Hawaii anecdotes⁵

At 1:30 a.m. on the first day in Hawaii, I went out walking in Honolulu. A young man came up to me. He said, “Sir, Sir, what are you doing at this hour?” He wanted to know why I was moving around at this ungodly hour. I was meditating, so I just smiled at him. Then he continued, “It is not safe.” Again I smiled at him. Once more he said, “This is not safe. Please!” He was worried about me.

The second day I went out a little after two o’clock in the morning. I was walking and meditating as usual. Ahead of me I saw a tall man who was drinking. I passed by him and did not pay any attention to him. Then he came chasing me. He said, “Why are you afraid of me? Why are you running away? I am only drinking Diet Coke.” Then he showed me his paper cup. He said, “You do not have to be afraid of me. I am not drinking liquor. I am taking Diet Coke.”

I was walking fast, but he thought that I was afraid of him. This is how people catch me when I go out early in the morning.

The third day I went out at 1:30 a.m. One man came up to me and said, “Can you tell me the time?”

I replied, “It is a quarter to two.” He went on his way and then, a few minutes later, he came back.

“How do you know?” he asked.

I said, “I know that I came out of my apartment at 1:30. Now I have walked for fifteen minutes.”

Then the man took his watch out of his pocket and checked the time. He said, “Right!”

If he had a watch, why did he challenge me? But he did not want to take the trouble to look at it.

Every morning some experience I get when I walk. For three mornings I saw Vijali’s soul eight or ten metres ahead of me. Three days her soul was there facing me and each day I blessed her. Many years ago, when I used to walk along the canal at four or five o’clock in the morning, she used to be there.

Yesterday I went out at 12:45 a.m. I was having a very high meditation while I was walking. All of a sudden I saw the soul of an ex-disciple. The soul was asking for a blessing. I blessed the soul and went on my way. After some time an idea came to me: perhaps it is this person’s birthday. Later that day I asked somebody to check and it was true. Then I discovered that it was also Rijuta’s birthday. Rijuta’s soul did not come at that time. After four or five hours, her soul came.