Flattery works!⁵⁶

This is something very funny that took place today. I am giving the title of this story: “Flattery Works!” Today somebody flattered and flattered me, and it worked. My dearest friend used to tell me, “I know this fellow is flattering me, I know. But what can I do? I love flattery!” Perhaps I was caught in the same boat!

Last Saturday Ranjana’s Bhajan group performed, celebrating my sister Lily’s birthday. It was such a soulful, prayerful and unique experience. My sister’s soul came and requested me, as I told you, to give them saris in a week’s time. Today is Wednesday. I said to myself, “I will be very busy for the rest of the week,” so I went today to the largest sari store in Jackson Heights. Vinaya took me.

I spent so much time to find thirty of the same kind of saris. They would have four or six of a kind, but they did not have thirty saris of a kind. I was going on, devotedly looking. My sister had requested me to give them gold saris, but alas, there were no gold saris. Some saris the shopkeepers called gold, but I did not consider them gold. I do not know what colour they were!

The ladies there were all Bengalis. How fluently they spoke Hindi! This moment they would speak Hindi; the next moment they would speak Bengali. Bengali, Hindi, English — perhaps more languages they spoke, God knows! They were very, very kind.

With great difficulty, I found fifteen saris. I was ready to buy the saris at $21 apiece. Then I selected one expensive sari. The lady told me the original price, and then she said it had descended considerably. I said, “Can you not reduce it a little more?”

The lady said, “Oh, no, no, no.”

So I took fifteen saris and one more special sari from that store. When I went to pay my bill, the owner saw me. I think about twenty-five years ago I went to his store. He gave me a very big smile and started talking to me in Hindi, asking how I was. He was very, very nice. It all went well. Then he gave a price for the expensive sari that was fifteen dollars lower. I said, “The lady who was telling me the price was adamant. She said that she could not go under that price. Now you have reduced it by fifteen dollars.” He smiled at me. I said, “How is it that you are charging me fifteen dollars less?”

He smiled and smiled at me and said, “Where can I find another saint?”

But that was not the real flattery! The real flattery is coming now;

Believe me, I have a free access to my sister’s soul — absolutely a free access. One day you will have that capacity. Then you will believe what I am saying. Now you may not believe it.

Only fifteen saris I got. I did not like any more saris in that place. I said to my sister, “I cannot find saris that are all the same.”

She said, “Then buy good saris. They do not have to be the same colour or the same pattern.”

I went back to the car, on the opposite side of the street. There I happened to see a friend of mind, Vijay, a Gujarati. I used to go to his store. He came running to the car. I opened the car door to greet him. What did he do? He touched my feet again and again. “Please, please, you have to come and bless my store!” he begged. “You do not have to buy anything, I promise. You have not blessed my store for over twenty years. You should come and bless me, bless me.”

How many times he touched my feet, God alone knows! I went to his store. At the door again he touched my feet. “You do not have to buy anything,” he repeated. “I only need your blessings.” He told me that he had a picture of me in his house taken many years ago. God alone knows whether he really had my photograph!

I showed him the saris that I had just bought. Then he said, “Oh, I have them. I have exactly the same ones, exactly the same!”

I was thrilled! I said, “Fifteen of these saris I have now. If I can get some more that are exactly the same, I will be the happiest person.”

He took me inside. Alas, they were not exactly the same, but what could I do? They were nice saris, but they were not at all the same. According to me, they were inferior. They did not have the same pattern or the same border. With the ones that I got in the other place, I was quite pleased. But I needed thirty saris.

In the other place I bought them for $21. Here the owner said the saris cost $25. I said, “Your saris are not as good as the ones that I bought before. Why are you telling me that they are $25?”

Now the businessman in him started operating. Before a statue of Lakshmi, he touched my feet God knows how many times. He insisted, “No, no, no, mine are far better.”

As I was leaving the store after paying, again he said, “I need your blessings.” He came out and closed the door behind me. Then he started touching my feet, not once but three times. He had said he needed only my blessings; I did not have to buy anything!

This is the, funny story. Then something sad happened. Vinaya was inside the car while I was across the street. A lady came and gave him a ticket. He was inside, but she did not say anything. She did not allow him to move away. She just gave him a ticket. In a matter of seconds he got a $115 fine. This happened a few years ago also. I went to a music store with Mridanga. When I went back to Vinaya’s car, Vinaya’s car was moving, but the lady stopped him and gave him a ticket. I think it was for $85. This time it was $115.

To come back to the story, my dearer than the dearest friend used to say, “I know this fellow is only flattering me, but I love flattery.” History repeats itself! If somebody touches your feet so many times, then your compassion comes to the fore.