The Tao of Dr. Patel

A Story of Love, Revenge and Self -Discovery

By: Joseph S. Duarte

INDIRA'S DREAM
Chapter 2

Sunday morning Adachi and I cooked our own breakfast at home. We are both used to it. For the past ten years, since my wife died, my stomach and I have developed a friendly but cautionary relationship. Everything that I prepare it accepts without complaining. But when I eat out it often rebels, growls, and sometimes throws up in disgust. Adachi's favorite breakfast is a stack of pancakes with two fried eggs on top and a dab of butter in between, and no syrup. He said he picked up his weakness for pancakes in the army but gave up syrup on his doctor's orders. Aside from breakfast Adachi usually eats at the Aloha or at the snack bar in the bowling alley

I have become rather fond of Adachi. We have many things in common besides being amateur chefs—our age, our family status, our wartime experience, our cultural outlook, which is that of our generation, the product of the great depression and the second World War. At first I told Richard that I did not want to stay with his father because normally I never stay in a private home when traveling. At my age I like to do as I please and not have to change my habits or routine to satisfy my host's wishes, well-intentioned though they may be. However, Richard insisted and explained that his father lived alone in a big house and that I could have as much privacy as I wanted. Adachi has turned out to be a genial companion and an entertaining tour guide. For a man of limited schooling he surprises me with the depth and insight of some of his observations.

Over breakfast I asked Adachi if he could take me to a Catholic church, if there was one in Naha.

I'd be happy to! There's a Catholic church not far from here. I will drive you. I have been there with friends a few times and I know Father O'Brien.

I am surprised you have an Irish priest here!

Adachi laughed.

Father O'Brien is not Irish! He is a native boy whose parents were killed in the battle of Okinawa. A kindly American officer named O'Brien took pity on him and adopted him. Mrs. O'Brien was a very religious lady and it was probably due to her influence that he went to a Catholic school in Boston. After he became a priest he was sent to Japan and later, probably at his request, he was sent down here. He has become very popular and not only with Catholics.

I appreciate your taking me but what will you do? I don't want you to wait an hour for me.

I'll go in with you! I enjoy going to Father O'Brien's church. It's a pretty church and Father O'Brien generally gives a very interesting sermon. Of course, you understand, I don't kneel or take the wafer or do the other things Catholics do.

It's very good of you to take me!

I'll be happy to take you! When I was growing up in Hawaii my best friend was a Catholic boy named George Oliveira. His family, like mine, came to Hawaii from a distant island to cut cane on sugar plantations. I went with him to his church several times, out of curiosity I guess. George enlisted in the 4th Marine Division which was stationed in Maui. The division was in action only three months, at Roi-Namur, Saipan, and Iwo Jima. But in that short period of time it suffered the highest casualty rate suffered by any division in the war. Poor George was killed in the battle of Iwo Jima. Once a year Father O'Brien gives a mass to honor all those who died in the battle of Okinawa, and I go to pay my respects to George. After all, Iwo Jima is not very far from Okinawa.

You have a good heart, Adachi!

As I see it, there's not that much difference between the teachings of Christ and Confucius. Both based their teachings on love. Christ said, love your neighbor, and Confucius said, love your family. To me, my family is more important than my neighbor. But since both preach love the difference, as I see it, is not great.

You will have to tell me more about Confucius some other time. What time shall we leave?

We should leave in about half an hour to catch the mass that is conducted in English.

In that case tell me more about Mr. Muto and his school.

It all started when he came to Okinawa about three years ago. He was accompanied by Indira Fernandes and a staff of about twelve assistants. They rented the old Golden Pagoda building and opened their school. It took them a couple of years to get their enrollment up to its present level.

Do you know Miss Fernandes?

Oh, yes! We are very good friends. Her family was from the city of Bombay or Mumbai as it is now called. Her family converted to Catholicism when Bombay was a Portuguese colony. There are many stories told about the relationship between Mr. Muto and Indira. Some say they are lovers, others that they are devoted not to each other but to their school. I have heard that Indira teaches courses on family and social relations. Before joining the Chaarpan Institute she was a nurse. She worked for Dr. Patel in Mumbai and one summer she worked for Mother Teresa in Calcutta.

Do you think she followed Mr. Muto here because she was in love with him?

From all the rumors that I have heard, professor, and from my own talks with both Mr. Muto and Indira my guess is that they were in love when she followed him here from India, because otherwise I don't think she would have come to Okinawa. She has often told me how much more she is needed in India than here. My guess is that the reason they did not marry is that Mr. Muto would not consent to being married in a Catholic church.

I don't believe that Mr. Muto would care that much about what church he was married in. Last night he said that Zen is not concerned with dogmas.

It is true that the Japanese in general have a very tolerant attitude toward all religions and that they pick and choose what they like from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shintoism. They may have adopted Christianity as one of their religions. But Shogun Ieyasu, alarmed at its rapid expansion, expelled all the Catholic priests from Japan in the seventeenth century. Mr. Muto knows that Zen Buddhism is based on Indian and Chinese doctrines and he accepts that. Maybe he feels that Catholicism would demand more from him than he is willing to give.

Perhaps it was Indira that made the demands.

Perhaps! You are a Catholic, professor, so you understand the problem better than I. In any case Mr. Muto is out of the race. Nowadays I see Indira only with Captain Rossetti. Both are Catholic so there is no religious obstacle if they want to get married.

You say the Japanese are indifferent about religion, I said. How do you account for the fact that over four hundred new religions are registered in Japan claiming over a hundred million followers?

These so-called new religions, professor, are no different from the cults that spring up in the United States, Peru, Korea and elsewhere. I call them underground religions. Of course, no one knows whether one day a new world religion may arise from this underground.

