been a young beauty, I thought. Lovely white skin, but it's hard to tell what a woman with a shaved head would look like with hair.

We discussed her early years as a nun. Evidently, as the highest in the order, she was the confidential assistant to His Holiness. She even discussed the shaving of her head.

"I guess that is the final commitment for a woman," her eyes twinkled. "You know vanity is gone when you see your hair on the floor."

We felt honored as she shared these intimacies with us. Then, abruptly, she changed the subject. "But tell me more about yourselves. What brought you here? How much do you know about Buddhism?"

I spoke first, "Well, I know that the Vedas inspired Gautama Buddha's 'seek out your own salvation,' but that he rejected the Brahmin's interpretation. Born as an Indian prince, he was horrified by what he saw outside the walls of his princely home. Needing to think, to rationalize the 'whys of creation,' he spent hours under the Bodhi tree contemplating. Occasionally he would slip into 'nothingness.' There he was free, free of worries, desires, and emotions. There he experienced total release. Austerities didn't do it, worship didn't do it; contemplation and meditation did it. It brought about the nothingness -- Nirvana!"

"Very good, that's all correct! Buddhism as explained by our Kagyu lineage also states that meditation, while unmasking our deceptions, helps us to know ourselves in the present situation, to face life, and to accept ourselves. It will bring transcendental common sense."


That struck a cord with us. Rik said, "Sister, that happens to be a word we are very aware of, but please go on."

She continued, "And from Buddha's illuminations, where he transcended the limitations of individuality, he replaced the idea of the immutable, eternal soul incapable of growth and development, with the conception of a spiritual consciousness yearning for freedom and enlightenment through the continuous process of becoming and dissolving." She spoke slowly and clearly.

"Those are almost Lama Govinda's words," I exclaimed.

"Yes, he will be known to the West as the first interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism into layman's terms. He helps one understand how we must abandon our thought habits in order to know the real nature of the Mind that encompasses both the individual and the Universe."


Agreeing with the Sister, I added, "The West will welcome his work. Many years ago, wanting to understand something about Buddhism, I read several books on the subject, but I gave up ... to understand them, one had to learn a whole new vocabulary."

"Indeed, and the whole idea was made easy by Buddha when he presented the eight basic rules to live by: Right Thought; Right Understanding; Right Action; Right Speech; Right Livelihood; Right Effort; Right Mindfulness; and Right Concentration."

By following these, one would become "enlightened." No longer would life be directed by attachment. The goal, actually, was to be free from the pressure of the human race.

"But, Sister Palmo, what we don't understand is this: Gautama Buddha was against gods, priests, worship, and dogma. He advised against building monasteries, as did the sages of the Upanishads, warning that, through the problems arising from household responsibilities and positions, jealousies would be born and infighting would develop between superiors and inferiors. All that was important was pure thought. Yet, when he died, they turned him into a god to worship."

"Not exactly-he's worshipped as Buddha, the Enlightened One, not as a god."


Rik and I couldn't see the difference. "Isn't it a shame that man always takes simplicity and complicates it?" mused Rik.

"Man feels more secure in clinging to traditions. He needs sets of commentaries, and philosophical principles that he can classify and put down in sacred texts-man clings to 'things.' He wants to possess and make his knowledge exclusive. Even the Karmapa once admitted to me, 'It took the Red Chinese to force Tibet into sharing its wisdom with the outside world.' That was our bad karma, trying to keep it to ourselves." We admired the English nun for her honesty. What a rare treat this visit was for us. She went on to explain the symbolism found in Buddhist art and the importance it had to all meditative schools. We could have spent a week there sitting at her feet like enthusiastic little school children.

Soon it was time for lunch. Rik and I were hesitant to eat at the monastery, where sanitary conditions were uncertain, so we said we'd had a large breakfast. "Not at all, that was hours ago," insisted the nun. "Anila is cooking our meal in the next room. I have taught her to make crepes."

We couldn't believe it; I watched her cook over a little oil burner in the corner. Everything was spotless. The crepes, when served with cream and honey whipped with butter, were delicious.
I'd been afraid we'd receive "buttered tea" and tsampa, made from roasted gingke, a flour-like barley mixed with yak butter.

"What a treat for me," said Sister Palmo. "Our diet is sparse here. One of the things I miss is toast with my tea. We often go weeks without bread. We raise chickens and goats outside the monastery. So it's an eggs, goat's milk, and grain menu." No wonder the foods we'd brought were thought so dazzling.

Sister Palmo was interested in hearing about Maharishi and his teachings. "He sounds like a wise man, and from the happiness you both exude, one can see it's working." We then urged her to tell us more about her life at the monastery.

She explained in detail her daily routine, how she counted hundreds of thousands of Aum mani padme hum, a Buddhist mantra, on her rosary-type beads, her mala. She told us about visualization, very important in the practice of Buddhism, and the exaltation one felt when the Buddha was seen sitting on a lotus with the honey of compassion dripping down. Even though she detailed it carefully, it was foreign to us and seemed laborious in comparison to our system.

Shortly after lunch, she announced, "Anila has brought a message that His Holiness is ready to receive you." Gathering her robes, she stood up. We had only seen her seated and were surprised to see that she was as tall as I. She walked as an English woman, with good sturdy shoes, taking long decisive steps.

From an outside door, the Karmapa's quarters were on the far side of the monastery. The room was bare, but lighted by many windows. On a small divan-like platform sat His Holiness. Without his hat and heavy cape, he looked younger than he had the day before. Now, he wore a simple wine-red robe. He smiled in welcome, indicating we should sit on cushions near him.

Then we had a surprise. A beautiful Indian woman entered the room. It was Goodie Oberoi. Sister Palmo was delighted to find we knew each other, and left us with Goodie to interpret. "How is it that you are here?" I asked. She had been one of the Indian friends I'd brought to Maharishi for initiation while I was attending the 1969 course in Kashmir. She hadn't mentioned the Karmapa to me.

"His Holiness is my treasured teacher now and has helped me more than anyone in the world." I could understand her need of help. Her life with Bikki, son of the hotel tycoon, had to be difficult. Bikki's love of drinking and women were well-known among the social set of India.

"Sister comes to visit us and now we have one of her nuns with us at home. You have no idea, Nancy, what a wonderful change it has brought over the children. I will always love Maharishi," she continued, "but, for me, I need personal contact with my spiritual guide." Her handsome face looked more serene than I had ever seen it.

Interpreting was difficult. The Karmapa spoke rapidly. His man translated the Tibetan into Hindi; then Goodie put the Hindi into English. It discouraged any substantial penetration of his knowledge. We were left with the simple enjoyment of sitting near him and receiving his serene vibrations.

"This is a most wonderful soul," Goodie explained. "You are fortunate to see him like this and share his darshan. He is revered as a God King by the Sikkimese, Bhutanese, and many Tibetans. He is the Supreme head of the Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism, the embodiment of the power and compassion of Buddhist Tantra. They consider him a higher incarnation than the Dalai Lama. When the Chinese invaded Tibet, India offered the Dalai Lama asylum; likewise the Karmapa, but he came here to Sikkim at the invitation of the Chogyal."

The Karmapa radiated sunshine and he was attentive when we spoke. He appeared to be in his 30s, but I heard later he was almost 50. "He would like to give you a special mantra," Goodie explained. It was an honor we couldn't refuse. We moved close to him. He had been knotting some cords while he spoke and with his expressive hands he now tied both a yellow and red cord around each of our necks. With a small pair of scissors, he cut a lock of hair from our heads.

"It is a great blessing," Goodie explained, "that he would knot the cords and put them around your necks with his own hands. It is unusual, and I'm so happy for you. You have taken refuge in the Buddha with this ceremony."

She wrote down our mantras on a piece of paper, handing it to us with some powder and pills. "Sister Palmo will explain these to you."

The good Sister was overjoyed when she heard what had transpired and clapped her hands. "When you walked into my room today and my thangka of Vajrasattva was exposed, I knew something auspicious would happen. Usually we keep that particular thangka covered."

We told her about the mantras, and she understood our dilemma. "You are right. Stick to what you are doing. But, sometimes on a special full moon, or in a time of danger, you might use them."

She explained the healing qualities of the powder and pills to which I reacted, "Oh, good, I'll take them to my husband." She agreed they might help. (Unfortunately, Tony never saw any apparent effects.)


Then she asked, "Now, may I ask you a favor?" We quickly nodded. "We have a convent in Tulokpur. You mentioned you were on your way to visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, after your friends return to the U.S., to photograph the Tibetan New Year's celebration there. Tulokpur is between Dharamsala and Dalhousie. One takes a risk sending money by mail to India, but we need to get money to the monastery to feed the nuns and their cattle. Could we entrust the money to you to deliver?"

We agreed and got all the necessary instructions. We were happy we'd ordered five thangkas to be hand painted for us. We knew our money helped to fill the envelope given us.

Again the day came to an end, far too quickly. Sister Palmo escorted us to the jeep. "We will keep in touch through letters, and one day I will come to see you in the U.S. You will come back to Rumtek. It is written." In fact, the following year she stayed with us in Beverly Hills and made a lasting impression on my family. I felt my children were fortunate to meet such dedicated people.

As we rode down the hill, our minds relived our beautiful experience. "Where else could such a thing happen?" Rik said. "Here we are with the money for their convent's food, and they know nothing about us. We'll have to be so careful not to have anything happen to us, or those poor animals and people will starve!"

Later, we learned, the Karmapa, with his powers, probably knew more about us than we did ourselves! But we were complimented by their blind trust, and we did deliver the money safely.

My encounters with the world of Buddhism started with Lama Govinda, followed by the Dalai Lama, and now continued with the Karmapa. The more I was exposed to their spiritual leaders, the more attracted I became. There was no doubt that I felt a kindred spirit for the Tibetan race. They are bright, outgoing, and friendly in spite of the terrible hardships their people and homeland have suffered; they are optimistic and determined to succeed. Maybe I had been a Tibetan in one of my past lives.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Sun Jun 07, 2020 12:32 am

Girija Shankar Bajpai
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/10/20

Image
Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai, KCSI KBE CIE
Girja Shankar Bajpai with the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the first Commonwealth Prime Ministers conference in 1948 in London.
1st Secretary General, Ministry of External Affairs
In office: 1947–1952
Prime Minister: Jawaharlal Nehru
Preceded by: position established
Succeeded by: N. R. Pillai
Personal details
Born: 3 April 1891[1], Allahabad, North-Western Provinces, British India (now in Uttar Pradesh, India)
Died: 5 December 1954 (aged 63), Bombay, Bombay State, India (now Mumbai, Maharashtra)
Nationality: British Indian (1891-1947); Indian (1947-1954)
Children: 7 (4 daughters; 3 sons), including Uma Shankar Bajpai
Alma mater: University of Allahabad, Merton College, Oxford

Sir Girija Shankar Bajpai KCSI KBE CIE (3 April 1891 – 5 December 1954) was an eminent Indian civil servant, diplomat and Governor.

Early life and education

Bajpai was born in Allahabad to an orthodox Kanyakubja Brahmin family originally from Lucknow.[2] He was the second son of Rai Bahadur Pandit Sir Seetla Prasad Bajpai CIE (1865 - 1947), who in the course of his career served as Chief Justice and Minister of Justice of Jaipur State and was knighted in 1939.[3] and to Rukmine Shukla (18?? - 1945).[4][5] He was initially educated at Muir Central College, from where he received a King's Scholarship to Oxford, taking a B.A. from Merton College, Oxford.[6][7]

Career

He entered the ICS on 16 October 1915.[8] He began his career in the (then) United Provinces as an assistant collector and magistrate, receiving a promotion to joint magistrate in May 1918.[1] In April 1921, he was appointed as a secretary to V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, and served in this capacity until November 1922.[1] He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1923 New Year Honours list.[9] From 1923 to 1930, Bajpai served in the Department of Education, Health and Lands, rising from under-secretary in September 1923 to deputy secretary (officiating) in March 1924 and to deputy secretary in June 1926.[1] The secretary of a Government of India delegation to South Africa in 1926, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in that year's Birthday Honours List.[10] He was promoted to secretary (officiating) in the department of Education, Health and Lands in December 1927 and to joint secretary in November 1929.[1]

From November 1930 to January 1931, Bajpai was a member of the British Indian delegation to the First Round Table Conference in London, and was promoted to the rank of collector and magistrate in October 1931. After a brief posting to South Africa from December 1931 to August 1932, he was appointed as a full secretary in the Department of Education, Health and Lands,[1] and was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1935 Birthday and Silver Jubilee Honours List.[11] In March 1940, Sir Girija was appointed as one of the six members of the Viceroy's Executive Council, the colonial version of a Cabinet, having previously served as a temporary member of the council from 1935 to 1936.[1][12] In October 1941, he was appointed the Agent-General (roughly equivalent to an ambassadorial post) to the USA for India.[1] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) in that year's Birthday Honours List.[13]


Sir Girija was known for his ethics, oratory, strong will and far-reaching vision. It is said he warned Prime Minister Nehru about the potential for a Chinese invasion more than a decade before it happened.[14][15] He represented India in numerous international forums in the 1930s and 1940s, including at the UN during the Kashmir debate.[6] American diplomat Mr Vincent Sheean has mentioned in his book "Nehru – The Years of Power" that it was a technical error on part of the team headed by Mr Girija Bajpai which filed India's appeal to the UN Pakistan's invasion in Kashmir which led to the issue being considered a dispute rather than an act of aggression by Pakistan. The appeal should have been made under Chapter 7 of the UN charter rather than Chapter 6.[16]

Following the independence of India from the British Raj in 1947, Prime Minister Nehru retained Sir Girija as his principal foreign affairs adviser, appointing him the first Secretary General in the Ministry of External Affairs.[17]

Later years and death

Bajpai had experienced poor health for some years, and the pressures of the immediate post-Independence years took their toll. In failing health by 1952, he was appointed as the Governor of Bombay State by Nehru, in part to allow him to recuperate. He recovered his health sufficiently to represent India the following year at the UN conferences on the Kashmir dispute, which were held at Geneva. Following his return to India, Sir Girija fell seriously ill in early 1954.[2] He died in office of a cerebral haemorrhage in the early morning of 5 December 1954, aged 63. He lay in state in the audience hall of Raj Bhavan, his body draped with the tricolour as citizens, political leaders and consular officials filed past. Later that day, with thousands of people lining the streets, his corpse was conveyed to the crematorium in a gun carriage drawn by detachments of the army, navy, air force and the Mumbai Police. He was cremated with full ceremonial honours, including a 17-gun salute, fired as his eldest son, Uma Shankar Bajpai, lit the funeral pyre.

The (then) Vice President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, delivered a eulogy in which he said Bajpai's life had been "an example of devotion and dedication" which would be long remembered.[18]

Personal life

Sir Girija Bajpai was known for his wealth and lifestyle. He always dressed impeccably and was considered an authority on clothes, fine wines and carpets. His ethics and strong sense of family responsibility led him to pay off his brother's debts, some of which were run up in his name, several times in an effort to preserve the family's reputation.

Bajpai was married to Rajni Misra of Kanpur, with whom he had four daughters and three sons; Uma Shankar Bajpai, Durga Shankar Bajpai and K.S. Bajpai,

Image
K Shankar Bajpai (l), Indian ambassador to Pakistan in New Delhi on July 20, 1976.


all who became diplomats.
[2] Kanti Bajpai, the son of Uma Shankar, is a noted academic.

K. Shankar Bajpai, Chairman Emeritus
by Delhi Policy Group: Advancing India's Rise as a Leading Power
Accessed: 6/10/20

Image
K.Shankar Bajpai, Former Indian Secretary, External Affairs Ministry, and Ambassador to Pakistan, China and USA.

Born March 30, 1928, in Jaipur, India. Educated St Albans School, Washington D.C. ( Cum Laude, 1944, with prize for English; Editor, School Year Book; co-Chair Government Club).
Merton College, Oxford, (BA Honours in History 1949, MA 1954, President of Indian Club, Film Society and Cosmos Society)
Ecole des Hautes Etudes Universitaire, Geneva 1952
Speaks French, some German, in addition to English and Hindi
Career: Joined Indian Foreign Service 1952, served in Bonn, Ankara, Bern 1955-8, Political Officer, Indian High Commission in Pakistan, 1962-65; In External Affairs Ministry, Under Secretary Arab Affairs, Deputy Secretary UN Affairs, Special Officer for Disarmament 1958-62; Special Officer for Pakistan Affairs and Director Americas, 1966-67.

As Head of Post or Mission Consul General, United States West of the Mississippi, in San Francisco, 67-70; Government of India’s Representative in Sikkim, 70-74; Ambassador to The Netherlands, 1975; High Commissioner to Pakistan, 1976-80; Ambassador to China, 1980-82; Secretary, External Affairs, 1982-83; Ambassador to the USA, 1984-86.

After retirement from government service in 1986, entered academic life: Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, 87; Regents Professor, University of California, (all campuses) 1987-88; Visiting Professor, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-92; First Professor of Non-Western Studies, Brandeis University, 1992 & 93; Visiting Fellow, Center for International Security & Cooperation, Stanford, ‘02; Senior International Adviser, Merrill Lynch, International, New York 1995-2000; Chairman, Delhi Policy Group, an independent "think-tank", since its founding, ‘94. Also involved in various “track-two” interactions with the USA and Pakistan.


Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has named K. Shankar Bajpai—who served as India’s ambassador to Pakistan, China and the United States—as Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Library’s John W. Kluge Center.

At the Library, Bajpai hopes to explore the roots and history of Indo-American relations, and to examine more closely the question of post-colonial attitudes towards the colonial experience. Bajpai’s appointment started in mid-June and will run approximately three months, until September 22.

Bajpai also served as India’s Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, the country’s top diplomat, from 1982 to 1983. The son of India’s Agent-General to the United States during World War II, Bajpai spent many of his formative years in Washington, D.C. An expert in security issues, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1952. Bajpai served in Germany, Turkey and Pakistan. He was named ambassador to Pakistan from 1976 to 1980, to China from 1980 to 1982 and to the United States from 1984 to 1986.

On retirement from government service in 1986, he entered academic life, working as a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and as the first professor of non-Western studies at Brandeis University. He has been a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the co-founder and chairman of the Delhi Policy Group, an independent policy analysis center in India. The author of numerous articles on diplomacy, foreign affairs and national security, Bajpai was editor of “Democracy and Diversity: Comparing India and the United States” (2007)...


-- K. Shankar Bajpai Named Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Library of Congress' John W. Kluge Center, by Library of Congress, July 21, 2009


He was an early notable in Scouting and Guiding in India, and worked to unify their scattered organisations during the pre-independence era.

References

1. The India Office and Burma Office List: 1945. Harrison & Sons, Ltd. 1945. p. 127.
2. "Sir Girija Bajpai: Architect of Indian Diplomacy". The Times. 6 December 1954.
3. London Gazette, 2 January 1939
4. "Bajpai, Sir Seetla Prasad, Rai Bahadur, (19 April 1865–1 Feb. 1947), Chief Justice and Judicial Member of Council, Jaipur, Rajputana". Oxford Index BAJPAI, Seetla Prasad, Rai Bahadur (1865 - 1947), Chief Justice and Judicial Member of Council, Jaipur, Rajputana. 2007. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U222158.
5. "Bajpai, Sir Girja Shankar (1891-1954), administrator and politician in India". 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30544.
6. "BAJPAI, Sir Girja Shankar". Marquis Who Was Who in America 1607–1984. Marquis. Retrieved 27 October 2012. – via Credo Reference (subscription required)
7. Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900-1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 83.
8. "No. 29348". The London Gazette. 2 November 1915. p. 10785.
9. "No. 32782". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1922. p. 10.
10. "No. 33179". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 July 1926. p. 4406.
11. "No. 34166". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 May 1935. p. 3612.
12. "No. 34831". The London Gazette. 16 April 1940. p. 2252.
13. "No. 36033". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 May 1943. p. 2420.
14. Bajpai, K.S. "Weightlifting". Outlook Magazine. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
15. "Letter from Deputy Prime Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel to Prime Minister Jahawarlal Nehru". The Tribune. 16 October 2012. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
16. Sheean, Vincent (1960). Nehru: The Years of Power. Random House.
17. Kapur, Harish (2009). Foreign Policies of India's Prime Ministers. Delhi: Lancer Publishers. p. 444. ISBN 9780979617485.
18. "This day that age – December 6, 1954". The Hindu. 6 December 2004. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:17 am

Selective Sterilization
by E.A. Whitney, M.C.
Birth Control Review [Margaret Sanger]
April, 1933

It has been said that the success of democracy depends upon the quality of its individual elements. This being true it behooves America to do two things. First to encourage the fecundity of those physically and mentally equipped for our civilization, and secondly to restrict the propagation of those physically, mentally and socially inadequate. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss the advisability of selective sterilization as one factor to be utilized in restricting such propagation.

