Question: A girl from my Centre arrived in New York today for the first time, with your special permission. She does not know anyone here, except for me, so I sat for ten or fifteen minutes in one of the Divine Enterprises with her and told her a few things about New York and the Celebrations. Then I was criticised by another disciple for speaking privately with her. Was it a mistake?

Sri Chinmoy: In your case, you have not done the wrong thing. I know you very well; you are a good boy. She is a very new disciple, you said — only six months on our path, so you were telling her about our activities. That you can also do afterwards, when you go back home, but you were telling her what we have been doing during these two weeks because she had my permission to come late. Very good!

In this case, somebody is eager to know about the activities which took place before she arrived. If she has eagerness, will you not tell her? And where were you telling her? In one of our Divine Enterprises, where there were so many people. No, no — do not go to this extreme. You are the Centre leader, and there were so many people at the Divine Enterprise. You were talking about Centre activities; there was no gossip.