410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
September 5, 1969
To the Cultural Attaché,
Consul-General of India
215 Market St.
San Francisco, Calif. 94105
Dear Mr. Bahr and Colleagues:
Toward Real Cultural Integration of Real Nations
It may surprise you to receive another letter so soon on this subject, but the piling of events urge it. I do not know when and how my biography will be written but some day, God willing, this will come about. The interview with Vallabhai Patel years ago and the examination given by the first cultural attaché at the very beginning of the first Indian Embassy to this country will stand and not all the European “experts” on ?Asian Philosophy? and not all Asians educated in Europe who refuse to accept hard but simple facts can stand up again any more.
The other day within a few hours a publication was received from India in which the group over-praises itself and pays no attention whatever to the activities of other groups. The removal of “God” however this be defined or verbalized from so-called “spiritual movements,” the rejection of Prajna and the appeals to the less worthy to give them funds shows the total absence of high spirituality no matter what the external and superficial picture may be. And this has led, as I have told you, to the rise of young Americans who are now determined to establish their own “Shangri-Las” and import “gurus” who will teach them what were known as “Yoga” systems until the taking over of communications by modernists.
A little later copies were received of Darshana International from a place called Moradabad in your country and also another brief from Prof. Archie Bahm of the University of New Mexico. Both of them call for an inclusive integration which stands in marked contrast to “popular” pseudo-integration which not only ignores referents to large segments of the real cultures of real Asia, and of your land, but which have been adept in vocabulary stealing. And the sad part is that many such movements themselves could become part of real integrative endeavor, the latter being all-inclusive.
My present battles for American-American and Asian-Asian philosophies are succeeding. The young are all for them. The young do not accept the strange theses that only Europeans have been contributing to contemporary philosophy; or that Europeans and Asians educated in Europe are better equipped to teach Americans about the wisdoms of Asia. And the older policies of sending to Europe for such “experts” are now been replaced both by wide-awake American professors and wide- awake students both in and out of academic halls.
410 Precita Ave.
San Francisco 94110
Jan. 30,1970
Mr. S.B. Kapre
2117 Haste #114
Berkeley, ca. 94704
Dear Ram:
I seem to be answering your letter very promptly as if I were some great moralist who really believed in practicing morality (moralists and ethical philosophers must preach; practice is quite unimportant). But I am facing some very practical situations and some of my apparent dilemmas would amuse, far more than shock you. For example, my brother seems to be dying, and we have been unable to find heirs to our estate. We have been unable to find heirs because those who logically might benefit, simply will not unbend. They seem to be utterly incapable of admitting the prowess of others, and like the Old Guard of Napoleon, they would die but never surrender.
I have watched one celebration of India’s Independence after another. Most of them have been in the hands of self-esteemed “experts.” This class of “expert” may not be an unusual one, but they are self-selected rather than chosen by the press, the literati, the universities, etc. And it was to me most comforting to find that the Indian students themselves have taken over the celebration of their national Independence Day rather than leave it in the hands of the ego-centric.
I don’t know if you have read Fisher’s Richer by Asia. It was written by a man renowned for his knowledge of Russia, in particular, and European politics in general. It was hailed in delight in this country, and by the author himself, as indicating the way to better international understanding. There is a very strange side of America which invites anybody to speak on Laos but the Laotians, on Cambodia excepting the Mon-Khmers, on Vietnam excepting its own nationals, etc. One time the top Orientalists of this country met in San Francisco and I attended sessions purporting to be discussing abstruse items in Indian literature and metaphysics. They came to a dead end. The floor was thrown open to the audience. This person was invited to speak, and seemed to have solved the dilemma. You can be sure he was never invited to such a gathering again.
However, he was permitted to speak in another city and before he took the floor a self-important “expert” asked and said, “I suppose the next speaker wants the floor because he has lived in India.” I replied, “Yes, I have lived in India.” He added, “I suppose, next you will claim to have known Dr. Radhakrishnan.” I replied, “Certainly I know Dr. Radhakrishnan.” He sat down saying, “I thought as much.” Most of the audience was bewildered. What did he mean. But it has generally been that the “expert” didn’t have to prove anything, he was an expert. It was for others to find out.
You can understand why year after year we have had all sorts of celebrations of India’s Independence Day and very little has been accomplished until students themselves took over. It is not a question as to whether you are right or wrong; it may be a question as to whether you represent India as well or better than some person who has studied “Asian Philosophy” at Oxford or Heidelberg or Uppsala, or for that matter, some beer-garden. We have had such people before, and the result is Americans have been left in a dilemma, in a mixture of ignorance and confusion. I therefore welcome your remarks considering it a part of real, as against verbalized democracy.
