What A Birthday Gift

During Sri Chinmoy's August Celebrations in New York a few years ago, I was practising songs outside the Tennis Court with some German girls when suddenly I got stung by a big black bee. It hurt so much, as if I had been stabbed by a sharp knife. Every part of my body began to itch. I had not been stung by a bee for many years, so I had forgotten that during my childhood I had been in the hospital because of a hyperallergy to stings. When Nishtha saw me, she realised I was having an allergic reaction. She found exactly the right medicine and gave it to me. She was asking me again and again, "Can you breathe?" I replied, "Yes, I can breathe, but my body is itching everywhere, even on my palms." I looked like Monster Frankenstein. Every part of my body was swollen and I looked like I had been bitten by hundreds of bees. I could hardly see through my swollen eyes any more. Then suddenly I could not breathe properly, which was Nishtha's concern right from the beginning. I started to see everything in yellow and I slowly fainted while they were trying to carry me to the car to bring me to the hospital. The moment I fainted, Guru happened to call Annam Brahma to ask what was going on, so Shephali told Guru everything. Guru's incredible occult power worked in such a way that I immediately became conscious again and felt so good, as if nothing had happened. After five minutes, we arrived at the hospital emergency room. Because of Guru's force, I looked so healthy that they didn't want to consider my case right away. They said they had more urgent cases than mine. At that moment Guru must have taken back his force, so that they would consider my case. Immediately I started seeing everything yellow again, then many black spots and finally I fainted right in the nurse's hands, so luckily they gave me the life-saving injections. Afterwards I heard that if you have this kind of hyperallergy, usually if you don't make it to the hospital to get the injections within ten minutes to half an hour maximum, it is too late and then you die. In my case it had been about 45 minutes since I was stung, because I continued singing at the court for about 20 minutes. Then I tried Nishtha's medicine, which was the right one but not strong enough. The next day was my birthday and I was well enough to go see Guru at the Tennis Court in the morning. I felt like I had been reborn, and I had gratitude-tears when I was in Guru's presence. Secretly and sacredly he saved my life. He just said: "What a birthday gift!" Everybody thought Guru was joking about being stung by such a bee and ending up in the hospital as an unusual birthday gift. But my soul and I knew that this was Guru's most sacred birthday gift—to save my life in this most precious incarnation.

Gunthita (Zurich)