MUMBAI, DECEMBER 16: At Almeida Park, Bandra, as dusk gathers, a handful of men and women search for a greater light. With out-of-the-world music playing, they raise their arms, swirl them and slowly bring them to rest. The voice flowing from the recorder on the ground speaks Chinese - of raising their qi (pronounced chee) to the level of gong - promising them the ultimate in spiritual growth.

Meet the Falun Gong. The movement that has had a nervous Chinese government crack the whip on its 100 million practitioners is now in Mumbai - setting shop, competing - though volunteers deny it - with the Art of Living courses, reiki, meditation, Vipassana and yoga in the business of offering spiritualism and nirvana.

``We have no competition with anyone...there are many spiritual gurus on this earth and we have respect for all of them,'' says Sandeep Joshi, architect and a practitioner, ``but the Falun Gong is at a higher level''.

It follows the ancient Chinese practices of cultivation of the vital energy of a person (qi) to reach the highest level of gong. In this, it might resemble the ancient Indian traditions of meditation and yoga on the atma-paramatma union, but the resemblance stops there.

The Falun Gong, says Joshi, is a form of attaining spiritual height through certain exercises and a conduct of living - also considered to be the Laws of the Universe - with Zhen, Shen, Ren (Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance). Hindus might also feel at home with its all-too recognizable concept of karma. The practice was perfected and popularised by Master Li Hongzhi, who now lives in the United States. As Hongzhi propagates the Falun is a spinning body of high energy, that rotates according to the order of the cosmos and once installed in a person, ultimately heals and offers salvation if sincerely followed.

As with all Chinese products in India, there is price under-cutting in this too. The Falun Gong experience is free while most other courses carry a price tag. It's one of the reasons Pradeep Patne, an executive with a pharmaceutical company, took it. ``Spiritualism cannot be sold...when I heard they were offering it for free, I felt this should be experienced.'' After meditation, yoga and various satsangs, the qigong call was easy to answer. The verdict? ``It is very calming.''

Patne with others has only just started the five exercises that form the backbone of the practice. Most practitioners were already clued into other forms of spiritual quest - reiki for college girl Natasha Katgar and aunt Shehnaz, yoga and Art of Living for Suren Rao and Linda Khambatta. However, Master Li Hongzhi has apparently been able to answer questions nobody else had.

``In the satsangs they told us not to do bad things, but never explained why...here, we are told that it is because of the karma factor,'' says Patne. ``There cannot be comparisons,'' Rao say cautiously, ``this is also a method of spiritual growth. Let us try it out.'' In fact, the workshop helped decide Kumud Bhatt, a bank executive and a first-timer in such pursuits. ``I never thought I would be able to sit through the three hour workshop since I have a problem of body ache and stiffness but amazingly I didn't feel any ache after the lectures. The Master works through the videos,'' she says.

Karnika Seth, a collegian finds herself calmer now, to her parents' surprise too. The liberating factor, according to Natasha, is that there are no rules of the exercises. ``They can be done anytime, anywhere, any number of times,'' she says. Linda Khambatta is most convinced. Having lost her daughter at a heartbreaking age of 21, she had been desperately seeking solace desperately. ``It is for the first time that I feel that my daughter has not left me, she is with me'', she smiles.

For the Swedish duo, Andres Erickson and Martin Hellqvist conducting the workshops, these are heartening responses. In the country since June (in Delhi), they are keen to set up centres here. ``It is a love for the practice which has given us so much that we are here,'' says Erickson. On unpaid leave from work and a break from academics the duo believe that this is the only way for moral upliftment, strength, purification of body and attaining tranquility.

It seems as if the Falun Gong is set to reverberate.

http://www.indian-express.com/ie/daily/20001217/ina17018.html