It might be well to mention other methods of limiting propagation, some of which have been successfully used. They are:

1 Segregation

2 Restrictive Marriage Laws

3 Eugenic Education

4 General Improvement in Environment

5 Birth Control

The need for segregation is definite and has a distinct value. It is used to a greater degree in this country than anywhere else in the world, but it is hopelessly inadequate. It would be utterly impossible to segregate all physically, mentally and socially unfit. Furthermore, it is not necessary.

Present restrictive marriage laws are designed to prevent inbreeding by forbidding consanguineous marriages. Some states also have laws regarding marriages of individuals afflicted with social diseases, tuberculosis and other conditions. Restrictive legislation regarding the marriage of the mentally and physically handicapped may be worth while, but it would not eliminate such unions.

Eugenic education is of distinct value. The dissemination to prospective parents of knowledge pertaining to human heredity may aid somewhat in restricting the numbers of unfortunate human beings, but such education reaches only a limited number of those who need this knowledge.

A great deal of effort is now being directed towards improving environmental conditions. Plans are made and are being developed both here and abroad which will tend to eliminate slum conditions in large cities. Too much stress can not be laid on environment as a factor in creating inadequacy. Correct living conditions will improve the mental and physical status of future generations tremendously. The mental hygienists have repeatedly shown how frequently mental disorders are the direct result of faulty environment. However, environment is but one factor in the production or correction of unfitness and can never entirely eliminate the far-reaching force of heredity.

Birth control is of importance when it advocates birth selection by encouraging reproduction of the mentally, physically and socially adequate and the birth restriction of those not so equipped. It is to be regretted that birth control instruction does not, as a rule, reach those who need it most. Dr Albert E. Wiggam when addressing the New York Association of Biology Teachers said that morons are multiplying more rapidly than college professors. He stated that at the present rate of birth there will be but 50 descendants in six generations of 1000 Harvard graduates whereas a like number of unskilled workmen will have 100,000 descendants in six generations. It is easily seen that birth control to be of real worth needs to reach all sections of society.

All of the above mentioned measures are useful in their respective fields in curbing the increase of mental, physical and social degeneracy. But it is an unfortunate fact that those who should not reproduce are of such low mentality that they cannot adequately grasp the ideas and meanings of restrictive marriage laws, eugenic education and birth control. Therefore selective sexual sterilization has a distinct place in our efforts to better humankind.

The present conception of the need of human sexual sterilization is of recent origin. The use of this procedure to treat many of the cacogenic people in our midst in order to reduce inadequacy dates back in legal circles to the 1897 Session of the Michigan Legislature At this time a bill was presented proposing sterilization but it failed to be enacted. It was not until 1907 that a statute for sexual sterilization was passed and approved, the Indiana law of March 9, 1907. Although the legal aspect of the present conception of selective sterilization is but thirty-four years old, it has been advocated and used by various institutions for nearly fifty years. One of the first to advocate sterilization as a means of lessening the number of incompetents was Dr Isaac Kerlin of Pennsylvania.

The term ''Selective Sterilization" is used advisedly. Not all of the mental, physical and social inadequates of our population need such measures to prevent the propagation of their kind. Considering the group of degenerates as a whole it is but a relatively small number to whom such a procedure need be applied.

Reference is made throughout this discussion to the mentally, physically and socially inadequates. One might ask who are included m this group, since it is for those so afflicted that sterilizatlon is suggested as a desirable measure. Those classed as inadequate include

1 The Mentally Defective
2 The Mentally Diseased
3 The Epileptics
4 Those afflicted with certain physical disorders, such as Leprosy
5 The Defective Delinquents
6 The Moral Degenerates
7 The Drug Habituates
8 Those afflicted with social disease, such as Syphilis
9 The confirmed Criminals

The present valid statutes in the United States provide for the human sterilization of the following groups of people:

32 affecting the Feeble-minded
18 affecting the Insane
18 affecting the Idiots
18 affecting the Epileptics
16 affecting the Imbeciles
7 affecting the Rapists
7 affecting the Moral Degenerates
7 affecting the Hereditary Recurrent Insanity
6 affecting the Habitual Criminals
2 affecting the Hereditary Criminals

Besides these there is one statute providing for sterilization of each of the following classes:

1 Confirmed Criminals,
2 Two times sex criminals with present moral depravity,
3 Lifers with one previous crime and present moral depravity,
4 Syphilitics,
5 Incurable Chronic Manias,
 6 Dementias,
7 Hereditary Criminals,
8 Diseased and Degenerate People,
9 Sodomists,
10 Those guilty of crimes against nature,
11 Habitual Sexual Criminals

The claim has often been made that the sterilized individual knowing that he cannot reproduce will develop sex promiscuity. If such were the case it is claimed that these individuals would be a potent factor in the spread of social diseases. However, from the best available data on the subject, namely the studies of Gosney and Popenoe in California, there seems to be no foundation for this fear.

Objections have been raised because of religious doctrines. However, many individuals of all creeds and denominations have been sexually sterilized with the consent of their religious advisers. Each case must be considered separately and when facts warrant the advisability of sexual sterilization the religious adviser rarely objects.

The question of proper administration of sexual sterilization laws is often raised. At the present time there is no uniformity in the methods of control of these statutes. In order to obtain uniformity in administration it is necessary to have a general underlying motive for sterilization. As has been shown the present valid statutes provide for sterilization for a variety of reasons. The three principal motives for sterilization are hereditary, therapeutic and punitive. If the individual proves to be mentally, physically or socially inadequate, and the underlying cause of his condition is heredity, he should have the benefits of sterilization. Therapeutic sterilizations are performed In the surgical practice of all hospitals. They are done for a variety of reasons, such as heart disease, kidney disease, pelvic disorders and following a second caesarean section, and no question is ever raised in the legality of the procedure for such conditions. The punitive human sterilization acts have rightly been criticized by the opponents of selective sterilization. At one time seven states had laws punishing convicts by sterilization, but many of these are now declared unconstitutional. Except where the one convicted is definitely an hereditary or moral criminal, sterilization is never justified.

If the basis for such procedures is to be primarily heredity, there is a need for a better system of determining pedigrees. There are but few individuals who know their own family trees intimately. At the present tune our Public School systems are so organized that they can and do gather a great deal of statistical data concerning each child in their care. These organizations could easily undertake scientific pedigree studies and such records might be filed in each State's welfare or eugenic office. These records would be of value for many purposes and would serve as an ever-ready reference for physicians and sociologists as well as eugenists. Such facts as they might establish would be the foundations for the recommendation of selective sterilization, for non-institutionalized physically, mentally or socially inadequate individuals. Whenever the evidence of the inheritance of undesirable qualities through successive generations is potent, and whenever the individual exhibits these traits, then authority for his sexual sterilization should be given.

The question as to who should give such authority is often raised. The physician in attendance is the one best fitted to judge as to the need. After complete medical examination of the individual and careful survey of his history the physician should have the right to request the legal authority for sexual sterilization. In cases where the individual is an institutional charge it should be within the authority of the head of such institutions to have all inadequates sexually sterilized before their release from his custody. Parole would be of greater value and fraught with much less danger were all the mentally, physically and socially inadequate, who might be eligible to parole, sterilized.

The time has arrived when all forward-looking citizens should seriously consider the necessity of dealing with the rising tide of degeneracy. One factor of proven worth is selective sterilization. Its greatest field of usefulness is in selected individual cases of mental, physical or social inadequacy of hereditary origin.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Sun Jun 07, 2020 6:23 am

Corruption, vice and racketeering: The dubious activities of the Swamis of Rishikesh
by Dilip Bobb and Bharat Dogra
India Today
April 5, 2014
ISSUE DATE: June 30, 1978 UPDATED: February 23, 2015 17:07 IST

The recent flurry of allegations against Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his alleged involvement in the planting of a nuclear device on Nanda Devi has once again focused on the dubious activities of a majority of India's so-called Swamis. INDIA TODAY correspondents Dilip Bobb and Bharat Dogra recently conducted an investigation into the dubious activities of the Swamis of Rishikesh, where corruption, vice and organized racketeering are the rule rather than the exception.

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The changing face of spiritualism - an impoverished ascetic lies on a bed of nails

The recent flurry of accusations against India's major religious export, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and his alleged involvement in the CIA-inspired planting of a nuclear device on Nanda Devi, has resurrected the age-old controversy surrounding the front-runners in the Swami sweepstakes.

Three days before the allegations hit the headlines, Mahesh Yogi's private, six-seater Bell helicopter had been impounded by Indian custom officials for failure on the Yogi's part to produce a valid licence to keep the aircraft in the country.

The Yogi himself was seemingly unconcerned about the recent developments. He was, in fact, snugly ensconced in his "religious university" in snow-clad Switzerland, peddling his patented brand of TM (transcendental meditation) to the locals. "Mahesh Yogi never spends the summer in Rishikesh. Its too hot here... He always stays in Switzerland during the summer months", admitted one of the Yogi's swami spokesman, seated comfortably in the lotus position on a three-inch thick Dunlop matress.

Image
The luxurious, air-conditioned residence of Mahesh Yogi (inset) in Rishikesh

Instant Fame

Surrounding the newly-constructed basement room where the Swami held court, was the sprawling 100-acre "university" that launched the hirsute Yogi into instant international fame because of his connections with George Harrison and the Beatles. The complex itself, a vast, jigsaw-puzzle of architectural aberrations, was uninhabited by the Yogi's major source of income - foreigners in search of instant nirvana.

Apparently the Yogi is more of a crowd-puller than the pre-recorded gospels he preaches on casettes or piped into the more luxurious "guest houses" that litter the campus. "The earnings of the university in Rishikesh are negligible. Our main source of income is from the foreign TM centres and donations from abroad", the Yogi's spokesman frankly admitted.

But while the divine dealings of Mahesh Yogi are cloaked in comparative secrecy - even the locals in Rishikesh know little of the goings-on behind the barbed-wire fence that encircles the Yogi's ashram - his ecclesiastical colleagues have become increasingly blatant in the art of the religious rip-off.

Gateway

Nowhere is this more evident than in the holy city of Rishikesh - "The gateway to heaven" as the tourist brochures describe it. Unfortunately, the yellow brick road leading to the gateway has become overcrowded with swamis of various religious hues, intent on skimming off large measures of the commercial pickings that are available in plentiful supply.

Image
The 13-storied Kailashnand Mission

Lakshman Jhoola, the religious centre of Rishikesh, has become a vast, multi-ringed spiritual circus. The sadhu supine on a bed of nails, the throngs of hairy hippies, the endless rows of lepers, beggars, touts and ganja-smoking ascetics are merely the sideshows. The real religious rake-offs occur within the hallowed portals of the garishly designed ashrams clustered along the banks of the holy Ganges.

The most blatant example of this is the Swami Kailashnand ashram - a 13-storied spiritual supermarket where an average day's take runs into thousands of rupees. Each floor is dedicated to a separate deity, thus widening the number of prospective devotees. Inside, every available space has been converted into a money-spinning stall - there are more collection boxes in the ashram than the number of glass-caged gods enshrined in orderly rows like animals in a zoo.

Commercialism

The first floor of the so-called ashram is devoted to a curio shop, selling bangles, beads and similar baubles ostensibly for spiritual sustenance. The floor above sells herbal medicines which claim to cure anything from asthma to ulcers, while the remaining floors house the hundreds of zoo-like cages occupied by gods for every occasion. There are well over a hundred different deities, each one more grotesque than the next, perched benignly above the inevitable collection boxes.

Swami Kailashnand himself seems to have highly dubious antecedents. He was arrested in 1966 on spying charges and a powerful transmitter was seized from his possession. He was again put under surveillance by the cabinet secretariat in 1973 for alleged involvement in a foreign exchange racket, but somehow managed to wriggle out of that as well.

Image
Some of the 210 meditation-cum-residential rooms in Mahesh Yogi's spiritual centre - buying spiritualism

Recently two employees of the Kailashnand Mission Trust died under highly dubious circumstances, but no action seems to have been taken so far. One possible reason for their infallibility, spiritual as well as physical, is the evidence of political patronage enjoyed by a majority of the better-known swamis. Kailashnand had erected a huge hoarding extolling the virtues of Indira Gandhi's 20-point programme outside his ashram. Needless to say, the hoarding was hastily removed in the wake of the Janata's victory in the March elections.

Religious Mafia

Political patronage, however, is a relatively mild, though necessary evil. Interviews with a number of former employees of some of Rishikesh's ashrams reveal a level of organized corruption, large scale financial fiddling, sexual depravity and gangsterism that would make the Mafia look like boy scouts in comparison.

Interviews with three former employees of one such ashram - the Baba Kali Kamli Wala Panchayati Chettar - offer an insight into the murky underworld of the spiritual soft-sell. Ram Prasad Badhani, an emaciated former clerk in the ashram, was arbitrarily sacked about a year ago by the trustees of the ashram. So far, the ashram has refused to pay him any of the benefits legally due to him, like provident fund, bonus and gratuity.

Image
A curio shop inside the Kailashnand ashram - a spiritual supermarket

"None of the employees have been given their provident fund," he stated. "It is not kept in a fixed deposit in our names but in the name of the ashram. I don't have the money or the contacts to fight them legally, so I have to keep silent." Badhani pulled out a file containing letters of complaints he has sent to the Home Ministry, and other Government departments, none of which have taken any action in the matter.

Badhani also named three former ashram employees (Bandhu Ram, Om Prakash and Nand Ram) who had died in service. Their widows have still to see any of the accumulated dues they are entitled to. "We are also scared of the goondas hired by most of the swamis in Rishikesh," said Kalawati, one of the widows. She has, however, refused to vacate her tiny, claustrophobic room belonging to the ashram, even though the ashram management has cut off her water and electricity supply.

Financial Fiddling

The interviewees, along with some current employees of the ashram who refuse to be named, outlined some facets of the financial fiddling that takes place under the mantle of spiritualism. For instance, a large number of donors send money to the ashrams for having rooms built in their names. A majority of these rooms do not exist, though the donors are told the opposite.

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Lakshman Jhoola - gateway to a dubious heaven

"In some cases," said the treasurer of one of the ashrams, "the donors write and tell us they are coming for a visit. All we do is replace the name on one of the rooms with that of the donor, and nobody suspects that thousands of rupees are being embezzled every month."

Another favourite fiddle is the langars (free kitchens) organized by the ashrams ostensibly to feed the destitute. Most ashrams claim langars are organized for about 500 people. In reality they may feed a mere handful. Since most of the finances for the langars is sent from donors outside Rishikesh, the balance of the money is tucked away under a saffron-coloured sarong.

Grants

Ironically, another common practice is siphoning off Government grants given to religious trusts. Almost all the ashrams receive grants for maintaining cows and cowsheds. The milk products from this are supposed to be distributed to the poor and the needy. Instead, it is blatantly sold in the open market.

In fact, some ashrams getting such grants don't even bother to purchase cows, but merely pocket the money instead. Government grants are also given for Sanskrit schools, most of which exist only on paper. According to one of its former employees, the Kali Kamli ashram was still getting a school grant though the school had closed down 1-1/2 years ago.

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One of the many sideshows in Rishikesh's religious circus

Trustees

The Kali Kamli ashram is in fact a massive commercial enterprise. According to its brochure for 1972 (the latest available at the ashram) the board of trustees reads like a "Who's Who" of politics and industry. According to ashram employees, the industrialists are not seeking spiritual rebirth, but recycling of their finances.

They allege that since the ashrams operate as "charitable trusts", the opportunities for financial laundering and tax evasion is almost limitless. They also claimed that the ashram's funds, which originate mainly from the big industrialists, are reinvested in the same industrial houses as loans on very low interest rates. Moreover, whatever "donations" are ploughed into the trusts by industrialists and politicians are non-taxable.

Incentive

Another major incentive is the concessions offered to these institutions under the Land Ceiling act. A major portion of the real estate in Rishikesh and the surrounding areas is owned by the ashrams or the presiding high priests of the temples.

The Kali Kamli trust alone owns large orchards in Rishikesh and Kurukshetra covering a total area of approximately 1,000 acres. The farm produce is mainly commercial crops like sugar-cane, oilseeds, wheat and fruits, all ostensibly meant for religious purposes. The trust also owns shops, hotels and eating places in the town.

Pay-offs

Other allegations include payoffs to police officials and local judicial officers to ensure that the status quo is not disturbed. According to one estimate, 90 per cent of the religious centres in Rishikesh allegedly indulge in large scale bribery of the local law enforcement agencies.

The situation is not common to Rishikesh alone. Almost every single religious centre in the country has succumbed to the earthly temptation of instant fortune and fame, however dubious the fame might be. "Let the Government keep the Yogi's helicopter. We got it for free. We are not going to pay the 200 per cent duty required to release it", said Mahesh Yogi's spokesman in Rishikesh. It is also an indication that, to misquote a famous song, the saints have gone marching out, and the sinners have marched in.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:35 am

Sonam Topgyal Kazi (Tibetan writer and translator)
by Wikipedia (translated from French)
Accessed: 6/9/20

Sikkimese linguist Sonam T. Kazi quietly passed away last month, reportedly from complications associated with Alzheimer's (although I have been unable to confirm this). He was a long-time political operative, who once served as the Dalai Lama's interpreter on behalf of the Government of India. His avocation was scholastic study of Dzogchen, and in this he became rather celebrated.

In the 1960s, a contractual relationship as a linguist with the U.S. government enabled Mr. Kazi to relocate to the United States. After traveling around a bit, he settled with his wife and daughter in New York City, and when his government contract dissolved, established himself as something of a teacher. Throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, he became known for taking on students who had been deemed unsuitable by lineage-holding masters, and developed a small following which regularly met in his apartment on the West Side, overlooking Central Park.

Some considerable controversy visited Kazi after a succession of female students accused him of pressuring them into sexual assignations. Amid allegations that he had infected a student with a sexually transmitted disease, his marriage faltered, and his wife and daughter took up separate residence elsewhere....

Reader Comment:

"With that in mind, I hope the late Mr. Kazi will be remembered with equanimity (if not necessarily admiration) for the good things he accomplished."


Yes, let us forget that he coerced women, even married women, who trusted him with their spiritual well-being, to have sex with him, giving them STD's, terrorizing them with threats of hell for "samaya breakage" if they refuse. But hey, since he REALLY worshiped his guru, there's a place for him in heaven anyway! lets praise a man that reverted to the guru business when his other gigs failed. all hail the snake-oil salesmen of the world. gotta love religion. -- love, an ex-sycophantic follower of the Kazi family, professional parasites.

-- Sonam Topgay Kazi, 1925-2009, by Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar


Image
Sonam Topgyal Kazi alongside Bakula Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama in 1957
Biography
Birth: January 1, 1925
Death: June 13, 2009 (at 84)
Activity: Writer

Summary

Sonam Topgyal Kazi, or Sonam T. Kazi or Sonam Topgay Kazi ( Tibetan : བསོད་ ནམས་ སྟོབས་ རྒྱལ་ ཀ་ ཛི, Wylie: bsod nams stobs rgyal ka dzi ), born in Rhenock (en) in Sikkim on January 1, 1925 and died in Saugerties, New York [ 1 ] June 13, 2009, is a writer and translator from the Tibetan born in Sikkim. A specialist in Dzogchen, he has translated many works.

Biography

Born in Sikkim in 1925, he was the 5th son of Relon Sonam Dadul Renock Kazi, an official in the government of Sikkim. During his childhood, his father, who twice met the 13th Dalai Lama, shared with him his knowledge about Tibet, arousing his interest in Tibetan Buddhism.

The young boy is a student of the Scottish Universities Mission Institution in Kalimpong and Saint-Etienne College in Delhi [2].

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At the end of his studies in 1948, the government of Sikkim appointed him interpreter and guide during the first pilgrimage visit to India of the 16th karmapa [1].

When a position becomes available in Tibet, he becomes a candidate and becomes an interpreter and translator with the Indian mission in Tibet between January 1949 and October 1955 [3], [4].

In 1956, with the Indian diplomat Apa Pant and the crown prince of Sikkim Palden Thondup Namgyal, he received, on the Indian side of Nathu La, the 14th Dalai Lama when he went to India on the occasion of the 2,500th anniversary. of the birth of Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, of November 1956 at February 1957 [5].

Sonam Togpyal Kazi visited Tibet in 1957-58 as a member of an Indian delegation to consider a visit by Indian Prime Minister Nehru, which took place in october 1958 [6].

Sonam Togpyal Kazi was sent by the government of India to welcome the 14th Dalai Lama when he arrived in exile in India in 1959. He was the main interpreter of the Dalai Lama for 13 years, until 1972 [7].

He helps David Armine Howarth in the translation into English of the first autobiography of the Dalai Lama, My land and my people [8] published in 1962.

