Copied from the latest Subud Voice! An encouraging article from a younger member.
Harris Smart interviews Mahrus Harnadi-Fremont…
HS: So, let’s then go a little bit into your background. Can you tell me where you came from and what your family background was like, your education, things like that?
MH: I was born in Indonesia. My dad is Indonesian, my mom is French. They both met at the Spokane World Congress. They were both in Subud, obviously. My mom moved to Indonesia to
live with him, and I was born. And then I moved to France with my family when I was around eight or nine years old. And I’ve been living in Paris, in France ever since.
I go back and forth to Indonesia for family reasons or for vacation, but I’m mostly based in Paris. I’m still studying. I have two bachelor’s degrees and I’m doing my second master’s degree right now. I’m majoring in sustainability in a Business School and before that I graduated in philosophy and also, international relations, and I’ve worked in diplomacy a little bit. So that’s my background.
It’s the final month of my masters. So, I’m going to enter the job market pretty soon.
HS: And what are you hoping to do once you graduate?
MH: I would like to work in the field of diplomacy still, but more around climate change issues. And specifically, I would like to work on the financing of climate change adaptation. I don’t know if you’re familiar with climate change adaptation, but with climate change, we have two things we have to do. We have to mitigate it. We have to cut greenhouse gas emissions all over so that we don’t make the planet too warm, but we also have to adapt to climate change because it’s already here. And whatever we do in the future, we already have to adapt to some of the effects of climate change. And I’m most interested in that field specifically. And what I am even more specifically interested in is how do we make sure we get enough finance to this kind of adaptation to climate change, especially in countries like Indonesia who are still developing countries without the necessary financial resources to cope with the huge costs of climate action.
Growing up in Subud…
HS: All right, so let’s move on and talk about Subud. So how is it growing up with a Subud family? Some people find that a very good thing. Some people find it a difficult thing. How have you found it?
MH: Yeah, I guess it depends. I do have good memories of growing up as a Subud child, especially when I was living in Indonesia because we were living in Jakarta, so we were close to Subud in Cilandak. We also went to Ibu’s house in Pamulang quite often.
It just felt like something I grew up in and I didn’t question this until I was a teenager. As a child I just have these memories of being in an extended family and meeting all kinds of people I felt close with.
I started asking question about Subud when I was 17 and 18, and then I got opened at 19 and I think it’s a great blessing to be born into a Subud family because you have access to what lot of
people are looking for and you find it with ease. You save a lot of time by being born in a Subud family, I think.
HS: Sometimes people who’ve grown up in Subud families go through a period where they have to separate from Subud in order to understand what Subud is by seeing the opposite. Did you go through that sort of experience?
MH: Not really because when we moved to France, my family got a bit more distant from Subud because the group in Paris is a lot smaller than the one in Jakarta. So, in a way I kind of lost this connection with Subud I had as a child because we were not as deeply immersed in Subud life in France as we used to be in Indonesia. So, I guess from 8 to 18, I didn’t really have a lot of connections with Subud. It was more childhood memories. So, I didn’t feel like some teenagers may feel that Subud is a bit weird or a cult that their parents are in, and they find it a bit embarrassing. I certainly felt very curious at some point, and I started asking my parents questions and little by little I met the helpers and then started the probation and got opened.
Life in Subud…
HS: Can you tell me about any experiences that you’ve had in Subud that are particularly important to you?
MH: I started asking questions about Subud when I was seventeen. So, I don’t have any groundbreaking experience with the latihan. I just remember when I got opened, I felt extremely grateful. I don’t know why, but I felt so grateful. And I think when you grow up as a Subud child, often you feel that Subud is already within you, but you don’t actually know what it is because you grew up with that ever since you’re born. So, you just felt like it has always been here. But once you get opened, you tap into this thing that you had inside of you forever. And it felt like it was finally giving room to the most authentic part of myself. And little by little, I started to also take on roles in Subud, especially in Subud France on the committee side. And I find that it has been quite helpful because sometimes people think when they take on roles, it’s going to take time off of their obligations and responsibilities like jobs and families, and they don’t have time for roles. But in my experience, when you take on a role, and you do it
with the best of your capabilities, you receive a lot of help and guidance from the inner.
It turns out a lot of the time that I receive a lot of help in my personal or my professional life when I had a Subud role, and it never felt like it was a burden or like I was sacrificing my career or my studies. It was like it was helping me to go further than I would if I didn’t have this commitment to Subud.
And I felt guided to make choices that at the time may not have made sense. I gave myself the freedom to explore. And now that I look back, I feel like, OK, it didn’t come from my ordinary self, it really came from something deeper in myself that I couldn’t understand at that point. But now that I see it, it’s been a nice blessing.
HS: So, what sort of process led to becoming the Zone 3 representative?
