My Transcendental Photograph⁵

At the Sri Aurobindo Ashram I had many, many, many friends, and a few individuals were perhaps the opposite of friends. One particular individual would not drink a glass of water without criticising me!

Again, I had a mentor who was dearer than the dearest. He was absolutely sure that I had been his Master in this incarnation! When his Master passed on, this mentor came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and became Sri Aurobindo’s disciple. He was absolutely sure that I had been his first Guru. He loved me, and I always basked in the sunshine of his affection, sweetness and fondness. If anybody said anything unkind about me, that person would have a serious problem with my mentor! If anybody criticised me, my mentor would throw a book or magazine at him — whatever he had in his hand.

When this particular critic saw my dearest mentor, he would always make fun of me or say something unkind, and my mentor would become furious. Whatever was in his hand, he would throw at that fellow.

In the early days we printed my Transcendental Photograph in our books. When my mentor saw my Transcendental Photograph in one of my books, he could not stop showing it to people. He could not restrain himself from showing the Transcendental Photograph to that fellow in the street. He was fully prepared. If my so-called enemy said something unkind, then my mentor would throw the book right at him.

But what happened? When he saw the picture, my detractor looked at it and bowed to it most sincerely and most devotedly. Then he said, “Here, Chinmoy is not a man; here he is God.” He bowed to the Transcendental Photograph very sincerely and devotedly and said to my mentor, “I am bowing to this picture. Here he is not a human being. Here he is God. I am bowing to the God in Sri Chinmoy, but not to Chinmoy.” My mentor said that, in this way, that fellow accepted my divinity.

This is the power of my Transcendental Photograph!