No refuge from the Florida lady

On the last day, I went to my sister’s place for an hour. We were talking, talking, talking. My sister was cutting jokes with me and I was cutting jokes with her. She was saying, “Take care of your health. I can see how fat you have become.”

I said, “I have lost weight.”

On the last day, my sister was giving me absolutely so much joy. Alas, the Florida lady! How could she come into my sister’s room at the nursing home? When I saw her, I said, “O my God!” My sister was so sad and upset. Of all people, that lady was coming with some flowers, standing ten metres behind us, near the other patients. I said, “O God, this is too much, too much!”

Then I looked at my sister and I meditated very powerfully for four or five minutes. I said, “I may come once or twice more, but today is the last day. We have cut so many jokes. Now let me meditate. I am not going to pay any attention to that lady. You also do not pay any attention to her. Let us meditate.”

When I was about to leave, the Florida lady said, “Please wait, wait. These flowers are from Sri Aurobindo’s room.”

I was so surprised. I said, “How, how could you get flowers from Sri Aurobindo’s room?”

Then she said, “Oh, they are not actually from Sri Aurobindo’s room, but while I was plucking them, I thought of Sri Aurobindo’s room. So I brought these flowers.”

First she said they were from Sri Aurobindo’s room. Then she said she thought of Sri Aurobindo’s room while plucking them. The last time I went to Sri Aurobindo’s room in January, she was there to bother me. This time I did not go. Perhaps she knew somehow. Perhaps she had been observing me. When I challenged her about the flowers, she said, “No, but I was thinking of Sri Aurobindo’s room when I picked them.”

She brought the flowers near my sister to give them to her, but I got disgusted and I started to move away. Instead of giving the flowers to my sister, that lady had to follow me! Look how sincere her compassion for my sister was!