On Friday evening after finishing work in the government, we would change our clothes at a community centre and with a car (which we termed the "divinemobile") often packed with other disciples and their children sprawled across our laps, we would head down for the ten- to twelve-hour drive to New York (depending on how many long stops we made).
In the early days of our discipleship on Guru’s path in the 1980s, Guru was running many of the races with other running groups. We never knew exactly where Guru would be on Saturday morning, but we would call ahead and often drive to whatever race Guru was running. We never had directions but somehow we would just drive around looking for Guru until he got us to the right place at the right time. We would literally crawl out of the car, having driven all night, put our running shoes on and line up at the starting line with Guru and run whatever race Guru was running.
The 10-kilometre race in Prospect Park was supposed to start at 10:00, but it started at 11:10. When the police came, I thought they were going to disperse us and throw us out. But then they made an announcement that when the police car came a second time, the race would start.
When we started the race, I was absolutely the last person. A young girl went ahead of me and told me that she was not going to be last. What an insult! But after two or three hundred metres, she surrendered.
Then, after 600 metres, whom did I see? Vince! He was my first rival. I was watching him and watching him, following him very faithfully. After 1200 metres I saluted him and passed him.
Sri Chinmoy
4 June 1983
A number of times after the run Guru would go to a mall. I recall that often we only knew he was going to a mall, but we had no idea what mall it was! Again we would set out looking for Guru, and inevitably Guru would round us all up in the same place, lining the hallway of the mall, enjoying our Guru in this unique way. The weekend would often entail one other race the next day and a spiritual function with medi- tation, songs and plays on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and evenings. After the Sunday night function at Progress-Promise" we would all pile back in the car for the drive back home, filled to the brim with joy and spiritual fullness of heart. Then we would crawl out of the car and go to work Monday morning only to repeat the weekly sojourn to NY the next weekend.
We were really blessed by these experiences and Guru never ceased to compliment the Canadians for their devotion to their spiritual lives and to their Guru. There are many stories that could be told about would-be accidents that never occurred thanks to the divine Grace.
During those years we really learned the value of self-transcendence on Guru’s spiritual path. This was only one of the myriad ways that Guru encouraged all of us to go beyond our present capacities. Every time I extended myself for a spiritual cause, I always felt a new, clear energy and freedom. Self-transcendence is definitely one of the most important concepts that Guru made very real in our lives and which I really try to continue practicing to this day!
Not only did we drive to New York and back almost every weekend for ten years, but often we followed Guru on his American concert tours, for example to Chicago, Rhode Island, Boston, Philadelphia and so on, almost always with very sketchy directions, at best. Most of the time it was better to have no directions at all than the ones disciples typed out for us! Paramita once suggested, on our way to Chicago, that a real map might come in handy. I figured that any RCMP officer worth his salt didn’t need a map! Anyway, through thousands of miles of driving through sleet and snow, Guru always seemed to get us where we needed to go, map or not.
I never knew that my RCMP days of driving around looking for speeders and other law-breakers would take a spiritual turn. Never did I dream that years later I would be driving literally tens of thousands of miles a year looking for my spiritual Guru.
'The Banana Scouts' for the Canoe Trip
One year, Paramita was looking for a new venue for camping for our annual Canadian canoe trio and I knew of a river in New Brunswick that, from what I remembered, might be the perfect camping place. So Hiranmoyi and I drove to Edmunson, New Brunswick, with the 'yellow banana' canoe on our roof rack. There we hooked up with the park warden, and he explained that the river was now faster-moving than it used to be. We decided, in spite of the river’s conditions, to scout it out anyway for a canoe trip. He took us to an entry point and we arranged to have him pick us up in a couple of days. Then the fun began!
Let’s just put it this way: we were caught in the flow of a set of rapids and we were almost capsized on many occasions. As I recall, Hiranmoyi’s contribution to the effort was chanting “Supreme, Supreme, Supreme" at least a thousand times, while I hopped in and out trying to prevent the canoe from capsizing in the rapids. At some point we ended up in a fishing camp where the water was very still, and we rested for the night. We arrived back at our van two days later completely exhausted from the entire undertaking, and needless to say we had long before concluded that this was not an option for the canoe trip!
Now the story continues. About ten minutes after we got into the car, leave it to Hiranmoyi to say, “How far is it from here to New York?" I replied, “At least 15 hours." Without missing a beat, and with the canoe on the car roof, we called Ashrita to find out what was happening the next day in New York and then left from Fredericton. We drove all night until we reached a park outside Queens, where Guru was running a half-marathon. We spotted Niriha’s head poking out of a car with her camera, and then we knew we were in the right place. We dragged ourselves out of the car, put on our shoes and Hiranmoyi joined the start of the run and completed it.
Her time for the half-marathon was 2:11! We were later told that, at the start, Guru had seen us and said, “I thought Vince and Susan were in Canada this weekend." That’s how much aspiration and energy we had in those days – we would just pick up and do the impossible whenever we received an inner prompting from Guru!
Saved by an Inner Voice
One day we were coming back to Queens, driving along the Grand Central service road, when I clearly heard Hiranmoyi’s voice scream, “Vince, turn now!" Acting upon her command, I swerved the car to the right and prevented a car that was running a red light from hitting me broadside on the driver’s side. Hiranmoyi knew nothing about the oncoming car, nor did she outwardly call out to me, but the Supreme used her voice to warn me of impending disaster. Our car had minor damage, but nothing like it would have been. Very shaken, we immediately parked the car and inwardly expressed our sincere gratitude for having been saved in such a miraculous way.
A $1 Bill Means a Million!
In the early days I used to drive all night to New York and then come in to the Smile of the Beyond to peel vegetables at 4 or 5 a.m. Since I was a (very part-time) Smile worker, I had the privilege of passing by Guru when he was visiting the Smile and putting out my hand like the other boys did. Guru pressed a new $1 bill in my hand. I literally felt like a 7-year-old boy with a million bucks!
A Grown Man Forced to the Point of Tears
For the last ten years of working in the government, all I could think of was our comings and goings to New York or wherever Guru was in the world. One time, as a 50-year-old, I sat in front of my boss and actually cried when he told me that I could not take time off work to go to the spiritual retreat or “Celebrations." My boss finally let me go, but he told me that I would have to quit my job if any problems with “the system" for which I was responsible occurred in my absence. Fortunately nothing happened, which just goes to prove that, if you do the right thing, everything else falls into place.
I was able to take early retirement from the government at the age of 54, and shortly after that Guru gave me a new job, a much more desirable and challenging job, when he told me to swim the English Channel. No retirement for me!
