While waiting at Customs, I happened to be behind this lady. She was very smart, very pushy and very restless. Just because I was behind her, I was able to make headway in the line. Otherwise, I would have had a much longer wait.
— 27 February 1986I said, “Yes.”
He said, “I can’t believe it!” His eyes were swimming with tears. So soulfully he was shedding tears and embracing me. His soul knew who I am. He created a real scene in the hotel. So many people were watching!
He told me that he used to come to our meetings three years ago and then he stopped. He knows Adhiratha and he was telling me how Adhiratha stands next to my chair when he is guarding on stage on Wednesday nights. He also knows Sumantra and Ayoddhri.
He said he had come to India to visit some spiritual places, so I gave him the names of a few places to see. He said that he wants to start coming to our meetings in New York when he returns. He is a construction worker from Long island.
— 27 February 1986I happened to be on the same plane that they were on, so Brad found his Guru again in me. In his case, he touched the soil of India only to go back to America.
— 27 February 1986I came back from Chittagong by train. I was in an Indian first-class car, which is like an American third-class car, or worse. They played very loud music, which was almost like jazz.
— 1 March 1986So I flew to Madras without informing them. Every time I go home, my brothers and sisters arrange to have a car from the Ashram meet me. An Ashram driver comes to Madras and takes me to Pondicherry. I know the driver well. It is usually a three-hour drive. But this time, because I could not get in touch with them, I had to hire a car. It was the biggest mistake!
Somebody came and said, “I have a car.” When I went to the car, that person disappeared and I saw somebody else there — a driver with two helpers.
As soon as I entered into the car, I thought, “This car is older than the oldest. But I can’t get out now. My things are inside the trunk.”
The driver tried to reassure me. He said. “Oh, no, no, this is a very good car.”
We started out at 8:30. The car broke down three times over the next four hours. Around 12:30 we had gone only 70 miles and still had 40 miles to cover. Then they had to change the tire!
They were saying that we were delayed because there was a flood and there were no bridges.
I said, “Where is the flood? I don’t see water here.”
They said, “No, two weeks ago there was a flood.”
I said, “Two weeks ago there was a flood, and that’s why you can’t drive now?” What can you do with people like this!
— 1 March 1986So the two friends of the driver took another car and went to a nearby hospital and brought back a car and driver with a Pondicherry license. Usually drivers charge five rupees to go to our house from there; 10 rupees maximum. But this driver said, “At this hour you have to pay 75 rupees.”
He was shamelessly overcharging, but 75 rupees is only a little more than five dollars. I was so happy that I would finally arrive at my destination that I gladly agreed to pay him.
— 1 March 1986But even then, that man didn’t trust me. “In case anything happens, could you give me some money in advance?” he asked. What was going to happen? But to prove my innocence, I gave him 100 rupees.
But then look what happened! After so many hours, still he could not take me all the way to Pondicherry. I gave him his full 450 rupees, but I was so disgusted.
— 1 March 1986Meanwhile, the three who had brought me from Madras wanted a share of this man’s 75 rupees. They said, “You have to give us something because we found you a passenger.”
The two drivers had a serious argument because the second driver didn’t want to give them anything. He said, “I am saving you because you can’t drive into Pondicherry.”
I said, “No, you are not saving them. You are saving me.” Then I begged him to take the 75 rupees and just drive me home.
When we arrived, I gave him 80 rupees.
— 1 March 1986In those days I carried my money in a little bag with no strap. When we finally arrived at my house, I was filled with such joy that I just opened the car door and practically ran to my house. O God, I didn’t realise that I had left my bag on the seat next to the driver.
The driver drove away and had gone about half a block when the wife noticed that I had left my bag there. She was very short, so God knows how she saw my bag. Her husband was tall, but he didn’t see it. So the wife told the driver and he brought the car back. Then the husband came out of the car and gave me the bag. The driver had known that the bag was there, but he didn’t want to say anything.
So I did them a favour by saving them 300 or 400 rupees for a taxi ride, but they did me a much bigger favour. I had so much money in my bag, as well as my passport. It is because there are good people like this on earth that we still exist. Some divine forces always protect me in time of need; still the divine forces are not sleeping!
— 1 March 1986A lady at the caves begged me to take her picture. Then afterwards, she wanted me to give her five rupees for allowing me to take her picture.
— 1 March 1986They gave me a cake with 200 candles for my 200-pound lift and started singing, “I can lift up 200 pounds.” They were singing the song so cheerfully and confidently that I began to suspect them.
I said, “You people are really great. I just wrote the song in New York and already you have learned it. When did you get in touch with Tanima?”
They said, “We didn’t get in touch with Tanima. We just changed the words to one of your old songs!”
— 16 March 1986Finally the waitress brought the cake to the table, along with half a cantaloup. She was about to put the cantaloup on top of the cake when everybody started laughing. They asked her what she was doing.
She said, “You asked me to put cantaloup on the cake.”
I said, “No, I asked you to put candles on the cake.”
So this is how she understood my English!
