My neighbour on 149th Street⁶

One of my neighbours on 149th Street became absolutely my dearest brother-friend in America. He was an Italian and he was quite old. His wife was also old. He and his wife were very stout. He was so fond of me. He said to me, “You went to see the Pope? So, you were there!”

The husband was extremely, extremely fond of me. His love and admiration for me was too much for his wife. One day he became so furious with her because she was not in favour of me. He said, “Today I was very upset with her!” After that incident, she also became my great admirer.

When he died, I went to his wake. For the first time I met with his eldest son. The son was very, very nice to me. I asked him what kind of work he was doing and he said that he was a travel agent. I said, “We can take help from you for our Christmas Trip.”

We did take help from him, but nothing worked out. Our luggage did not arrive. Such unhappy experiences we had. He did not want to offer any compensation. On the contrary, he said many unkind things.

I said, “All right, we shall have nothing more to do with you.” I hoped that the story was all finished.

A few months later he brought two baskets of fruits, one after the other, to my house and he asked me for forgiveness for his behaviour. He said, “How much love my father had for you, how much respect he had! What have I done? What have I said to you? Please forgive me.”

Their house has changed hands many times. Some disciples thought that our Centre could buy that house. Quite unexpectedly, the old man’s soul appeared before me, with such love and affection. I was not meditating at the time. He said, “Never, never, never buy this house! Never buy this house! I do not want you to buy this house! It is no good, no good! I do not want you to buy it!” From the soul’s world he gave me the message. I did not have any particular inner connection with his soul, but the soul came up to me and said, “No, no — never, never!”

So much love the old man had for me.