The period of very questionable “experts” was followed by efforts to establish private schools such as the American Academy of Asian Studies, and the California Academy of Asian Studies which are partly in competition, but equally concerned with their own prowess rather than to have Americans informed. It is only since the establishment of the Center for South Asian Studies on the campus at Berkeley that real progress has been made in getting real information, real knowledge, real history, etc. before the public, whether this information is in the hands only of the students and enrollees of the Extension Division or not. But I can assure you that the Extension Division, though as yet the classes are limited in size, is getting real knowledge before the community, and this may make it possible to further both American-Asian and American-Indian relations.
I have had in my life private interviews with such persons as the late Vallabhai Patel and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, as well as all kinds of saints, and Pundits. It has been a long struggle because our so-called experts instead of being willing to grant interviews, have branded this person as a pretender, and until very recently their uncorroborated statements were accepted by the elite, though this is no longer so. It is very necessary to get facts and history first before the public.
Another thing equally offensive to these “experts” was my pilgrimage to Nasik, a single American among a vast array of Indians who treated the visitor as if he were a God. Although this was out of place no doubt, it is much better than the absolute refusal to accept this possibility.
I do not believe we are going to have peace in the world until we become at least partially objective in our social and historical studies. We have to be in science. No doubt because of this Dr. Lal has become anti-religious. But this does not make him objective in his views. Nor is being honored by a government itself a proof of having great achievement.
I am very much pleased at your tolerance and consideration. You have such a fair view of Mohammed, whose actual life has seldom been the subject of study in this land. Mostly people either over-idealize him, or over-criticize him. But perhaps the same is true also of Sri Krishna and others. In other words, only too often toleration doesn’t tolerate at all. I began my study of the Upanishads in 1916. I think I was already under Emerson’s influence. I began my study of the Gita in 1922 under of all things a Sufi teacher. I have since both studied under and sat by the side of a multitude of sages.
I am convinced that my dharma is to carry on the mission of Prince Dara Shikoh, the martyred Moghul. At this writing I am no longer concerned with the rejections of subjectivists and dialecticians and what not who live in their private dream-hazes which they think are real because they call them reality. But they are still private dream-hazes.
I have met more cultured Indians than most Americans, and am quite satisfied with their outlooks, whether we are in agreement or not. I do not have very much time; work every day. I am teaching Sufi philosophy and Yogic attainment—not theory but attainment. I am teaching attainment through music and dance, and many American young people are willing to accept the huge potentialities in these fields. Therefore around me is no longer the old pessimism. The young Americans of the day demand cultural honesty. I think the world is going to demand cultural honesty. I think you stand for cultural honesty. I invite you to come here some Sunday evening or afternoon or both. You may be surprised.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
July 15, 1970
Mr. Badruddin Daud
c/o The Bridge
Indian Students Assoc.
U.C. Berkeley
Beloved One of Allah;
As-Salaam-Aleikhum! I have been following with keen interest your work on The Bridge, and would like to meet you sometime. I am a four generation California, and because I do not carry a doctorate, have in the past been ignored by many of the so-called cultural groups. Yet I am following in the traditions of Emperor Akbar and his great grandson Dara Shikoh. And with Divine help I am continuing their programs, which is very possible when you have Divine help. And now the Divine help is also manifesting on the material plane with more money, followers, and material opportunities of the most practical kind.
While so many of the so-called East-West cultural groups in this region have ignored me, I have now to prepare one small entourage to visit Ajmer and another to visit New Delhi. The group going to Ajmer plans to picture and tape record the music and ceremonies there. Apart from this, I think I have advised that a person or troupe may be coming to San Francisco next year to plan for the presentation of dramas drawn from the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
I have been to Fatehpur Sikri and there presented the first stage of what may be called Dances of Universal Peace. Most of our work at the present time has been centered on modernized versions of Dervish Dances, but we are also gradually adding mantric dances. In fact I wish you could come here sometime as a guest. At the moment my advanced dancing class meets on Saturday nights and a much larger group on Sunday afternoons. This group will be divided I hope, for it is very large. We also present Dervish dances on Monday night which is devoted to Sufi teachings.
I am perhaps the only man in the world who has been validated as a Sufi Murshid, Indian Guru, and Zen Master. You can be sure that establishment groups have spurned this, but now not only the young, but the Universities are beginning to accept. And because Allah, to whom be all praise, has seen to it that I have an ample income, I hope to endow soon, inshallah, the Dept. of Near East Languages on the Berkeley, campus. I should have preferred to endow others but the establishment groups have refused to recognize my spiritual position, so I cannot help them, but that is their doing.