Like Christianity rising out of the catacombs of Rome? I am not being facetious, Adachi. The variety of new religions in Japan and the United States is astonishing and some have developed an impressive following. The Scientologists, the Mormons, the followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Seventh Day Adventists, The Christian Scientists, the Soka Gakkai, are more than just cults. This religious ferment does not seem so noticeable in other countries where people are either very committed to their religion as the Muslims and Hindus are, or are indifferent to religion as Europeans and Chinese seem to be.

Adachi looked at his watch and said, I think we can leave now, professor!

We got into Adachi's car and about twenty minutes later arrived at the church, parked, and walked inside. The interior of the church was rather plain, almost severe, I thought. There were benches for about 400 people and a raised altar and a large wooden cross on the wall behind the altar. The spotless simplicity of the interior gave the church an austere look that was softened by six stained glass windows and bouquets of colorful flowers hung on the walls and behind the altar. When we arrived the people were still filing in. The majority were natives but there was a large group of Americans, male and female, some in uniform.

We found a seat and sat down. Shortly after, Father O'Brien came in, walked to the altar, and began the ritual of the mass. When the time came for Father O'Brien to address the congregation he stepped up to the lectern in front of the altar and began speaking in English with a New England accent and in a clear resonant voice:

Reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, Chapter 12: A doctor of the law asked Him: Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law—Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments depend the whole law and the Prophets.

The God which Jesus commands us to love is not like any other God. He is not the God of a chosen clan, tribe, city, nation, or race. He is not a pagan god who is feared but not loved. He is not a faceless spiritual force beyond human appeal. He is a benevolent Father who loves us with the love that a father has for all his children. A good father can be stern and demanding but he is always ready to love and forgive his errant children. Without a loving Father in heaven the love commandments of Jesus would have no meaning and no emotional power.

Jesus gave the first commandment to love God the highest priority, but today it is the second commandment that people generally remember, the command to love thy neighbor. What did Jesus mean when he said, love thy neighbor as thyself? I think Jesus meant that the ultimate responsibility for your actions lies within yourself. If your neighbor acts with malice towards you, should you act with malice towards him? Jesus commands you to love your neighbor, not to be loved in return, but to be true to your faith.

His command to love your enemy and praise of the good Samaritan shows that Jesus meant love of neighbor was not to be limited to family and friends. His command to love thy neighbor gave the Christian church the authority and the duty to send missionaries all over the world to spread the Gospel of love. This was a revolutionary event in world history. Most religions up to that time, like the Hebrew, were exclusive rather than inclusive or, like Buddhism, did not try to convert each and every individual soul but only the disciples or monks who followed a prophet or teacher.

Did the Christian missionaries overestimate the power of love? I don't think so! There is no substitute for parental love that makes families and children possible. There is no substitute for love of country that unites the residents into a viable cohesive nation. There is no substitute for the love of God that unites the faithful into a caring community, or for the love of neighbor that makes all men and women brothers and sisters. Without the love that God has planted in all human hearts life would be a heartless, pitiless struggle for survival.

Christian universities kept knowledge alive in Europe during and after the dark ages and educated all the early giants of science including Descartes, Copernicus, Bacon, Newton, Galileo, and Darwin. Students were taught the commandments of Jesus and the Christian doctrine of the individual soul and of the individual conscience with God as their judge.

But the doctrines of the church were challenged by a new doctrine of rational materialism based on the theories of Democritus, Epicurus, Pythagoras and other Greek philosophers that were discovered and re-introduced into Europe in the fourteenth and fifteen centuries. These theories propagated the idea of atomic matter as the sole basis of life and mathematics as the sole judge of truth. This was a very powerful idea because atomic matter does exist and is the constituent element in all material things from atoms to galaxies. And atoms do obey natural laws that can be expressed mathematically, as in Einstein's famous equation E=MC.

During the European Age of Enlightenment the doctrine of rational materialism won the minds of the educated classes of Western Christian civilization. The conversion was gradual but cumulative and very successful. It literally transformed our way of thinking and eventually our environment. According to this doctrine nothing can be accepted as true that is not in agreement with natural laws as discovered by the rational mind through observation, experimental testing, or deducted from mathematically measured phenomena. The love of God is not possible in rational materialism because the love of God comes from the heart and is not something that can be seen, measured, weighed, numbered, computed or calculated.

Rationalism entered the center stage of history during the French Revolution when the people of Paris burned Christian churches and monasteries, killed priests and nuns, and crowned a harlot the goddess Reason in the cathedral of Notre Dame. This goddess sprang full-grown from the head of Homo sapiens during the Reign of Terror. She was not conceived in love. Her vision was encyclopedic and as sharp as a laser but cold and heartless.

Christianity would not or could not assimilate the rational materialism of science. Scientists are not inclined to accept ethical and social doctrines unless expressed in materialistic terms, as in utilitarianism and Marxism. Gradually the doctrine of rational materialism replaced faith in God in the public schools and the process is now complete. In the United States and many other scientifically advanced societies God is outlawed in the public schools.

Why did this happen? The Catholic church had earlier assimilated the rational theories of Plato and Aristotle but the church refused or was unable to assimilate the rational materialism of modern science. Today many thoughtful people are seeking a bridge between science and religion but as yet the bridge has not been built. The bridge will be built some day because science and religion are products of the human brain and the human heart and one cannot exist for long without the other. Many scientists have acknowledged that. Einstein said that science without religion is lame and that religion without science is blind. Religion is not blind but it does follow the heart as well as the mind. The Bible says: "As a man thinks in his heart so is he." But science does not believe that the heart has anything to do with thinking, so it has no answers to questions of good and evil.

