I play tennis every day
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
I met Guru for the first time in the airport in Los Angeles in a hotel meeting room. He had a long layover on his flight home from the Christmas trip. It was very nice. Guru told his singers to come up and sing a song that he had just written.
The leader of the group, Haridas, a famous composer from Paris, had put it into an eight-part harmony. He said, "I don't know if we can do it, Guru, because many people have gone home."
Guru said, "Try anyway."
The song they sang was: 'I play tennis every day'. I knew in my heart he was having them sing that song for me, even though he had never met me before.
Later on, maybe a few years later, I heard Guru say that the ABC's of being a spiritual master, is you can easily read anybody's mind. But don't worry—if he reads your mind, even if he sees horrible thoughts, Guru would only try and help us with our aspiration and inspiration.
I play tennis every day
I play tennis every day
To join my Lord's Vision-Play.
I am the surrender-ball:
All joy in a body small.
Tennis, tennis, tennis game,
My heart's perfection-flame.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. I play tennis every day, Agni Press, 1994
The first time we met our Guru
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Five or six years ago I was running in London in front of Kensington Gardens. A car came so close to me that I got frightened and jumped onto the sidewalk. A man came out of the car and said, “We are your disciples.”
Then the whole family came out. It was Kaivalya, Bhavani and their two boys. I did not recognise them, even though they had already come to New York. Now I know the family so well.
Sri Chinmoy 1
Devashishu: The first time that I actually met Guru was in 1978. I was nine years old. It was a complete surprise because we were driving through London with our family, and with our grandmother as well. We were driving to see an art gallery.
Kaivalya: My wife, Bhavani, had been in New York and had seen Guru, but the rest of the family had not seen him in person yet.
We were driving in London on a Sunday afternoon, and suddenly Bhavani said, “There's Guru!” I was driving and I said, “Guru’s in New York! It can't be Guru!” But I looked in the mirror and I saw Guru. So, I turned the car around and we jumped out and ran towards Guru.
Sahadeva: My father had to do a U-turn in the street, a very busy street. He pulled over, we all jumped out and we saw Guru about 20 metres away. We all approached Guru, my mother first and then us.
Guru was travelling to India. He used to visit London when, in those days, Air India flights would stop in London on their way from New York to India.
Devashishu: He had some takeaway food, some food he had bought from a restaurant in his hands and he was trying to cross this big road.
We started running towards Guru when we got out of the vehicle. Guru was a little bit worried because he saw these people running at him. He was a little bit concerned. But my mother explained to Guru, "We are your disciples. We've been studying in your London Centre." My mother had been to New York one time already.
Sahadeva: Then he looked at us - Mum says he was a little confused at first - but then he saw me and my brother Devashishu, two little boys, and he had a big smile on his face.
Devashishu: The funniest thing was that my grandmother was with us and she had no idea what was going on. She also got to meet Guru, but she really had no idea who Guru was. So she was kind of there, but she didn't really know what was happening.
I was nine years old. My brother Sahadeva was seven. It's quite a faint memory now. But what I do remember very clearly, I remember Guru talking to my parents and saying a few very nice words to my parents. Then he meditated with us on the street, right in this big, busy street. He just meditated on us there in the street. He put his hands, one hand on my head and one hand on my brother's head and he just meditated in silence.
I do remember the joy I felt. It was an incredible experience. Me and my brother, we were both just filled with so much joy. There was this tremendous feeling of love coming from Guru. For me it was a feeling of finding someone who I knew. I felt like I knew this person very well, somebody who's very familiar, and also finding someone that I didn't realize I had been looking for, someone I was desperately looking for.
Sahadeva: It was a beautiful, very short meeting, and Guru blessed me and Devashishu on the head in the middle of the street with all these people walking past. We had so much joy. Guru was flying the next day off to India. Me and Devashishu remember that occasion - there was so much joy. Our hearts were bursting with joy.
Kaivalya: Bhavani said to Guru, “Can we tell everybody in London Centre that you are here?”
Guru said, “Oh no, I am going back to New York tomorrow morning early. So, I would rather you did not do that.”
That evening we went to London Centre for meditation, and we couldn't say anything about Guru being in London. My wife found it very difficult. The next morning, she phoned the hotel in London where Guru was staying. She found out that Guru had left the hotel and so then immediately she told everybody in the Centre.
