30 September

In the evening Nolini-da met me at the Ashram gate. "Oh Chinmoy, I have been looking for you. Will you go to Amal's place and give him this?" he said, handing me something. "I had to write the introduction for Sri Aurobindo's The Human Cycle and The Ideal of Human Unity. Show it to Amal and ask him if he has any suggestions to make."

I went to Amal's house immediately and knocked at his gate. His wife opened the door. "I am so sorry to come to you at this hour," I said.

"Chinmoy, it is perfectly all right," she said. Then she called out: "Amal, Amal! Look, Chinmoy says he is sorry because he has come at this hour."

Amal said: "Chinmoy, you must know that you are always welcome. You can come at any time. Even if you have no specific reason, you can come and chat with me. You should have realised by now our mutual affection." Then he read Nolini-da's introduction.

I told him that Nolini-da wanted to see if he had any suggestions to make. He read it twice and said: "It is excellent. I have no suggestions to make." Then, with a smile, he said to me: "Sometimes when we offer suggestions to Nolini we just create unnecessary confusion for him."

"In that case, I am a real culprit. How often I offer suggestions! What is worse, sometimes they are unsolicited."

Amal said: "I have always admired your simplicity and modesty, but not your unnecessary and disproportionate humility."