While I am working for peace and understanding through the arts, in the course of life I have met with the late Vallabhai Patel, Dr. Radhakrishnan’s, and more recently the Birla Family. In other words, I have friends all over India, with all kinds of people of importance and non-importance. And yet still adhere basically to the teachings of Tasawwuf.
In appreciation of what you are doing and hoping to meet you sometimes, I am sincerely,
Samuel L. Lewis
Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti
410 Precita Ave.,
San Francisco, Calif.
September 20, 1970
The Editor-in-Chief of Bridge,
C/o Indian Students Association,
300 Eshleman Hall,
U.C. Berkeley, Calif. 94720
Sahib:
I am writing news, hard factual news, but am not asking you to publish anything. Years ago when visiting the tomb of Emperor Humayun with Pir-o-Murshid Hasan Sani Nizami, when he showed me the grave of the Moghul Prince Dara Shikoh, I circumambulated it seven times and said, “Let us ago.” He understood and quite a few of your cultural attaches have understood, but it has been a hard, long but exceedingly successful pull. And as George Bernard Shaw once said, he thought he could convert a banker to socialism, but never a banker’s clerk. I have during the years succeeded with every cultural attaché and very, very slowly with university professors, but not a chance with “experts” and I do not intend to try. When I entered India last, I was immediately greeted by the Chief of Protocol, the President, the top Sufi and the top Vedantist, but not a single newspaper in this country has ever accepted any eye-witness accounts.
To make matters worse, or better, I did not have a chance until the floor was thrown open at a meeting of university professors and I answered questions not even the top specialists could answer when offered by professor Singer of Chicago who has since become my friend. The real world war is between prestige-mongers and fact-gatherers and slowly the former are being displaced.
I discussed with the late Ruth St. Denis “Dances of Universal Peace” and had her blessing. They were rejected pronto by all the various groups labeled, yes, labeled, “integral,” “universal,” and “world” but not by others. At Geneva this spring the writer was given such a glowing ovation by Swami Ranganathananda Maharaj, that it could hardly be repeated. But my secretary, Mansur Otis Johnson, friend of Dr. Huston Smith of M.I.T., was there. Mansur and another secretary have now advanced into good paying jobs derived from the “Dances of Universal Peace” that were absolutely turned down by the “integral,” “universal,” and “world” movements but accepted in principle by the American Society for Eastern Arts.
A group of technicians, beginning with my work, has toured first the United States and then visited certain real Sufi centers (nothing to do with the intellectual, dialectical literary books by intellectuals), and now has gone to India. They were given such cooperation and welcome by the Indian authorities that they themselves have been amazed.
One of them, my god-son, Mr. Ralph Silver, of Sausalito, may be back soon and the others within a month or so. But I shall be gone, for the demand for “Dances of Universal Peace” are very great and I am in the odd position of having more money than I have ever had and am trying to arrange at least one scholarship to begin with for the Department of Near East Languages on the Berkeley campus.
It has been a “smart” thing by “experts” and intellectuals to turn down “peasants.” I have been an eye-witness of much history, real history, and know a number of other such personalities and hard facts, ignored by the press and literati, will appear in my autobiography, which may soon be written. A meeting with Dr. Radhakrishnan was easy; with his offspring difficult and with the “students” of these offspring utterly impossible!
While the “great” Western professors “Dr. Meerscheidt-Guggenheim” and Von Plotz” will have nothing to do with our work, their very spiritual authorities, various Pirs and Sheikhs have recognized us and are working with and for us.
“Dances of Universal Peace” began with Dervish dances and Dervish practices not alluded to by “writers” on Sufism, etc. They were followed almost immediately by mantric and spiritual dances using sacred phrases and now growing, expanding to include themes from all religions. This work is being recognized more and more—elsewhere, but also slowly on the UC campus.
We are following what Sufis have always done:
a. Joint Israeli- Christian-Arab dinners—not news, of course, such things “must” not be.
b. Joining with Yogi Bhajan in a public festival this week.
We are busy every day, being undermanned and overworked but everything is coming along gloriously. Murders, hatred, etc. are news. Love and brotherhood, not news. I was the only outsider present when Papa Tara Singh met Pundit Nehru. Someday I hope to convert an historian; a newsman or literatus? Not a chance, but that day is over. I have visited Fatehpur Sikri and met the Sheikhs there also. Watch to the day when truth will dominate over opinions of “experts.” Then we shall have peace and understanding.
Faithfully,
Samuel L. Lewis
cc- Consulate of India
cc- Depart. Of South Asia Studies