© 2000 Bhagavan S. Buritz
© 2000 Urantia Association International (IUA)
| The Urantia Book and Human Sources | Journal — June 2000 — Index | News from Estonia: First conference for children about The Urantia Book |
Bhagavan S. Buritz, USA
Urantia Foundation sponsored a booth at the World Book Fair, which was held between 5-13 February 2000. The location was Pragati Maidan, the same as the Delhi Book Fair that Urantia Foundation attended in August 1999. The smaller, yearly Delhi Book Fair filled two halls. We were one of three foreign participants out of 200 book trade participants. The World Book Fair is every other year and is the largest book event in Asia and Africa. There were over 1200 book trade participants, occupying nine halls. One hall was dedicated to Hindi and other Indian languages. Seven halls were for English books. One hall, the Agricultural Pavilion, was for the 38 foreign participants. Our hall was on the edge of the other halls and our traffic was about equal to the smaller Delhi Book Fair.
English is the lingua franca of India and the language of the educated upper and emerging middle class who make up about 10 percent of the populationone hundred million people. The cost of supporting a middle class family in India is about 15,000 rupees (375 dollars) per month. A middle class person would have to work three days—and a worker more than a month—to pay the 980 rupees cost of the new hard cover Urantia Book. Most books sell in the 100—300-rupee range. Some coffee table books are more, while some books sell for as little as 20 rupees.
Based on this information and our experience in August, we sold the plastic-covered edition for 100 rupees instead of the American price equivalent of 840 rupees. After three days we regretted that we had only brought a hundred books to sell. We raised the price to 200 rupees. We gave books away or at a reduced price to those that had a special interest or as the Spirit moved us. We sold the last few books in the last hour of the nine-day book fair.
The booth was usually staffed by two or three people and was open from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM for the 9 days of the book fair. Four representatives gathered from around the world: Kathleen Swadling and Robert Coenraads from Australia, Mark Bloomfield from England, and I from the United States.
Charles Olivea, who had been sent to Delhi by The Urantia Book Fellowship, also visited the booth. Charles is a retired teacher and Fellowship General Councilor. This was his first trip to India. Paul Premsagar accompanied him.
As I sit in the booth, most people walk by with just a glance toward booth, some stop and read the large quotes, and a few stop and ask the most common questions:
“What is Urantia? What does Urantia mean?” I answer, “Earth.” I stamp the floor, spread my hands and point to the ground. This usually elicits a shy and wondering smile.
“What is the etymology of the word? Where does it come from? Is this English?” I explain that the authors use this word.
“Who are the authors?” I point to the list of authors in the “Title of the Papers.” For many people this is satisfactory, and they stop here.
A few are more curious, and they ask, “These are just titles, who are these people?” I study the questioner closely. Do they really want to know? Or do I just reply, “It is explained in the book.”
At the last book fair, I was a little hesitant to answer this question honestly and directly, but I would gather my faith and say, “Celestial beings. The God has many helpers.” This answer seemed strange, unreal, and not quite true. One part of me knows and believes that The Urantia Book is the fifth epochal revelation and that the authors are who they say they are. Yet there is a part of my mind that is a Yankee from Topsfield, Massachusetts, that says, “Whaaaat, is this some idea from California?”
This time I had more courage, confidence and experience. I would add, “God does not exist in the universe by himself; there is not just God and then, human beings. God has created a whole pantheon of helpers. Some of these helpers wrote this book to help us. They are Celestial Beings.”
Every Indian person that I talked to could relate to this truth. It was an amazing experience. If I said this to a hundred people in America, I would be challenged at best and ridiculed at worst by ninety-nine different degrees of skepticism. To Indians, with their pantheon of gods, goddesses and spirits, the idea of celestial authors makes sense. No one challenged me. There was a kind of nodding of the head from side to side, as Indians do—an acknowledgment that is, of course, how God does it. It makes sense. Who was teaching whom? In Indian parlance, “Celestial Beings? No problem.”
I had in-depth conversations with many different people. One of the most interesting was with two Chinese friends born in India but of Han racial origin. In my mind, because of how they greeted me, I called these two young men the “Chinese Brothers.” Earlier Mark had talked extensively with them, and they had purchased a book. For these young students this was a significant expenditure.
In their persistent and truly interested way, they asked me, “Brother, what about where it says in the Bible, ‘no man cometh to the Father except through me’?” They were referring to John 14.6, which is a favorite quote of fundamentalist Christians who use the quote as proof that one can only know God through Jesus; and Jesus is the only way to Heaven, and therefore one has to be a Christian. Everybody else is damned to hell fire. I had never really been able to answer this argument in a satisfactory or logical way, although in my heart I knew this was not the way of my Beloved, our Compassionate Father.
