Aisvarya and Mahatma doing office to office
Mahatma Prabhu and I have also been known to like an adventure or two. One of our hobbies was to confuse bored bank security guards. Our tactic was to walk in the door of a bank in formation and then split; one of us making a B-line for the bank tellers and the other shooting for the stairs leading to the offices. The sight of two westerners with flowing robes cruising through the doors and fanning out when inside would sometimes overload the brains of many a simple hearted, sleepy security guard. Their reactions ranged from the 'gaping open mouthed' to the 'jumping up chair toppling routine' to the 'start chasing but not sure which one to follow dance.'
On one such occasion I had hurled myself into a bank, smiled at the guard while rushing towards the closing doors of an elevator, missed it, u-turned, ducked under a counter, almost walked into Mahatma, feigned a pass to the right, and got to the stairs before I think I was noticed. On an initial scan at the top of the steps I saw the Vice President, Mr. Chan, sitting at his desk at one end of an open plan office. Like many other high ranking managers he had his own personal sofa close at hand, and when I approached him he quickly utilized it by very cordially inviting me to sit down for an informal chat and a drink of hot water (! – next best thing to highly intoxicating green tea).
At this point my guard friend arrived at the scene. Huffing and puffing with a bright red face he spluttered something in Chinese only to be stopped by Mr. Chan's motioning that all was well on the western front and that he should go back to his duties downstairs.
I then took the opportunity and explained who I was to Mr. Chan. I presented him with a Bhagavad-Gita and Krsna Book and introduced some basic KC philosophy. Unlike in America where the higher echelons of society tend to be intimidating to say the least, a good percentage of Chinese higher management is very approachable. The problem is reaching them – we normally get shot-down or tackled at the initial hurdle; the receptionist. Nothing like the good old Wild West Hare Krishna approach.
On another occasion we somehow or other found ourselves on a trading room floor with a hundred or so people on telephones talking share prices, waiting for their fortune to pop up on one of the many TV screens that adorned one wall, shouting what I suppose were numbers to eagerly receptive ears, and often curiously glancing over at two oddly dressed westerners gallivanting around in their otherwise normal lives.
Above and beyond the call of duty, many people in this part of the world will not only ignore you if they don't want to say "No", but will also pretend you are not there and hope you will go away if they don't understand you. Not easy if the person you are trying to ignore looks like a monk and you're supposed to respect them. If it gets too personal to handle then security is called. These guys can be heavy and are best dealt with in very small doses. In this case we were lucky that the boss was called instead.
Mr. Su was a gentleman in his mature years. He came out of his office and greeted me as if I was a long lost friend. He then put his arm around my shoulders and proceeded to escort me to his plush office out of the purview of his now very attentive staff.
When comfortably seated with my cup of hot water I presented Mr. Su with a Bhagavad- Gita and told him how we are approaching the leaders of society with this very important spiritual message. I elaborated; "Leaders are very influential and can choose to do either so much good or so much bad for society at large". At this point Mahatma was escorted in by Mr. Su's secretary and was also given a sofa of honor along with a cup of hot water. I then continued to explain to Mr. Su, "Whatever a leader does, everyone else will follow. So as a leader you have a grave responsibility to your staff and society at large." I also added some basic philosophy about the existence of the soul and that without spiritual values nothing is of value.
Mr. Su then surprised me. He told me that everything that he had become, and that he owned, was due to his faith in spirit and that without spirit he had nothing. At least he had a little vision even though he had received the best of spiritually blinding gifts – the position of a big Lau ban (boss), with a big office and not much work to do. So this little understanding along with a decent culture shined through as he happily responded by taking the books. He then respectfully escorted us out, chatting politely with us as we past his staff, now jaws agape.
Your Servent
Aisvarya Das
