A Visit to Central India, February 2008
by Buck Weimer, Chair, International Fellowship Committee
Shown above visiting with Dr. Rajan Chauhan and his wife, Ivy are Charlene Morrow, Buck Weimer, and Arlene Weimer.
Jabalpur is a fairly typical Indian city of over 1,500,000 people. Its economy is agrarian-based but with a strong military industry presence. We were delighted to find our hotel, the Jackson Narmada, was very elegant (old-style) with all amenities. Pictures on the walls showed personally signed photographs of tourists in the nearby Kanha National Park, one of the wildlife sanctuaries of India protecting the Royal Bengal Tigers and the birthplace of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book.” Arriving early in the day, we had a few hours before our first meeting with the Chauhans and decided to wander around the neighborhood. We watched the cows freely roaming the streets in competition with people and vehicles, sensed the tension in the crowd as the government began tearing down part of a Muslim shrine, played with laughing children outside a small Hindu temple, prayed with the swami in the temple beside a large tree growing inside, and felt ultimate warmth by having a “bindi” (red spot of dye) placed on our foreheads. With music in the background and fruit vendors everywhere we felt as if we were in the real India.
Early in the evening we met with Dr. Chauhan and his wife Ivy. After numerous letters and telephone conversation we were all very happy to finally be in each others presence. Dr. Chauhan gave us copies of his “Mini Urantia Book – 2,000 Quotes in Hindi” in both English and Hindi (with CDs), a spiraled copy of his “Spiritual Psychotherapy” book, plus the information on five people in his study group. We gave him the six hard cover UBs with the DVD in the back, and presented him with a framed "Certificate of Recognition" for 25 Years Service to the revelation.
The next day we traveled with the Chauhans toward the opposite part of town. As we neared their home we saw a cyber café, stopped and went inside. There we made an agreement with the owner to act as the E-mail “go-between” for Dr. Chauhan and us, using the telephone to relay our emailed messages to Dr. Chauhan and E-mailing us his responses and/or additional messages. The owner happily agreed and we paid him 100 rupees ($2.50) in advance for his services. This system of communications is already operational.
Dr. Chauhan insisted we visit the nearby Dhuandhar waterfall and the nearby marble cliffs. Later that afternoon, Ivy provided us a delicious dinner in their humble abode. Their home is very small by any standard without plumbing or central heating. They are proud of the fact that it is in a newer neighborhood. We took the outside stairs up to the room on top. This room was especially built by them, using Ivy’s $1,500 retirement bonus, for Urantia Book study group meetings. They were ready to resume study group meetings, and we gave them funds for extra chairs. Being so far from any Urantia Book community, their dedication to the revelation can be an inspiration for all. We parted with a heartfelt sense of eternal friendship.
One Bad Night and the Return Home
The next morning we arrived at the Jabalpur airport to discover our return flight to New Delhi had been cancelled; no excuses, no rescheduling. With only two nights left on our itinerary, we were in a bind. Our only real option, we quickly understood, was an overnight train ride to Agra – the home of the Taj Mahal – about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from New Delhi. We had planned to spend our last day seeing the Taj Mahal anyway, so we thought this was a great option. We got to Agra late the next morning, but the overnight train ride was, in a word, horrible. All the first-class coaches were sold out, so we were in the second or economy class which meant three people to a seat on each side facing each other and six narrow beds when opened, plus luggage. The temperature at night was just above freezing – probably in the low forties. None of the windows closed properly, the doors between the coaches were often left open, and the toilets were the squat-down type with the open tracks just below. Sleepless, we froze! At every stop, vendors walked through the coaches yelling “chai, chai, chai, chai” in an effort to hawk their tea. We had no blankets and two of us were suffering from a week of head colds. We felt like we were on a train to the gulag.
Four hours of warmth in the sun and absorbing the awe of the Taj Mahal gave us renewed energy to begin the return trek. One last night in New Delhi, a sleep over in Munich, Germany and we were home - back in the USA.
Conclusion and recommendations
Though often dream-like when reflecting, an outreach mission of this magnitude requires critical post-analysis. The venue of book fairs as a method of outreach is tailor-made for The Urantia Book. People attend because they are interested in books; either for publishing, distributing, buying, or browsing. There are approximately 89 book fairs in different parts of the world - 14 in Spanish-speaking countries, like the one in Buenos Aires, Argentina in April/May of this year, and 12 within the United States. Responding to four of these per year would help the Fellowship build a global network and community of readers.
India, a democratic country where more than 350 million people speak English with a literacy rate of 61% among adults and 73% among the youth, cannot be ignored by a vibrant Urantia Book Fellowship. The primary goal of the mission to the New Delhi World Book Fair was easily achieved. We have over 150 contacts in New Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Jabalpur, Coimbatore, and even in tiny Katmandu, Nepal.
We can learn from past mistakes. There were 10,000 ( unsure of exact number) copies of The Urantia Book printed in India by the Indian Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge (I.S.P.C.K.) shortly after the Foundation’s attendance at the 2000 New Delhi Book Fair. I met their sales manager, Sandeep Jash, at the fair. The Urantia Book was printed by I.S.P.C.K. to look like an old European bible. It was unmarketable in India, probably because it looked like a Christian bible and the distribution was attempted by a Christian organization. Today, many of these books remain in a warehouse in Delhi and are the books Mark Bloomfield is seeding throughout Africa. They have gifted over 1,200 of these books to Christian theology students upon graduation. We spoke with other Indian printers able to duplicate the Uversa Press edition, and collected the information on 24 Indian printers and distributors from the book fair to advance the discussion on the Fellowship distributing and/or printing the book there.
The question for the readers of this report is: Are we ready? Is the Fellowship ready to commit its expanding resources, intellectual depth, spiritual will, and vast pool of talent to our thirsty brothers and sisters on the continent of India? Never, during the entire journey, did any of the team feel threatened in any way. Quite the opposite! The groundwork for a community of readers has begun, the scaffolding of relationships is emerging, cross-cultural bridges are opening, the eagerness there. The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man is the gospel for all. The Masters words resonate:
“Go you, therefore, into all the world preaching this gospel, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the ages,” said Jesus, when speaking to Rodan and some 80 believers in Alexandria at the time of his twelfth 12th morontia appearance. (Paper 191, sec 6)
We, and the entire International Fellowship Committee would like to thank the Urantia Book Fellowship for supporting our efforts at the New Delhi World Book Fair, 2008.
In Gratitude:
Paula Thompson
Charlene Morrow
Agustin Arellano
Mario Traveno
Arlene Weimer
Buck Weimer, Chairman, International Fellowship Committee