Poised between the Yin of preserving the past and the Yang of seeking new truths, the East is no longer a passive onlooker but an active participant in world affairs. The East has not yet succumbed to the raw materialism of the West. So it may be in this part of the globe that a bridge will be built that will unite the rational vision of science and the love commandments of religion which alone can guarantee the brotherhood of man . . .

After the service the people walked out toward their cars but some gathered in small groups to chat and perhaps discuss Father O'Brien's sermon.

I was impressed but rather surprised by Father O'Brien's words, I said to Adachi. The union of science and religion is a very controversial subject and I am not sure that Father O'Brien's views would be acceptable to Catholic theologians or to scientists.

Father O'Brien shocks some people with his sermons, said Adachi, but he has a loyal following from all over the island including many Americans. Look! Isn't that Indira and Captain Rossetti?

He pointed to a Marine officer accompanied by a young lady. They saw us and came forward to meet us. Captain Rossetti introduced me to Indira Fernandes. She was in her early twenties, of medium height, with the soft rounded features and the smooth pale skin of Oriental women. Her eyes were her most striking feature. They were large and luminous spaced further apart than average. She had a well-shaped nose and a delicate mouth and chin. She had a sweet expression but also a very self-possessed air. Like most women raised in the tropics her movements were graceful but languid. She was dressed in a sleeveless tunic open at the neck with buttons down the front and she wore a gold chain around her neck from which hung a cross.

Captain Rossetti explained to Indira how he had met me at the dojo during Mr. Muto's lecture. He then turned to me and said,

I am sorry I cannot stay and visit with you this morning, sir! I am on duty today and have to report back immediately. So you will excuse me, won't you?

Of course!

He walked away a short distance with Indira, talking hurriedly. Then they parted and she returned to us.

I understand that you have just arrived from America, professor, she said to me.

Yes, I arrived Friday.

How interesting! I have a feeling that I have seen you before! she said with a rather odd look in her eyes.

If we had met I assure you that I would not have forgotten!

Thank you for the compliment, sir!

You may have seen the professor at the airport, Indira, said Adachi.

No! It was not at the airport. But in any case, I would like to welcome you to our little island, professor. I hope you have a pleasant stay. May I ask what part of America you are from?

I live in California, in the city of Carlsbad.

California must be a wonderful, glamorous place!

We do have some very picturesque areas. If you come to California I would be delighted to be your guide for the southern part of the state.

If I go, professor, I shall call on you and remind you of your offer!

At that moment Father O'Brien, who had been circulating among the various groups of his flock, came over to us and greeted Indira,

I am glad to see you again, Indira! Would you introduce me to your friends? I don't believe I've had the pleasure of meeting them.

Indira introduced Adachi and me to Father O'Brien who thanked us for coming.

I was very impressed with your sermon, Father! I said.

That is very kind of you, professor! said Father O'Brien smiling. And what is your opinion of my humble effort?

The building of a bridge between religion and science is widely discussed today, I said. But it is difficult for me to see how or when or if such a bridge can be built. Science today is in its youthful, triumphant phase, having achieved in this century three of its greatest discoveries, the quantum theory, the relativity theory, and the biochemistry of genes. Science seems bent on conquering the world, not in making concessions.

Science is not as impregnable as you seem to believe, professor! The Achilles heel of science is that it has no answer to the problem of evil, and evil is a fact of life. When the atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Einstein, Fermi, and many other scientists were aghast. How could such an evil force be let loose on the innocent? They blamed the politicians. But it was the scientists, not the politicians, who created the bomb. Scientists cannot disown their own child, much as they may want to. I fear that science, even now, is creating in its laboratories more and greater potential calamities for mankind.

I do not that think scientists are blind to threats to our environment, I replied. Surely, you must agree that most scientists are moral and decent persons. Some, like Arthur Peacocke, are devoted Christians as you well know. And, as you said, many were horrified at the bombing of Hiroshima.

I am not judging scientists, professor! I am judging science. The world of science is based on atomic physics. Science says that everything in the universe is created from atoms. And atoms have no moral sense. There are no good atoms or bad atoms.

Science is not entirely based on physics, Father!

That may be, but physics is the acknowledged queen of sciences, the basis of all other sciences. We live in a physical, atomic world in which scientists are busy re-arranging the atoms to make our lives easier, happier, healthier, and creating medical and technological miracles by re-arranging the atomic and genetic structures of all things including man himself. Scientists will not stop until they have created a new man, perfected and cloned as some plants and animals already are. I pray I am wrong! But that fear is what causes me to hope for and to work for a bridge between religion and science.

I believe that a small but growing number of scientists favor building such a bridge, Father. Now that we are entering the Information Age, the theory of a cosmic intelligence as the source of biological complexity may become as acceptable to scientists as the theory of evolution based on chance and necessity.

I, for one, find it hard to believe that the universe is mindless. Will you excuse me, professor! I see my friends over there are waiting patiently for me. I leave you in good hands! Take good care of our guest, Indira!

Father O'Brien thanked us again for coming and walked away.

Adachi turned to Indira and asked,

Do you have your car?

Yes, I have my car. I was wondering if I could take over your duties as the professor's guide for a couple of hours. l will bring him back to your house unharmed, I promise.

It's all right with me, if it's all right with the professor.

How could I refuse such an offer! Of course, I'll be very happy to go with you, my dear!

I am planning to go over to the restaurant, said Adachi, so bring the professor there. Richard will be there too. The restaurant is closed but the side door will be open.

We got into Indira's Toyota and as we drove off she said,

You offered to be my guide in California, professor, so I have decided to be your guide in Okinawa.

Well, if I am being kidnaped I assure you that you have a very willing victim!

I am glad! I was afraid you would take offence at my boldness. But I have a problem that I think you can help me with. But first we must stop at my favorite tea-house and have a cup of tea. Or some other beverage if you don't drink tea.

