Sri Chinmoy’s Conversation with Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun
Owner of the Pinnacle Quality Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand
Helping the orphans
Sri Chinmoy: About half an hour ago I was told that you help the orphans. I was extremely, extremely moved because I also happen to be an orphan. I lost my mother and my father at a very early age. My elder brothers and sisters went to a spiritual community, and there I was brought up. So whenever I see somebody who is helping orphans, immediately I offer that person my heart's infinite gratitude.
If we can help the helpless, then God will be so pleased with us and proud of us. These children are not getting a mother's and father's affection. But if somebody comes and says, "Yes, I may not be able to give you a mother's or a father's affection, but I will try to give you a little affection, then God is so pleased. At that time God's divine Pride in you increases beyond your imagination. You are getting very, very special Blessings from Him. Again, it is He who has given you the opportunity, the capacity and the wisdom to help these orphans.
Let us take the mother and father as the most delicious fruit. If I cannot give you the whole fruit, then let me give you a portion of the fruit. That is what you are doing. And by giving them a portion of the fruit, you are reminding them of the sweetness of the whole fruit. If they could eat the whole fruit, naturally they would be happier. But since they cannot have the whole fruit, at least somebody like you is offering them a quarter or a half of the fruit. Then they are so grateful to you. So this is how we get the affection, love and gratitude of these poor, innocent, helpless children.
In life we start by sowing a seed. Then the seed becomes a tiny plant, a small tree and finally a huge banyan tree. Similarly, in our spiritual life we start with prayer and then we enter into meditation. When you are planning to offer these children spiritual instruction, my humble advice to you is to start with prayer and then to enter into meditation. First you have to make them feel that they are communicating with Somebody who is infinitely higher than they are. If you are a Buddhist, you will say it is the Lord Buddha. So when they are praying, they have to feel that they are praying to the Lord Buddha. Then, when they begin meditating, they have to feel that the Lord Buddha is talking to them. When they are praying, they are talking to the Lord Buddha, and when they are meditating, they are listening to the Messages from the Lord Buddha. If you could give the children this message, it would be extremely helpful.
What you are doing for these children is most extraordinary. But what you have to do is bring forward their good qualities as soon as possible by making them feel that they are as important as you. It is like the boatman and his passengers. If the boatman does not carry any passengers, then what kind of boatman is he? Again, if there is no boatman, then how can the passengers reach their destination? So both are equally important.
I have thousands of students all over the world. I tell them that they are as important as I am because many participants are needed in the Cosmic Game. If I make myself feel that I am superior or better than they are because I am playing the role of the teacher, then I will not be able to bring to the fore their good qualities. Their good qualities can come forward only when I offer my own good qualities to them and make them feel that they are as important as I am. The best qualities come forward from each and every human being when we give them importance.
You are giving so much of yourself to these children. While giving ourselves to others, we have to feel that they are our own extended parts, that we are the tree and they are the branches, flowers and fruits. Sometimes when we give something to others, we feel that we are the doers and they are the receivers. We feel that they need us badly. But we should feel that we need them as much as they need us.
When others receive our light, they are helping to build a new and better creation. They are needed to make this a better creation. God is both the Creator and the creation. So He is acting in and through you as God the Creator, and He is acting in and through the people whom you are helping as God the creation. God the Creator and God the creation are equally important.
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: May I tell you more about our programme? The orphanage has 1,700 children. Of course, we do not finance all of this; contributions come from all over the world and the government is also a sponsor. The part that we contribute to the orphanage is the salary of about fourteen of the teachers. Then, after the students finish junior high school and are 15 or 16 years old with nowhere to go, we create careers for them. We rent apartments for them and give them food from this hotel. Then we train them for four hours a day in different departments and let them go to school in the afternoon until they finish high school. We also give them some salary. After they finish high school, we hire them as part of our normal hotel staff. We do this through our different hotels. We have right now ten hotels in Thailand.
The programme is growing. Last year we took in around twenty orphans at this hotel and twenty at the others. This year we will have 150. So it is becoming very popular.
Real wisdom comes from the heart
Sri Chinmoy: I am so proud of you. You have no idea how grateful I am to you and also how proud I am of you. Each time you help someone, his heart's tears enter into you and your soul's smiles enter into him. He gives you what he has, his tears, and you give him what you have, your smiles.
