I Am Still Alive

This afternoon I went for a walk, and I walked for two miles. Nothing happened in the second mile, but in the first mile everything happened! First, I was greeted by an elderly gentleman. He looked at me and somehow he knew my name. He said, "Sri Chinmoy, are you still…?" Then he did not say anything.

I completed the sentence for him. "Do you mean, am I still alive?"

He looked at me very curiously.

Next, I saw a very tall, thin man. As soon as he saw me, he started pretending to lift weights with both arms. He was smiling and lifting his arms.

A little further on, I saw a young man, perhaps twenty years old, driving a car very fast. As soon as I saw the car, I stepped out of the street and onto the sidewalk. So many times I make solemn promises that I will not walk in the street.

Then I saw that the car was coming very near the sidewalk. As it drew level with me, the young man said, "Sri, Sri, Sri!" He also raised his hands over his head.

It is dangerous to walk in the street. I am begging all of you not to do it. In this case, I was not walking in the middle of the street, but on the side. I could see that one car was parked just ahead of where I was walking. As I drew closer to the car, all of a sudden it pulled away and went very fast. Then it stopped. The gentleman who was driving said to me, "I did not mean to frighten you. I want to congratulate you." He was a very nice man.

This all happened near 150th Street. He could have honked, but no, he just accelerated the car very quickly and frightened me like anything.

31 March 1999