MH: I was already the committee counsellor for France. So, when you’re a committee counsellor, you’re one of the delegates for your country at the World Congress. And I knew that they were looking for a new Zone 3 Rep at the time of the World Congress in Kalimantan last year. And at first, I didn’t really want to because I didn’t know if I would continue to live in Zone 3. I’m not opposed to the idea of working elsewhere in the world. So, I felt like staying four years in Europe was maybe something I was not ready to commit to.
But then, throughout the Congress, I felt at least I should test about it. I should be willing to test about whether it was appropriate for me to stand up and propose myself as a new zone Rep. And the testing with some of the helpers was quite positive.
And it turned out that there were only two candidates. And yeah, it was me who got tested positive at the end. So, I decided to, to just take it. I feel like it’s a big responsibility and you’re
part of the World Subud Council. I mean, I’m still young. But on the other hand, I also feel like it’s important that people my age get involved in the organization of Subud because a lot of work has been carried out by people who are quite old and who have given so much to Subud through-out their lives. And now it’s time for my generation to get into this and make it easier for everyone else. And why not?
Work in the Zone…
HS: So, what have you been able to do so far?
MH: In Zone 3, we have monthly meetings on Zoom where we share about our respective countries, what’s going on and we also discuss some business matters. The first step was for me to find a committee. So, finding a secretary and a treasurer took me some months, but I’m happy to say that we have found the right people for the committee. So, I’m quite grateful and we’re planning to have an in person gathering in Zone 3 in Portugal in May. So that would be a nice thing to do, to meet in person before the World Subud Council meeting in July.
HS: Is there anything else that you hope to accomplish or any other ideas or plans that you have?
MH: The thing I like about this position is that I’m a zone representative and I’m not a zone chair, meaning that I’m not really here to tell people what to do. It’s more a matter of being aware of what’s going on in my zone. So, I can report it to the World Subud Council and also act as a messenger from the WSC to my zone. It’s not my role to lead with any big initiatives or to have top-down projects. And now it’s time for my generation to get into working for Subud. I just want to make sure that we have enough people active in Subud to keep it going for the future. Sometimes I’m a bit afraid that when the current generation passes, it’s going
to be a bit difficult for the remaining members to make things work.
HS: So, what are some of the interesting things that are happening in your zone, in other countries or in France?
MH: Well, I think it’s interesting because we’re the first part of the world where Subud started to spread after Indonesia because Bapak came first to the UK, and this is how Subud started to get international. So, we have a long history of Subud presence here and it translates into how dedicated some of the members are. I mean, a lot of a lot of them have dedicated their entire life to this in terms of finances, donation and real estate. So, we have a beautiful legacy to take care of. There is a good group in the UK, and they have high numbers, much more than the other countries in my zone. For instance, in France, we are around 100 members active and, in some countries, it’s even less.
HS: And the meeting in Portugal, will that be in Fatima?
MH: The Zone 3 Gathering will be in Lisbon but the World Subud Council in July will be in Fatima.
HS: One of the issues that comes up is that few young people are coming in, even the children of Subud members. You’re an exception. So, do you have a sense why Subud is not appealing to
young people? In the 60s Subud had a big appeal. Why is that not happening? Do you have any ideas?
MH: That’s a million-dollar question. I guess we all want to know why. I have to say that my generation doesn’t really live in a way where God is something we relate to on a daily basis. I think many people pretty much live in a godless society.
So, there isn’t this appeal of looking for something bigger than the life we have right here. And we don’t think of the afterlife and the soul and what happens with this soul after our body dies. And I also think there are a lot of traps for people my age, a lot of distractions, a lot of things that are quite hurtful and that keep you far away from your inner self and from God’s guidance.
And sometimes when you take a certain path, it’s very difficult for you to change course and to go back to something that is healthier and better for your own self, especially when you see so many bad examples. And in the mainstream culture, there are so many examples of people doing things that are fashionable or normal, but maybe they are not so good for yourself.
But it’s difficult to question this when you live in a culture where it’s so normalized and where you don’t have the space to ask yourself, OK, what, what should I be doing with myself? What should I be doing with my soul? And what should I be doing to take care of myself and also the people around me? I feel like that’s something people my age don’t often ask because of the way the culture of our society is structured. It’s also maybe more difficult for people of my generation to have enough faith in God and to believe, for example, that the latihan could just work by surrendering and by receiving. The latihan is not difficult to receive when you’re sincere, but it can be difficult to put in practice. And I guess many my age can’t even conceive of the fact that you can have this kind of connection with the power of God. It’s just something that many cannot imagine because it’s not something we’re familiar with.
HS: Well, thank you very much for being so articulate. I enjoyed talking to you very much. It’s
nice to get to know you a little bit.
MH: Yes. Nice to meet you and thank you for this opportunity.
” The latihan is not difficult to
receive, but it can be difficult
to put into practice “.
