Stories from the German Peace Concerts

by Sri Chinmoy

 

A new incarnation

This is a cock-and-bull story. When I was a child in Chittagong, my family usually had two servants — one young and one old.

After tonight’s concert, one boy came up to meditate with me after the concert. While we were meditating together, his soul said, “Madalia, you cannot recognise me?”

Not only did he use the nickname from my childhood, Madal, but he said it with an endearing term. I said, “Who can call me by my Chittagong name with this kind of endearing term? In my house, even my sisters and brothers didn’t call me that, and here this young German boy is addressing me this way!”

Then the soul said that he had been our servant in Chittagong and he gave his former name. Then vividly I could see and remember him. I had heard that he had died, and now I see that he has taken a new incarnation in Germany. I was looking into his eyes and his soul recognised me.

A lady from the Ashram

There was another lady who came to see me after the concert. When I was in the Ashram, I was close to her brothers and her sister. But she was only four or five years old at that time, and during my 20 years at the Ashram I never had any occasion to speak to her.

Her sister had been the Ashram athletics champion. She had even learned how to box. She used to study with me. One of her brothers had been a wrestler. Once he injured his neck while wrestling and for three weeks was in the hospital. Her youngest brother once climbed up a tall coconut tree when he was three or four years old. Then he got frightened and couldn’t climb down. He was crying and screaming because he was afraid.

The lady’s name is Purnima. She started talking to me in Bengali. Then she introduced her husband to me. But she had forgotten the Bengali word for husband, so she said it in Hindi and added, “I have forgotten the word.”

Then I was able to tell her the word in Bengali.

Comment from a childhood friend

In the comments book for the Hamburg concert, someone wrote a comment in Bengali. His name is Himangshu Shekar Vadra. He called me ‘Chinmoy-da’ and said he was overwhelmed and deeply moved by the concert.

He and I knew each other so well. My brothers and sisters also knew him. We were brought up together; right from childhood we knew one another.

His brother used to run with me; he was our third best runner.


 

Published in The World-Experience-Tree-Climber, part 4

 

Photo by Adarini Inkei

 

Sri Chinmoy lifts 14 people at Public School 86 in Jamaica, Queens, New York.