That was the first time I saw Guru.
Devashishu: I remember we went to this art gallery afterwards. Me and my brother, we were just, as we say in English, walking on air. We were so happy and so full of something new and beautiful that we just didn't feel like we were walking on the ground. For hours, for days, we were left with this wonderful feeling from meeting Guru.
God surprised me
By coming into my life
Quite unexpectedly.
I am surprising God
By staying inside His Heart-Garden
Permanently.Sri Chinmoy 2
- 1. Run and become, become and run, part 17, Agni Press, 1986
- 2. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 205, Agni Press, 1994
If I can smile like that, it's worth becoming a disciple
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
I came to the United States from India at the age of twenty-seven. I came to Miami for my higher studies. I had started meditation in India on my own, reading some books. But even though people imagine that everybody in India meditates, that's not the case. I did not know a single person my age who meditated.
I was still hungering for a spiritual community when I came to Miami. There was a friend and classmate at the university who would bring me meditation books. She was going somewhere for meditation. She brought me Guru's books Beyond Within and Father and Daughter and other books that she had from where she went to meditate. The books really connected with me. I felt it was exactly the way I imagined meditation would be. It was focused on the heart. I was dying to go for meditation classes. This was 1993.
Finally in 1994, I started going for meditation classes. It took a while. My first meditation class was exactly what I had imagined. At the end of the meditation, I got to meet with the teacher, who was Durjaya from the Miami Centre. I still remember talking to him after the class. My soul was so happy that I was shaking like a leaf.
Then I started coming to the meditation centre. Actually, the first trip that I made to the Centre – it was a class, I was still not a disciple – I saw a double rainbow!
I have to say that I will be forever grateful to the Miami centre for all their love, their kindness, their warmth and the way they brought me into their hearts.
I will be forever, forever, eternally grateful to Guru because how he could bring me all the way from India to him here in the US? The outer reason was my studies, but the inner reason that I came to the United States was because Guru was here.
[Comment: Usually Americans think of going to India to find their Master. You did the opposite.]
Yes, wherever our Guru is, we have to go there. Soon after, in May 1994, I had the opportunity to come to New York. I had applied to be a disciple but I had not yet been accepted.
I first saw Guru in PS 86. It was crowded and I was all the way in the back of the auditorium. I couldn't see Guru very well but I saw the disciples and I remember them so clearly. Their smiles were so beautiful. I said to myself that even if I don't go very far spiritually, if I can smile like that, it's worth becoming a disciple.
In July 1994 I became a disciple. That was also a very special experience, very personal.
Divine journey
The divine journey
Is the continuous, eternal journey
That is not only nearing God-Reality
But is actually bringing God-Reality
To itself.
And this journey is not only the soul's
Continuous preparation
In us,
But also the soul's full blossoming
For us.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Silence-seed and sound-fruit, Agni Press, 1975
If I could remember this in my daily life now, I'd be a very high soul
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Guru visited the running shop Run and Become in London. Many disciples came—too many—and we couldn't get everybody inside. Guru was sitting by the till with the owners Ongkar, Vinodini, and their two girls, Shankara and Dipika. Guru asked that we stop letting people in. I was asked to be the guard at the door.
Then a very famous ultra-distance runner from Scotland called Don Ritchie came to see Guru. Now, how am I to tell Guru that he is here? I just concentrated very hard at the door. I looked at Guru and concentrated. I don't know about the third eye; I was just concentrating. I was very serious, very strongly telling Guru from inside, “Guru, please listen to me. Don Ritchie is here to see you.” Guru looked up and said, “So Don Ritchie is here. Bring him in.”
This happened to me several times during my discipleship and my relationship with Guru. Several times I needed to say something to Guru. I did this very thing [inwardly speaking to Guru], and he always responded in the same way. If I could remember this in my daily life now, I'd be a very high soul.
I wish to hear Your Nectar-Message.
Therefore, I always remain inside
The garden of my heart.
You wish to hear my inner message.
