One chance in a million

On the 17th of November, 1999, Guru lifted a total of 94,290 pounds in one evening, including a 300-pound dumbbell in each arm simultaneously. He was sixty-eight years old.

The next morning, I went to the airport and picked up some tapes of these lifts that the American disciples had sent over. All night I worked on trying to put them on the wire service of Reuters, a major news agency. Reuters even sent a cab to collect the tape at 3 a.m.

However, the video recording of this lift that came from New York was on a different system. Reuters was on one system and the tapes from America were a different type and size. The people working on the night shift at the news agency couldn't find an adapter.

I teach children how to play the clarinet and the flute. Even though I had had no sleep that night, the next day I taught children for 12 hours solid – without a break. That's what happens with me: no break. I taught for the whole day, but I felt fine.

As soon as I went to sleep the following night, the phone rang. It was the disciples from New York asking me to try again to submit tapes to the British media. That night I was working on it again. I mentioned it to some of my friends, the people I was living with. I said, "Oh, I'm so tired." They told me to turn the phone off or put it on silent mode.

This was my answer: “Guru may never, ever call in my whole life. He has never called here. There is one chance in a million that if I put my phone on answering machine, that would be when he would call me for the first time.”

Anyway, I did a little work and then I went to sleep.

At five a.m., the phone rang. It was Nishtha. She said, "Sahana, Guru wants to talk to you." It was THAT time when Guru called, the first time he called!

He said, "Marvellous, marvellous, marvellous. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you. Excellent, excellent, excellent!"

Prepare yourself always  
For the Call  
Of the Inner Pilot Supreme.  

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 5, Agni Press, 1998