Tea will be fine!

She drove to a hillside tearoom. We parked and walked inside. Indira talked briefly with the Japanese lady in charge and then we were led to an outside table in a nook off to the side with a view of the ocean.

Isn't this charming? asked Indira.

A gorgeous view! I said as I looked out over the Pacific. Storm clouds billowed toward the southeast and the wind was rather strong but refreshing in the hot humid air.

I ordered some mild tea for you, professor, which I know you can drink even if you don't like tea. I ordered some special Darjeeling tea they keep for me.

That's fine! I know that tea is not why you brought me here.

You are quite right! I have other things on my mind, quite important things. I hope you don't mind my using you as a sort of father confessor.

I don't mind at all! I am flattered. But wouldn't Father O'Brien be better suited professionally for the job?

I have already talked to him but I still am not satisfied!

I see! You want a second opinion. I hope I can be of service.

I am not putting you under any obligation, professor! Perhaps you think I am too presumptuous asking your advice when I hardly know you. But you are Catholic, and your being Catholic has a lot to do with what I have to say.

All right, Indira! Tell me what's on your mind.

It all started back in India when Dr. Patel asked me to accompany Mr. Muto to Okinawa. Dr. Patel said he needed me to monitor the school's progress and that Mr. Muto needed my help to get the school started. At that time I was Dr. Patel's chief assistant. He knew that I was planning to leave the institute. I had visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and admired her work and had planned to join her.

But you did not?

Mother Teresa's undertaking to help all the needy in the world was too much for me. I was overwhelmed! I could not help but admire her spirit and dedication. I tried to find out the source of the tireless energy and strength in her frail body but all she would say is that Jesus had called her to help the poor.

Did she tell you how the call came?

She said that it came when she was on the train to Darjeeling, in the Himalayas. She was suffering from tuberculosis and was hoping that the mountain air would cure her. She said the call came unexpectedly. The message was quite clear. She was to give up all and follow Jesus into the slums and to serve Him in serving the poorest of the poor.

How long did you stay with Mother Teresa?

I was with her about three months. She assigned me to work in the Shisku Bhavan, the children's home. It consisted of several tall buildings behind a wall in a busy street in Calcutta. I worked in the clinics near the entrance where the poor bring their children. We had several Sisters and three doctors and I estimate we treated about two thousand children a week. I also worked in one of the village medical centers where about twenty-five hundred patients a week were treated by the Sisters.

Are the Sisters trained nurses?

Many are trained nurses and some are doctors but they call themselves not nurses or doctors or teachers or social workers but simply religious Sisters. After trying for weeks to keep up with the Sisters in their daily rounds I was physically attacked by street hoodlums who were probably on drugs. The experience was too much for me and I had a nervous breakdown. But I recovered quickly and when I left I told Mother Teresa I would come back.

You won't have to come back, she said to me. There's a lot to be done in Mumbai. Things will happen. God will tell you what to do. You have a special gift for working with children. I see God in the eyes of every child. I think you do too.

Mother Teresa is a remarkable person, I said. I understand she has opened missions in over a hundred countries.

And it all started when she went, alone, into the slums of Calcutta to help the sick and the dying. Working with her was an experience that I don't know how to describe. It is beyond ordinary feeling. I came back to Mumbai determined to open my own mission and to devote myself exclusively to the homeless boys who are worse off than the lowest outcastes that have a family. I love children and I thought that my background as a nurse would help me. Dr. Patel agreed to help but he asked me to delay the project for two years to help him with Mr. Muto's school. Dr. Patel has been like a father to me. I could not refuse him. So I came here with Mr. Muto and have been here three years.

You did not leave Mr. Muto after your two years were up. Why?

Mr. Muto begged me to stay! He said if I left he would have to give up the school.

Is he in love with you?

I don't know! But I am not in love with him, and there has never been any romantic affair between us, despite the rumors. He is a very stubborn man and tells me I am not firm enough with my students.

Aren't you?

I am not as good a disciplinarian as he but my classes are larger than his. When Dr. Patel came up last month he told me that he was not pleased with the school's progress. He wants me stay and help Mr. Muto make some changes. But he also said that I had already done more than he asked of me and that if I decided to leave he would understand.

It seems to me that since you are unhappy here there's no reason for you to stay. You should ask Mr. Muto or Dr. Patel to find a replacement. You have fulfilled your obligations to Dr. Patel and I see no reason for you to sacrifice yourself for Mr. Muto's sake.

What you recommend is exactly what I had in mind!

So you don't need my advice after all!

I have not yet come to the matter on which I need your help!

Let me guess! Is it Captain Rossetti?

Yes, it involves him!

Are you in love with him?

Yes, I am!

Does he want to marry you?

He has not proposed but I think he will today.

What is the problem, then?

He is not the problem. I am the problem! I cannot marry him!

You are talking in riddles, Indira! If you want me to help you, come to the point!

Indira looked out over the ocean with a fixed stare apparently trying to build up her courage to speak. Finally she turned to me and blurted out,

I know this will surprise you, professor. The truth is, the Virgin Mary has ordered me to return to Mumbai!

I was more than surprised. I was astounded! But Indira regained her composure and said calmly:

Two weeks ago the Virgin Mary appeared to me in a dream! She ordered me to return to Mumbai to nurse the poor motherless street children.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

So you had a dream! That is nothing extraordinary. Have you discussed it with Father O'Brien?

Yes, I have! He said the dream has no religious significance. He said that it proves my heart is in my Mumbai mission. He also said I should think very seriously about my future life if I decide to become the wife of an American army officer. It would be entirely foreign to all my previous life experiences.

Father O'Brien is quite right. Military life would be a drastic change in lifestyle for you. But only you, Indira, can decide your future.

