Devotees from the Indian Consulate

There was an Indian girl, Vijaya, who worked in the same section with me at the Indian Consulate. She came from south India, from Kerala, our divine Shivaram's place. She was very nice and kind to me, very fond of me. Some time after I left the Indian Consulate she also left to get married. When she had a child, she wanted me to bless it because, according to her, I was a real swami, a real saint and all that. A few years ago she brought her child to our Centre in New York for blessings. She said, "Look, we were in the same section and you became a saint, a swami." She was very proud that I was an Indian. She was very nice and I blessed the child.

In Toronto, this same Indian lady wanted to come to see me, but she could not come because of family problems. Her husband also likes me very much. In India, whenever you see a swami, a spiritual man, you give him something. So she put fifty dollars in an envelope and wrote, "For the Swami." She gave the money to Shivaram so that she could get inner blessings for her family and for herself. Shivaram gave the envelope to Alo and Alo opened it in the plane, saying, "Shivaram told me that this Indian lady had given some money so that she could have your inner blessings, even though she could not come to see you."

What I am saying is, even in those days, when I worked at the Consulate, people saw something in me. Now I have become a Guru, a Master, but even now some people don't recognise anything in me. Such a difference between their spirituality and the spirituality of some of my former colleagues, such as Vijaya. In those days, when I was a junior clerk and she was a junior clerk, she recognised me. Of course, when I was a clerk, Shivaram was also a clerk. Shivaram and I used to talk about Ramakrishna and different spiritual Masters. He saw something in me and he became my disciple. Look at his divinity! My best friend at the Indian Consulate has since become my disciple. Whoever thought, when we were working at the Indian Consulate, that Shivaram would someday become my disciple?

Yesterday an Indian man became a disciple. His brother used to work with us at the Consulate. I don't recollect who he was, but Shivaram says definitely I knew him. He used to work in another section. He used to take photographs. Now his brother, who is also a photographer, has become a disciple in the Toronto Centre!

From:Sri Chinmoy,Salutations, numbers 5-8, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/slt_2