To help even one orphan — to give him a real education and to make him into a decent human being — is such a difficult task. And now you are dealing with hundreds of orphans! As the years pass by, you will have to deal with more people because they will see how compassionately you are doing things. I am sure that your organisation will grow very, very big. Like your hotel it will have so many branches in so many cities!
Now you are giving the orphans work in this hotel or that hotel in Thailand. But a day will come when you will have to send them to other countries because the good qualities that they have learned from you — the knowledge, wisdom, affection and self-giving service that you have offered to them — will be needed not only by Thailand but also by neighbouring countries. There are many countries that need this kind of service, wisdom, affection and compassion.
You have sown the seed. Now the seed has germinated, and it is becoming a tree. A day will come when it will be a very, very huge banyan tree. But we have to know that you are the source. To the source everybody will always remain grateful. You are doing so much for suffering humanity. If there are people like you to help suffering humanity, then God's creation is definitely being taken care of. These helpless children need your help at every moment, and your heart of compassion, love and affection is doing everything for them.
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: The hotel industry fits perfectly into this kind of project because in the service industry you do not need a lot of education. They do not have to get a bachelor's degree. When you have too much education, it is not good to be in the service industry.
Sri Chinmoy: More knowledge than we need is not good to have. It only creates problems. People who go to universities and get very high degrees usually live inside the mind. Then they become a dry tree without branches or leaves. But people like you, who live inside the heart, are like a tree that is full of fragrance — a tree that is offering its flowers and fruits to the whole world.
So higher knowledge is not needed by these children. They don't have to get the highest university degrees, not at all. Whatever knowledge is needed, you are giving them. You are giving them your heart, and this is what God wants from you, from me, from everyone. In my case, I did not even finish high school, but I have written 900 books in English and I have given talks at many, many universities. The knowledge that I have, I get from my heart — not from the mind.
Real wisdom comes from the heart. And what is that wisdom? To love and serve these poor people who are suffering. The knowledge that comes from the mind always has a superior feeling: "I am so clever; I am so great." But the heart's wisdom acts like a mother. When the mother deals with the child, she never thinks of herself as superior. She comes down to the level of the child so that she can deal with the child and the child can deal with her. Suppose someone has read 10,000 books and you have read only one book. Who cares for 10,000 books? The only book we care for is the book that says to love and be loved — and that book is written on the tablet of the heart. That particular book you have and I also have. You are giving me your heart-book and I am giving you mine. That is all we need. All those who are getting your affection, love and concern may not outwardly express their gratitude. But in their hearts they feel it. Sometimes when people get tremendous help from someone, they become speechless. They cannot imagine how somebody can be of such service to them. What you are doing is far, far beyond the imagination of these poor little orphans, who so badly need help from you in so many ways.
You are involved in many activities and projects. These projects are like branches of your life-tree. The more branches our life-tree can have, the more flowers and fruits there will be. In your case, the flowers are these children, to whom you are giving an education and trying to raise as decent human beings. All these flowers come from your love and service. You are the tree, and the beautiful flowers and delicious fruits are your creations.
Honouring Mr. Vongbhun
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: Tomorrow afternoon the orphans will give a little ceremony for me here. They do it every year.
Sri Chinmoy: So they will show you their love and gratitude?
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: Yes, that's why they asked me to be here tomorrow.
Sri Chinmoy: While they are honouring you may my students and I watch from a distance?
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: Yes.
Sri Chinmoy: I will definitely be here with all my joy and pride in you. I am so proud that they are coming to honour you. I shall definitely be here with my own boundless love and personal gratitude to you for helping these young people who badly need your help. A heart like yours everybody needs.
Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun: And I think we can express this concept to other countries, especially in the hotel business.
Sri Chinmoy: Each hotel gets pilgrims from all over the world. Even today, see how many people are coming to your hotel here in Bangkok from various parts of the world. So the good, compassionate thoughts that you have instilled in these children will spread to people all over the world who come to your hotels. The flower may be here, but the fragrance can be felt everywhere. You are the flower and the fragrance is spreading all over.
A hotel brings all the bees for the honey. It serves a very, very special purpose for mankind, because we are all members of one family. In our world-family, the brothers and sisters are living in various countries. But at Christmas or at other special times, they all gather together and come to a hotel to be with their brothers and sisters who are living in a different place. So a hotel serves that divine purpose.
* The next day, in an address to the orphans, Sri Chinmoy offers his remarks at the ceremony honouring Mr. Vanasin Vongbhun.
Published in Lord Buddha’s Compassion-Hand