..续本文上一页al rights, unlike ordinary passengers. As for me, I had to have my things inspected, my health certificates inspected — but when it came to the "darkroom," they made a special exception in my case. Inside the "darkroom" the light was blinding. Everyone who went inside had to strip naked so that the officials could inspect him. But luckily there was a Sikh who, when he saw me stick my head into the room, smiled at me as a sign that he would help me out. As a result, I didn”t have to be inspected.

　　We waited there at the airport until sunset, when a Westerner came and politely told us that a company car was about to come and pick us up. A moment or so later we piled our things into the car. We traveled a good many miles into Calcutta and went to stay at the Maha Bodhi Society. When we arrived we found that the executive secretary, an old friend of mine, wasn”t there. He had taken some of the Buddha”s relics to a celebration in New Delhi and then gone on to Kashmir. The monks who were staying at the Society, though, were very helpful in every way because I had been a member of the Society for many years. They fixed us a place to stay on the third floor of the building.

　　While there we spent many days contacting the immigration authorities before our visa papers could be straightened out. I stayed at the Maha Bodhi Society until it neared time for the rains, when I made plans to go on to Ceylon. I took my draft to the bank, but there learned that the bank that had sold me the draft had no branches in India. The bank therefore wouldn”t accept the draft. They went on to tell me that to exchange the draft I would have to go all the way to London. This is when things started looking bad. I checked our funds — Nai Thammanun had about 100 rupees left. It was going to be hard to get around. Yet, at the same time, we had more than 800 pounds sterling with us that the Indian banks wouldn”t accept because there was a lot of anti-British feeling at the time. They didn”t want to use the British pound, and didn”t want to speak English unless they really had to. So as a result, we were caught out in the rain along with the British.

　　Finally I made up my mind to chant, meditate and make a vow: May I receive some help in my monetary problems. And then one day, at about five in the evening, Nai Thanat Nawanukhraw, a commercial attache with the Thai consulate, came to visit me and asked, "Than Ajaan, do you have money to use

　　"

　　"Yes," I answered him, "but not enough."

　　So he pulled out his wallet and made a donation of 2,000 rupees. Later that evening my friend who was the executive secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society returned and invited me up to his room for a chat. He gave me a warm welcome and then we talked in Pali. "Do you have enough money

　　" he asked. "Don”t be bashful. You can ask for whatever you need at any time."

　　"Thank you very much," I answered in English, and he smiled in response. From that day on I was put at my ease in every way.

　　Just as the rains were about to begin, a monk who was a very good friend of mine — an official at Sarnath named Sangharatana — invited us to go spend the rains there, and so I accepted his invitation. The following morning he went on ahead, and then two days before the beginning of the Rains Retreat we followed along. At about noon the next day we reached his temple. My friends there had fixed places for us to stay, one to a room, in a large 40-room dormitory. Thus I spent the Rains Retreat there in Sarnath.

　　Things were made very convenient for us during the rains. The friends I had made during my first trip were still there. Eating arrangements were also convenient. Every day, early in the morning, they”d bring Ovaltine and three or four chappatties to your room, and just that was enough to fill you up. Bu…

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