Informal Talks
by Sri Chinmoy
at the Nexus Resort, Karambunai, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
He has become my dearest brother
In my humourous book God’s Orchestra, while making fun of all professions, I said that lawyers are liars. Ashrita’s father was a lawyer, and he became so furious!
In a few months’ time, what happened? The same man invited his colleagues to hear me give a talk. And in how many ways he has helped me over the years! Our disciple lawyers were not so experienced in the early days, and he helped us so much. Now, every month he sends me fruits.
As I say, “From where to where!” Ashrita’s father is really the radiant example. Now he has become my dearest brother.
I always see the soul
Sometimes — for inner reasons, spiritual reasons, highest reasons, absolutely highest reasons — I have advised people not to adopt children. This story is most recent. Savyasachi is the witness.
Whenever the manager of our hotel in Brunei saw me, he was literally thrilled. He even had reverential awe. We became very close friends. I lifted him, and when I gave him the medallion, he was shaking powerfully. He is such a big, stout person. I had to grab his hand because he was absolutely shaking. He had so much nervousness. He said, “I am deeply honoured. I do not know what to say.” I was standing beside him, and he was trembling. I had to hold on to him.
Later, when I was going out of the hotel, he came up to me and said, “Please, please, do you have a minute? I am bringing down the chairman of the hotel.”
I said, “Certainly.”
Then he gave me a gift. It was a clock, very beautiful. He was asking me about our next location. I said, “We are going to Sabah. You have been so kind to us. We have been your guests. Now I would like you to be my guest. I am inviting you to come and be our guests, you and your wife.”
His soul is so closely connected with the soul of a former Australian disciple of mine. Each time I talked to the manager, I saw that boy’s love for me. Each time I saw the manager, I only saw that boy’s soul. It is so easy to deal with somebody whose soul is so familiar. The manager is also Australian.
I rarely ask people ordinary things like, “How are you?” I almost never ask these questions. But for some reason I asked the manager, “Where is your wife from? Is she Australian?”
He said, “No, my wife is from Brazil.”
I said that Brazil is very beautiful. We were there only two or three years ago. Then I said, “You will not accept my invitation?”
He said, “No, we are going to Bali. We want to take rest there.”
I said, “I am very, very happy. Bali is so beautiful. I have been there two or three times. Our Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee was so kind to me. Last time in Bali I was able to meet with our Prime Minister.” Then I asked, “How many children do you have?”
He said that they had no children. They had been married for fourteen years, and now they were going to adopt a child.
Something or someone spoke through my mouth. I said, “Please wait for two years. If you do not have a child within two years, then you can adopt.”
He said, “Two years?”
I thought to myself, “O God, what have I done?” But he looked at me with such love and faith.
Later I heard that he told Savyasachi, “I take what Sri Chinmoy said very seriously. We will wait for two years.”
Do I ever say this kind of thing to people who are not my disciples? Why did I ask him where his wife was from and how many children they had? These things I never, never ask. But something within me had such affection for this man because I saw in him my dear disciple’s soul. In terms of heart, that Australian boy is so devoted to me. He is one hundred per cent for me. I always see the soul, and I saw the connection between his soul and this manager’s soul.
Sometimes we have to surrender
God alone knows how many times I have shown five cents’ worth of occult power with regard to rain — many times! It started in Connecticut, during our Vishwamitra play. There I stopped the rain while looking at a tree. When U Thant came for the premiere of our play about the Lord Buddha, it started drizzling. We had a pagoda as a stage. The rain would have ruined it, but I stopped the rain. Like that, many, many times it has happened, in many places.
We used to have our Sports Day banquet at Mridul’s place in New Paltz. The whole day we had our sports competition, and then in the evening we would have a picnic at Mridul’s place. They decorated their backyard. Alas, once we went there to enjoy our picnic, and out of the blue it started raining. I said, “O God, all our joy will go away!” This was the time for the hostile forces to make fun of us. But I said, “Just stop!” Sometimes when you become very serious, you can stop the rain immediately. If you do not become serious, if you just placate the forces, then there is a little drizzle. Again, by the time your occult power withdraws, the forces may come and attack you very nicely.
Once on my birthday it was absolutely raining cats and dogs. We will never forget that unforgettable experience. Addwitiya was singing. She is such a famous singer! What was I doing then? Do you think I wanted my birthday to be ruined? But sometimes we have to surrender. My supporters will say, “Guru wants to have this experience. Why should he always have to play the role of a beggar and stop the rain?” Again, others will say, “Here is the proof that he does not have the capacity.” They feel that I do not have the capacity, or I have lost the capacity. On that birthday of mine, how heavily it rained!
