My Puerto Rico²⁹

Tomorrow I shall go to Puerto Rico: the island that has given me unimaginable joy, the island that was first in accepting me as a spiritual Master. This is the island where I was able to receive blessings from four Governors: the founding Governor, Luis Muñoz Marín; then his successor, Roberto Sanchez Vilella; his successor, Luis Ferré; and Ferré’s successor, Rafael Hernández Colón.

Luis Ferré and I became very, very close friends. Governor Colón and I became very, very, very, very, very close friends and brothers. While they were in office, I was able to meet with them. When they were no longer in office, they came to our Centre.

Governor Ferré was an accomplished pianist. He played for me three or four times.

Governor Colón blessed me with all the honours and awards that Puerto Rico can give. He was the first one to give me the honour of being an honorary citizen of Puerto Rico, and many more awards he bestowed upon me. Every time I went to his palace, the first thing we used to do was to meditate for ten or fifteen minutes. At times his wife joined us. We talked and talked and talked.

Now Governor Colón’s secretary of state and chief adviser, Juan Albors, is very, very eager to come and meet with me. He lives in Ponce. He will come and spend some time with me. I will give him the “Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart” Award without lifting him, because we will not be able to take our apparatus.

Twice or thrice I participated in the Masters Games in Puerto Rico. Those were the golden days! Disciples from New York also went, and they sang a song composed by me to open the Games.

The Puerto Ricans loved me and they still love me. I love them, I love them. Most affectionately I speak about my Puerto Rican children. Sometimes I find fault with them, but when they look at me with their helpless eyes and helpless hearts, I swim in the sea of sadness, and I become all soulful and sorrowful oneness. Their incapacities in various fields I take as my own incapacities, with utmost sincerity. They remind me of my India, so we belong to the same category.

Their love for me shall forever remain unparalleled, unparalleled. The Puerto Ricans’ love is at once pure and sincere. It is simply unimaginable. God gave them some so-called incapacities, but He also gave them love, love, love. No other country has accepted me the way Puerto Rico has accepted me. Long before others, before the Americans, the Puerto Ricans accepted me as a spiritual Master with their heart’s literally boundless love, affection, sweetness and fondness.

Over the years, hundreds of stories and anecdotes I have told about their love, and about their challenges. Their love for me will remain inscribed in golden letters on the tablet of my heart. My Puerto Rican disciples are good in the purest sense of the term.