In 1965, he was director of the Tibet House in India, and wrote the Wisdom and Compassion catalog of Tibetan art exhibitions in New Delhi [9].

He welcomed Thomas Merton when he visited the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in 1968 [7].

Sonam Kazi supervised certain aspects of the editing of Arnaud Desjardins ' films on Tibetan masters, and it was for this reason that he went to France in 1968 [10].

According to Havnevik Hanna, quoting Arnaud Desjardins, the daughter of Sonam Togpyal Kazi, Jetsun Péma, was recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama and the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of Jetsun Lochen Rinpoche (Lochen Chönyi Zangmo) who was a teacher of Sonam Topgyal Kazi and his wife [11].

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He declared in his writings that Tibet was a peaceful and independent country [12], in particular in a report of his experience in Tibet before the Chinese invasion published in 1994 and quoted by Melvyn C. Goldstein [13], [14]. This important testimony for Tibetans was published in 1994 in Tibetan Bulletin [14].

Works

• 1993 Kun-Zang La-May Zhal-Lung: The Oral Instruction of Kun-Zang La-Ma on the Preliminary Practices of Dzog-Ch'En Long-Ch'En Nying-Tig (Nga-Gyur Nying-Ma ), Volumes 2 à 3, Sonam T. Kazi translation, Diamond Lotus Pub, 1989.
• 1981 Encyclopedia Tibetica: the collected works of Bo-doń Paṇ-chen Phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal, (Bodong Chögle Namgyel) Volume 1, Ed. Tibet House
• 1975 The collected works of Kun-mkhyen, Jigme Lingpa
• 1977 bKe'vielm. bKa 'brgyad bde gshegs' dus pa'ichos skor, Nyangrel Nyima Özer
• 1969 The Redaction of Rdzogs-chen Rgyal-sras Gzhan-phan-mtha'-yas Volume 3 Gyalse Shenpen Thaye
• 1969 Rang grol skor gsum and Byang chub kyi sems kun byed rgyal po'i don khrid rin chen gru bo: sources for the understanding of Rdzogs-chen meditation Longchenpa
• 1970 The visionary and mystic poetry of Khams-smyon dharma-sengge (Khams-smyon dharma-sengge or Karma Jigme Chokyi Singye)
• 1971 Mi-pham on the Kālacakra tantra: a reproduction of the two volumes from the collected works of 'Jam-mgon' Ju Mi-pham-rgya-mtsho dealing with the cycle of the Wheel of time, Jamgon Ju Mipham Gyatso

Notes and references

1.Sonam T. Kazi (1925-2009), Diamond Lotus Foundation
2. Thomas Merton, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, New Directions Publishing, 1975, (ISBN 0811205703 and 9780811205702), p. 172.
3. Statement by Westerners who visited Tibet before 1949, September 13, 1994.
4. A brief account of Mr. Sonam T. Kazi's experience in Tibet before the Chinese Invasion, September 13, 1994.
5. Tenzin Gyatso, Au loin la liberté, Fayard, 1990 (ISBN2213025614), pages 166-167.
6. India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru accompanied by his daughter Indira Gandhi trek North to visit Tibet.
7. Bhuchung K. Tsering, Sonam T. Kazi, Aide to the Dalai Lama, Passes Away, July 1, 2009.
8. Turrell Wylie, My Land and My People, The Journal of Asian Studies, Volume 22 / Issue 02, February 1963, p 220
9. (in) Jeffrey Hopkins, Tibetan Monastic Colleges: Rationality versus the Demands of Allegiance, in Imagining Tibet: Perceptions, Projections, and Fantasies, edited by Thierry Dodin, Heinz Räther, Heinz Rather, p. 247
10. Claude Arpi, The Message from the Tibetan Rinpoche, Interview with Arnaud Desjardins.
11. Havnevik Hanna, Fighting of the Tibetan Nuns, 1995, Ed. Dharma, (ISBN 2-86487-025-8).
12. Jamyang Norbu, A Losar Gift For Rangzen Activists, Phayul.com, February 26, 2009
13. Melvyn C. Goldstein, A History of Modern Tibet, Vol. 2: The Calm Before the Storm: 1951-1955, University of California Press, 2007 ( ISBN 0520249410 and 978-0520249417), p. 47
14. Robert Barnett, Violated Specialness: Western Political Representations of Tibet, in Dodin and Räther, Imagining Tibet, p. 310

External Links

• Authority records:
• Virtual international authority file
• International Standard Name Identifier
• National Library of France ( data )
• University documentation system
• Library of Congress
• Royal Netherlands Library
• WorldCat
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Tue Jun 09, 2020 10:57 pm

Nancy Cooke de Herrera [Nancy Louise Veitch]
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/9/20

In 1970, Shankar Bajpai wrote, suggesting we visit him in Gangtok, Sikkim. He had been the Indian Consul General in San Francisco in the '60s, and we'd met through B.K. Nehru. Now he was the Political Officer of Sikkim, which meant he ran the place, as India provided the small mountain country with its foreign policy, currency, and military presence... His letter was provocative, "Two hours from Gangtok there is an exotic monastery in Rumtek. The top boy is a very important Tibetan Lama. Rik will get dramatic pictures and you can have the thrill of knowing another saint."

He loved to kid me about my holy friends.

We decided to do it and put a group of friends together. Taking people to India was turning out to be a new hobby for me. Shankar and his wife, Meera, were delighted. He wrote again, "Before you leave Darjeeling, call me. It's always a frightful bore at the border. Just to be on the safe side, I'll have my men waiting for you. And by the way, do you suppose you could bring me about 12 pounds of fresh pork? If so, we'll have an authentic Tibetan dinner for you."...

As we approached the official residence, we saw the Bajpais sitting in lawn furniture in front of the government house, having tea. Shankar's round face broke into a wide smile as he welcomed us to Gangtok in his flawless English. Light reflected off his baldpate; he looked like a Buddha in his warm, monk-like robe. Meera had a woolen shawl around her sari. The mountain air was cool.

"Come join us. I'm sure you're all ready for a good hot cup of tea."...

Starting out for Rumtek monastery, we were bundled in our coats as we bounced along in our Land Rovers. An hour later, coats were discarded. It had become a lovely, sunny day in the mountains. There was no way to alert the monks that we were coming; we'd just arrive, all 18 of us....

There was the monastery-bright red, glistening in the sun. On both sides were rows of prayer flag trees, similar to those I'd seen at Govinda's in Almora on my first visit to India. Behind the monastery, providing a silent frame, were more mountains. My friends were filled with excitement; none had been to a Tibetan monastery.

As we drove to the entrance, the round wooden door, divided in the middle, stood open in welcome. Three burgundy-robed monks stood by to receive us. A high-cheek-boned Tibetan introduced himself.

"My name is Tashi. We are most happy to welcome you. It is very auspicious. You have arrived just in time for the Black Hat Ceremony. This event takes place once a month at the time of the full moon." We thought it a coincidence; the monks thought otherwise....

We were led up a worn and uneven wooden staircase to a spacious, high-ceilinged room at the top of the monastery. Both ends of the room were opened to the temple below. We had no sooner seated ourselves on the floor than the ceremony began. We had arrived at curtain time.


Darkly clad monks slowly paraded in with long copper horns, at least eight feet in length. Standing to the side of a high, throne-like chair and platform, they blew long, discordant, sonorous notes. Soon another group arrived, escorting to the seat of honor a stocky young man, who wore a high-peaked, brocaded lama's hat. Adjusting his heavy, gold-embroidered cape, he beamed happiness down upon us. He nodded his head to the monks to proceed....

An elaborate brocade box was carried in with much fanfare and presented to the God-King. After opening the box and putting the stiff, black, onion-shaped hat on his head, the Karmapa, with one hand holding the hat in place, closed his eyes in meditation. It was signaled that we follow suit. With my eyes shut I thought to myself, a God-King-how impressive for my friends. Shankar doesn't know this. How lucky we are to be here! Later, as we were each introduced to His Holiness, we presented white prayer scarves, khatas, which Shankar had advised us to take along....

After the Karmapa left, Tashi asked us, "Would you like to meet our sister?" We, of course, said yes and followed him along an outside ledge to a corner room. It was a breathtaking view as we looked down into the valley over the winding road we had followed. All we could see were brown mountains in every directions.

"You must come back again later, when the mountains are green." Following Tashi through a narrow frame door, I stepped into a small hall; to the left a larger room opened out. As I entered, I gasped in surprise. On a low platform sat an English woman in monk's robes. She appeared to be in her sixties and her large, pale blue eyes looked enormous because of her shaved head.

"Come in, I am Sister Palmo. It is a joy to welcome you."...

"What good fortune, coming here on this particular day. It was not accidental; every movement of even a grain of sand is planned." She gently explained some of the basic Buddhist beliefs and traditions to us.....

While the group had tea in another room and ate the picnic sandwiches we'd brought, we made our plans with the English nun.

"Yes, yes, do come back. I knew you would want to. We are meant to become friends. If you would be so kind as to bring me a few things from the Gangtok marketplace, I would be so happy. Then you can have lunch here with me."...


That evening, we celebrated with a Tibetan dinner. The table was heaped with all sorts of succulent, hotly spiced vegetable and pork dishes. The Bajpais had outdone themselves, and they seemed proud of us as a group. We came from Argentina, Washington D.C., New York, Beverly Hills, Honolulu, and Hamburg. Included were top social names, a former U.S. Ambassador, a famous choreographer (Tony Duquette), the head of the Beverly Hills Testavant Chevalier (elite gourmet Society) and a woman astrologer, the grandniece of the legendary flying ace of World War II, Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (the Red Baron). Yes, we were an interesting assortment. We, in turn, were honored to meet the Chogyal with his American wife, Hope Cooke, and the General who had accompanied the Dalai Lama on his escape from Lhasa....

Our group left us early the next morning. Shortly afterward, I initiated Meera Bajpai into TM....

By 8 A.M., the marketplace was open. Vegetables, eggs, spices, and all sorts of foodstuffs were spread out on canvasses in front of flimsy stalls. We laughed as we watched one owner beat a cow on the head as he tried to retrieve a bunch of carrots from its mouth....

Soon we had our baskets filled with bread (a luxury in Rumtek), tomatoes, butter, cream, and all the requested vegetables and fruits. It was time for our return to the monastery....

It was about 11 A.M. when we drove up to the monastery door, giving us at least eight hours of daylight for a nice long visit.

Anila, Sister Palmo's tiny attendant, took our parcels from us with joy and the quick, silent movements of a bird. Sister Palmo was sitting, as she had been when we left her the day before.

"Good morning, what a treat to get all those lovely foods. Come sit near me. Are you sure you wouldn't like chairs brought in?" We assured her not.

She told us a bit about herself. She had been married to an Indian whom she had met while both were students at Oxford. They had three grown children. Their photos were beautiful.

"This one, my son Kabir Bedi, is a leading cinema star in Bombay. He's gone through a painful divorce, but is coming out of it. My husband was a businessman, but now has become a Hindu holy man and psychic healer. At present, he is touring Italy. We meet occasionally, when I go to see my children, and are good friends."

We asked how she had become a nun. "For years I followed Gandhi. One day I was attending a conference, and while walking with some friends, a voice from within spoke to me. It gave me instructions about what I was to do -- I was to renounce the world of activity and become a nun in a Buddhist monastery."

Her full face glowed as she remembered. "My husband understood. He had felt the tug himself. It was a natural, happy parting, and we now travel different roads to the same destination."...

We felt honored as she shared these intimacies with us. Then, abruptly, she changed the subject. "But tell me more about yourselves. What brought you here? How much do you know about Buddhism?"

I spoke first, "Well, I know that the Vedas inspired Gautama Buddha's 'seek out your own salvation,' but that he rejected the Brahmin's interpretation. Born as an Indian prince, he was horrified by what he saw outside the walls of his princely home. Needing to think, to rationalize the 'whys of creation,' he spent hours under the Bodhi tree contemplating. Occasionally he would slip into 'nothingness.' There he was free, free of worries, desires, and emotions. There he experienced total release. Austerities didn't do it, worship didn't do it; contemplation and meditation did it. It brought about the nothingness -- Nirvana!"

"Very good, that's all correct! Buddhism as explained by our Kagyu lineage also states that meditation, while unmasking our deceptions, helps us to know ourselves in the present situation, to face life, and to accept ourselves. It will bring transcendental common sense."...

She continued, "And from Buddha's illuminations, where he transcended the limitations of individuality, he replaced the idea of the immutable, eternal soul incapable of growth and development, with the conception of a spiritual consciousness yearning for freedom and enlightenment through the continuous process of becoming and dissolving." She spoke slowly and clearly.

"Those are almost Lama Govinda's words," I exclaimed.

"Yes, he will be known to the West as the first interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism into layman's terms. He helps one understand how we must abandon our thought habits in order to know the real nature of the Mind that encompasses both the individual and the Universe."...

"But, Sister Palmo, what we don't understand is this: Gautama Buddha was against gods, priests, worship, and dogma. He advised against building monasteries, as did the sages of the Upanishads, warning that, through the problems arising from household responsibilities and positions, jealousies would be born and infighting would develop between superiors and inferiors. All that was important was pure thought. Yet, when he died, they turned him into a god to worship."

"Not exactly -- he's worshipped as Buddha, the Enlightened One, not as a god."...

"Man feels more secure in clinging to traditions. He needs sets of commentaries, and philosophical principles that he can classify and put down in sacred texts -- man clings to 'things.' He wants to possess and make his knowledge exclusive. Even the Karmapa once admitted to me, 'It took the Red Chinese to force Tibet into sharing its wisdom with the outside world.' That was our bad karma, trying to keep it to ourselves."...

Soon it was time for lunch. Rik and I were hesitant to eat at the monastery, where sanitary conditions were uncertain, so we said we'd had a large breakfast. "Not at all, that was hours ago," insisted the nun. "Anila is cooking our meal in the next room. I have taught her to make crepes."

We couldn't believe it; I watched her cook over a little oil burner in the corner. Everything was spotless. The crepes, when served with cream and honey whipped with butter, were delicious....

"What a treat for me," said Sister Palmo. "Our diet is sparse here. One of the things I miss is toast with my tea. We often go weeks without bread. We raise chickens and goats outside the monastery. So it's an eggs, goat's milk, and grain menu."...

Sister Palmo was interested in hearing about Maharishi and his teachings. "He sounds like a wise man, and from the happiness you both exude, one can see it's working."...

She explained in detail her daily routine, how she counted hundreds of thousands of Aum mani padme hum, a Buddhist mantra, on her rosary-type beads, her mala. She told us about visualization, very important in the practice of Buddhism, and the exaltation one felt when the Buddha was seen sitting on a lotus with the honey of compassion dripping down....


Shortly after lunch, she announced, "Anila has brought a message that His Holiness is ready to receive you."...

The room was bare, but lighted by many windows. On a small divan-like platform sat His Holiness. Without his hat and heavy cape, he looked younger than he had the day before. Now, he wore a simple wine-red robe. He smiled in welcome, indicating we should sit on cushions near him.

Then we had a surprise. A beautiful Indian woman entered the room. It was Goodie Oberoi. Sister Palmo was delighted to find we knew each other, and left us with Goodie to interpret. "How is it that you are here?" I asked. She had been one of the Indian friends I'd brought to Maharishi for initiation while I was attending the 1969 course in Kashmir. She hadn't mentioned the Karmapa to me.

"His Holiness is my treasured teacher now and has helped me more than anyone in the world." I could understand her need of help. Her life with Bikki, son of the hotel tycoon, had to be difficult. Bikki's love of drinking and women were well-known among the social set of India.

"Sister comes to visit us and now we have one of her nuns with us at home. You have no idea, Nancy, what a wonderful change it has brought over the children. I will always love Maharishi," she continued, "but, for me, I need personal contact with my spiritual guide." Her handsome face looked more serene than I had ever seen it....

"This is a most wonderful soul," Goodie explained. "You are fortunate to see him like this and share his darshan. He is revered as a God King by the Sikkimese, Bhutanese, and many Tibetans. He is the Supreme head of the Kagyu Order of Tibetan Buddhism, the embodiment of the power and compassion of Buddhist Tantra. They consider him a higher incarnation than the Dalai Lama. When the Chinese invaded Tibet, India offered the Dalai Lama asylum; likewise the Karmapa, but he came here to Sikkim at the invitation of the Chogyal."

The Karmapa radiated sunshine and he was attentive when we spoke. He appeared to be in his 30s, but I heard later he was almost 50. "He would like to give you a special mantra," Goodie explained. It was an honor we couldn't refuse. We moved close to him. He had been knotting some cords while he spoke and with his expressive hands he now tied both a yellow and red cord around each of our necks. With a small pair of scissors, he cut a lock of hair from our heads.

"It is a great blessing," Goodie explained, "that he would knot the cords and put them around your necks with his own hands. It is unusual, and I'm so happy for you. You have taken refuge in the Buddha with this ceremony."

She wrote down our mantras on a piece of paper, handing it to us with some powder and pills. "Sister Palmo will explain these to you."

The good Sister was overjoyed when she heard what had transpired and clapped her hands. "When you walked into my room today and my thangka of Vajrasattva was exposed, I knew something auspicious would happen. Usually we keep that particular thangka covered."

We told her about the mantras, and she understood our dilemma. "You are right. Stick to what you are doing. But, sometimes on a special full moon, or in a time of danger, you might use them."

She explained the healing qualities of the powder and pills to which I reacted, "Oh, good, I'll take them to my husband." She agreed they might help. (Unfortunately, Tony never saw any apparent effects.)...

Again the day came to an end, far too quickly. Sister Palmo escorted us to the jeep. "We will keep in touch through letters, and one day I will come to see you in the U.S. You will come back to Rumtek. It is written." In fact, the following year she stayed with us in Beverly Hills and made a lasting impression on my family. I felt my children were fortunate to meet such dedicated people....

My encounters with the world of Buddhism started with Lama Govinda, followed by the Dalai Lama, and now continued with the Karmapa. The more I was exposed to their spiritual leaders, the more attracted I became. There was no doubt that I felt a kindred spirit for the Tibetan race. They are bright, outgoing, and friendly in spite of the terrible hardships their people and homeland have suffered; they are optimistic and determined to succeed. Maybe I had been a Tibetan in one of my past lives.


-- Chapter 23. Politicians versus Saints. Excerpt from "All You Need is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West", by Nancy Cooke de Herrera


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Nancy Cooke de Herrera
Born: Nancy L. Veitch, April 12, 1922[1][2], Alameda County, California[1] [daughter of Edward Irving Veitch and Marie Beatrice Morledge]
Died: February 28, 2013 (aged 90), Beverly Hills, California[3]
Occupation: Socialite author
Spouse(s): Richard [Alexander] Cooke, [Jr.] (1941), Luis de Herrera (1951), Tony Jackson [Morton Barrows Jackson] (1962)
Children: One daughter, three sons

Nancy Cooke de Herrera (born Nancy Veitch, 1922–2013)[2] was an American socialite, fashion expert, and author of three books, including All You Need Is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West.[4][5] She was referred to as one of the pioneers of the spiritual movement in the West.

Early life and education

De Herrera grew up in Piedmont, California and studied bacteriology at Stanford University for three years during the 1940s (Class of '43).[6][7]

Adult life

De Herrera traveled to Molokai in Hawaii via a military convoy...

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Name: Hawaiian Merchant; USS Euryale (AS-22)
Namesake: Euryale
Builder: Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company
Launched: 12 April 1941
Sponsored by: Mrs. Richard A. Cooke
Acquired: purchased by Navy 15 April 1943
Commissioned: 2 December 1943
Decommissioned: 7 October 1946

USS Euryale (AS-22) was built as the Hawaiian Merchant by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny, New Jersey for the Matson Navigation Company. Hawaiian Merchant was launched 12 April 1941, minutes after sister ship Hawaiian Shipper, and was completed April 1941. Matson intended the ship to join Hawaiian Planter and Hawaiian Shipper in the U.S. Pacific Coast—Australia route. The ship was under United States Army Transportation Corps charter when the United States went to war and came under the control of the War Shipping Administration which allocated the ship to the Army's continued charter until the ship was purchased 15 April 1943 by the United States Navy and commissioned 2 December 1943 as USS Euryale (AS-22), serving as a submarine tender through the war. Euryale was decommissioned 7 October 1946, going into reserve until 9 August 1972 when she was delivered to the Maritime Administration with immediate sale to American Ship Dismantler, Inc. for disposal.

-- USS Euryale (AS-22), by Wikipedia


and married Richard [Alexander] Cooke, Jr., the son of a well-known missionary family in 1941.[7][8]

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Richard Alexander Cooke, one of the founders of La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls, died Wednesday in San Mateo, Calif. He was 84.

Along with his second wife, Lorraine, he helped found the all-girls school in the early 1960s. Richard Cooke also helped secure the Dillingham Estate for the school's campus on the slopes of Diamond Head.