Four or five years ago, at the tennis ground, I was going to paint on canvasses. The main assistant of my dearest friend happened to be there on that occasion. He can be my worst possible critic. A few drops of rain started descending, and then the rain stopped. He said to me, “Sri Chinmoy, you have stopped it, you have stopped it.”
I said, “No, no, God has saved us.”
He said, “No, you have saved us!”
Then he told so many of his friends that I had stopped the rain. I did not say it!
Again, there is the other side of the story: you can say that on my own birthday I was helpless. You can say anything you like. What could I do? I had to surrender.
Jesus Christ performed so many miracles — miracle after miracle. These miracles absolutely still stand. Then he had to surrender to crucifixion. First he said, “Father, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Afterwards he said, “Let Thy Will be done.”
In the case of the rain, on this occasion I had to surrender, surrender, surrender. When God’s Will and your will become one, you do what God wants you to do. If you stop the rain, you get the credit. If you do not or cannot stop the rain on your own birthday, although you have that kind of capacity, some people will be there to criticise you.
The disciples have to decide. They have come from so far away to be with their Master. This is the golden chance for the disciples either to lose their faith or to keep their faith in the Master.
The Supreme saves us
I have been to Puerto Rico so many, so many times. I have never been to any other country as many times as I have been to Puerto Rico. There is no match for the number of times I have been to Puerto Rico. My Puerto Rican visits are unparalleled!
This incident took place during my third visit, I believe. We had at that time about fifty disciples in our Puerto Rican Centre. There was one elderly lady who was an astrologer, a big name on television. I gave her the spiritual name Sita. Another fellow was a self-styled astrologer, and he was also working on television.
The astrologers and others were all saying that in a day or two, while I was there, a hurricane would hit Puerto Rico. People had tremendous respect for my disciple Sita because she was a great astrologer. She was predicting on television that definitely the hurricane would hit Puerto Rico and it would destroy everything.
Then she came to our Centre meeting and said, “Master!”
I said, “Nothing will happen.”
She said, “Master, how can you say that? They are all predicting it. I was on television predicting it!”
I said, “Fine, fine — let us see.”
Nothing happened. The same experience we had two or three times more. Everybody, including our disciples, was saying that everything would be destroyed. At least five times the Supreme in me has saved Puerto Rico, because I have such fondness for Puerto Rico. Five times Puerto Rico’s fate would have been different. But the Supreme in me is so compassionate to Puerto Rico. At times I tease my Puerto Rican disciples because of my affection for them. They enjoy it! I never do that to such an extent with other disciples. I know that five times, at least, the Supreme has saved that Puerto Rican island.
On television, Sita said that a hurricane would destroy Puerto Rico, but I said, “All right, all right, nothing is going to happen.” Nothing happened. There was a disagreement between the Master and the disciple. The disciple said it would happen, and I said, “No, it will not happen.” But it was going to happen.
Compassion, compassion! We approach the Feet of the Supreme’s Compassion and say, “Please, please save us!” The Supreme listens. And then we may get the credit. The Supreme saves us out of His infinite Compassion, and we get the credit. Again, when something goes wrong, when our prediction does not come true, at that time there is no Supreme involved — the Master is blamed. When my prediction proves true, I say it is all the Compassion of the Supreme. When my prediction does not come true, I take the full blame because people do not have any complaints against the Supreme; it was I who opened my mouth.
If you make a prediction
When my prophecy comes true, the Supreme does it, and He gives me the credit. But when my prophecy does not come true, what can I do? When it is a matter of prediction, it is better to keep quiet. My brother Chitta always used to beg me, “Never predict, never predict. You do not need glory. You need joy. If you know something will happen and it does happen, you will be very happy that you knew it.”
When my friend proclaimed that I was Gorakshanath, my brother Hriday said, “I knew it before.” Nobody believed him at that time. Why did he not say it before? Prediction is like that. If you predict and your prediction comes true, then you are great. If it does not come true, then you are mocked. Chitta was dead against predictions. He knew how many predictions I made, and most of them came true. But he told me never, never to make predictions, because the hostile forces are always there. At the last moment they can do something. If you make a prediction, the hostile forces become so alert. Most of the time they are sleeping, as we are sleeping. But if you open your mouth to predict something, they come with their big arms to destroy it.
Again, at times you have to use your occult power with your prediction. Eight runners were going to run in the 200-metre race during the 1984 Olympics. The previous day I declared the names of the first, second and third-place runners, and it was all taped. At eleven o’clock Sudhahota came to see me, and the following day the race was going to be at five-thirty. Until the time of the race, I kept the strongest force to save my prediction. I had my inner bodyguards. Sudhahota came in first, and the others second and third, as I had predicted.