Therefore, You remain inside air all around me.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. My green adoration-gifts, part 2, 1977 (Translation of song Tomar katha shunbo ami)
Your life's responsibilities compel you to develop inner strength
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
Whenever I visited Guru in New York, it was usually an escape from my responsibilities in Chicago. With that escape came more opportunity to meditate, and maintain what appeared to be better spiritual discipline.
Therefore, I was surprised when Guru told me that when I am in Chicago, I make more progress. This was exactly contrary to my perceptions. So I said, “Guru, you know, I don’t see it. You say I make more spiritual progress back in Chicago. I don’t feel spiritual progress in Chicago. I feel nothing but struggle, nothing but difficulty.”
And he said, “No, no, no, it’s not like that. Think of the weightlifter. The weightlifter lifts weights. Now, you can take all the weight off the barbell and the weightlifter says, ‘Oh, look how easy it is for me. I can lift the weight so many times.’ Now, put weights on the barbell. Immediately he will see it is much more difficult to lift. But in which way is he developing more strength? When the barbell has weights, of course.” He added, “True, it is more difficult to lift. But at the same time, he is developing more strength. In life, what are your weights? Nothing other than your life’s responsibilities, or you can call it your duties. Your life’s responsibilities are the weights. So when you go back to Chicago, you assume your life’s responsibilities, and it is these responsibilities that compel you to develop inner strength.”
Sometimes there’s a delicate balance between what we deem to be life-struggles and what truly are our proper life-opportunities. Life is constantly challenging us with the opportunity for self-transcendence.
Responsibility cannot weigh you down
If you take responsibility
As a God-approved opportunity.
It can only lift you and your life
To the higher worlds.Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 9, Agni Press, 1983
´See, God does listen to my prayers´
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
In 2001 we were in Brasilia, in Brazil. Usually when we go to a place, we research it. We try to go to different restaurants, thinking about what Guru would like. It’s not a place, like in Asia, where you will find Indian food everywhere. Guru loves his Indian food, and we all do. But there in Brasilia, we did not seem to find any.
One day Guru wanted to have Indian food in a restaurant. I remember I kept saying, “Guru, there is no Indian food here.”
He said. "There is! There is Indian food." He wanted to prove a point.
We were one hour looking. I would run in to each restaurant and ask: “Do you make Indian food?” “No.” “Do you make Indian food?” “No.”
Alo Devi was getting tired. She said, “Devaji, we could go back to the hotel and the Annam Brahma girls could make you Indian food.”
Guru said, “No. There is a restaurant that has Indian food.”
After an hour or so, maybe an hour and 15 minutes, we went into a place, and I said, “Do you have Indian food? Do you make Indian food?” They said, “Yes, we do. What do you want? We can make you curry vegetables.”
So we went in—Guru, Alo Devi, Savyasachi and myself. We sit down and we were eating. Guru was eating his Indian food—very spicy, very delicious. They made it extremely well. Guru looked at me and said, “You see, you see. I said there is a place that has Indian food!”
So never, never doubt if your Master tells you something. Definitely believe it, because that is the case. We mentally think: “No, this is not that way, because we’re all in our minds. Only the Master knows best. So there was definitely a restaurant that had Indian food.”
Sri Chinmoy related the story to a disciple that evening:
Today I wanted to eat Indian food. Saraswati said that she had already made inquiries, and there is no Indian food available here in Brasilia. I said that there has to be Indian food. If I want to eat it, there will be Indian food. More than two hours we spent looking for it.
...Savyasachi was driving. Poor fellow, he is an excellent, super-excellent driver. Otherwise, somebody else would have done me a great favour and given up. Finally Alo and Saraswati got out of the car and with a little bit of Spanish, Saraswati asked one man. The man said to her in Portuguese, “You should go to see the president of all the restaurants.” He pointed to one restaurant and said, “The owner of that restaurant is the president of the restaurant owners’ association. If you go there, he will be able to tell you whether there is an Indian restaurant here or not.” He said that a few years ago he had eaten in an Indian restaurant, but he did not remember where it was.
We went into the restaurant. It was a huge restaurant and the noise was unbearable. Saraswati spoke to the president. The president said, “This is not an Indian restaurant, but we have an excellent cook. He can easily make Indian food.”
I said, “See, God does listen to my prayers.” Of course, it is human nature to doubt, but again, a challenge is a challenge...