Cooke worked for C. Brewer & Co. for 27 years before leaving to run for political office and found his own company, Richard Cooke Developments Inc., which later became Richard Cooke Construction and Pole Houses of Hawaii. He also was president of the Cooke Foundation Ltd.

Cooke was the great-grandson of missionary Amos Starr Cooke.


While at Yale University in the 1930s, he qualified for the Olympic swim team. He served in the Navy during World War II.

A world traveler with an artistic bent, Cooke had a life-long interest in sculpting and published a 1964 book on his travels, "Once Around Lightly."

He is survived by his wife, Vivienne; children, Richard III [Richard Cooke III, "Rik"], Starr, Brett, Marcia Duff, Brian Farquharson and Cynthia de Moucheron; and sisters Patricia Peacock and Dagmar Heglund.

A service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Kawaiahao Church. In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations to La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls, the Moloka'i Community Services Council or Mission Houses Museum.

-- Death of Richard Alexander Cooke, age 84, 13 Jan. 1999; Richard A. Cooke, 84, La Pietra founder, by Advertiser Staff


As the wife of a prominent family member, she performed hostess duties for Admiral Nimitz, Admiral Halsey, and Admiral Towers during World War II. She gave birth to three sons and divorced her husband after nine years of marriage.

While in Paris in 1951, she met a member of the American team that raced at Le Mans, named Luis de Herrera, whom she married a year later. The couple moved to Herrera's home country of Argentina and had a daughter in 1954.[7] Nine months later her husband, Luis, died of leukemia which Cooke de Herrera believed was related to atomic radiation exposure he incurred while driving near Zion National Park after an atomic bomb test in 1953.[4][6][7][9]

In 1957, de Herrera won a nationwide contest sponsored by a group of American (USA) magazines. Her prize was a world tour to promote American fashion. Afterwards, the United States Information Service (USIS) enabled her to visit governments around the world and advise them on fashion.[10] For twelve years she was a leading figure in the fashion industry and was referred to as the "U.S. Ambassadress of Fashion" while traveling to 15 countries to present American couture.[4][6][9] She also presented lectures entitled: "A Travelogue through Fashion" and "Around the World with Nancy Cooke".[11]

Image

De Herrera worked as a publicist for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1960s and traveled with him on a trip to South America.[7][12] She was the liaison for the Maharishi and The Beatles during their widely publicized visit to Rishikesh in India.[6] During her dozens of trips to India and Tibet she is reported to have had meetings with the Dalai Lama, the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Sir Edmund Hillary, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, and Satya Sai Baba.[6] In 1993, she published the autobiographical memoir, Beyond Gurus: A Woman Of Many Worlds, and in 2003, published a follow-up book called, All You Need Is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West.[4]

Over the years she is reported to have given meditation lessons to several celebrities, including Madonna, Greta Garbo, Rosie O'Donnell, Lenny Kravitz, Santigold,[13] and Sheryl Crow.[6][9] She has been called one of the pioneers of the spiritual movement in the West.[14] In 2008, she published the novel, Never Tango with a Stranger: Love in Peron's Argentina.[15] According to de Herrera, with the help of some friends, she built two hospitals for abused children in Los Angeles.[10]

Image

She was reportedly working on a third autobiography, concerning her role as the U.S. Ambassadress of Fashion in the 1950s when she died[12] on February 28, 2013 at the age of 90.[12]

De Herrera and her son Richard Cooke [Richard Cooke III, "Rik"] were the subject of the Beatles' satirical song "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill".[16]

"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney), and released by the English rock band the Beatles on their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album")....

This song mocks the actions of a young American named Richard A. Cooke III, known as Rik, who was visiting his mother, Nancy Cooke de Herrera, at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh at the same time that the Beatles were staying with the Maharishi. According to his mother, both she and her son maintained friendly relations with all of the Beatles except for Lennon, who by Cooke de Herrera's account was "a genius" but distant and contemptuous of the wealthy American Cooke de Herrera and her clean-cut, college-attending son. According to Nancy's life account, Beyond Gurus, the genesis of the song occurred when she, Rik, and several others, including guides, set out upon elephants to hunt for a tiger (allegedly presented by their Indian guide as a traditional act). The pack of elephants was attacked by a tiger, which was shot by Rik. Rik was initially proud of his quick reaction and posed for a photograph with his prize. However, Rik's reaction to the slaying was mixed, as he has not hunted since. Nancy claims that all present recognised the necessity of Rik's action, but that Lennon's reaction was scornful and sarcastic, asking Rik: "But wouldn't you call that slightly life-destructive?" The song was written by Lennon as mocking what he saw as Rik's bravado and unenlightened attitude.

Lennon later told his version of the story in a Playboy interview, stating that: "'Bungalow Bill' was written about a guy in Maharishi's meditation camp who took a short break to go shoot a few poor tigers, and then came back to commune with God. There used to be a character called Jungle Jim, and I combined him with Buffalo Bill. It's sort of a teenage social-comment song and a bit of a joke." Mia Farrow, who was also at the ashram during the period, supports Lennon's story in her autobiography; she writes, "Then a self-important, middle-aged American woman arrived, moving a mountain of luggage into the brand-new private bungalow next to Maharishi's along with her son, a bland young man named Bill. People fled this newcomer, and no one was sorry when she left the ashram after a short time to go tiger hunting, unaware that their presence had inspired a new Beatles song – 'Bungalow Bill.'"

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

He went out hunting with his elephant and gun
In case of accidents he always took his mom
He's the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother's son

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Deep in the jungle where the mighty tiger lies
Bill and his elephants were taken by surprise
So Captain Marvel zapped him right between the eyes

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

The children asked him if to kill was not a sin
"Not when he looked so fierce", his mommy butted in
"If looks could kill, it would have been us instead of him".

All the children sing
Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?

Hey, Bungalow Bill
What did you kill
Bungalow Bill?...


-- The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill, by Wikipedia


Books

• Cooke de Herrera, Nancy (1993) Beyond gurus : a woman of many worlds, Blue Dolphin Pub.[15]
• Cooke de Herrera, Nancy (2003) All you need is love : an eyewitness account of when spirituality spread from the East to the West, Jodere Group [15]
• Cooke de Herrera, Nancy (2008) Never Tango with a Stranger: Love in Peron's Argentina, iUniverse[15]

References

1. California Birth Index, 1905-1995
2. "Meditation teacher Nancy Cooke de Herrera dies". NewsObserver.com. March 4, 2013.[permanent dead link]
3. Los Angeles Times Obituary, 8 Mar 2013
4. All You Need Is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West Archived2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine All Spirit Fitness, book review, 2003.
5. Cae, Herb. (Aug 31, 1961). Los Angeles Times, "Official State Song Slips Disc: Nancy Cooke de Herrera the beautiful blond socialite".
6. Jalonen, Wendy (May–June 2010), "TM believer", Stanford Magazine (Stanford Alumni website), archived from the original on 2012-06-25, retrieved 2011-04-03
7. Cooke de Herrera, Nancy (1993) Blue Dolphin Publishing, Beyond Gurus: A Woman of Many Worlds, pp27-44
8. Cassidy, Maggie July 29, 2011 A Most Unusual Life, Molokai Dispatch
9. Cassidy, Maggie July 29, 2011 A Most Unusual Life, Molakai Dispatch
10. Misra, Neelesh (Dec 1, 1995) U.S. Author Says That India Still Draws Her, India Abroad
11. Unknown author (2005) Writers Directory 2005, Nancy Cooke de Herrera
12. Baida, Aiyana (March 5, 2013). "Celebrity Meditation Teacher". VOXXI. Archived from the original on May 13, 2013. Retrieved March 26, 2013.
13. Author unknown (April 22, 2012) Santigold NME Music News, retrieved April 30, 2012
14. Author Unknown ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE Archived 2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine Planet Light Worker web site, Book Review. Retrieved: April 3, 2011
15. Nancy Cooke de Herrera World Cat, retrieved April 30, 2012
16. https://www.quora.com/Who-is-Bungalow-B ... nnington-1

***************************************************

Obituary: Nancy Cooke de Herrera
Nancy Cooke de Herrera April 12, 1922 - February 28, 2013. She was a Piedmont High School alum.
by Analisa Harangozo, Patch Staff
Mar 7, 2013 4:48 pm PT | Updated Mar 7, 2013 9:51 pm PT

Image
by Brett Cooke

Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an inveterate traveler, began her next journey February 28, 2013, with her children present in Beverly Hills to offer a peaceful farewell. She enjoyed a life sufficiently full to require three autobiographies: All You Need Is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West, 2003), Never Tango with a Stranger: Love in Peron's Argentina (2008), and Around the World with Nancy Cooke (in preparation).

Born in Oakland, April 12, 1922, the daughter of Edward Irving Veitch and Marie Beatrice Morledge,...

Registered in 1938 by Edward Irving Veitch, 180 Woodland Way, Piedmont, California, as the 44-ton yacht Hermit, homeported at San Francisco, call sign WOWA. Veitch invented the bobby pins in 1935 and got a patent in 1938. Women who bobbed their hair found it difficult to control the shorter strands with conventional hairpins but Veitch's wavy design held them securely in place. They were made by the Vogue Pin Company in Oakland....

Registered in 1935, by Edward Irving Veitch, 180 Woodland Way, Piedmont, California, as the 67-ton yacht Chiro, homeported at San Francisco.

-- World War II U.S. Navy Vessels in Private Hands: The Boats and Ships Sold and Registered for Commercial and Recreational Purposes Under the American Flag, by Greg H. Williams


Nancy attended Piedmont High School with her lookalike sisters, Ardagh Marie Kistler and Doryce Lorillard Hills Wells, then Stanford University.

In 1942 she married Richard Alexander Cooke, Jr., with whom she raised three sons, Richard Alexander Cooke III, Starr Edward Cooke, and Leighton Brett Cooke, while living in Hawaii. They were divorced in 1951.

Subsequently Nancy married Luis Alberto de Herrera and moved to Buenos Aires, where they bore a daughter, Maria Luisa de Herrera. After Luis' untimely death in 1955, she founded a public relations firm in San Francisco.

Selected in 1956 as the US Ambassadress of Fashion, she travelled the major capitals of the world on tours organized by the United States Information Agency. Later, at the invitation of the Kremlin, Nancy led a delegation of San Francisco businesswomen to the USSR. She toured the United States, lecturing on the fashions and cultures of the world.

In 1962, Nancy visited many of the holy men of India, an experience that changed her life. Upon her return to California she married Morton Barrows Jackson...

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Documents relating to or mentioning Morton Barrows "Tony" Jackson and his contacts and employment with the Agency, including but not limited to those mentioned in https://ia601504.us.archive.org/18/item ... ackson.pdf This includes previous disclosure of his employment by your Agency.
His death has been widely and extensively reported. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-16/ ... on-jackson

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written featured articles on the Agency, and have a long-term contract to write the Encyclopedia of the OSS. http://andmagazine.com/us/1431865273.html

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Michael Best


Time
Luncheon Guests
1:00 p.m.
3 December 1973
888 16th Street, N.W.

The following will be the luncheon guests today:

Hugh Sidey -- Host and Bureau Chief. Always been cordial, friendly and fair as far as I can figure out. He covered Kennedy in 1960; then was White House correspondent and then began writing a column on the Presidency for Life. When it folded, he took the column to Time. He appears on the Agronsky show and you may have met him when he came out with the Time writers for a briefing.

John Stacks -- He is the Washington News editor. He is the second man in the Washington Bureau; an inside desk man, I would think.

Jess Cook -- He was out here at your ONE backgrounder. We get calls from him now and then.

John Steele -- He was out here for the briefing a year or so ago. He is the magazine's senior correspondent. I gather he does corporation business, e.g., the visit of Japanese industrialists under Time, Inc. sponsorship was his baby.

John Mulliken -- He covers the White House and has been out here for a number of briefings and has been appreciative.

Jerry Hannifin -- He is the one who talked to me about the Vietnam torture story and told me that the conduct of the POW's was a reaffirmation of what kept our nation going at Valley Forge, at Cold Harbor, at Vicksburg. Hannifin is the Time man on the Watergate case, according to a memo you wrote concerning his uncovering of the name of Morton Jackson.

Jerry Schecter -- Diplomatic editor in Washington and a long-time friend of Bill Nelson's. Nelson has pressed him a couple of times on the sourcing of the Khruschev memoirs. Bill knows Jerry from their days in Tokyo….

9. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION INQUIRIES

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has inquired regarding the following additional individuals and activities:

A. William Marihugh

The specific reason for the FBI's interest in Mr. Marihugh was not stated. Mr. Marihugh entered on duty with this Agency on 31 March 1958. He retired under a medical disability as a GS-14 Electronics Engineer on 16 February 1972.

B. Morton Barrows Jackson

Mr. Jackson and Everette Howard Hunt are believed to have been in contact with each other during early 1972. Mr. Jackson listed Mr. Hunt as a Character Reference on his Agency employment application in August 1950.

QUESTION (to Mr. John Warner on 29 November 1972):

Details on Morton Barrows Jackson, who worked about twenty years ago with the Agency.

RESPONSE:

Mr. Morton Barrows Jackson was utilized by the Agency overseas in a covert capacity covering the period from February 1951 to approximately June 1954. He was never a Staff Employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Although Mr. Jackson is known to have listed Mr. Everette Howard Hunt as a character reference in August 1950, we have no information on the nature or extent of their association. Attached is a memorandum prepared giving full details on the background of Morton Barrows Jackson.

On 19 August 1972 Mr. Jackson called the Agency asking how to respond to possible Grand Jury questions with respect to his connections with the Agency. He was advised to say that there had been an association during the early 1950’s but to try to refer further specific questions to the Agency. On 31 August 1972 he phoned to say he had done so, that no problems had arisen, and that he expressed appreciation.

MORTON BARROWS JACKSON

1. Subject’s name came to the attention of this Agency through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as a possible contact of Everette Howard Hunt, Jr., on the West Coast during early 1972. (Subject, in August 1950, listed Mr. Hunt as a character reference for covert Agency employment.)

2. Subject was born on 17 July 1921 at Devils Lake, North Dakota. He attended Harvard University from 1938 to 1940 and the University of Southern California from 1946 to 1948. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1949. Subject’s legal experience includes service on the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, Geneva, Switzerland, from 1954 to 1957, and as Regional Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, from 1958 to 1959. Subject is a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He is presently a partner in Jackson, Goodstein, Kumler, Copes, Croskey and Smith, Suite 1651, 1901 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles (Century City), California 90067; telephone: (213) 277-0200. The firm engages in general civil and trial practice in all State and Federal Courts.

3. Subject was a covert asset of this Agency in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 1951 until January 1954, which his contract expired. He was associated then with the Intercontinental Engineering Corporation.

4. In February 1954 Subject was considered for an administrative position with an Agency-sponsored Fund in Switzerland. The International Organizations Division cancelled their interest on 2 June 1954. Subject was, during 1954, an occasional source of the Bern, Switzerland, Station, but no formal relationship existed.


MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILES
FROM: PETE KINSEY
SUBJECT: INTERVIEW OF CHARLES COLSON – JAN. 20, 1975


On January 20, 1975, Senators Weicker and Baker and A.B. Culvahouse and myself met with Charles Colson at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington D.C.

As a preliminary matter, Sen. Weicker read back the notes of the interview which he had had with Colson on January 13, 1975. With certain corrections, Colson confirmed their accuracy. Colson indicated that it was Richard Ober – the CIA liaison man to Kissinger – who received packages from Howard Hunt and passed them on to Richard Helms. Colson stated that the impeachment hearings contain certain information related to a “MR. X” and that there is an affidavit stating that Hunt was bringing Ober packages through May of 1972, which were being passed on to Helms (Bill Gill of ABC News believes that the “MR. X” is, in fact, Ober). Colson indicated that although he did not know for sure, he believed the packages passed to Ober may have contained tapes. Colson bases his speculation on two things. The first relates to an NBC interview with Bernard Barker in April of 1972. Barker described being with Hunt during an interview with an individual in Miami who had been with Castro at the time Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Hunt had a tape recorder and when Barker asked Hunt what the tapes were for, Hunt replied that they were for the CIA (Bill Gill said that Hunt replied “taping for the old company”). The second basis for Colson’s speculation related to the time when Hunt met with David Shapiro while trying to see Colson to pass on a request for money. When Shapiro would not let Hunt see…

[LINES OF TEXT MISSING]

Colson mentioned Morton Jackson again and the fact that Hunt had had breakfast with Jackson the morning of the [Dr. Lewis] Fielding break-in and that the Greenspun capes had been planned in Jackson’s home….

Colson discussed certain private firms either owned by the CIA or used by the CIA. These include:

-- Intertel, a private detective firm in Washington owned by Hughes doing work for the CIA

-- Anderson Security Consultants – CIA propriety

-- Morton Jackson’s Law Firm….

***

Page 3755

Senator BAKER. I have a great respect for Director Helms and if he says it was a brown wig, I believe him.
And you have identification papers; you have camera equipment; you have recording equipment; you have the processing of film; you have the making of prints; you have help in the assembling of the cables; you have your contact with General Cushman; you have Mr. Jackson, Mr. Morton Jackson, a former CIA agent whom you went to as your best friend farthest from Washington. The record is simply studded with that sort of thing.

Now, what I am really reaching for, Mr. Hunt, is a pretty important and crucial question, I judge. That is whether or not the CIA, wittingly or unwittingly, officially or unofficially, was in effect a support agency for your operation and others at the White House.

Do you care to characterize that it was or was not, under those circumstances, a support facility, in effect, for your operations?

Mr. HUNT. Well, under – certainly, the initial circumstances; yes, Senator….

***

Page 87

when he was preparing Mr. Hunt for grand jury testimony probably in April or May.

Mr. BUTLER. April or May 1973. All right. Thank you Mr. Bittman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DONOHUE. Mr. Seiberling.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bittman, what was the name of the attorney who referred Mr. Hunt to you as a client?

Mr. BITTMAN. Morton Jackson

Mr. SEIBERLING. And he was from Los Angeles?

Mr. BITTMAN. Yes, sir. He’s a personal friend of Mr. Hunt’s, represented him in the capacity as an attorney and as a member of a law firm. I don’t know how big it is out there. I didn’t meet him. I didn’t know him when he called me….


***

EXCERPTS FROM HEARING OF SEPTEMBER 11, 1973

Present: Terry Lenzner, assistant chief counsel; Scott Armstrong, investigator; and H. William Shure, assistant minority counsel; Sidney Sachs, counsel for Mr. Hunt.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Was Mr. Morton Jackson aware of the nature of your business with Mr. Winte in Los Angeles?

Mr. HUNT. No.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Or the fact that you had business with Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. No. I had no business with Hughes Tool Co.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Had you projected business with Hughes Tool Co., that is had you hoped to do business with Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I do not know that I did. I think that is a premise I would object to.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Well, consulting with the Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I would again reject that assumption, Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. SHURE. Do you have any relationship with the Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I had been introduced to Mr. Winte, who is the chief security officer for the Hughes Tool Co. I had some conversation with him.


***

Page 3690

16.3 E. HOWARD HUNT TESTIMONY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1973, 9 SSC 3690


Mr. DASH. Now, did you hear from Mr. Liddy during this period of time?

Mr. HUNT. What period of time?

Mr. DASH. Shortly after, around June 19 or around that time?

Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir, I did.

Mr. DASH. What, if anything, did he tell you?

Mr. HUNT. Toward midday on the 19th, I got a telephone call from him at my Mullen Co. office saying that he needed urgently to meet me. We met at the corner of the USIA building, which I believe is at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave. We met, walked around the block. During the course of the conversation, he told me that it was necessary for me to get out of town, that “they” wanted me to get out of town.

Mr. DASH. Did he indicate who “they” were?

Mr. HUNT. Not at that time.

Mr. DASH. Then, was it a fact that that particular order was rescinded?

Mr. HUNT. He told me that it was.

Mr. DASH. Now, in fact, you did leave Washington, did you not?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. And did you ultimately go to California?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. At that time, did you make arrangements to obtain Counsel?

Mr. HUNT. I obtained local counsel in California, but not Washington counsel.

Mr. DASH. Well, in California, who did you meet, what California counsel?

Mr. HUNT. I was staying at the home of an attorney, an old friend named Morton B. Jackson. Mr. Liddy appeared out there unannounced on June 21. I reiterated my request to him that he or somebody obtain counsel for me in the Washington area. Mr. Liddy gave me $1,000 and said, this will help with Jackson.

I thereupon gave the $1,000 in cash to Mr. Jackson, retaining him as my counsel on the west coast.

Mr. DASH. And did Mr. Jackson refer you to any Washington lawyer?

Mr. HUNT. In due course, he did.