I love Frank more than anyone I ever met in my life! But I am frightened of America.

Many people from various parts of India live in America today, and they seem to be happy and doing well. They got accustomed to American ways. So would you.

I said that I talked to Father O'Brien about my dreams but that was before I met you. Father O'Brien asked me if the Virgin Mary had given me a sign. I said no. But now I know that she did give me a sign.

What was the sign?

I dreamed that a messenger would come from America and meet me. You are the sign!

But I have no message! I am a complete stranger in your life!

I am sure that your appearance is the sign that she gave me! You say your arrived Friday. That is when I had the dream.

Be reasonable, Indira! Okinawa has visitors from America every day. You truly believe that you saw the Virgin?

Yes, I do! I saw her as clearly as I see you now! I know in my heart that it was she. She came out of a radiant light and was holding a child by the hand. When she spoke her voice was gentle and her words were clear and distinct. Then she withdrew very slowly and the light faded away and I awoke.

What did she say?

She said:

My children need your love and care. Return to Mumbai and serve them as you would serve me. Be not afraid. I will be with you.

That is all she said!

That you dreamed she spoke to you does not mean that she is real, I said gently.

It does to me! If you don't believe me then there is no use talking about it, is there?

I grant that dreams can be real in the sense that they can have real influence, I replied. All great artists are dreamers who fill their books, plays, operas, and canvases with fictitious characters that seem real to them and to us. A genius like Dickens can create characters that seem alive. Ordinary people can create characters in their dreams that appear real and life-like. So a genius may be a an ordinary person who dreams when he is awake. Even a simple illiterate dreamer like Juan Diego can influence history, for his vision of the Virgin Mary has become the unifying symbol for the people of Mexico. But of all the hundreds of persons who have reported visions of the Virgin Mary not all of them could be real. Dreams can also be an illusion or a delusion as you know from your work in hospitals.

My vision is real! Of that I have no doubt!

There must be a little shadow of doubt in your mind, Indira! Otherwise you would not have brought me here to reassure you.

It must be the nature of visions that they need to be revealed! she said with a gesture of despair. It is impossible for me to live with it and not reveal it or not carry out its commands.

Very well, Indira! You have revealed it. Now what are you going to do about it?

I am going to do what it commands. I will return to Mumbai! I will tell Mr. Muto that I am leaving.

What are you going to tell Captain Rossetti?

I cannot tell him about the Virgin Mary because I am not sure he would believe me. If he did it could generate a serious conflict between his love for me and his faith. If he did not believe me we would have a lover's quarrel and we would both part with feelings of anger, disappointment, and guilt. This is where I need your help.

You think I can put myself in Captain Rossetti's shoes because I am a man and a Catholic?

Yes!

But I will have to place myself in the body of a man fifty years younger and that is hard to do. In fact it is impossible. All I can do is give you an old man's advice.

I looked out over the Pacific and thought:

Captain Rossetti looks like a bright, healthy, normal male, undoubtedly madly in love with Indira and ready to commit any foolish headstrong act to marry her and make her his, as males have been doing since Adam. But the separation would not do him permanent harm. After a cooling-off period of several months, the passionate flames will cool, another female star will appear on the horizon and Rossetti will start responding to love's magnetic signals from a new source. He would recover. The separation would not destroy his ego drive and self-esteem or his career. But Indira is caught in a love that is pulling her in two directions. Which is the stronger? Father O'Brien said that the dream proves that Indira's heart is in her boys' mission. Father O'Brien must be right. Otherwise Indira would be having dreams of Captain Rossetti instead of the Virgin Mary.

I turned to Indira and said,

My advice is that you return to India! Make the pain of separation easier for him by stretching it out. Tell him whatever you think will ease the pain. When you get to India write and tell him of your work and gradually he will begin to realize how important your mission is to you and he will accept the separation as inevitable.

Instead of thanking me for my advice Indira broke down and began to cry, covering her face with a handkerchief. I felt like the doctor who has just told a new mother that her child is going to die. For the first time I realized how much Indira loved her soldier and how much the separation was going to cost her. Had I been too unfeeling in the way I conveyed my advice? Had I the right to advise her? Perhaps I should have told her to go to Father O'Brien for consolation as well as advice. He has had more experience in this sort of thing.

Finally Indira dried her tears and put her handkerchief away.

I am sorry, professor!

My fault! I should not have been so blunt.

No! No! You did the right thing! I have to accept the inevitable!

Even though it breaks your heart?

Regardless of what I do my heart will be broken, she said sadly. If I shut my eyes to the Virgin, which is not in my power to do, her face and the faces of the children would haunt me for as long as I live. If I leave Frank I know I will never forget him or stop loving him. His face will remain in my heart always. That will be my consolation.

What about Frank? How do you think he will take it?

Frank must know that I would be miserable living in military posts. He has told me that he may quit the Marines and rejoin his father's law firm in San Francisco. He said that to get my reaction, I think. I know he doesn't like an office job. His father was very angry with him when he quit the firm to join the Marines, although Frank says that he and his father are now on speaking terms. Frank loves the Marines and I would feel selfish and guilty if he quits for my sake.

You say that you are giving up Frank for the sake of the children of Mumbai. But you are giving up more. You are giving up the children that you and Frank could have had. Wouldn't your own children be a greater joy to you? Wouldn't your own family be a greater source of happiness than providing a home for children of strangers, to whom you could never be a real mother?

A real mother! she repeated with downcast eyes. Then looking up at me she said, Would the lost children of Mumbai ask that question? Do the children of Calcutta ask that of Mother Teresa? I have been there and I can tell you that their response to her love is as genuine as that of any children to their real mother.