Never give up! It was not an Indian restaurant, but the man was sincere. His cook made the food, and it was really, really delicious. They were so polite.
Sri Chinmoy
Such a profound experience of protection
This is one of the stories in our Story-Gems project, a collection of our experiences with our Guru, Sri Chinmoy. Project homepage »
I will share a story with you that happened with my oldest son. When I came to Sri Chinmoy's Path, my youngest was 10 years old and the oldest was 16. Since the first day, I started praying to Guru to protect them.
Four years ago, I had a very strong experience of Guru's protection of my oldest son. He had a serious motorcycle accident and had to go to surgery. He broke some bones in his leg and his arm, also in his chest.
I was about to start teaching a meditation class. Before the class, when I was preparing myself, I received a phone call from my youngest son. He was telling me, "Mom, something happened—my brother had an accident."
As I'm a nurse, I immediately started asking so many things that my youngest son could not answer. I told him, "What do you know? Who called you? What happened?"
He said, "Please don't call my brother. He's having surgery. Later someone will call you."
I started making some phone calls anyway, but nobody answered. I had to give the meditation class, so I went to the class. I don't remember anything that I said or any mantra that I sang with the seekers. But I remember that in the silent meditation, I was always, always, always, all the time asking Guru to save my son because I didn't know how he was in that moment.
Then I left the meditation class. A few minutes later I received a phone call from one of my son's friends. He was telling me that my son was still in surgery and maybe I would receive some information only the next day. That all happened in the morning.
Finally, I received a call from my son and he said, "Mom, I'm OK. I'm alive. I had to go to surgery, but I'm OK. So don't worry."
I was telling him that I had already started to look for flights to England because he lives there. He told me, "No, no, please, Mom, don't come because I will stay in the hospital for some weeks. I don't know exactly but maybe things will go well and I can come home earlier. Please wait until I have some more information because if you come now, you will be allowed in the hospital for only 10 or 15 minutes. Then you will be alone all the time in my house."
He told me, "You have the Peace Run in Madeira, so please go. Please go. Then I will call you. You can organise everything from there."
I did it, I went to the Peace Run. It was amazing and very difficult at the same time. Even while on the Peace Run, I started to organise my life in Portugal with my youngest son and also my work and flights to England. The next time my son called me, I told him, "OK, in a few days I will be in England." He said, "That's great because in a few days I can go back home."
Then he said, "Mom, I want to share something with you. I don't know if you will believe it, but when the car crashed with me and when my body was in the air, something held me. Before I landed the ground, something held me. I cannot explain, but I am sure something was holding me."
In that moment I started crying and I told him, "Of course, something held you. Because every day I pray to my Guru to protect you, to protect you and your brother. So I believe it completely." He said, "I don't know, I just know that something held me before I hit the ground."
This was such a profound experience because my son believes in God and he believes in Sri Chinmoy. I had given him a photo before he left Portugal. I told him, "Please, whenever you are in trouble or afraid or anything, please pray to Sri Chinmoy, to my Guru, to your Guru."
Something amazing also happened after this. A few days later, two days before I arrived in England, he called me and said, "Mom, I have to go to the hospital again. I am at home now, but I have to go to the hospital because my leg is not okay. I am in a lot of pain and I have a temperature. Something is happening. I am calling the ambulance." He went with a friend to the hospital.
I don't know how long after this call, I called him and he did not answer. I called his friend, who told me, "He is with the doctors. I don’t know what is happening.”
After a while, my son called me back and told me, "Mom, I have to go to surgery again. I have an infection. They told me that they cannot leave the material in the bone that they put before. So I think this will be much longer and I don't know what will happen." He was crying. I told him to be brave because I was coming.
The next day he called me. He told me, "Mom, you will not believe it. They gave me medicine and I went to get x-rays this morning. They told me that everything is okay. The x-rays show a completely different picture than yesterday." I was crying again. Then he told me, "You know, Mom, I prayed all night long. I was thinking about you. I was thinking about your Guru."
Two days later, I was with him at his home. I'm a nurse and I'm his mother, so it was a great moment. This is my story.
I beg God for His Protection.
God says to me:
“Can you not see, My child,
That I have already given you
My Protection-Heart?”Sri Chinmoy 1
- 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 49, Agni Press, 2008
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