Mr. DASH. Yes, and what lawyer was that?

Mr. HUNT. He referred me some time later to two attorneys, neither of whom were known to, I believe, either Mr. Jackson or myself. Simply through an alphabetical process, I decided to retain, to inquire of Mr. Bittman whether or not he would be interested in representing me.

Mr. DASH. And did you retain Mr. William Bittman?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. And when did you first meet Mr. Bittman in Washington?

Mr. Hunt. On the night of July 3.

Mr. DASH. What was your understanding, Mr. Hunt, concerning legal fees and support of your family that you would receive? What general understanding did you have?

Mr. HUNT. At the time, Mr. Liddy appeared at the home of Mr. Jackson on June 21, I raised the question with him, as I had with…


-- CIA Document, Approved for Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314R0003000180002-2


(whom she divorced in 1975) and moved to Los Angeles, where she was one of the first American students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation. She introduced TM to much of the Americas.

In 1968 she studied in India's Valley of the Saints and became an independent teacher of meditation. Among her classmates were the Beatles, who immortalized her and her son Rik in "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill." These were the first of 40 trips to India, a country she loved.

Nancy taught TM to the end of her life. Hundreds of students, many notables of film and music, visited her house in Beverly Hills for instruction. Readers were moved by the account of her Indian "spiritual journey in self discovery" (Dominick Dunne).

Nancy was a fully supportive mother; she encouraged her children them to develop unique lifestyles. She provided a home to many friends, who spanned the world; she had an address book for each continent. Long active with the Colleagues, one of Southern California's most prominent charities, Nancy was a major supporter of Molokai's Hui Ho'olana educational center, where a building has been erected in her name.

Nancy is survived by her four children and two sisters, and two brothers-in-law, Herbert Gray Hills, Jr. and Henry Blackmer Kistler, as well as four grandchildren and three great grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. Her ashes will be deposited in Buenos Aires, Molokai, and Piedmont, California.

In lieu of sending flowers, Nancy's family suggests that memorials be made to Hui Ho'olana (PO Box 280, Kualapuu, HI 96757; http://huiho.org/contact.php).

***************************************************

This is the official obituary about Mom, Nancy Cooke de Herrera that will be released to the press. She was such a source of so much support especially in our creating the Hui.The new Peace Pavilion will be dedicated to her.

Nancy Cooke de Herrera, an inveterate traveler, began her next journey February 28, 2013 in Beverly Hills, with her children present to offer a peaceful farewell. She enjoyed a life sufficiently full to require three autobiographies: Beyond Gurus (1993, republished as All You Need Is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West, 2003), Never Tango with a Stranger: Love in Peron’s Argentina (2008), and "Around the World with Nancy Cooke" (in preparation). Her friends spanned the world; she had an address book for each continent. All this is evidence of the incredible gift she possessed that enabled her to connect so quickly with so many.

Born in Oakland, April 12, 1922, the daughter of Edward Irving Veitch and Marie Beatrice Morledge, Nancy attended Piedmont High School with her lookalike sisters, Ardagh Marie Kistler and Doryce Lorillard Hills Wells, then Stanford University. In 1942 she married Richard Alexander Cooke, Jr., with whom she raised three sons, Richard Alexander Cooke III, Starr Edward Cooke, and Leighton Brett Cooke, while living in Hawaii. They were divorced in 1951. Subsequently Nancy married Luis Alberto de Herrera and moved to Buenos Aires, where they bore a daughter, Maria Luisa de Herrera. She returned to California in 1955 after Luis’ untimely death and founded a public relations firm in San Francisco with Dorothy McKenzie. elected in 1956 to represent her country as the US Ambassadress of Fashion, she travelled the major capitals of the world on tours organized by the United States Information Agency. She visited the countries bearing gifts, haute couture outfits designed by the leading fashion designers of the day, and staged fashion shows in fifteen hosting countries such as Argentina, England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, and others. In turn, these countries gave her evening gowns or other designer outfits to be presented in a fashion show for a charity fundraiser for UNICEF. Later, at the invitation of the Kremlin, she led a delegation of San Francisco businesswomen to the USSR. She subsequently toured the United States, lecturing on the fashions and cultures of the world.

In 1962, Nancy visited many of the holy men of India, including Lama Anagarika Govinda, Swami Sivananda and the Dalai Lama, an experience that changed her life. Upon her return to California she married Morton Barrows Jackson(whom she divorced in 1975) and moved to Los Angeles, where she became one of the first American students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. She introduced Maharishi to much of the United States and to many of the countries of Latin America. In 1968 she studied meditation at Maharishi’s ashram in India’s Valley of the Saints and became a teacher of meditation. Among her classmates were Donovan, Mia Farrow, Mike Love (of the Beach Boys), and the Beatles, who immortalized her son Rik in “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” These were the first of 40 trips to India, a country she greatly loved and whose leaders she knew well.

Although Nancy later took more courses in meditation in Switzerland with Maharishi, she became an independent teacher of TM, a role she pursued to the end of her life. Hundreds of students, many of them notables of film and the music world, visited her house in Beverly Hills to be instructed in this practice. Readers were moved by the account of her Indian “spiritual journey in self discovery” (Dominick Dunne).
Nancy all the while was a fully supportive mother of her four children, encouraging them to develop unique lifestyles. And she provided the same and a home to many friends. It was rare for her to not have a visitor staying in her house. She long was an active member of the Colleagues, one of Southern California’s most prominent charities. A frequent visitor to Molokai, Nancy was a major supporter of the Hui Ho’olana educational center.

Nancy or Nanaji, as she was known to her family, is survived by her four children, a stepson, Miguel Patricio de Herrera, and two sisters, as well as three daughters-in-law, Bronwyn Ann Cooke, Joan Reinau Cooke, and Olga Muller Cooke, and two brothers-in-law, Herbert Gray Hills, Jr. and Henry Blackmer Kistler, and one grandson-in-law, Kelly Nicholas Markgraf. She enjoyed her four grandchildren, Caroline Cooke Cage, Sasha Cooke Markgraf, Sonya Brett Cooke, and Nicholas Starr Cooke and three great grandchildren, Richard Presnall Cage, Campbell Starr Cage, and Evelyn Helena Markgraf. Her ashes will be deposited in Buenos Aires, Molokai, and Piedmont, California.

She will be sorely missed by all her family and friends, who will cherish the many stories she told about her adventures. Her larger than life presence will persist.

In lieu of sending flowers, Nancy’s family suggests that memorials be made to Hui Ho’olana (PO Box 280, Kualapuu, HI 96757; (808) 646-0034; http://huiho.org/contact.php), where a building has been erected in her name.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:42 am

Time Luncheon Guests [Morton Barrow "Tony" Jackson] [E. Howard Hunt] [Charles Colson] [Dr. Lewis Fielding break-in] [Watergate]
by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Approved for Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314R0003000180002-2
1972/1973

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Documents relating to or mentioning Morton Barrows "Tony" Jackson and his contacts and employment with the Agency, including but not limited to those mentioned in https://ia601504.us.archive.org/18/item ... ackson.pdf This includes previous disclosure of his employment by your Agency.
His death has been widely and extensively reported. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-16/ ... on-jackson

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. I have previously written featured articles on the Agency, and have a long-term contract to write the Encyclopedia of the OSS. http://andmagazine.com/us/1431865273.html

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Michael Best


Approved for Release 2004/10/28: CIA-RDP88-01314R0003000180002-2

Time Luncheon Guests
1:00 p.m.
3 December 1973
888 16th Street, N.W.

The following will be the luncheon guests today:

Hugh Sidey -- Host and Bureau Chief. Always been cordial, friendly and fair as far as I can figure out. He covered Kennedy in 1960; then was White House correspondent and then began writing a column on the Presidency for Life. When it folded, he took the column to Time. He appears on the Agronsky show and you may have met him when he came out with the Time writers for a briefing.

John Stacks -- He is the Washington News editor. He is the second man in the Washington Bureau; an inside desk man, I would think.

Jess Cook -- He was out here at your ONE backgrounder. We get calls from him now and then.

John Steele -- He was out here for the briefing a year or so ago. He is the magazine's senior correspondent. I gather he does corporation business, e.g., the visit of Japanese industrialists under Time, Inc. sponsorship was his baby.

John Mulliken -- He covers the White House and has been out here for a number of briefings and has been appreciative.

Jerry Hannifin -- He is the one who talked to me about the Vietnam torture story and told me that the conduct of the POW's was a reaffirmation of what kept our nation going at Valley Forge, at Cold Harbor, at Vicksburg. Hannifin is the Time man on the Watergate case, according to a memo you wrote concerning his uncovering of the name of Morton Jackson.

In 1962, Nancy [Cooke de Herrera]... married Morton Barrows Jackson.

-- Obituary: Nancy Cooke de Herrera, by Analisa Harangozo, Patch Staff


Jerry Schecter -- Diplomatic editor in Washington and a long-time friend of Bill Nelson's. Nelson has pressed him a couple of times on the sourcing of the Khruschev memoirs. Bill knows Jerry from their days in Tokyo.

8. SON OF FORMER AGENCY ASSET IS PARTNER OF BERNARD L. BARKER

Miguel A. Suarez mentioned in an earlier Watergate Incident Status Report dated 26 June 1972, has now been correctly identified as Miguel A. Suarez Sarrain. The previously reported information about his real estate partnership with Bernard L. Barker and his Republican Party activities in Florida is correct. He has not, however, been in contact with this Agency at any time, and the Agency has had no contact with his firm, Ameritas. On the other hand, his father, Miguel A. Suarez Fernandez, was [DELETE] as noted previously.

Miguel A. Suarez Sarrain was born in Cuba in about 1936, and is a United States citizen. He is married to Yolanda Suarez Sarrain, was educated in the United States, and passed the Florida Bar examinations in 1963. Prior to 1965 he was a law clerk for Attorney Ellis S. Rubin, Miami Beach, Florida. He also worked as secretary of the Pan American Drug Company in Miami, of which his father was President. Suarez Sarrain was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for mayor of Miami in 1971.

9. FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION INQUIRIES

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has inquired regarding the following additional individuals and activities:

A. William Marihugh

The specific reason for the FBI's interest in Mr. Marihugh was not stated. Mr. Marihugh entered on duty with this Agency on 31 March 1958. He retired under a medical disability as a GS-14 Electronics Engineer on 16 February 1972.

B. Morton Barrows Jackson

Mr. Jackson and Everette Howard Hunt are believed to have been in contact with each other during early 1972. Mr. Jackson listed Mr. Hunt as a Character Reference on his Agency employment application in August 1950.

QUESTION (to Mr. John Warner on 29 November 1972):

Details on Morton Barrows Jackson, who worked about twenty years ago with the Agency.

RESPONSE:

Mr. Morton Barrows Jackson was utilized by the Agency overseas in a covert capacity covering the period from February 1951 to approximately June 1954. He was never a Staff Employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Although Mr. Jackson is known to have listed Mr. Everette Howard Hunt as a character reference in August 1950, we have no information on the nature or extent of their association. Attached is a memorandum prepared giving full details on the background of Morton Barrows Jackson.

On 19 August 1972 Mr. Jackson called the Agency asking how to respond to possible Grand Jury questions with respect to his connections with the Agency. He was advised to say that there had been an association during the early 1950’s but to try to refer further specific questions to the Agency. On 31 August 1972 he phoned to say he had done so, that no problems had arisen, and that he expressed appreciation.

MORTON BARROWS JACKSON

1. Subject’s name came to the attention of this Agency through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as a possible contact of Everette Howard Hunt, Jr., on the West Coast during early 1972. (Subject, in August 1950, listed Mr. Hunt as a character reference for covert Agency employment.)

2. Subject was born on 17 July 1921 at Devils Lake, North Dakota. He attended Harvard University from 1938 to 1940 and the University of Southern California from 1946 to 1948. He was admitted to the California Bar in 1949. Subject’s legal experience includes service on the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration, Geneva, Switzerland, from 1954 to 1957, and as Regional Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Department of Justice, from 1958 to 1959. Subject is a retired lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He is presently a partner in Jackson, Goodstein, Kumler, Copes, Croskey and Smith, Suite 1651, 1901 Avenue of the Stars, Los Angeles (Century City), California 90067; telephone: (213) 277-0200. The firm engages in general civil and trial practice in all State and Federal Courts.

3. Subject was a covert asset of this Agency in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 1951 until January 1954, which his contract expired. He was associated then with the Intercontinental Engineering Corporation.

4. In February 1954 Subject was considered for an administrative position with an Agency-sponsored Fund in Switzerland. The International Organizations Division cancelled their interest on 2 June 1954. Subject was, during 1954, an occasional source of the Bern, Switzerland, Station, but no formal relationship existed.


MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILES
FROM: PETE KINSEY
SUBJECT: INTERVIEW OF CHARLES COLSON – JAN. 20, 1975


On January 20, 1975, Senators Weicker and Baker and A.B. Culvahouse and myself met with Charles Colson at the U.S. Courthouse in Washington D.C.

As a preliminary matter, Sen. Weicker read back the notes of the interview which he had had with Colson on January 13, 1975. With certain corrections, Colson confirmed their accuracy. Colson indicated that it was Richard Ober – the CIA liaison man to Kissinger – who received packages from Howard Hunt and passed them on to Richard Helms. Colson stated that the impeachment hearings contain certain information related to a “MR. X” and that there is an affidavit stating that Hunt was bringing Ober packages through May of 1972, which were being passed on to Helms (Bill Gill of ABC News believes that the “MR. X” is, in fact, Ober). Colson indicated that although he did not know for sure, he believed the packages passed to Ober may have contained tapes. Colson bases his speculation on two things. The first relates to an NBC interview with Bernard Barker in April of 1972. Barker described being with Hunt during an interview with an individual in Miami who had been with Castro at the time Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Hunt had a tape recorder and when Barker asked Hunt what the tapes were for, Hunt replied that they were for the CIA (Bill Gill said that Hunt replied “taping for the old company”). The second basis for Colson’s speculation related to the time when Hunt met with David Shapiro while trying to see Colson to pass on a request for money. When Shapiro would not let Hunt see…

[LINES OF TEXT MISSING]

Colson mentioned Morton Jackson again and the fact that Hunt had had breakfast with Jackson the morning of the [Dr. Lewis] Fielding break-in and that the Greenspun capes had been planned in Jackson’s home.

On the subject of Lucien Conein, Colson stated he had reason to believe that the DEA activities abroad of the type we were interested in were being handled by Conein, e.g. kidnapping, assassination.

Senator Baker queried Colson as to whether he believed Mullen and Col. was CIA propriety citing the facts that Caddy operated out of it, the firm’s main clients were Hughes, the Free Cuba Committee and Rotary International. Colson also said that Mullen and Co. hired the people the CIA wanted it to.

Colson noted that the CIA Watergate file mentions that when Bob Bennett needed more money to hire a new man, the money was paid by Hughes rather than the CIA.

In response to a question by Senator Weicker, Colson stated that the CIA broke into the Chilean Embassy in the fall of 1971 to install wiretaps. The taps were shut off during the elections but resumed afterward to monitor information relating to trade delegations coming to the U.S. The taps were removed in May of 1973 because the CIA thought Dean knew of their existence. Colson mentioned that in April of 1972, McCord had called the Chilean Embassy to get himself wiretapped.

With respect to the CIA’s relationship with ITT, Colson recounted a statement by Geneen where Geneen said that “we’re putting our money to work with your boys in Chile.” Colson believes the CIA was very important. Later, Colson said he talked with Buzardt who told him to stay away from the CIA – that you can’t tell where Hughes begins and the CIA ends and that there are some big Republicans involved. Colson said he talked to Nixon twice after that and that Nixon told him to stay out of the matter – that someone in Colson’s office was feeding information to the CIA. Colson said that all of his conversations with Nixon had been subpoenaed, but only two were introduced. All the rest were withheld.

Colson said that in his conversations with Nixon, Nixon had an obsession about Hunt. In response to Colson telling Nixon to get out the Watergate story, Nixon kept referring to the trouble with Hunt arising out of Hunt’s contacts with Ehrlichman and Colson. This conversation occurred on February 13, 1973. In an earlier conversation on June 20, 1972 when Colson was telling Nixon to expose those involved in Watergate, Nixon told Colson that “they know about Hunt,” apparently, as Colson sees it, in an effort to slow Colson down. Colson remarked that the President’s obsession about Hunt and his contacts with Ehrlichman and Colson was expressed months before the evidence shows that Nixon had knowledge of the Ellsberg break-in (March 17, 1973).

Colson recounted Bennett’s inquiry to him about finding out what Maheau did with the $50,000 that was supposed to go to Rebozo, and whether or not Maheau had pocketed the money.

[LINES OF TEXT MISSING]

… one who recommended McCord for a job at CREEP.

Colson told of a February 28, 1973 meeting at the Watergate Hotel between Bennett and Eric Isenstead. Bennett said “I will take care of Ervin if you take care of Hunt”. A record of this conversation is in the CIA Watergate File.

Senator Baker inquired as to whether Colson had any knowledge of domestic assassination operations. Colson replied that he did not know but that such operations did go on overseas.

Colson said that the CIA had been trying hard to discredit Andrew St. George – that the agency was afraid of him.

Colson said we should look into the surroundings of the death of an Italian named Sarti, who was a major narcotics trafficker shot in Mexico about two years ago. Sarti bought his way out of jail and got to Mexico where he was shot. Colson said this case will show the other half of Conein’s operation.

Colson discussed certain private firms either owned by the CIA or used by the CIA. These include:

-- Intertel, a private detective firm in Washington owned by Hughes doing work for the CIA

-- Anderson Security Consultants – CIA propriety

-- Morton Jackson’s Law Firm

There was also mention of the firm of Wagoner and Baroody which came out of the firm of Down and Roosevelt – the latter having definite CIA ties.

Senator Weicker inquired as to whether Pepsico may have firm …

[LINES OF TEXT MISSING]

bona fides established but rather needed only to make the tie office …

Colson then began listing the areas we should explore more thoroughly:

-- Richard Ober – Believes his role was critical and that he would know what was being passed between Hunt and Helms.

-- Fritz Kramer and Jay Lovestone – Lovestone ran the CIA projects for the AFL-CIO. Kramer is Kissinger’s rabbi (who is somehow connected to Lovestone – this needs further exploration with Colson).

-- Clifford Irving Manuscript – Colson said that something in the Irving manuscript threw the White House, Bennett and Hughes into a panic. Hunt and McCord were approached by Hughes’ people to steal the manuscript. Hunt and McCord said they would need $55,000 for the job. Hughes people said “too much”, so the job was never pulled off. There was speculation around the table that by the time Hunt and McCord came around with the 55k figure, Hughes people may have bought off Irving. Colson believes Bill Safire had a copy of the manuscript.

Colson mentioned that Helms had gone out of his way to get Hunt placed in a job. After Hunt went to work at Mullen, he complained that his pay was not comparable to what he had been payed at the CIA. Bennett then raised his salary to a comparable level.

Colson said Hunt’s “casing” photos of the Fielding office were processed by the CIA. The photos were given directly to Helms with Fielding’s name circled.

Senator Baker asked Colson if he knew why Hunt had stopped at the Pentagon for two hours prior to leaving from Dulles on the Fielding break-in.

Colson’s speculation that Hunt’s and the CIA’s justification for supplying the wigs and other equipment to Hunt was fictitious.

Colson said he knows that the CIA gave Hunt the name of a lock picker in January 1972, and that the CIA gave Hunt Anderson Security Consultants to use on a security job for Hughes in Las Vegas.

Colson mentioned a July 10 memo from Lakowski (phonetic) of the CIA to files. The memo stated that Bennett said that he had a backdoor contact with Edward Bennett Williams and if the CIA approves Bennett will feed information to him to get the heat shifted away from the CIA to the White House and Colson. This Memo went to Helms, whose initials appear on it. Colson’s lawyer, Ken Adams, said that Williams asked things in the civil suit depositions that he could only have learned from Bennett. For example, Adams said that Williams first question to Hunt was whether Hunt had gone to Cappaquiddick to interview DeMott. Colson had testified about this before the grand jury but does not believe Williams got it from Silbert or Glanzer.

Colson referred to a list of Plumbers activities which had been shown to him by the FBI. The memo/list was dated August 31-71 and listed the projects which were being undertaken by the plumbers. One item had been blacked out. At the point Colson’s lawyers told the FBI that Colson was a defendant in the case, the FBI withdrew the document and terminated the interview. Colson’s lawyer made handwritten notes on the list which he will supply to me.

Sen. Weicker inquired of Colson’s knowledge of meetings in Mardian’s operation in the Internal Security division at Justice. Colson believed the CIA was into the operation, particularly pre-convention time – funneling information to Mardian. Colson…

[LINES OF TEXT MISSING]

break-in. Colson said Smyth had done some debugging work for him (this may need clarification).

