Vivekananda used to say, "If you have to value anything, you have to pay for it. Otherwise you do not value it." If any book comes free, you do not touch even one page. But if you buy the book, you read it. If you give anything for free, nobody pays any attention. Anything free, nobody values. So, I said, "If you want to value your spiritual life, the day you entered into the spiritual life, you have to remember. To value your spiritual life, which is the most important thing in your life, you should give ten dollars in an envelope, saying, 'On this day, I joined the Path.'"
And the day you were 'baptised', the day you got your spiritual name, on that day I am bringing it down to five dollars. So, I make fifteen dollars.
Then Pulak started arguing with me. First, he said it was too much money. That was not enough. Then he said, "How will people know which day?"
I told him, "The day they hear from Centre leaders, or from someone who has given me the pictures. That day I will take it as the day, the day the person hears."
He started, "But you did not concentrate on that day. You concentrated on another day."
I said, "My force will remain for a few days. If Ashrita or the Centre leaders or anybody has to give the message, my force will hold."
But no, again he started saying, "But you did not concentrate and accept them on that day."
I told him we have to start with him! But I enjoyed his arguments, idiot!
Then the culprit became Anjali. The day before yesterday was her name-day, so she gave five dollars. Then again, Pulak started saying things. I said, "It is not compulsory, for God's sake! It is only for those who value their spiritual life. At least on that day, when you give ten dollars, you will say, 'O my God, I entered into the spiritual life. What am I doing? Now I have so many problems.' That will pinch you, when you give ten dollars. It will awaken you, and on the day you will do well."
People always say, in India also, that birthdays are the most miserable days. People are only thinking of gifts, this and that. Once, in the Ashram, on his birthday, somebody thought, "How could Mother refuse something? Mother will be so happy to give it to me." He went on his birthday with a list to have a little butter, to have it sanctioned. Mother threw away the list. She said, "Birthdays are for butter?"
If you remember that on such-and-such date you came to the Path, then how you prepared yourself, how much sacrifice you made to leave your parents and dear ones, if those good ideas come to your mind, you will value it. Otherwise, when it is a matter of birthdays, for five or six days beforehand, your mind will be all the time thinking this and that, about parties and so on. I said, "The best thing is to think of your birthday as the day you joined the Path. If you remember that day, twenty or twenty-five or thirty years ago, the ancient sincerity, intensity and depth will come to the fore."
There was another condition. Nobody should deprive Kanan of his business. Here, on their birthday, they send me flowers or on their soul's day they send flowers. That has to continue. I do not want his business to suffer. You rogues, you will give me ten dollars then you will forget to give flowers!
If you put your money in an envelope to give as a love-offering, on that day you will remember how much sacrifice you have made to come to this Path, how much sincerity, simplicity and purity, how much eagerness you felt when you joined the Path. Otherwise, you are observing the day but you are not going back to the source. I am giving you an opportunity to go back to when you started your journey
You can spread it; I am not going to make announcement. But if it does not work, if you people feel it is the same thing — when you give the flowers you do not mean it, but you just observe mechanically. So, by giving five or ten dollars, it will be the same thing. If that is the case, then what can I do?
22 March 1998
Published: Sri Chinmoy, "The Golden Mystic Sun", Madal Bal Studio, 2021.