— 26 April 1986When I came into the hotel, a middle-aged Englishman came up to me and said, “Do you play tennis?”
I said, “Yes, I do.”
Then he asked, “Could you come and play with me? Nobody is at the courts.”
Unfortunately I had not brought my tennis racquet on that trip, so I had to excuse myself.
— 7 June 1986I discovered that it was missing four hours later when I was about to enter into the hotel. I went back to the restaurant and everything was still there — passport, money, everything. I wanted to give them gifts to show my appreciation, but they wouldn’t take anything.
I have the bad habit on occasion of calling Indians ‘rogues’. You have no idea how many times Indians have deceived me! So because I am an Indian, I am entitled to speak ill of them. But here I found good Indian hearts. They had been wondering why I had not come back sooner for the bag, and they were so happy to see me.
These people had no greed — only sympathy, kindness and oneness. I was so deeply moved.
— 7 June 1986She said, “You are an artist and I am an artist. You are a greater artist, but I would like to give you this painting of mine. I am giving it to the artist in you and not to the spiritual Master.”
I said, “It is very beautiful.”
She was so thrilled.
— 27 June 1986Just ten or twelve disciples worked on the Peace Miles, but they got 500 or 600 people to run. In their case it was not manpower or money-power but heart-power that succeeded.
— 20 July 1986His mother tried to take off his shoes, but he didn’t want to take them off. Then so many times he kicked me!
What can you do?
— 2 October 1986He started playing with clay and throwing it around. Some of the clay landed on my pants.
I said to his mother, “He will be an artist.”
The mother said, “How do you know?”
I said, “I am an artist.”
Then I went to sleep. Otherwise, I would have had to enter into conversation.
— 2 October 1986A minute or so later I came back. This time a very civilised, elderly American couple was waiting for the elevator. They were talking about the wife’s shoes. No matter what she wears, nothing fits her. The husband said that he was willing to go to the shoe store with her, but the next day was Sunday.
So this change happened in a matter of one minute. It is better not to get on an elevator with people like that first couple. And if somebody very undivine comes into the elevator when you are in it, just get out. If the person has time to come in, you also have time to get out.
— 27 December 1986In Vina del Mar the hotel people were very nice, but in Valdivia I got a very good feeling from the people in the town itself.
— 7 January 1987One person came up to Savyasachi’s window and tried to distract him by showing him some keys and asking if they were his. Meanwhile, two other people opened the door on the other side and tried to take the bag. Fortunately, Savyasachi had tied the bag to the stick shift, so they couldn’t take it.
Now we can laugh about it, but if they had taken it, we would have cried!
— 7 January 1987She asked me a question in Spanish and I answered her in English. She was so surprised that I had understood her Spanish.
Then Agraha asked her something. Afterwards, he said he couldn’t believe how kind she was.
All the reporters were so nice. Usually you talk for ten minutes and the reporters write down two words. But these reporters were writing continuously.
— 9 January 1987Peru has both an Indian and a Western touch. India does not have that.
— 9 January 1987So I am a celebrity!
— 12 January 1987We have been to so many places on this trip in Argentina, Chile and Peru, and we never had any problem with the cello. Only coming back to Miami, the manager had to give us trouble!
— 15 January 1987This morning I went to visit his gym. I have never seen a gymnasium as beautiful or as well-kept. Other gymnasiums are usually so dirty, but his was very clean — like a temple.
He had every kind of modern apparatus, including a calf-raise machine. The maximum weight it takes is 860 pounds, but they usually use between 400 and 600 pounds. They never try even 700 pounds.
I wanted to show off. So without warming up, I said, “Let me do 400 pounds.” Then I did 600 pounds and finally I did 860 pounds.
Wilkosz couldn’t believe that I did it. He knew that I had done a 2,000-pound calf raise, but when he saw me do the maximum of 860 pounds on his machine, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Nowadays, with my left leg I can do 1,200 pounds and with my right leg I can do 800 or 1,000 pounds. In spite of that I can’t walk properly. When I told him that, he advised me not to eat meat. He eats meat once a week, but he was advising me not to eat meat at all.
— 26 May 1987Then I asked Databir, “Do you know the name of the person who is playing?” I was being sincere. There was no mischief behind my question.
Databir said, “Guru, it’s your synthesizer tape.”
I had never dreamed that I was the one playing. It was far beyond my remotest imagination. I didn’t even recognise the instrument!
For another ten minutes I soulfully and devotedly listened to the tape with genuine admiration and rapt attention.
— 12 June 1987I said, “O God, you are my boss!”
He said, “Inwardly I am not your boss!” He had felt something in me and had seen me in another consciousness.
— 24 June 1987The operator said, “You live there and you can’t remember your area code?”
I said, “Is it a crime if you can’t remember your number?”
She asked me where I wanted to call and I said, “Queens.” She couldn’t understand my pronunciation, so I said, “It is the feminine of king.”
So I was teaching her vocabulary and she was teaching me pronunciation.
— 27 June 1987From:Sri Chinmoy,The world-experience-tree-climber, part 5, Agni Press, 1994
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/we_5