How many times I predicted with Sudhahota, our world-famous athlete! Four or five times I made predictions, and luckily all my predictions came true. In the case of this 200-metre race, there were eight runners. I did not know them. I knew only their names, and I declared who would be first, second and third. I said Sudhahota would be first, and someone would be second. About the third-place runner I asked Sudhahota, “Do you like him?”
Sudhahota said, “I do not have anything special to say about him, but I do not have anything against him.”
I said, “Then, fine — he will be third.”
For Sudhahota I did this. I love him so much! In his case when I make a prediction, I keep my utmost force on it so that it cannot go wrong. At other times when I make predictions, the results may be totally opposite to what I predicted. I laugh and laugh!
When people give the weather reports, how often their predictions are totally wrong! They make a very large amount of money, but they make wrong predictions. I heard that, in India, a young man’s father was reporting on the weather. He was saying that it was raining heavily, but there was bright sun. His son threw a Coca-Cola bottle at his father and said, “Come out of the room and see whether it is raining heavily or not!”
We see only transcendence!
Today we observed the birthday of one of my guards, and I have done little drawings of birds. A disciple gave me notebooks, and I was inspired because the covers say “peace.”
For the birthday celebration we went to an Indian restaurant. God alone knows when I have tasted that kind of most delicious, most delicious food! They gave the food on banana leaves, and “banana leaf” is also part of the name of the restaurant — Jyoti Banana Leaf. The spelling of Jyoti is not like our spelling. The owner is from Malaysia. Saraswati begged him to ask his wife to come out so that we could appreciate her. His wife was cooking. He would say, “Yes, yes, I am bringing her,” but she did not appear. Our disciples said that the wife is very beautiful and very shy.
It was unimaginable! We paid a little more than a dollar for five kinds of things: rice plus four or five kinds of vegetables and dal. Everything was super-super-excellent. We also had lassi, and they gave Indian sweets, including halvah. It was a small place. I took the tennis court guards, and another ten or fifteen people could have been accommodated.
Wherever we go, we see only transcendence! In Kuala Lumpur I said the food was excellent, excellent. We went to Tandoori, Ali Baba and other restaurants. But if you go to this place, you will never forget it. You will get an unforgettable experience the day you go. You will have nice food, and the people are very nice. In the Indian tradition they put on the banana leaf rice, dal and other things. I am supposed to be an authority on Indian food because of my Indian incarnation, but if my disciples also enjoy it, then I will be very, very happy.
The wife was cooking all the time. She is the main cook. There is no comparison between her food and other food. Again, transcendence, transcendence! Here the food was far, far better than the food that we tasted in other countries.
The owner was very, very nice. His great-grandfather came from India to Malaysia. His name is Shiva.
Please have a glance at these birds — flying birds, inspiring birds.
Please smile at me!
I beg you to smile at me! Please listen to your Master. Please smile, unless I am in a very, very serious mood. When you see me on the street, here and there, or when you come for prasad, it is not the most difficult thing on earth to smile. Kindly smile at me when I see you, whether I smile at you or not.
Please smile at me! If you smile at me, you give me joy.
Only because of you
Sri Chinmoy made the opening comments to one disciple, and then addressed the entire gathering.
You and your parents practise spirituality. Otherwise, your brother would have been in the higher worlds by this time. He definitely, definitely would have gone to God. It is only because of you, because of your mother, because of your father, that he was saved. When somebody practises the spiritual life, that individual’s spirituality covers many members of the family. Your brother may not believe it. He does not have to believe it, but you, your mother and your father — you three have saved him. Because of you three, today your brother is still on earth. Does he know it? Very good!
How many people we save by practising the spiritual life! Our dear ones, our relatives, are saved. They do not realise it. They do not have to believe it. But you who are on the path should believe that, because of you, members of your family are still alive. There are many, many, many relatives — brothers, sisters and specially elderly parents — who have received an extension by the grace of their disciple-relatives. There are parents who do not follow the spiritual life, but they may live five years, ten years, fifteen years longer than they were destined to live. In the case of one brother and sister, if they had not been in the spiritual life, God knows where their father would have been by this time.
Again, the parents may not believe it, but the children have to believe that, when their parents receive an extension, it is all because of the children’s spiritual life. Because you follow the spiritual life, God feels that your parents should get a few years more. Your parents may also have at that time a new life.
There are many of you whose parents are alive only because of you. You may not pray for them regularly, but when they are sick, you pray and pray. Again, somebody is there, along with your prayers. You, the children, should have that faith. Your parents have received an extension because of their children’s prayers, their children’s spiritual life.
Published in The Feet of the Supreme's Compassion
