I said, "What do you mean?"
He said, "Last night you gave a concert. I was there. It was so moving."
I said, "If people are receptive, then I am successful; and if they are not receptive, then I am not successful. But I place my success and failure at the Feet of my Lord Supreme with equal joy."
Then he said, "I wish to tell you one thing. You didn't have to play, you didn't have to sing, you didn't have to do anything. If you had only given us a smile occasionally we could have stayed in our highest, our best consciousness. From time to time you did smile at the audience. That was the best meditation and the best music for us. I am a disciple of Maharaji. I initiate people here in Canada. Would you be able to listen to a short tape of a Hindi song?"
I said, "I know very little Hindi. Also, I won't be able to understand the words from the tape. Even when they tape my own songs in Bengali, which are sung by my students who are excellent singers, I can't understand the words. So I know I won't be able to understand this."
He said, "Please try."
So I said, "I can try."
The tape was very short. It was a short bhajan, a Hindi religious song. I said, "All right, this much I can say. It is dedicated to Lord Krishna and it is about the gopis in Brindaban, but the actual translation I won't be able to give."
He was very happy that I had listened to the tape. He opened up his briefcase to show me a picture of his Guru wearing a suit. Now the Maharaji has grown a moustache, a long beard and long hair.
It was time to get off the plane and I said, "How can we keep our seats?" There were no reserved seats but we wanted to save our places. Immediately the young man took from his pocket a piece of plastic that said "Occupied" and put it on our seats to save them.From:Sri Chinmoy,Salutations, numbers 5-8, Agni Press, 1981
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