Extra Time

Just before Christmas 1995, when I was nearly 72, I had an experience described by doctors as a “stroke”. One evening, my grandson Kahlil telephoned me and we were having a friendly chat. All of a sudden, my speech became blurred, and finally I could not speak. Unbalanced on my feet, I barely made it to the car with the help of my wife and son. Lorraine drove me to the local hospital. There the on-duty doctor said to go straight to the major hospital in Adelaide. On the way, my son Darrin rang Simahin to ask him to inform Sri Chinmoy, and Simahin said he would try. At the hospital they put me in the emergency ward, ran some tests and attached all sorts of gadgets to me. Later in the night, suddenly I woke up, took off all the wires and tubes, jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. I told my wife not to worry, that I felt perfectly all right. Because the heart monitor beeped when I took the wires off, the on-duty nurse must have thought my heart had stopped and sounded the alarm. Several doctors came and tried to help, but I explained that I felt fine. In a jiffy, all the gadgets were reattached to me, “just in case”. Early in the morning a white-haired gentleman came, surrounded by younger doctors who addressed him as “Professor”-a specialist in these matters, no doubt. They all were surprised that after only a few hours, I did not act like a “normal” stroke victim. Instead, I wanted to go home and do some Christmas shopping-now! However, the professor insisted that a number of tests be done before he would consider discharging me. These were completed, including one in a brain- scanning tunnel. The professor hesitantly agreed that I could go home, but only if I signed a discharge at my own risk. He confirmed, however, that all the functions of my body and mind were normal. We found out later that Simahin and Ashrita managed to contact Guru, who was then in Africa. I believe without any doubt that Guru, when learning about my illness, threw his magic wand across half the globe, striking the “bull’s eye”, and I just jumped out of my sickbed. I am very grateful to Guru, as I do need the ­extra time to do a lot more learning.

Eugene (Adelaide)