My tearful offering at Raisa Maximovna's Long Home

Next we went to the cemetery to pay our soulful homage at the Long Home of my dearest sister, Raisa Maximovna. The Kremlin was only a quarter of a mile from the Grand Marriott Hotel, where I was staying. It was a very short distance. But it took us forty minutes to drive to the cemetery. I had so many flowers in my room, and I wanted to take some of them with me, but Lotika said, “No, no, it is not necessary. There is a flower shop near the cemetery.”

When we reached the cemetery, we entered the flower shop. They had very few fresh flowers. Most of them were artificial. I said, “I must offer fresh flowers.” They had only ordinary, simple flowers. I have never seen such small roses. I bought seven smaller than the smallest rosebuds. The flowers here in New York are twenty times larger than the ones that I gave.

It was a three hundred-metre walk to Raisa Maximovna’s Long Home. It was marked by a statue of a tall, thin young girl. Perhaps the President wanted a statue of Raisa Maximovna when she was young. Two large Russian ladies were sweeping the place. We wanted to take pictures, but they would not pause even for a moment. They had to show off that they were sweeping. We waited until they finally finished. Then I placed the flowers there with my heart’s soulful tears.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy in Russia, Agni Press, 2001
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/scr