15. The last illness

Shortly before my father died, he had an attack of pleurisy. One night at twelve o’clock he started perspiring like anything. The doctor came and gave him two or three injections and some powder, and the perspiration stopped. Before that attack he was quite healthy, but afterwards he never got well again. He finally died of a liver problem.

At one point my father and mother were both sick. The two patients were staying in separate rooms. When the doctor came, my father said, “I am not needed. If I die, my wife will take care of the children. Go and look after her.” But my mother said, “Please go and cure him. I am insignificant.” Each of them sent the doctor to take care of the other one! Finally, my father compelled the doctor to take care of my mother first.

So many doctors worked on my mother. My father had only one or two doctors, but my mother had doctor after doctor. She suffered so much.

My father died one year before my mother. This is the proof of their soul’s connection. Both of them had been related to me in a past incarnation.

Sri Chinmoy, Awakening, Citadel Press, Edinburgh, 1988