I am not saying, Indira, that your mission would not be fulfilling a real humanitarian need. I am sure, it would earn you the love and gratitude of the children and the admiration and public esteem of the world, perhaps even a Nobel prize. But would your work do much to resolve the social problem that is causing the suffering? It is said that Mother Teresa has saved over thirty thousand homeless derelicts left to die in the streets of Calcutta. But, unfortunately, for every pariah or outcast that she rescues there are hundreds waiting to take his place.

As a political scientist, professor, it is natural for you to look at this as a political problem for which the remedy is a new law or a new government program. But I have been brought up in India which accepts suffering as a necessary condition of life. Christians accept poverty and suffering as part of life but we are also enjoined to help and love one another and to take up the cross of those who are too weak to carry it. Not as part of a political program but as our duty to love our neighbor as ourself. Small children are the weakest and the most helpless of all who are suffering and the ones who need our love and care the most.

Far be it from me to argue against Christian charity! Or to oppose aid to children in distress! I believe all such efforts to alleviate suffering are commendable and should be supported. But I also believe that poverty, which is the root cause of most social distress, can be both caused and reduced by political and economic measures. As a nurse you know that nursing alleviates the pain and suffering of the patients. It would be cruel and inhumane for nurses to neglect or abandon patients who need their help. But you also know that some suffering is caused by cancer or some other malignancy which only a surgeon can remove with a knife. In the body politic as in the human body there are diseases that can only be cured by radical political measures.

I am sure that Mr. Muto and Mr. Nakashima would agree with you, professor! But I am not convinced that suffering can be cured by political or economic measures that promote wealth and prosperity. If that were true rich nations would be the happiest nations and rich people would be the happiest people. But we know that rich people are not happier than poor people nor are rich nations happier than poor nations. Is America a happier nation today than in the 1920s when she was much poorer? In my travels abroad I have noticed that poor people in rich cities such as New York and Tokyo look more anxious and worried than poor people in cities like Mumbai and Calcutta. Money cannot buy happiness or eradicate poverty because poverty is relative. In America a family classified as poor would be called rich in India. There will always be people who feel they are poor compared to others who have more. The radical political cure for poverty is communism but we know that does not work.

I have to admit that nobody has ever developed a political system that satisfied everyone or that eradicated poverty, I said in my most conciliatory tone. However, among all political systems it is obvious that some work better than others. Income distribution in North America and Europe, for example, is more favorable to the poor than in South America, Asia, or Africa. Politics may never completely solve the problem of income distribution to everyone's satisfaction but the political system of a country does make a difference.

I do not deny that! I also do not deny that extremes of wealth and poverty aggravate the discontents of the poor although a lot depends on how the rich treat the poor. In poor countries where the landlords are kind and considerate to the tenants or where the land is held in common tenancy by the villagers, poverty is not an unbearable burden. What I am trying to say, professor, is that suffering and deprivation exist under all political and economic systems and that, without love and kindness, suffering cannot be made tolerable.

Why is that? I asked trying to draw her out.

It is because man and woman are divided and at war within themselves and with each other. That is their fate. Man's ego and self working through the political and economic systems can only bring us peace and war, wealth and poverty, in irregular and discontinuous cycles. Man can escape his fate by the annihilation of the ego and the self but this escape is available only to saints and bodhisattvas.

You don't see any conflict between your school's philosophy and your Catholic faith?

No, I do not! The school has no religious affiliation and favors no religious creed. I am a Catholic and a follower of Jesus. Jesus did not call God "My Father." He prayed and taught us to pray to "Our Father" in Heaven. We are all God's children. That is what I believe. Father O'Brien says that my belief is not in conflict with the Catholic belief in universal brotherhood.

You favor the power of love, Indira, as the most important element in all personal and social relations. This view appeals to you because of your compassionate nature and your religious convictions. As a Catholic I would like to think you are correct but my long life and my study of history tells me that love does not always conquer. A community based entirely on love is a Paradise or Utopia, something we all want and seek, but which we will never find in this imperfect world.

Well, professor, I certainly cannot point to any period in history or to any country in the world where people lived in perfect love and harmony. But in families and among friends love is normally the bond that unites and keeps them together. On the other hand where love is absent we see indifference, cruelty, brutality, regardless of the political or economic system.

The economic and political systems need impersonal laws and work rules that apply to groups or classes rather than to individuals, I replied. You leave us adrift without a compass to guide us except our personal feelings. We often have strong personal feelings about laws and work rules when we are penalized by them.

That is true! But feelings of hate or vengeance should not be directed against people who are just doing their duty or their job. A hated boss may feel very sad that he has to discharge a worker or a soldier may regret that he has to kill an enemy. We should follow the example of men like Ghandi and Lincoln. Despite the hate and vengefulness heaped upon them by their enemies they never retaliated in kind but held out the hand of love and friendship.

Your school teaches that it is human nature to hate as well as to love, I replied. Both Ghandi and Lincoln were hated as well as loved and both were cursed and killed by their enemies, as was Jesus.

Had Ghandi and Lincoln lived they would have forgiven their enemies, I am sure, as Jesus forgave his.

It would be nice if we could all live as one big happy family, I said gently. Unfortunately, the family has no market value in a modern society. In industrial economies babies are an expense not an asset. To make and sell dolls is more lucrative for a woman than to make and raise babies. Most intellectuals consider family duties mindless drudgery and a waste of female intelligence. Citizens vote and hold power as individuals not as families. The independence and welfare of the adult individual is modern industrial society's exclusive concern.

There is no doubt, professor, that individualism is dominant in modern Western culture. It is also true that modern industrial cities with dysfunctional families are sinking under a rising tide of social instability and lawlessness. Over a million men are kept in prison in the United States at a tremendous cost and I believe that family breakdown is the main reason for this social calamity.

