Mr. Shi Hong is a Hong Kong businessman. While conducting his successful business, he has studied deeply the spiritual traditions of India and China. He met Swami Veda Bharati when he chose to attend all of Swami Veda’s lectures at an international yoga conference in Hong Kong several years ago. Then he followed svb to his next stop, Taiwan. Since then, connection has only strengthened more and more.

Mr. Shi Hong has taken upon himself the task of making Swami Veda’s work known in Chinese speaking communities including Taiwan and mainland China. He recently compiled a book in Chinese from Swami Veda’s many recorded lectures, titled Shing Ning Yoga, roughly translated as "Heart Yoga."

 

The book was published earlier in May, 2009. By now, all 5000 copies have sold out in all the bookstores in Taiwan. Similarly 10,000 copies of the mainland version sold out within two weeks.

 

Swami Veda visited Taiwan from 25th to 30th May. It was primarily a book signing visit. On 26th May, the function was held at the Eslite, largest bookstore  of Taiwan ( five sprawling floors). Swamiji spoke for about half an hour and then he signed books for people in a long line.

 

Next day the same was repeated at another bookstore in Taipei.

 

Swamiji was actually a guest of China Youth Corps with whom AHYMSIN has very friendly relationship, including the facilitating of our teachers training programmes both in Taiwan and Rishikesh. Those who know the history of Taiwan will know of the importance of CYC; it is the most influential youth organisation in Taiwan and has nearly sixty large campuses.

 

The third day’s function was held at the Taipei campus of CYC.

 

Swamiji started with a meditation (of course, with a Chinese translator), gave a short discourse and then ---

 

The most popular Buddhist text in the Mahayana Buddhist countries is the Heart Sutra. It carries the same importance as Gayatri mantra in India or the Lord’s Prayer in Christianity. It was translated by Xuan-Zang (pinyin transliteration of the name), the scholar explorer who followed the silk road to India, under the patronage of T’ang emperors, in 7th century. Studied and then taught at Nalanda the then largest university of India with 20000 international students and obtained the patronage of the Indian emperor Harshavardhana. 

 

Xuan-Zang brought 600 sacred Sanskrit texts from India to China over the Silk Road. In China, he is always depicted as carrying a load of books on his back and is worshipped in the temples. The T’ang emperor in Chang-An (then the capital, now Xian) built him the Hamsa Pagoda (Wild Goose Pagoda) where Xuan-Zang trained hundreds of monks to help translate the texts into Chinese. His translations eclipsed any previous translations like those of the 3rd century scholar Kumarajiva.

 

It is Xuan-Zang’s translations that are read as standard texts and his translation of the Heart Sutra is known to practically every Buddhist child in China.

 

Swami Veda introduced the original Sanskrit text to the modern Chinese.

 

........ then he recited the Heart Sutra in Sanskrit and the audience listen reverently with eyes closed.

 

...Over the centuries the pronunciation of mantras has become corrupt in China over the 14 centuries. Those who know it long to receive the correct Sanskrit pronunciation...

 

Then he had the audience recite the mantra of the Heart Sutra:

Gate gate paara-gate paara-sangate bodhi svaahaa.

 

After some vocal recitations, the audience was advised only to mumble the same with lips moving.

 

Next, ‘close your lips and recite only with the tongue moving’.

 

Next, ‘do not move the tongue, rest the vocal chords and only remember the mantra in the mind’.

 

‘Now, keeping the mantra in the mind, feel the breath flow in the nostrils’.

 

Thus Swami Veda lead the audience from recitation to inner silence.

 

Then came the book signing for a long line of people.

 

In China it has been an ancient tradition for authors, poets and painters to affix their signature seal to their work. A year or two back, Mr. Shi Hong presented Swami Veda a similar signature seal.

 

Medhawati (Mei Wan So who is travelling with Swamiji) affixed the seal and then Swamiji put in his initials by hand.  

 

On 27th May, the session ended with initiates, each one by one, receiving a blessing with lotus oil (lotus is sacred both in India and China) and a hand on the head in a mood and mode of deep inner silence.

 

On 29th and 30th May, Swami Veda was again a guest of CYC in the city of Kaohsiung. He had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Wu, Chin Chu who inherited yoga teaching from his father, who established the Da-Shin Yoga Centre. It was his father who introduced him to Swami Rama’s classic LIVING WITH HIMALAYAN MASTERS. At age 69, he has spent his entire life teaching yoga in Taiwan. He has 50 branches throughout the country and ten thousand students. He gives his students LIVING WITH HIMALAYAN MASTERS as their first reading. He was, therefore, specially delighted to meet a disciple of Swami Rama for the first time. Of the 200 people who attended the session, 70 were Mr. Wu’s students. Unfortunately there were not enough copies of the book in the bookstores to fulfil all the demands; it has already sold out.

 

In Kaohsiung also, the same programme was followed as the one in previous days.

 

The book Shing Ning Yoga is published by Bright Discovery Publishers in Taiwan and by Bright Culture Publishers in the mainland China and is available in many bookstores in Chinese speaking countries and communities including Vancouver and Los Angeles.