Colson said Seymour Hush [Hersh?] had the CIA story plus much more back in January of 1974. Hush [Hersh?] called Colson and told him that Colby had spent two hours in his office confirming everything. This was during the time of the meetings Colson was having with Haig and Buzhardt.

Colson said he could go through the Helm’s testimony at his confirmation hearings and show where he committed perjury.

Colson said he was with Kissinger on June 14, at 8:00 A.M. after the Pentagon Papers broke. Colson said his log’s show he was with Kissinger on Tuesday the 15th and he is sure he was with Kissinger on Monday. Colson said Kissinger was going through the ceiling – that Kissinger was almost irrational. Colson feels that there is something more deep and personal to Henry Kissinger than the covers which were blown by the leak. Colson also told of Kissinger’s close relationship with Rockefeller and Kissinger’s use of Rockefeller’s facilities in conducting secret negotiations. Kissinger was consulting Rocky in this area. Colson at this time was conducting domestic negotiations for Kissinger.

***

Page 3755

Senator BAKER. I have a great respect for Director Helms and if he says it was a brown wig, I believe him.
And you have identification papers; you have camera equipment; you have recording equipment; you have the processing of film; you have the making of prints; you have help in the assembling of the cables; you have your contact with General Cushman; you have Mr. Jackson, Mr. Morton Jackson, a former CIA agent whom you went to as your best friend farthest from Washington. The record is simply studded with that sort of thing.

Now, what I am really reaching for, Mr. Hunt, is a pretty important and crucial question, I judge. That is whether or not the CIA, wittingly or unwittingly, officially or unofficially, was in effect a support agency for your operation and others at the White House.

Do you care to characterize that it was or was not, under those circumstances, a support facility, in effect, for your operations?

Mr. HUNT. Well, under – certainly, the initial circumstances; yes, Senator.

Senator BAKER. Mr. Martinez was still on the payroll, I believe, as a consultant for the CIA.

Mr. HUNT. So I understand.

Senator BAKER. Were there other CIA involvements that I do not know about or I have not asked you about? Can you embellish that scenario any further?

Mr. HUNT. No, sir.

Senator BAKER. Would you if you could?

Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir.

Senator BAKER. I ask you if you had a letter of instruction on this project, which I understand to be a phrase of art in the intelligence community. Did the letter of instructions tell you what you should do if you got caught or did you have orders to that effect from anyone?

Mr. HUNT. No, sir, and by the way, a letter of instruction is only given by the Director to a chief of station, not to subordinate personnel.

Senator BAKER. But you understand that having been a chief of station?

Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir.

Senator BAKER. Did you have anything equivalent to a letter of instructions?

Mr. HUNT. No, sir.

Senator BAKER. Would you tell me if you did?

Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir.

Senator BAKER. Did Mr. Bittman tell you how he used that $156,000, how he disbursed it?

Mr. HUNT. How he disbursed it? I am sorry, I perhaps misunderstood it.

Senator BAKER. Mr. Bittman, your attorney, did he disclose to you …

***

Page 87

when he was preparing Mr. Hunt for grand jury testimony probably in April or May.

Mr. BUTLER. April or May 1973. All right. Thank you Mr. Bittman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DONOHUE. Mr. Seiberling.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bittman, what was the name of the attorney who referred Mr. Hunt to you as a client?

Mr. BITTMAN. Morton Jackson

Mr. SEIBERLING. And he was from Los Angeles?

Mr. BITTMAN. Yes, sir. He’s a personal friend of Mr. Hunt’s, represented him in the capacity as an attorney and as a member of a law firm. I don’t know how big it is out there. I didn’t meet him. I didn’t know him when he called me.


Mr. SEIBERLING. Do you know how much pension Mr. Hunt received from the CIA?

Mr. BITTMAN. No, sir; I do not.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Based on your observations of Mr. Hunt would you consider him to be an intelligent person?

Mr. BITTMAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Would you consider that he had a reasonably or had a reasonably sophisticated perception of the things that motivate other people?

Mr. BITTMAN. I am not sure I understand that question.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Well, was he reasonably sophisticated about human nature?

Mr. BITTMAN. No, sir. Mr. Hunt was an operative and by operative I mean if he was given an order by a superior he would do it regardless of what it was.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Well, that isn’t quite the point of my question. My point is did he understand what motivates people?

Mr. BITTMAN. I just don’t think I understand the question. I don’t think I can answer it. I’m sorry.

Mr. SEIBERLING. I see. All right. I yield my time to M. Saranes.

Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Bittman –

Mr. BITTMAN. I will be happy to answer it, Congressman, if you can rephrase it again. I am not trying to avoid it.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Well, my only question was was he reasonably conversant with human beings so that he would understand –

Mr. BITTMAN. Well, he was conversant with human beings but he has lived a very bizarre life with the CIA for 21 years involved in covert activities so that’s all I can say.

Mr. SEIBERLING. Are you saying he didn’t have dealings with other people?

***

Page 9348

Mr. ARMSTRONG. What was the purpose of your trip in January of 1972?

Mr. HUNT. I am sure from that date that that was exclusively concerning the San Diego site or the forthcoming Republican convention.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Was that the occasion of the contact with Mr. – what was his name? – Mr. Winte?

Mr. HUNT. I don’t know. We were out there pretty frequently. I wouldn’t think that that was it. I think the contact with Mr. Winte came later. If we could find out, for example, when Senator Muskie withdrew, we would know when the cutoff point was.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Well, on that occasion you were registered as being – Mr. Liddy was registered – Mr. Leonard was registered as being from Hughes Tool Co.

Mr. HUNT. Well, this was probably not the only occasion when we used that leased wire.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. To make arrangements?

Mr. HUNT. Yes. Let me say this; we always got better accommodations when Hughes Tool made accommodations for us.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. You were back out there again February 19 or February 17, 1972. Do you recall the specifics?

Mr. HUNT. I don’t recall the specific purpose, no, sir. There was at least one occasion when Mr. Liddy told me that he had to go out to California and would I like to come along for the ride – expenses paid. And I said, “Sure.” That might have been the time.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Are you aware of anyone that has done any clandestine work for the Hughes Tool Co.

Mr. HUNT. No, sir, other than Intertel.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Other than Intertel in their paid capacity?

Mr. HUNT. I wouldn’t know of any, no, sir.

***
EXCERPTS FROM HEARING OF SEPTEMBER 11, 1973

Present: Terry Lenzner, assistant chief counsel; Scott Armstrong, investigator; and H. William Shure, assistant minority counsel; Sidney Sachs, counsel for Mr. Hunt.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Was Mr. Morton Jackson aware of the nature of your business with Mr. Winte in Los Angeles?

Mr. HUNT. No.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Or the fact that you had business with Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. No. I had no business with Hughes Tool Co.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Had you projected business with Hughes Tool Co., that is had you hoped to do business with Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I do not know that I did. I think that is a premise I would object to.

Mr. ARMSTRONG. Well, consulting with the Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I would again reject that assumption, Mr. Armstrong.

Mr. SHURE. Do you have any relationship with the Hughes Tool Co.?

Mr. HUNT. I had been introduced to Mr. Winte, who is the chief security officer for the Hughes Tool Co. I had some conversation with him.


***

Page 3690

16.3 E. HOWARD HUNT TESTIMONY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1973, 9 SSC 3690


Mr. DASH. Now, did you hear from Mr. Liddy during this period of time?

Mr. HUNT. What period of time?

Mr. DASH. Shortly after, around June 19 or around that time?

Mr. HUNT. Yes, sir, I did.

Mr. DASH. What, if anything, did he tell you?

Mr. HUNT. Toward midday on the 19th, I got a telephone call from him at my Mullen Co. office saying that he needed urgently to meet me. We met at the corner of the USIA building, which I believe is at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave. We met, walked around the block. During the course of the conversation, he told me that it was necessary for me to get out of town, that “they” wanted me to get out of town.

Mr. DASH. Did he indicate who “they” were?

Mr. HUNT. Not at that time.

Mr. DASH. Then, was it a fact that that particular order was rescinded?

Mr. HUNT. He told me that it was.

Mr. DASH. Now, in fact, you did leave Washington, did you not?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. And did you ultimately go to California?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. At that time, did you make arrangements to obtain Counsel?

Mr. HUNT. I obtained local counsel in California, but not Washington counsel.

Mr. DASH. Well, in California, who did you meet, what California counsel?

Mr. HUNT. I was staying at the home of an attorney, an old friend named Morton B. Jackson. Mr. Liddy appeared out there unannounced on June 21. I reiterated my request to him that he or somebody obtain counsel for me in the Washington area. Mr. Liddy gave me $1,000 and said, this will help with Jackson.

I thereupon gave the $1,000 in cash to Mr. Jackson, retaining him as my counsel on the west coast.

Mr. DASH. And did Mr. Jackson refer you to any Washington lawyer?

Mr. HUNT. In due course, he did.

Mr. DASH. Yes, and what lawyer was that?

Mr. HUNT. He referred me some time later to two attorneys, neither of whom were known to, I believe, either Mr. Jackson or myself. Simply through an alphabetical process, I decided to retain, to inquire of Mr. Bittman whether or not he would be interested in representing me.

Mr. DASH. And did you retain Mr. William Bittman?

Mr. HUNT. I did.

Mr. DASH. And when did you first meet Mr. Bittman in Washington?

Mr. Hunt. On the night of July 3.

Mr. DASH. What was your understanding, Mr. Hunt, concerning legal fees and support of your family that you would receive? What general understanding did you have?

Mr. HUNT. At the time, Mr. Liddy appeared at the home of Mr. Jackson on June 21, I raised the question with him, as I had with…


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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Wed Jun 10, 2020 10:05 am

Charles Montague Cooke
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 6/10/20

Image
Charles Montague Cooke
Circa 1909
Born: May 6, 1849, Honolulu, Hawaii
Died: August 27, 1909 (aged 60)
Occupation: Businessman
Spouse(s): Anna Charlotte Rice
Children: 8
Parent(s): Amos Starr Cooke; Juliette Montague

Image
The Cooke family

Hawaii's Big Five

C. Brewer & Co.
Theo H. Davies & Co.
Amfac
Castle & Cooke
Alexander & Baldwin


Charles Montague Cooke (May 6, 1849 – August 27, 1909) was a businessman during the Kingdom of Hawaii, Republic of Hawaii, and Territory of Hawaii.

Life

Charles Montague Cooke was born May 6, 1849 in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was Amos Starr Cooke...

Image

Amos Starr Cooke (December 1, 1810 – March 20, 1871) was an American educator and businessman in the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was patriarch of a family that influenced Hawaii during the 20th century.

Amos Starr Cooke was born in Danbury, Connecticut, December 1, 1810. His father was Joseph Platt Cooke (1760–1841) and mother was Annis Starr (died 1813). His grandfather Joseph Platt Cooke (1730–1816) served in the American Revolutionary War. Juliette Montague was born in Sunderland, Massachusetts, March 10, 1812. Her father was Caleb Montague (1781–1825) and mother Martha Warner. They were married November 27, 1836, and in less than a month in the 8th company from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to Hawaii.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations and consisted of participants from Reformed traditions such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and German Reformed churches.

After some secessions due to the slavery issue and the movement of New School Presbyterian-affiliated missionaries to the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, the ABCFM was left as a Congregationalist body after 1870. The American Board, as it was known continued to operate as a largely Congregationalist entity until the 1950s. In 1957, the Congregational Christian church merged with the German Evangelical and Reformed Church to form the United Church of Christ. As a part of the organizational merger associated with this new denomination, the ABCFM ceased independent existence and merged operations with other missions entities to form the United Church Board for World Ministries, an agency of the United Church of Christ....

The founding of the ABCFM was inspired by the Second Great Awakening.


The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. The Second Great Awakening, which spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching, sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a key part of the movement and attracted hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations. The Methodist Church used circuit riders to reach people in frontier locations. The Second Great Awakening led to a period of antebellum social reform and an emphasis on salvation by institutions. The outpouring of religious fervor and revival began in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s and early 1800s among the Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists....

It led to the founding of several well known colleges, seminaries and mission societies. The Great Awakening notably altered the religious climate in the American colonies. Ordinary people were encouraged to make a personal connection with God, instead of relying on a minister.
Newer denominations, such as Methodists and Baptists, grew quickly....

Historians named the Second Great Awakening in the context of the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1750s and of the Third Great Awakening of the late 1850s to early 1900s. The Second and Third Awakenings were part of a much larger Romantic religious movement that was sweeping across England, Scotland, and Germany.

New religious movements emerged during the Second Great Awakening, such as Adventism, Dispensationalism, and the Latter Day Saint movement.

-- Second Great Awakening, by Wikipedia


In 1806, five students from Williams College in western Massachusetts took shelter from a thunderstorm in a haystack. At the Haystack Prayer Meeting, they came to the common conviction that "the field is the world" and inspired the creation of the ABCFM four years later. The objective of the ABCFM was to spread Christianity worldwide. Congregationalist in origin, the ABCFM also accepted missionaries from Presbyterian (1812–70), Dutch-Reformed (1819–57) and other denominations.

-- American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, by Wikipedia


They sailed from Boston December 14, 1836, on the Mary Frazier and reached Honolulu on April 9, 1837.

The Cookes were put in charge of the Chiefs' Children's School. King Kamehameha III selected as students those who would be eligible for the throne based on their family background. Instruction was in English, and all five of the next ruling monarchs were students at the school. A complex of buildings was built to house the Cookes and students in 1840 as it became a boarding school. In 1846 it was renamed the Royal School, and became funded by the government.

In 1849 Cooke worked for Samuel Northrup Castle who had been a shipmate on the Mary Frazier as secular supply agent for the mission. As the American Board reduced funding for the Hawaii stations, he co-founded Castle & Cooke as a private company in June 1851.
Edward Griffin Beckwith (1826–1909) became the next principal of the Royal School, as it opened to students of all races.

The business started as a general store, and continued as supply agents to the mission. Their store house is part of the Mission Houses Museum. Cooke made one trip to supply mission stations in the Marshall Islands and Gilbert Islands. In 1858 Cooke became a partner in the Haʻikū Sugar Company on the island of Maui. During the American Civil War in the 1860s, the company became an agent for selling sugar from the sugar plantations in Hawaii to the western United States. However, Cooke's health declined and he turned over his duties to Joseph Ballard Atherton who had started as a clerk in 1859.

Cooke died in Honolulu, March 20, 1871. The company went on to be one of the "Big Five" corporations that dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii.

-- Amos Starr Cooke, by Wikipedia


co-founder of Castle & Cooke.

Castle & Cooke, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company at one time did most of its business in agriculture including becoming, through mergers the modern Dole Food Company, the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables. In 1995 it was spun off from Dole and today most of the company's business is in real estate and residential, commercial, and retail development.

Castle & Cooke was founded in 1851 as a partnership between Samuel Northrup Castle and Amos Starr Cooke as a department store that sold farm tools, sewing equipment, and medicine. Joseph Ballard Atherton joined as clerk in 1858 and rose to become partner by 1865. Over the next few decades, the company invested heavily in Hawaii's sugar industry, running plantations in Kohala and Haiku. Atherton became president after the deaths of Cooke in 1871 and Castle in 1894, when the company incorporated. After the death of Atherton, George Parmele Castle (1851–1932) became president. G. P. Castle retired in 1916 and Edward Davies Tenney became chairman.

In the 1910s, the company, along with three other Big Five companies, invested in Matson Navigation Company.

Matson, Inc. is a U.S. owned and operated transportation services company founded in 1882.

Matson, Inc.'s subsidiary Matson Navigation Company provides ocean shipping services across the Pacific to Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Micronesia, the South Pacific, China and Japan.

Matson acquired the historic Moana Hotel (now part of the Moana Surfrider Hotel complex) and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki on the island of Oahu in 1932.


William Matson (1849–1917) founded Matson Navigation Company. He was born in Lysekil in Västra Götaland County, Sweden, and orphaned during childhood. He arrived in San Francisco after a trip around Cape Horn in 1867. Working aboard the Dickel family yacht, he struck up a friendship with tycoon Claus Spreckels, who financed many of Matson's new ships. In 1882 the three-masted schooner Emma Claudina ran to the Hawaiian Islands.

The enterprise began in the carrying of merchandise, especially of plantation stores, to the islands and returning with cargoes of sugar. This led to gradually expanding interests at both ends of the line....


For a brief period after World War II, Matson operated an airline using Douglas DC-4 aircraft between the Pacific Coast and Hawaii. The airline ultimately ceased operations because of political pressure from Pan American World Airways, which resulted in inability to obtain federal government scheduled operating authority....

In 2015 Matson, Inc. acquired Horizon Lines, formerly its main competitor in the United States domestic market, for $469 million.

Primarily a conveyor of freight, Matson also introduced into service a number of passenger liners to capitalize on the burgeoning tourist trade. In 1926 Matson took over the Oceanic Steamship Company, operating three trans-Pacific liners, including Sonoma.

-- Matson, Inc., by Wikipedia


Tenney became president of Matson after William Matson's death. In 1931, the company also bought a 21 percent share of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which was later renamed the Dole Food Company. After the death of Tenney, Alexander G. Budge became president in 1935. Castle & Cooke bought the remaining shares of Dole in 1961.

Between 1964 and 1968, Castle & Cooke acquired the Standard Fruit Company, adding bananas and other tropical fruits to its existing pineapple operations. In 1976, it acquired Bud Antle Inc., a California-based lettuce and celery farmer; it was renamed Dole Fresh Vegetables in 1989.

The company maintained Dole's large pineapple plantations throughout the state, including a particularly large one on the island of Lanai, where Castle & Cooke owned about 95 percent of the island.


In the decades that followed, Castle & Cooke began to face severe financial trouble as Hawaii's agriculture industry weakened. In 1985, the company merged with the Flexi-Van Corporation, a transportation leasing company. In 1991, the company was renamed Dole Food Company.

In 1995, the real estate operations of The Dole Food Company were spun off as the newly reformed company Castle & Cooke. The new Castle & Cooke was bought by Dole CEO, David H. Murdock, who remains the CEO of Castle & Cooke today.

On May 2, 2012 (made public in June), Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison signed an agreement to buy most of the 6th largest Hawaiian island of Lanai from Castle & Cooke for $300 million.

-- Castle & Cooke, by Wikipedia


His mother Juliette Montague Cooke was the teacher of future leaders of the Kingdom of Hawaii at the Royal School. He was educated at Punahou School and Amherst Agricultural College where he roomed with friend William Owen Smith.

William Owen Smith (August 4, 1848 – April 13, 1929) was a lawyer from a family of American missionaries who participated in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He served as attorney general for the entire duration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii and the Republic of Hawaii.

-- William Owen Smith, by Wikipedia


In 1871 Cooke worked as a clerk for his father's firm. He moved up to head bookkeeper. Castle & Cooke was one of the "Big Five" corporations that dominated the economy of the Territory of Hawaii.[1]

He married Anna Charlotte Rice (1853–1934) on April 30, 1874. In 1877 he became business partners with Joshua G. Dickson and Robert Lewers importing lumber and hardware. After Dickson died in July 1880, the firm became Lewers & Cooke. He was an investor in several sugar plantations in Hawaii, which became more profitable after the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 removed tariffs.[2]

On January 18, 1893, immediately after the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, he was appointed to an advisory council for the Provisional Government of Hawaii. On February 1 he was sent as a representative to Washington, DC in an unsuccessful attempt to have the United States annex the islands.[3] He was a founder in 1893 of the Bank of Hawaii with Peter Cushman Jones and Joseph Ballard Atherton (his brother-in-law).[4]

He moved to California expecting to retire in 1894, but returned and became Bank of Hawaii president in September 1898 after the death of Jones. In 1899 he also became president of C. Brewer & Co., another of the Big Five (Hawaii).[5]

C. Brewer & Co., Ltd. was a Honolulu-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company did most of its business in agriculture.

The company was founded by Captain James Hunnewell (1794–1869) of Massachusetts in 1826, making it the oldest of Big Five companies. The company originally traded sandalwood with China. Henry A. Peirce joined in 1828 as a clerk, and worked his way up to a partner. Peirce took over when Hunnewell left in 1830. Charles Brewer (1804–1885), the master of Peirce's ships, became a partner in December 1835 and the business was known as Peirce & Brewer.

Peirce retired to a life as diplomat in 1843, and the company was renamed after Brewer, who shifted the company's focus to supplying whaling ships and general merchandise. Brewer ran the business with his nephew Charles Brewer II (1823–1863) until 1845, returned to Boston in 1849, on the ship that brought the first gold from the California Gold Rush.
He continued to be an investor, and convinced Peirce and Hunnewell to rejoin him for a while....

