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(Clearwisdom.net, January 26, 2004) From January 16 to 21, 2004, the fourth World Social Forum was held in Mumbai, India. This year's theme was "Another world is possible." Organizers estimated that about 75,000 people attended the forum. Falun Gong practitioners also set up two display booths in two main exhibit halls, respectively, to introduce Falun Dafa and expose the persecution that Falun Gong practitioners in China are encountering. Practitioners from Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Indian practitioners who immigrated to the United States, as well as Hong Kong practitioners and western practitioners from Canada participated in this activity.
Apart from the display booths, Dafa practitioners also joined special topic discussions. They shared their purpose and experiences of cultivating Dafa and the exercises with attendees from India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, South Korea and the United States. They also introduced stories about how Falun Gong practitioners throughout the world expose the vicious lies to people in China and other countries in the world, in face of the Jiang regime's state-sanctioned terrorism and cruel persecution. They told attendees that practitioners from a number of countries have filed lawsuits in their countries against Jiang and his cohorts, charging them with genocide and crimes against humanity. Practitioners believe that law will eventually punish those who are responsible for the persecution. Practitioners also emphasized, "If principles of Truth-Compassion-Tolerance are rooted in everyone's heart, a more beautiful world can come true."
The simple display boards and banners, along with the exercise demonstration and peaceful music, attracted many visitors. They included people from the media, scholars, human rights activists, community groups from the surrounding areas, educators, and the religious circles (priests, nuns, monks, lamas). We also had visitors from countries and regions from surrounding areas, such as Pakistan, Bengal, Nepal, Bhutan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, as well as visitors from Europe and North America.
Attendees' interests in Falun Gong can be summarized into two aspects:
The first was about human rights and freedom of belief. Media staff and many other people learned about the brutal persecution of Falun Gong in China. We utilized this opportunity to further clarify the facts to them and let them understand that the persecution was caused by the persecutor's jealousy and power-abuse.
Secondly, people showed their great interests in learning the Falun Gong exercises and their yearning for Dafa's principles of "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." Many people hoped that we would go to their cities, communities, villages, schools, hospitals or institutions to teach the Falun Gong exercises or set up group practice sites. What touched us most were two people who came to learn the exercises. One was a Catholic nun who serves in an Indian village hospital. She said that she loved "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance" and she wanted to learn the exercises immediately so that she could teach her villagers when she went back. Because there is no computer in her village for her to download Dafa books, we let her take the only copy of the English version of Zhuan Falun (the main book of Falun Gong). She carefully put the book in her bag as if she obtained a treasure. She attentively learned the five-set exercises. In the end, she wrote down her address and asked Indian Dafa practitioners to mail her the introductory book Falun Gong and exercise music tapes. She thanked practitioners over and over again before she left. Another was a presbyter of a village tribe. He also carefully learned the exercises and said that he would teach his villagers when after went back. He visited our booths for two days. On the second day, he kept learning and practicing the exercises until we had to clean up the hall. In the end, a Canadian practitioner gave his own copy of the English version of Zhuan Falun to this a presbyter as a present.
After the forum concluded, the Canadian practitioner went to southern cities in India to teach the Falun Gong exercises.
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| Catholic nun learning Falun Gong exercises | Learning the exercises before the forum discussion | Display booth from Falun Dafa Association |