What can we do about it? I asked. Order women to stay home?

Don't be facetious, professor! You know that economic necessity draws women irresistibly into the industrial work force. Industry would prefer women to be sterile workers like female ants. Industry has no need or use for babies or small children. The state gives financial aid to dysfunctional families but does nothing to restore the biological resources of normal families. Rich industrial nations are losing population and having to draw on the biological resources of poor nations. I see no end to this trend until industrial society decides that children are the nation's most precious resource, more valuable than atom bombs or a rising GNP, and adjusts its priorities accordingly.

A loving family is not the total answer, I remarked. Many loving families produce spoiled, dysfunctional, and irresponsible children.

We all know, sir, that a child needs discipline as well as love. A child normally accepts discipline that sets boundaries and tells him what he can and cannot do. Otherwise the child feels insecure and confused.

Who is best qualified to discipline a child? The father or the mother?

A child needs both, said Indira. The father is a more effective role model for boys than a mother. Some mothers can cope with rebellious teen-age sons but many, perhaps most, cannot, especially when she has no support from male members of her own family. But in the first formative years the mother plays the more important role in socializing the child.

Would you say that the domestication of the male is women's greatest achievement?

It's not a joking matter, professor!

I'm not joking! Any biologist will tell you that a boy is the most difficult of all animals to tame or domesticate. As members of street gangs they will knife one another, be mean and vicious to their families, and a menace to society.

They can be angels or devils, said Indira. It all depends on how they are raised. Some political parties want to pay women to stay home and raise and train their children. But others oppose it on economic grounds. As if raising and training children is less worthy of compensation than raising and training dogs or horses! But I am sure that in the new century women will no longer need to sacrifice children for a career. They can have both . . . Here we are!

We had arrived at the restaurant.

Indira drove up to the side entrance and stopped. She took my hand and looked at me with misty eyes.

You have been very kind and understanding, professor, and I can't thank you enough.

She reached over and hugged me. I was too embarrassed to speak. I stepped down from the car and said,

Will you call me?

Yes, I will call you!

She drove away. As I walked to the Aloha I mulled over the events of the morning and Indira's dilemma. She had to make a choice between two loves and either choice was painful. I entered the Aloha through the service entrance. Adachi was talking to some workers but he came over to greet me.

Glad to see you, professor! Where is Indira?

She went to meet Captain Rossetti, but I don't know where.

They probably went to her apartment. I think that is where they have their rendezvous, as we used to say in the army.

This will be an important meeting for them. It will decide whether there will be a union or a separation.

I would be surprised if Captain Rossetti proposes, said Adachi.

Why? Do you think he is not the marrying kind?

I think he's already married, to the Marines! But I may be wrong. Go on to the dining room, professor. Dr. Patel is having an early lunch. We close on Sundays but we make an exception for Dr. Patel. He has his own cook that he brought over from India. Would you like to meet him?

Yes, I would like very much to meet Dr. Patel, I said.

I followed Adachi who introduced me to Dr. Patel. He was a heavy-set, clean-shaven man of about fifty-five with a sallow complexion and thinning hair. His round face had a benign expression. He greeted me by putting his hands together and bowing. I noticed that his right hand was crippled. I later learned that he had been injured in an auto accident in Mumbai that cut short his career as a surgeon. He has a wife and eight children. His family has business interests in India, Hong Kong and England. He likes to surprise Americans by telling them that there are more millionaires in England named Patel than named Smith. After the introductions Adachi left and Dr. Patel said,

Professor, I would be delighted to share my humble meal if you would join me. These are Indian dishes that are prepared for my delicate stomach by my cook, Singh. I brought Singh with me so that I would not have to eat raw fish and other barbarous Japanese dishes. Singh! Bring the professor some food! What would you like?

A green salad would be fine. I am afraid Indian dishes are a little too spicy for me.

I insist you taste some Gujarati dishes which I, as a qualified physician, guarantee will do you no harm. The dishes I have here are prepared with a minimum of spices because Singh knows that my stomach has been ruined by Western cooking. This greenish dish here is simply a medley of pureed vegetables, called saih bahji mostly spinach, potatoes and tomatoes. It is usually cooked with hot green chillies but Singh has substituted something mild that tastes just as good. This yellow dish is corn cooked with milk and lightly seasoned with grated coconut and Chinese parsley. And this dish is the simples of all. Called batata nu shaak it is nothing but diced potatoes fried Indian style which is very different from French style.

I turned to Singh and said,

I will take a small portion of all three dishes. And a cup of tea.

Singh left to prepare the food.

Mr. Uyekawa tells me he took you to a local church, professor. I understand you are a Catholic, like Indira.

Yes, I am Catholic. I enjoyed my visit to the church and I heard an outstanding sermon by Father O'Brien who by the way is not Irish.

I told Dr. Patel, the story of Father O'Brien's adoption.

An act of mercy not uncommon in America, commented Dr. Patel, but very rare in some Oriental cultures. Tell me what his sermon was about.

I told Dr. Patel as much as I remembered from the sermon. He listened attentively and when I finished he said,

I agree with Father O'Brien that science is not an unmixed blessing. We all know that it can be used for good and bad purposes, to kill people and to heal them. But I don't think people will give up electricity for candlelight or trade in their automobiles for horse-drawn carriages. Science has put man in an airplane and he can't get off until it reaches its destination, whatever it may be.

If science is an airplane then scientists are the pilots and they are human beings! I replied. Scientists can be influenced or controlled to some extent by political leaders as we saw in Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia or by business leaders as we see in our market economies where scientists work for corporations developing new drugs and new technologies.

Are you suggesting that Father O'Brien should be a co-pilot? asked Dr. Patel smiling.