In 1863, the company entered Hawaii's sugar cane industry, managing three plantations on Maui. Peter Cushman Jones became a partner in 1871, and its president from 1883 until 1891. In 1904, the company purchased the Pepeekeo Sugar Company on the island of Hawaii.

The company emerged to become one of Hawaii's Big Five companies, albeit the smallest. By 1925, after more consolidation, C. Brewer handled 25% of the islands' sugar and was one of Hawaii's largest corporate landholders. In 1930 the new C. Brewer headquarters building was built at 827 Fort Street in the heart of downtown Honolulu's business district which is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Oahu. In 1959, seeing the need for further diversification, the company entered the macadamia nut industry, and in the 1990s produced the majority of the world's macadamia nuts under the name Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation.

-- C. Brewer & Co., by Wikipedia


Bernice Pauahi Bishop appointed him as one of the first trustees of the Kamehameha Schools, known then as the Bishop Estate. He served on its board from 1884 to 1897.[6] In 1904 he founded the Waikiki Aquarium[7], and in 1909 donated funds for the library at Punahou School. He kept his businesses intact through the Panic of 1907.[2]

Their children were:

1. Charles Montague Cooke, Jr. was born December 20, 1874, became a scientist, and died October 29, 1948.
2. Clarence Hyde Cooke (1876–1944) took over as president of the Bank of Hawaii.
3. William Harrison Rice Cooke (namesake of his father-in-law William Harrison Rice) was born in 1878 but died young in 1880.
4. George Paul Cooke was born December 2, 1881, married Sophie Boyd Judd (1883–1966), granddaughter of missionary Gerrit P. Judd, they had eight children, one of their sons was musician Francis Judd Cooke (1910–1995).[8] He died in 1960. Their great-grandson was baseball player Steve Cooke (Stephen Montague Cooke III).[9]
5. Richard Alexander Cooke was born January 24, 1884, married Dagmar Sorenseon [Sorenson] [1884-1962] in 1907, was executive at Bank of Hawaii and C. Brewer, and died in 1941. Their daughter-in-law Lorraine (Day) Cooke founded La Pietra school for girls.

Richard Alexander Cooke, Jr. (1914-1999)
Marriage: 1942
Nancy Louise Veitch (1922-2013)
PARENTS AND SIBLINGS
Richard Alexander Cooke (1884-1941)
Marriage:
Dagmar Sorenson (1884-1962)
Children (5)
Anna Karen Cooke (1909-1990)
Alice Montague Cooke (1911-1987)
Richard Alexander Cooke Jr. (1914-1999)
unknown Cooke (1916-1916)
Patricia Cooke (1926-1978)

-- Richard Alexander Cooke Jr. (1914-13 January 1999, by FamilySearch


6. Alice Theodora Cooke (1887–1968) married Philip Edmunds Spalding (1889–1968), for whom a building is named at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Their home is now the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House (formerly The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu).[10]
7. Theodore Atherton Cooke (1891–1973) married Muriel Elizabeth Howatt (1891–1969).
8. Dorothea Cooke (twin of Theodore) was born August 23, 1891 but died young February 26, 1892.

He died August 27, 1909 after a second stroke.[11] Most of the family is buried at the Mission Houses Cemetery near Kawaiahaʻo Church.[12] A house he had built on Thomas Square in 1882 became the Honolulu Museum of Art. Anna Rice Cooke also left 4500 pieces of artwork they had collected to the academy.[13] His estate was incorporated as Charles M. Cooke, Ltd. in 1898, and dissolved and distributed to 58 shareholders in 1942. Some of the assets became the Charles M. and Anna C. Cooke Trust, which became a charitable foundation in 1971. In 1980, it became the Cooke Foundation. The Hawaii Community Foundation continues to administer grants.[14]

References

1. Castle & Cooke (1951). The first 100 years: a report on the operations of Castle & Cooke for the years 1851-1951. Castle and Cooke, Limited.
2. William Richards Castle (October 1906). "Charles Montague Cooke". The Friend. LXVI (12). pp. 14–15, 21.
3. "Cooke, Charles Montague office record". state archives digital collections. state of Hawaii. Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2010-05-03. (combined with those of his son)
4. "About Bank of Hawaii". official web site. Bank of Hawaii.
5. George F. Nellist, ed. (1925). "Charles Montague Cooke". The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders. Honolulu Star Bulletin.
6. "First Trustees Appointed to Care for the Princess's Trust". official web site. Kamehameha Schools. Archived from the original on 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
7. "History of the Waikiki Aquarium" (PDF). University of Hawaiʻi. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-21. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
8. John William Siddall, ed. (1921). Men of Hawaii: being a biographical reference library, complete and authentic, of the men of note and substantial achievement in the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. p. 107.
9. "Family forest for Thomas Emerson" (PDF). October 2008. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
10. "Philip Edmunds Spalding". Building Names official web site. University of Hawaii at Manoa.
11. "Charles M. Cooke Dead; Was a Leading Financier of Hawaii and a Multi-Millionaire" (PDF). The New York Times. August 28, 1909.
12. William Disbro (November 6, 2001). "Mission Houses Cemetery, Honolulu, Hawaii". US Genweb archives. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
13. Mike Gordon (July 2, 2006). "Anna Rice Cooke". Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
14. "Cooke Foundation, Limited: History". Archived from the original on 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
15. "Finding Aid to the Rice Family papers, 1838-1964" (PDF). Kauai Historical Society.
16. "Cooke Family History and Kūaliʻi • Manoa Heritage Center". Manoa Heritage Center. Retrieved 2020-04-06.

External links

• "Private Sender Marks - Private Commercial Firms". Post Office in Paradise. Retrieved 2010-05-03.
• "Cooke Library". Punahou School official web site. Archived from the original on 2010-05-27. Retrieved 2010-05-03.

Further reading

• Josephine Sullivan (1926). Karl Clayton Leebrick (ed.). A history of C. Brewer & Company, limited: one hundred years in the Hawaiian Islands, 1826-1926. Walton Advertising & Printing Company.
• Clarence Hyde Cooke (1949). Charles Montague Cooke, 1849-1909. the author.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#2)

Postby admin » Fri Jun 12, 2020 2:36 am

Introduction and Chapter 1. Welcome to India, from "All You Need is Love: An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituality Spread from the East to the West" [Excerpt]
by Nancy Cooke de Herrera
Foreword by Deepak Chopra
© 2003 by Nancy Cooke de Herrera

NOTICE: THIS WORK MAY BE PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT

YOU ARE REQUIRED TO READ THE COPYRIGHT NOTICE AT THIS LINK BEFORE YOU READ THE FOLLOWING WORK, THAT IS AVAILABLE SOLELY FOR PRIVATE STUDY, SCHOLARSHIP OR RESEARCH PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107 AND 108. IN THE EVENT THAT THE LIBRARY DETERMINES THAT UNLAWFUL COPYING OF THIS WORK HAS OCCURRED, THE LIBRARY HAS THE RIGHT TO BLOCK THE I.P. ADDRESS AT WHICH THE UNLAWFUL COPYING APPEARED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THANK YOU FOR RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS.


Introduction

My LIFE has been blessed. I have experienced the extraordinary in peoples, places, and situations, given birth to four happy, caring children, and loved from the depth of my soul. In spite of the loss of this great love, I found the path to peace and to the beauty of simplicity. I grew up in a family with a father, mother, grandfather, and two sisters. Our home in Northern California was supportive, loving, and close. This happy foundation encouraged me to later become an adventuresome risk-taker. One of the qualities I still possess today, which I am grateful for, is an insatiable sense of curiosity that's seemed to be inherent from birth. It is a fascination that has evolved from the innocence of a child to the understanding of a person attracted to spirituality out of a need to comprehend love and loss. I needed to know there is justice in the universe!

Shaken to the core, and left with four young children in Argentina after my husband, Luis's, death, I felt empty, abandoned, and alone. At the same time I knew there had to be a just reason for taking from me this magical person I so deeply loved. I could not face the word "eternity," which I saw carved on most headstones as I prepared for his burial. I wouldn't allow myself to think of never having contact with Luis again. There had to be something more.

Out of a genuine desire to comfort and support, a dear friend Biju Nehru from India, sent me a book, titled The Autobiography of a Yogi, about the life, teachings, and philosophy of Paramhansa Yogananda. His remarkable childhood, his encounters with many saints and sages during his search throughout India for an illumined teacher, the ten years of training by a revered yoga master, and especially his discussions on reincarnation, were all I needed to spark more than an interest in visiting his mystical homeland. So, it was not unexpected that seven years after Luis's death, I found myself, in 1962, landing in India to seriously begin my spiritual exploration.

In spite of obvious poverty, most Indians seem happy and energetic. They believe in something. Everyone has a little altar in his home for daily prayer. They live their spirituality. They love and help each other. Over and over again I witnessed the loving hospitality of these beautiful people. They may be poor, but they know about love.

Wandering through the mountain villages, and into the Valley of the Saints, I spoke with a variety of locals, holy men, and sages. Ultimately, I was directed by Swami Shivananda to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founding father of Transcendental Meditation (TM). He would become my mentor, guru, and friend. We would travel the world together spreading his words of love, peace, and the benefits of meditation. I would become a teacher of TM, an "initiator," which I continue to be to this day. When The Beatles, the most popular music group at the time, came to the ashram in India to learn from Maharishi, it helped open the door to the Western mind about the value of meditation. It was an exciting time. Spirituality spread from the East to the West!

What transpired from that point to now has taken me through cathartic transformation time and again. When I started meditation, friends would often express dismay, "You're not sick, you're not that old! Why do you need such a crutch?" In later years many of these same persons came to me for help. Starting out, my goal was finding if justice does exist in the universe. Now I know it does; nothing happens by chance, and everything happens for a reason.

I am a person interested in spirituality, but still live fully in this world. I have given up nothing; I have added to my life. The "path of the householder" does not require withdrawal, as does the "path of the monk." I have experienced "inner bliss," and the consciousness of "being." I have learned that love is an essential but earned emotion, and a sense of guilt is a waste of time. "As we sow, so shall we reap." Would I have done things differently when I look back on the past? Maybe, but it has been a learning process. And on the path I have encountered some of the most enchanting and intriguing personalities.

Maharishi teaches we must learn it all -- life, death, and after death. He says, "To learn only about life, is like taking a course in oceanography and only studying the waves." Over the years many spiritual students and friends have asked me, " How did you find your path? What is different with TM from prayer or guided relaxation? What has it done for you?" In writing this book I hope I have answered many questions. It has been an exciting life, and who knows what lies around the next corner.

Gratefulness is said to be one of the most spiritual of words. For this opportunity to share with you, I am most grateful. So, come along with me through my initial turbulent trials to a place of serenity. I went out looking for answers, India taught me where to find them -- they were within me all the time.

As you travel your own path through life, may you remember, all you need is love and faith.

-- NANCY COOKE DE HERRERA

***

Part One: Changing Focus on Life

1. Welcome to India


ON A DARK, STARLESS NIGHT in March of 1962, I had a premonition that I was about to take a step into the unknown as my plane descended onto the landing strip of Delhi, India. I knew I was on a search for some deeper understanding of my own spirituality. I had finished the book, Autobiography of a Yogi, after my husband, Luis de Herrera's death. A close friend, Ambassador B.K. (Biju, as I called him) Nehru, the Indian Ambassador to the United States, had sent it to me as a token of consolation. He felt it might give some answers to my many questions at that time about what happened once we passed on from this life. While reading this book, I became enveloped with the desire to know the truth, if any, there was to the stories about life after death.

While reading the book, I not only became fascinated with the life of Yogananda, but also became inspired by the India described in the footnotes throughout, and thus set out to seek some answers that I sensed might be found in this exotic land. Having experienced such grief at Luis's loss, I wanted to find something more to believe in than the "hellfire and damnation" that seemed to be layered in the Christian books I had read. I needed to have some hope that somehow we would be together once more. The possibility of it fueled my sense of adventure. Would this mystical land supply me with answers to the questions that had haunted me for seven years? After all, India was known as the cradle of spiritual knowledge. It raised my curiosity enough that once again in my life, I found myself taking the risk to step out into the unknown.

Little did I know that in the next weeks, months, and years, my journey would take me from the origin of the Ganges to the Valley of the Saints and back home to California, and back again. Time after time. It became a continuum, like a circle -- no beginning, and no end. How was I to know that this particular trip would change my life forever?

I had been traveling around the world as a goodwill personality with the U.S. State Department giving lectures on customs, costumes, and cultures. I was known as the U.S. Ambassadress of Fashion, and therefore, was accustomed to being welcomed by governments with a full agenda of activities awaiting me. On this night, however, I was an unofficial visitor, strictly on my own. India was a new horizon for me. Not knowing a soul in this ancient and mysterious country, I prayed that my good friend Tom Slick would be there to meet me.

Three months had passed since our last communication about my coming -- would he show up? I was to meet Tom, a Texas oilman and parapsychologist, and our plan was to roam the Himalayan foothills together calling on lamas, swamis, and yogis. While Tom was searching for psychic phenomena, levitation, teleportation, and materialization, I would follow my own search.

When a steward opened the door of the plane, an earthy fragrance filled the cabin. A wave of insecurity washed over me as I climbed down the ramp and looked through the airport lights for the customs house. Then as the soft air caressed me, a thrill of anticipation pushed away my insecurities.

"I'm finally in India. This is the moment I have been waiting for."

I'd come directly from Tehran where, as a guest of the Shah of Iran, I had presented a fashion show to provide publicity for The New Path Society. This was a group of Iranian women who were attempting to ban the obligatory usage of the chador and the facial veil that the women had been wearing for centuries.

"Where is my natural love of adventure?" I silently asked, prodding myself into a confident air. "No matter what happens, it will be fine. If Tom's not here, I'll check into a hotel and in a few days go on to Bangkok."

We were herded into a low, tin-roofed shed glaring with fluorescent lights. A uniformed Indian reached for my suitcase keys, asking in clipped English, "Have you anything to declare, Memsahib?" I shook my head, indicating no, and scanned the crowd teeming in the balmy air around me. Standing nearly six feet tall, I looked out over the crowd but saw nothing familiar. "Oh please, Tom, be here. I have such expectations for this trip."

Emaciated bearers waited by the exit, their somber eyes scrutinizing the passengers. One porter placed three large suitcases on another's head. White-turbaned Sikhs with dark faces and curled up beards milled among brown-skinned women in bright saris. Then, finally, a broad, sunburned forehead framed by prematurely gray hair and mystical, silver-blue eyes peered through the congestion. A smile of recognition lighted the face.

"Tom, over here!" I pushed my way past the passengers. "Boy, am I glad to see you. I was wondering what I'd do if you were not here."

Tom gave me a hug and laughed. "Welcome to India," he said. "You look like a rhapsody in blue. And that blonde mane of yours is like a beacon in this place. You were easy to find."

While at Yale, Tom opted for a life of scientific research rather than the world of oil exploration. From a fortune in huge oil deposits discovered by his late father, he had the financial reserves to make such a choice.

He had established several important foundations, but his favorite was The Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, Texas, and nothing was too unusual for him to consider. Several months before, I accompanied him looking for Bigfoot (also known as the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman) in the Trinity Alps, a primitive area of Northern California.

A well-built 5'9", Tom, intellectually and spiritually, was my soul mate. He challenged my horizons, he excited me with his ideas, and I felt safe with him. Romantically, time would tell. Neither of us was pushing for a commitment, although we had a close relationship. For now, I was thrilled by his presence.

Tom frowned at my four-inch heels. "Let's get you off those stilts and down to my size. From now on you'll be in hiking boots and khaki."

"I'll be delighted to get out of these clothes, but I had to make an elegant departure from Tehran."

"You will find plenty of material here for your next lecture series."

"I've already thought of that. My agent will make a new brochure with the pictures I'll bring back."

Tom signaled a turbaned porter to secure my bags, and soon we were in an old-fashioned taxi rattling into the night. Little could be seen in the darkness; wooden-wheeled bullock carts passed silently in the opposite direction, their shrouded drivers asleep as the animals patiently plodded along. There was almost no traffic, other than a stray cow or two.

Excitement had pushed away my fatigue. "Okay, I'm here ... ready to go ... when do we start?"

"Early tomorrow morning. But the first order of business is to get you to the hotel and to sleep. Later this afternoon, an Indian parapsychologist from Rajasthan University, Ranjit Ganguli, will join us. He'll bring a Yogiwho will demonstrate complete control over his body. While we take his pulse, he will stop his heartbeat for minutes; then he'll send blood to any part of his body we indicate."

"It sounds fascinating."

"It could be more than fascinating -- it could be very practical," he replied with a twinkle in his eye. I ignored his innuendo; my interest was on our travel plans.

"Later you can take a tour of the city, and tonight we go to a ball at the French Embassy."

"And tomorrow, where do we go?"

"To A1mora, in the mountains near the Tibetan border. Hopefully, we will find Lama Anagarika Govinda. Govinda is translating Buddhist works into books for Western readers. He's well-known in England where he lectures yearly."

This was particularly interesting to me. Previously, during a period of stress and indecision in my life, I had sought answers in Buddhist literature. However, even though the Buddhist emphasis on compassion attracted me, I found the writings unfathomable. I would need to learn a new language to understand the texts.

Religion had always fascinated me. At times this interest got me into trouble. During the seventh grade, while attending a private convent, I asked so many questions during catechism the nuns finally dismissed me from class and had me take art during that hour instead. Yes, I looked forward to meeting Govinda.

Soon our car turned off Jan Path, Delhi's main shopping thoroughfare, into a driveway lined with stately palm trees that led to the Imperial Oberoi Hotel. A magnificently uniformed Sikh doorman greeted us and led the way into a dark wood-paneled lobby, straight out of the thirties. It was inviting and appropriate. Again I noticed the smell of India. It seemed to impart a mixture of flowers, smoke, and earth.

An hour later, unpacked, bathed, and lying on cool sheets, I watched the ceiling fan turn slowly, my thoughts turning with it. "Am I really here resting on a hotel bed in India?" As far away from my family in California as I could be, I wondered what my three sons and daughter were doing. It was yesterday for them, I realized.

A flood of love and gratitude washed over me as I thought of Mother. By living with us, and with the help of our housekeeper, she made it possible for me to follow my career. My two sisters also lived nearby, completing this support system.

A year after my husband's death in Argentina, we left our home in Buenos Aires and all the happy memories it contained, and returned to San Francisco. It was a painful but correct decision, and now, seven years later, things were going well; my children were thriving, and I loved my profession, along with the financial stability it provided.

With this contented thought, and to the sounds of birds greeting the Indian day, jet lag won out and I fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Tom, Ranjit Ganguli -- an earnest young Indian -- and I set out on our journey in a brand new Dodge, a real luxury in India. Our Sikh driver, Kali, was so proud of his car that every time we came to a bump in the road he made us get out and walk. Then when the radiator boiled over, we found he didn't know how to open the hood.

"I think we're in for trouble," announced Tom. "We would have been smarter to stick to the Indian-made Ambassador car; every driver knows how to fix them."

We traveled over rough terrain, across the hot Ganges plain as we headed north. The hours passed rapidly, as everything was a feast for the eyes. Tom was an encyclopedia on India. "The first time I came here I hated it; the next trip I fell in love with it. It's important to meet this country properly." This was his eighth trip, so I knew I was in good hands.

At night while the driver slept in the car, Ranjit, Tom, and I shared Spartan sleeping quarters, usually a DAK bungalow, a kind of primitive cement hut built by the British for passing travelers. We bathed out of a bucket, and our beds consisted of four posts and a webbed frame over which we spread our bedrolls -- hardly conducive to flaming romance.

For food by day, I lived on hardboiled eggs, fresh oranges, bananas, and peanut butter, rather than eat in the dirty places available. "If you stick to Punjabi food straight out of the boiling oil, you will be safe," cautioned Tom, but I treasured my powdered milk and the other staples I'd picked up in Delhi. At night we'd get the DAK bungalow attendant to buy fresh vegetables, which were plentiful, and cook our meal over a small fire in front of us. This way I knew what we were eating -- I was taking no chances with dysentery.

Soon snow-capped mountains were visible, but it was slow going. We had just spent a day waiting for a mechanic to come from a far away village to fix the car. Tom had had it with delays; he decided to go on without the troublesome Dodge or its driver. "Kali will go back and we will continue by bus."

The bus was memorable. The windows were so dirty one could hardly see out. A leathery-faced old hillsman sat backwards, cleaning his teeth with a stick and staring at me without interruption.

"You are a one-woman show for him," laughed my companion. "He may never have seen blue eyes before."

The bus driver rarely took his hand off the horn. Women got on with naked babies, and everyone took turns helping the mothers. It didn't matter that the baby would wet the pants of the obliging passenger. Everyone laughed and chatted. I felt as though I were on the "Toonerville Trolley." When we came to villages, we got down to tend to bathroom necessities -- it was my introduction to standing on two footblocks and squatting.

