The Little Girl With The Candy

This morning, when I reached my two-mile mark on Queens Boulevard, I was debating with myself whether to go back the same way to make four miles, or whether to continue on to Hillside Avenue and then come up 150th Street to make a little more than six miles. Then I remembered how steep the hill on 150th Street is. I said, "I do not want to climb up that hill. It is impossible." So I started going back.

While going back, I passed right in front of the courthouse. There I saw a little girl about three or four years old. She was a very nice looking child and she was wearing white. She came up to me and said, "Sir, would you like to have a piece of candy?"

She was practically giving the candy to me. She was such a sweet little girl. Her older brother was four or five metres behind her. He came running and said, "No, you have to give me a dollar."

She was so nice. She wanted to give it to me for free, but he demanded a dollar from me. I felt very sad for the little girl because her brother was so bad, but I did not see what I could do at that moment. I crossed the road and walked about ten metres. The little girl also went away. Then I turned around. I said, "I must give her a dollar since she was such a sweet little girl."

When I turned around, she came running towards me. She said, "I want to give it to you for free." This time she had four or five pieces of candy in a small box. What happened? Immediately I put my hands in my pockets. I pulled out three one-dollar bills. Quickly I gave them to her. Then the brother came. When the brother came, I gave him a dollar.

Now the pieces of candy were in my hand. I said to her, "Would you make me happy?"

She said, "Why, yes."

I said, "Please, you take the candy. I am on a strict diet. I will not be able to eat it." I became a saint there! Yesterday I took 1,300 calories. I ate Sicilian pizza, a kind of cake, a candy bar, all kinds of things. Yesterday I ate everything, but today I became a saint.

The little girl was so kind. She looked at me. When I gave her the three dollars, she was very sad. She said, "I do not want money from you." But I gave them to her. Then when I returned the candies to her, she took them from me.

Her name was Eva. Her brother said, "Eva, you cannot give candy for free." He was only two or three years older than his sister. She got three dollars from me and he got one dollar from me. Then everything was over.

29 February 1998

From:Sri Chinmoy,Walking-challenging-becoming, part 1, Agni Press, 2000
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/wcb_1