Followed

Now my sad story starts: how unfortunate I am! I was not getting any sleep that first night, so around three o’clock in the morning I decided to go out for a walk. If you walk for about 200 metres, you come to the seaside, the Bay of Bengal, and there you can walk for one mile flat. I had a very good, very powerful meditation, while I was walking and walking. Nobody was there. Around four o’clock an old friend of mine who was out jogging saw me and he was very delighted and excited.

Everything went well. I was only 30 metres away from my house when a lady approached me. She said she was from Florida, near Miami. She wanted to have an interview with me. I said, “No, no, no! No interview at this hour; I am going home. Some other day I will give you an interview. I will be here for four days.”

Then the following day I went out at four o’clock in the morning to walk. Usually people go walking at six or six-thirty, but at four o’clock I left my house only to find that this particular lady was waiting for me! She lives near our house. She has been at the Ashram for 14 years, she said. She started following me. There is a Durga Temple only two houses away from our house. When we reached the Temple, I said to her, “Please do not follow me. I am in a meditative mood.”

Was she going to listen? I walked for about a mile, sometimes slowly, sometimes a little faster, in my own way. I was on one side of the street and she had to walk on the other side of the street, across from me. I said, “O God, is it my fate? I do not care. I know how to meditate, so I do not have to worry.”

Again I walked more than a mile, and I was coming back very slowly. Still she was following me. When I came to my house, only 30 metres away from the main street, again she said she wanted to have an interview. I said, “This is not the time. I shall see you on Sunday at 4:30 in the afternoon. Please do not bother me any more. I am giving you the time of the interview.”

On the third day at a quarter to four, I went out. I was sure she would not be there. I had made it very clear that I did not want to be bothered and I had even given her an appointment time. But as soon as I reached the main street, she was there! I said, “O God, this is my fate with this crazy Florida woman!”

This Florida woman’s friend had met me in Kathmandu. He came to see me three times, but Savyasachi saved me three times and did not allow him. Finally on the last day I agreed to see him for ten minutes. This is how the story started.