It was getting cold as we gained altitude. "Look at that, Tom, I'm impressed! In spite of this chilly weather, those people are bathing. They wash their few rags and then put them on again."

He explained, "It's part of the Hindu religion to bathe daily, even if it means going into a cold river. You rarely smell any body odor amongst the hill people."

There was constant activity in the villages. Everyone seemed to have a job to do. "These people don't seem to be starving, as most Westerners think," I remarked.

"It is all worked out on a barter system. When statistics report that the average Indian lives on only two rupees a day, it's misleading."

Finally we arrived in the hill station of Almora. The imprint of the British Raj still remained in the architecture of what had originally been summer residences. Lama Govinda's home was another five miles of walking. So huffing, puffing, and suffering in the thin, cold air at 6,000 feet, we traversed the final mountain slope astonished by the magnificent scenery around us.

With no means of communication, there was no way to ascertain that the Lama would be there, or that he would receive us. Tom explained the term lama as when a Buddhist monk becomes a teacher and has a following, he earns the title of lama.

Finally, a small stone house came into view. A tall pole stood between the building and us. From its top fluttered long white clothes covered with strange print. Tom explained, "These are Buddhist prayer flags. Each Tibetan family has its own prayer mark; they use it to stamp cloth after cloth until they create a whole grove of flags as evidence of their devotion. As the wind blows, the prayers flutter their way up to heaven." I thought, "What fun to do this at home."

The heavy rough-hewn front door opened and a thin, angular-faced European woman stood on the threshold. With long, flowing robes and her hair tucked into a hood that arched over her dark-rimmed eyes, she could have been from another century. Hardly pausing to study us, she tipped her head to the side with a smile and said, "I am Li Gotami, the lama's wife. My husband is working, but he will be pleased to receive you." We felt such relief at her welcome.

Li Gotami escorted us into a small, bare room. The whitewashed, stone walls bore the scant decoration of mandalas, portraits of monks, and mountain scenes. There was little furniture on the stone floor. Thangkas, Tibetan scrolls, hung from the ceiling.

On a carpeted platform, spotlighted by sunshine beaming through a tall window, sat a frail figure. Above his burgundy and saffron robes, the man wore a loose wool cap, which hung below his ears and rose to a point high over his head. This framed a thin face with bushy eyebrows, deep-hollowed blue eyes, and an aquiline nose. A thin white beard hung from the tip of his chin. This was Govinda; born to German parents in Bolivia, he was, at 64, the most revered Western-born lama.

I followed Tom's example and greeted him with my hands pressed together -- prayer like -- in namaste fashion, the traditional Indian salutation. Then I ventured, "Mi querido Padre. Con mucho gusto conocerle."

"Gracias -- y yo tambien, Senora."

Govinda inquired about my Spanish and how I happened to have a name like de Herrera.

"My late husband was an Uruguayan."

Govinda bobbed his head enthusiastically. "Yes, yes ... I know that continent well. My grandfather was a comrade in arms to Simon Bolivar, one of the gran libertadores of South America." With this, he gestured for us to sit on cushions lying on the floor.

"Your Holiness," Tom said, introducing himself. "I have come to you for help. I am seeking proof of psychic and physical phenomena that can be repeated under scientifically controlled conditions at my Mind Science Foundation in Texas. I believe that if we can demonstrate these abilities in a manner beyond dispute, we will be able to get our foot in the door of the Western mind and open up new realms for exploration."

Govinda's face exhibited little. He drew Tom out, asking him to enlarge on some of his points. Then he seemed to make up his mind; evidently he would trust this stranger's motives and talk freely. I felt relief; I'd been praying for four days that this would not be a false lead.

"To us Buddhists, such attempts to 'prove' extrasensory perception through scientific tests seem crude and laughable. The conditions for these experiments are in themselves the greatest hindrance to any success." Govinda's cheeks flushed. He paused and cleared his throat. "By reaching for objectivity, you exclude the emotional and spiritual elements of the human mind, without which no state of real contemplation can be created."

We were jolted by his concise appraisal. Seeing the expression on my face, Govinda softened his voice. "In Tibet, our concentration and psychic sensibility is greatly increased in the solitude and silence of nature. The mind is not blunted and diverted from itself by the noise and activity of modern life. Rather, it becomes spiritually attuned and can enter into a silent communication with other attuned minds." His eyes shifted back toward Tom as he gently added, "Thus, telepathy is common among Tibetans."

Image
Tibetan children at the Self-Help Center (Mussoorie, India)

Whether it was the musky incense or the conviction of this uncommon man, I sensed myself slipping into another dimension. Govinda continued, "Whenever the object of concentration comes before the mind, it takes on a greater reality and can then be held and contemplated with full attention. The past is telescoped into the present and the present shows itself not as a dividing line between a past that has died and a future that has yet to be born, but as a single aspect of the co-existence and continuous body of living experience in four dimensions .... "

"Do you believe in the existence of the fourth dimension?"

"It is amusing, young man, that just two weeks ago a Professor Heisenberg came here to ask me about that subject."

"Heisenberg!" I was astonished. Recently I had read an article about Heisenberg, the discoverer of quantum physics. I almost shouted, "The man who won the Nobel Prize? Do you mean he came all the way here?"

Govinda nodded, "Yes, that is the same man. Apparently, modern mathematicians are reaching such complicated answers they need to learn about the fourth dimension in order to explain them. They know we understand this dimension." He smiled as he shared this confidence.

Excitedly, Tom pursued the topic and soon the lama was describing one of his own psychic experiences. He related how lung gumpa, the Tibetan walking levitation, came over him once in a perilous situation and brought him back to safety ... he was able to walk across a lake!

Tom concentrated on getting an exact description of the event, but I felt he was ignoring the state of mind, which evokes such feats-the physical phenomenon was but the momentary effect of a mental state, which could have far greater implication in our lives. Govinda was showing us a path to unlimited possibilities. Casting aside my timidity, I asked, "Your Holiness, if one is interested in seeking spiritual knowledge, how should one begin?"

"First you must practice meditation, my lady. Meditation is essential for the evolution of the soul."

"But how do I learn this?" The cushion on the floor was no longer un-comfortable.

"You will need a teacher. He will teach you ... there are many forms of meditation. Some use the breath, some a mantra, some use colors .... "

"What is a mantra?"

"It is a sacred sound vibration which awakens and stimulates the intuitive qualities of the mind. But leave this to your guru; he will know what is best for you." His eyes penetrated mine as he said, "Always remember, your guru will be in a mortal body and only be a certain percent divine; so forgive his weakness and keep your eye on the divine."

"Your Holiness, do you believe in reincarnation?"

He smiled, "Yes, we believe the soul evolves through many lifetimes."

Later, Tom said that was like asking the lama if he breathed. But I wasn't discouraged; I had to begin somewhere. Ever since my husband's death, I had been looking for assurance that there is justice in the universe. I had already concluded it involved more than one lifetime to work out that justice, so Govinda's words encouraged me.

Later that afternoon as we descended the mountainside, I felt as if I were walking on clouds. I was dizzy and my vision out of focus. The world around me seemed like a Van Gogh painting. I could see swirls spinning in cartwheels against the alpenglow. Everything was in motion.

"Tom, I don't know what's happening. I have such a strange feeling, as if I were drunk."

He laughed, "You have become 'sensitized.' Just by sitting near such a saintly man, you receive his darshan, the energy, the good vibrations."

"I feel as though my heart will break open, it's so full of happiness. Boy, if we could ever bottle this, we'd retire for life!"

"Speaking of bottles, is that a bottle of scotch I see in that store?" We had come into a local center; on both sides of the road were little stall-like shops. This particular shop sold everything from soap to incense -- and scotch. The Haig and Haig was dirty but intact. The proprietor said he'd had it for over ten years. "I bet he was getting worried that he'd never sell it," said Tom.

Later we celebrated in the men's waiting room at the railroad station, where we spent the night on benches. There were no hotels, and I refused to stay alone in the women's section. From my knapsack I produced a can of caviar I'd brought from Iran. We had a party while Ranjit looked on with distaste. I don't know whether it was due to our repast, or due to the fact that I, a woman, was in the men's room.

The morning train took us to Dehradun, a former site of a major British cantonment. After a splendid cup of tea, it was the bus again, this time to Hardwar, the second most holy place in India, located on the banks of the Ganges. As it was my first glimpse of the sacred river, I insisted on running down the ghat steps and wading in the water before we started our search for a revered yogi Tom had been told about.

We had a name and no directions, but miraculously we found him sitting on top of a cement temple, his naked body baking in the sun.

After Ranjit convinced him in Hindi, the little dried-up man begrudgingly agreed to talk to us. He asked for a glass of water to illustrate his point. When the glass appeared, we were each requested to touch the water. The yogi then held it quietly, and we watched the liquid turn solid! Ranjit then asked us to touch it again to verify that it was now ice. We were thunderstruck] We had not expected anything like this. The man wore only a loincloth, had no props, it was a hot day, and we were not hypnotized.

The holy man told Ranjit, "Water is made up of so many molecules of hydrogen and oxygen. Ice is the same; all I have done is to change the characteristic of the water by altering the rate of vibration of the molecules."

Scowling, he continued, "You are scientists; can you control nature peacefully? You will destroy the world with your science; leave this place and bother us no more, or stay and learn union with God." His eyes shut in dismissal.

Later, in a noisy taxi we debated about what we'd seen. "There is no scientific explanation for what we have just observed." I had majored in chemistry at Stanford; I was scientifically oriented.

"Agreed, but the title yogi is given only after the individual demonstrates his ability to control nature," Tom pointed out. "That old boy sure earned his credentials. If only I'd had a movie camera."

"Someone would insist you'd faked it," I consoled, but I knew we had just witnessed something that was impossible.

Tom was in high spirits ... now he knew this expedition would make history. "Our next goal is to find a swami named Sivananda who lives in Rishikesh." It was 13 miles north of Hardwar over a windy road full of potholes, which did not slow down our driver for a minute. He roared through the congestion of carts, animals, bicycles, and horsedrawn tongas, buggies, overloaded with passengers. Tom chuckled as I held my breath and prayed. "I don't think it's our karma to be killed on the way to The Valley of the Saints."

"The hell with our karma, what if the driver thinks it's good for his karma to die in such a holy place?"

It's called The Valley of the Saints because of the holy men who live there near the headwaters of the Mother Ganga. The valley is dotted with numerous temples and ashrams, or religious academies. Most of these clustered near the town, perched on the river bank. Sivananda, the most revered of the saints, had the largest ashram in this spiritual center.

The streets were lined with small wooden stalls. Through the car window I could make out piles of vegetables, dried grains, brassware, brightly colored yard goods, religious objects, and crudely made household tools. Men haggled over prices while others gathered around open braziers, where turbaned Sikhs prepared vegetable dishes in wok-like pans filled with spitting hot oil. The enticing scent of curry was everywhere.

Suddenly our driver screeched to a halt. Ahead, like a sea of dirty laundry, swirled an impenetrable confusion of carts and pedestrians. He turned his sweat-beaded brow to Tom and said, "You walk now, Sahib."

Tom leaned forward, "How will we find The Divine Life Forest Academy?"

"No problem, Sahib. It is very close." He pointed to a street corner about a hundred yards away, "There turn right, walk down to river embankment and turn left. Ashram easy to find." The din enveloped his singsong English as Tom opened the door. I put my dark glasses on to ease the glare and keep out the dust. Beggars and hawkers ran up trying to attract our attention and money. Tom grabbed our daybag and pulled me by the hand, ignoring pleas and gestures of baksheesh.

There were no sidewalks, so we zigzagged down the center of the dusty, clay road -- retreating to the sides every few steps to avoid rickshaws and carts. Making our way slowly, we encountered a group of lepers sitting on the side of the street. They were horribly disfigured. Some balanced their dented cups between handless limbs; without lips or noses they pleaded for alms. Others held out their walking sticks to bar our passage and force a gift from us. I froze, not wanting to touch anything they had handled.

"Here, take these small coins," Tom said, forcing them into my paralyzed hand, "Put one in each cup and they'll leave you alone."

I did what he said, but tried not to look at the pathetic creatures. It was hard to realize they were human -- this thought made me feel guilty. "Oh, Tom, why must people exist in such horrible condition?"

"Yes, I know, but the Indian government does provide a place for lepers to live."

"Can you imagine what those places are like if they'd rather live here and beg?"

We began to walk faster. Just before the corner a rickshaw backed us against the wall; I felt a hand lightly tap my shoulder, "Baksheesh, Memsahib?"

I spun around to see a naked man daubed all over with ashes. His black hair was coiled on top of his head and a huge live snake hung from his neck. I gasped and threw my last coins at him.

Tom tugged me around the corner; nothing seemed to faze him. "The driver said to turn here ... " The crowd thinned out as we descended toward the swiftly flowing waters of the Ganges. Across the wide river whitewashed domes and temples fringed the far bank. All appeared empty except for one huge building, which was entirely covered with ornate printing.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It is the Gita Bhavan. A wealthy and devout Hindu built it to shelter those who want to study the Bhagavad Gita and other scriptures. The decorative printings are Vedic quotes."

Suddenly on our left was a high wall. Crude brick stairs ran up its side and ended in a gated archway. Square black letters surrounded by colored lights announced Sivananda's ashram.

We must have been observed climbing the stairs, for as we crossed the stone courtyard, a gaunt, dark Indian in white robes came out of a room on the far side and walked toward us in greeting.

"I am Chidananda, secretary and disciple to His Holiness Swami Sivananda." When he heard why we had come, he smiled, "You are in luck. His Holiness has just come out of a long meditation and will be giving an audience shortly. But we must hurry."

We followed him into the main building and down a stairway to a basement called the "meeting cave." He seated us on a wooden bench against a cold, damp wall, and excused himself. Other disciples, or chelas, of the Swami, Westerners mostly, had already gathered in the room. They sat on pillows strewn about the earthen floor. Their heads were shaven and their white robes bespoke their devotion. Tom and I shifted on our bench, trying to be comfortable without leaning against the wet wall.

Little light came into the cave and many candles were burning. Smoke mingled with the sinuous trails of incense and the sweet aroma of flowers. Potted plants were clustered near a chair at one end of the room. Mildewed and peeling whitewashed walls were heavily decorated with religious paintings depicting blue Krishnas, photographs of sadhus, or holy beggars, and figurines of animal-headed gods. Between these hung garlands of dusty artificial flowers. Some of the chelas sat in the lotus posture with their eyes closed, their hands cradling a humble offering to their master. Others lounged, talking to their colleagues, glancing at us with interest. There were about 20 in all.

Chidananda reappeared at a door near the chair. Turning and looking expectantly back through the opening, he slowly retreated from the entrance. "The master is coming," he announced quietly. The students jumped to their feet and held out their offerings, making short, shallow bows and uttering low chanting sounds.

A broad, hairless, yellow-brown head floated calmly into the room. Chelas threw themselves to the floor to kiss Sivananda's feet. The massive holy man slowly made his way through the commotion, waving blessings to all. He accepted fruit and flowers from those in his path, while others stood behind him, bestrewing his coat with rose petals. Finally, when he stood before his chair, he motioned for everyone to sit and then did so himself.

A disciple picked his way through the crowd and received permission to place a heavy garland of orange targate flowers around the Swami's neck. Sivananda put his feet on a stool, revealing velvet boots. He beamed as he slowly reviewed his congregation. A camel-hair coat magnified his immense frame. His brown eyes appeared slightly crossed behind a bulbous nose, but this did not negate a powerful, confident demeanor.

When his gaze came around to us, he called Chidananda to his side. Learning who we were, he welcomed us to his ashram in good English. He instructed his secretary to take the garland from his shoulders and to place it on mine. Everyone turned to look at me; it was an honor, but it was heavy and I felt like a horse that had just won the Derby.

Sivananda intoned to his chelas, "Come, let's have one of you rise and tell our guests what you have learned here at the Academy." Not one, but more than half the gathering stood up in turn and told of their gratitude and love for their master, for the wisdom he bestowed on them. Then the Swami began a discourse. He pitched his comments toward Tom, turning to us while describing the achievements of science.

Taking advantage of a pause, Tom asked rhetorically if scientific knowledge was leading to peace. The answer came back, "No, to destruction! In order to generate peaceful vibrations, one must possess individual tranquility, which alone will pave the way to world peace. This requires self-discipline ... this is what we practice here."

Giving Tom a confident smile, he concluded, "A scientist without discipline is a danger to the world. You should learn to meditate."

My thoughts went back to the irate "ice yogi." Evidently, science was a dirty word in the Valley. How differently Lama Govinda had received Tom as a scientist.

Tom was nonplused by the Swami's ardor, but asked, "Your Holiness, could you explain about meditation? What does it offer a scientist?"

"What are the benefits of meditation?" A smile flickered across his face, and he played to the crowd. He talked at length about meditation and its goals. "Meditation helps the mind to rule the senses and the practitioner to control his mind." This quickly led into a description of the path to God-realization, and, prompted by questions from the chelas, to comments on the Divine Presence, Advaitic Unity, Sadhana -- Atmic Glory -- we were lost. Was he speaking English? The garland got heavier. I was tempted to take it off, but was afraid of insulting some tradition.

When the discourse ended, Sivananda came over and sat between Tom and me, ordering a chela to take a picture. An ancient camera was produced which made a flash and a puff of white smoke. Only when he took leave of us did I notice his wrinkled hands and realize he was a very old man.

As the Swami left, the students chanted and rang small bells ... they ignited powders and passed around strange things to eat, combinations of seeds, pastes, and dried fruits. Leery of food prepared by unclean hands, I took no chances, and, pretending to eat, dropped what I was given inside the front of my blouse.

After Sivananda retired, Chidananda came over and sat next to me. "What did you think of Swamiji?" He used the suffix-ji, which I had learned was a form of endearment.

There being no point in pretense, I said, "My impressions are somewhat negative. All the ritual and the kissing of feet are simply not for me."

Chidananda's face showed compassion. "Yes, I could see that in your expression. There is much you do not understand." He gestured for Tom to listen and continued. "If Swamiji could have his way, none of this obeisance would take place. When he first came out of the forest where he lived for years in solitude, people fell to the ground to kiss his feet. He had no choice but to let them show their devotion to him in such humble ways, or they felt themselves unworthy."

That seemed rational to me. He then went on to tell us about the Academy and its students, and describe their practice of self-discipline. He encouraged me to ask questions and later, as he escorted us to the gate, asked me, "Did you ever think of finding a guru for yourself?"

"Yes, I'm looking for a teacher to guide me, but I'm not ready to renounce my worldly life. It's a dilemma for me."

Chidananda's eyes darkened, "Yes, it is hard to renounce." Then he brightened and offered, "Perhaps I can help you. There is a swami, very respected by Sivananda, with an ashram across the river who appeals to Western students. He teaches the path of the householder, and requires no withdrawal from worldly activity. You might talk with him; his name is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Perhaps he will be the teacher for you. If not, do not worry, we have a saying here: 'When the chela [student] is ready, the master appears.'''

We bid the friendly holy man goodbye and headed for the river to find the man named Mahesh. Tom was just as curious as I. A barge-like boat was departing for the opposite bank and we asked if we could ride along; already overcrowded, the passengers made room for us. Quietly, numerous pairs of dark eyes stared at us. I tried to pull myself in from being touched by the ash-covered saint sitting next to me.

Tom had explained, "The ashes keep him warm."

A small child extended her hand to my hair. Her mother explained, "Please excuse my daughter. She has a doll with hair like yours, and wants to touch it." We laughed and answered her questions as to where we were from and what we were doing there. Before long we reached the other side and asked a kind-looking man on the shore where we might find Mahesh and directions to the ashram.

"Oh, you are too late. Maharishi has just left for California. It is a pity; he is a very respected teacher."

So we were saved a climb up the hill. Little did I know then how many times I would return to this exact place in the future and make that climb.

THE YOGA-VEDANTA FOREST ACADEMY
P.O. SIVANANDANAGAR, RISHIKESH
DIST. DEHRA DUN, HIMALAYAS, lNDIA.

Founder
Sri Swami Sivananda

17.6.62

Srl Nancy Cooke,
California.

Rev. Immortal Self,

Salutations and adorations. Om Namo Narayanaya.

I am delighted to go through the contents of your kind letter of the 8th instant.

Kindly send a copy of the book that you are intending to publish for our library. I am sure your notes and experiences on your trip here with Mr. Glick will prove to be of great inspiration to others in your country and our own students here.

All your friends are welcome to this abode. Welcome to all of them! I shall attend to them all and serve them. I am sure by your efforts and influence more and more of your countrymen will take interest in the Eastern culture and philosophy and find peace and solace in them.

May Lord bless you all with fine health, long life, joy, peace and eternal happiness!

Will deep regards, Prem and OM,

Thy own Self,

Sivananda
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