Why not, doctor? Perhaps scientists could use a little piety, charity, and humility. The great physicist Steven Hawking claims that by the end of the next century scientists will have discovered the Unified Field Theory, the Theory of Everything, the universal logarithm, the one great equation that explains everything.

Do you think they will, professor?

I doubt that the mystery of life can be revealed by a mathmatical equation, altough that equation could be very enlightening. Scientists deny the existence of intelligence other than man's, so their equation would apply only to physical forces.

As you well know, professor, scientists today who believe in spiritual or metaphysical forces are looked on with suspicion by other scientists. Even Einstein suffered from this discrimination. Most scientists today believe that our moral sense lies in the capacity of our rational mind to control our subrational motivations and unconscious drives. On the other hand most religions teach that the mind, insofar as human relations are concerned, should be guided by the love that has been implanted in the human heart.

Let me ask you as your personal opinion, doctor, do you think there is any possibility of religion and science coming together as Father O'Brien hopes?

Anything is possible, professor! However, Christians face a moral dilemma because they are tied to an historical doctrine that is not verifiable by science. All religions teach that love brings human beings together as good neighbors or brothers and sisters or fathers and mothers. In our human species karuna, love, or sympathy as the moral philosophers prefer to call it, is the essential social bond. It is a bond that modern society needs and one that neither science nor capitalism can provide. So while I doubt that Father O'Brien's sermon would be approved by his superiors, I admire him for speaking his mind. When you were at church did you see Indira?

Yes, we met outside the church and we had a nice, long conversation, and then she drove me here. She is undergoing severe mental and emotional stress trying to decide what to do about her future. I hope I was of some help but I am afraid I only added to her confusion.

Nonsense! I am sure she appreciated your advice. In any case, she no longer has to decide whether she will stay here or leave. That dilemma has been resolved. I have decided to close the Golden Pagoda!

May I ask why?

The problem we face here is not uncommon. Mr. Muto has a strong personality and he prefers to teach his personal philosophy rather than that of the Institute. His personal animus against the Americans is putting the Institute in a bad light with the authorities. He is losing two of his most popular teachers, Indira and Mr. Nakashima, and he has no replacements in mind. We discussed these matters today and we reached an amicable agreement to close the school. He did not tell me what he plans to do. My guess is that he will return to Tokyo. He is very perturbed and distraught knowing that Indira is leaving.

Is he in love with Indira? She told me she had no love for him.

That is probably true, but I am sure that Mr. Muto suffers from what English writers used to call "the pangs of unrequited love". In other words, he is mad with jealousy and frustration. He is too proud to admit it but I know he is in love with Indira and very jealous of Captain Rossetti. That is the reason, I am sure, why he is leading these ridiculous demonstration against the American bases. He wants to embarrass the Americans but he is also looking for an opportunity to humiliate and hurt Captain Rossetti. He will use any device no matter how dangerous or ridiculous to achieve his goal.

I think that Americans in general and Captain Rossetti in particular are not going to let Mr. Muto bait them into doing anything that would turn public opinion against them. That would be very stupid of them!

Don't underestimate Mr. Muto's cunning, professor! He will do anything to revenge what he calls American atrocities, the humbling of the Mikado, the execution of the Japanese war leaders, and the destruction of Japanese cities and civilians by atom bombs.

I am an American but I can understand Mr. Muto's feelings! If the Japanese had dropped atom bombs on San Francisco and Los Angeles and killed all the inhabitants, if they had executed General MacArthur and Admiral Halsey as war criminals, and if they had humbled President Roosevelt by replacing him with General Tojo, I might feel as he does. But I still don't believe that he is closing the school now because Indira is leaving. Are you sure he is in love with her?

Yes, I am! When he proposed opening his school here it was on the condition that Indira come with him and help him. I had my own reasons for wanting to get Indira out of India, so I agreed to a three-year contract. Unfortunately for Mr. Muto, Indira had no interest in him. But he kept hoping. When Indira began to date Captain Rossetti Mr. Muto realized that his prospects were hopeless. I feel rather sorry for him. I have suggested to him that he return to Tokyo and enter politics. His combative temperament and oratorical skills are better fitted for the political arena than for the halls of academy.

Well, his leaving would solve one of Indira's dilemmas but still leaves the other: whether she will marry Captain Rossetti or return to Mumbai to open her mission. That dilemma is being resolved right now.

I hope Indira doesn't lose her head and marry this soldier! said Dr. Patel, sounding like an anxious parent. They are attracted to each other because they are temperamentally complete opposites. From what I have heard, Captain Rossetti has the qualities that make a good soldier. He is proud, ambitious, loves army life and has a tough, legal mind. On the other hand Indira is a dreamer with a soft heart and completely without selfish ambitions. The attraction of opposites makes for fiery romances but very poor marriages. She would be miserable.

On the contrary, doctor! It could make her a happy wife and mother. In many ways it would be a better life than what she can look forward to in Mumbai.

Materially, yes, it would be better. But as an army officer's wife her life would be a soul-less round of formal receptions and official functions in the dull, intellectually arid atmosphere of an army post.

Perhaps you are right, doctor, but the decision is out of our hands. We shall soon know what she is going to do. All we can do is hope for the best, whatever she decides.

I understand that you are coming to the Golden Pagoda tomorrow to talk with Mr. Nakashima.

Yes, I am!

I am giving a short talk in the morning to one of the classes so perhaps we will meet again.

That would please me very much!

Singh brought my food and the doctor and I spent the next hour eating and discussing the political problems of India since Independence. Finally, Dr. Patel rose from his chair and said,

I would like to continue our conversation, professor, but I have to meet with the owners of the Golden Pagoda to negotiate the termination of our lease. I will be looking forward to meeting you tomorrow.

We exchanged bows and Dr. Patel left with Singh.