Swami Veda visits Taiwan to celebrate publication of his first book in Chinese

Mr. Shi Hong is a Hong Kong businessman.  While conducting his successful business he studied deeply the spiritual traditions of India and China. He met Swami Veda Bharati when he  attended his lectures at an international yoga conference in Hong Kong several years ago. He also went to Taiwan where Swami Veda was lecturing. Since then his connection with Swami Veda and his teachings has  strengthened increasingly.

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.

5000 copies of the book, which was published in May, were all sold out in Taiwan, while 10,000 copies of the mainland version sold out in two weeks.

Swami Veda visited Taiwan  in May primarily on a book signing tour. On 26th May, a function was held at the Eslite, a five story bookstore  in Taiwan. Swamiji spoke for about half an hour and then signed books.

Next day he did another book signing event in the capital Taipei.

Swamiji was invited as a guest of the China Youth Corps with whom AHYMSIN has very friendly relations including the facilitating of our teachers’ training programs 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 ( with a Chinese translator), and gave a short discourse.

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.

He then recited the Heart Sutra in Sanskrit and the audience listened reverently with eyes closed.

The audience was requested to recite the mantra of the Heart Sutra.

Swami Veda led the audience from a vocal recitation to a deep, inner silence.

The book signing for a long line of people was done afterwards.

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 ago Mr. Shi Hong presented Swami Veda a similar signature seal. The seal was affixed then Swamiji added his initials.

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

Later, on the 29th and 30th May Swami Veda was again a guest of CYC in the city of Kaohsiung. He had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Chin Chu Wu who inherited yoga teaching from his father. 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 as their first reading Swami Rama’s classic Living With The Himalayan Masters. 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 Shing Ning Yoga in the bookstores to fulfil all the demands; it had already been sold out.

Shing Ning Yoga, a compilation in Chinese of Swami Veda’s lectures, is published by Bright Discovery Publishers in Taiwan and by Bright Culture Publishers in the mainland China. It is available in many bookstores in Chinese -speaking countries and communities including Vancouver and Los Angeles.