Somehow, at this book fair, I got an inspiration when I looked into the eyes of these two sincere truth seekers. I said to the two young men in the same way they had addressed me, “Brothers, you are Christians. You know God, our loving Father. Is that correct?”
“Yes, brother, we do know Him,” they replied.
“And in the Christian teaching, God is a Trinity. There is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. They are one.”
They responded, “Yes, brother, they are one.”
“And Brothers, at the same time, in some mysterious way, they are separate persons. It is a paradox beyond our understanding, but in faith we know it is true.”
“Yes, brother, this is true.”
And I inquired, “Well, what if I am a faithful Mus, and believe there is no God but Allah, and I wor- ship Allah? Is not Allah the same as the Father, isn’t this the same God?”
They answered, “Yes, Brother.”
“If I know the Father, then I know all the Trinity, even if I do not know that there is a Trinity. If I know the Father, then I know the Son and the Holy Spirit, even if I do not know that I know this Truth. It is part of the mystery of God.”
They nodded their heads yes.
I could see the lights go on in their eyes. I could feel my own heart open and my soul grow as I added this memory to the picture gallery in my soul. At this moment, I could hear the silver bell of truth ring in my heart. I gave all thanks to the Unseen Beloved who indwells us and hears us from the Center of the Universe. I gave thanks then and as I write these words, I thank our Unseen Father and Christ Michael.
We know the facts of this from the Farewell Discourse: When Jesus heard Thomas, be answered: “Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man goes to the Father except through me. All who find the Father, first find me. If you know me, you know the way to the Father. And you do know me, for you have lived with me and you now see me”. UB 180:3.7
We readers of The Urantia Book know the facts, but our joy is to find the truth and share it
The Brothers and I talked further. We acknowledged the privilege of having Jesus in our heart, of truly knowing him. We recognized our responsibility not to condemn those who only know the Father: because if they know the Father, they know Jesus without even knowing that they know him.
Their next question spoke to that: “What about the idol worshipers?”
In India, there is a whole pantheon of Gods that people worship. Temples, business offices, hotel lobbies and dashboards-all are full of polychrome pictures and statues of the Gods. There are all kinds of ritualistic ways of worshipping God: They will dress these statues, change the costumes depending on the season. Special ceremonies are held at the temples and the God is brought outside the Sanctum Sanctorum. It is almost a riot as the crowd surges forward to see God. They give milk and sweets to the God. It reminds me of saints’ days, the parading of statues and relics in Italy and Latin America. At some Kali temples they still sacrifice goats every morning. This food is distributed to the poor. In all these cases, the worshippers really believe God is there.
I asked, “When we Christians eat the Body and Blood of Christ in the communion, is Jesus really there?”
They answered, “Yes, he is.”
“A man in a hut, worshipping a rock really believes God is there. We are privileged to have knowledge of God and of Jesus in what we might say is a more evolved way. The Urantia Book is an even higher teaching.”
I lifted The Urantia Book above my head and said, “Think of the faith of one of these persons as a tiny flame. If we lay this book on top of it, we will crush their faith and put out the flame. The Urantia Book teaches us not to do this, and in our hearts we know that it is wrong.”
We talked about many other subjects. I saw potential in these young men and bright lives ahead. They gave me their addresses and asked me to write to them. At the end of our conversation, they asked me to pray for them. We stood in the booth and bowed our heads, “Divine Father, may we be able to speak sweet words to the people of India and to spread the teaching of The Urantia Book to all the peoples of India. We thank You that we know You. We thank you for the gift of this revelation. Thank you for the privilege of these moments together. Thank you that we came to know each other. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
We took a picture and with smiles on our faces, we said good-bye. I am looking forward to returning to the Delhi Book Fair in August and seeing these brothers.
At the Delhi Book Fair in August of 1999, we talked about having a study group. Our hope was that this experience would prepare the soil for indigenous study groups. After a few days at the World Book Fair, Robert arranged for a meeting room. We scheduled a study group for 5 PM on the last day of the book fair. At the appointed hour we set off to find the room, which was an adventure in itself. We eventually found the room, and the meeting started with five westerners and three Indians. Six more Indians joined us within the first half-hour.
We began with a brief silent meditation and plunged into Paper 100: “Religion in Human Experience.” Like many study groups, the discussion jumped all over the place. It was difficult to bring the conversation back to the subject at hand without being rude. I was impressed with the gems these new readers had found in the book in just a few days. The Urantia Book appeals to the Indian mind and when we return in August, we may find some Indian Urantia Book experts. And we hope to return for many book fairs to water and fertilize this soil.
I do not look forward to returning to the heat, squalor, and pollution of New Delhi in August of 2000, but I do look forward to seeing the India Urantia garden. How have the seeds grown?
| The Urantia Book and Human Sources | Journal — June 2000 — Index | News from Estonia: First conference for children about The Urantia Book |