Inner blessings

There was an Indian girl, Vijaya, who worked in the same section with me. She came from South India, from Kerala, our divine Shivaram’s place. She was very nice and kind to me, very fond of me. Some time after I left the Consulate, she left her position and got married. When she had a child, she wanted me to bless it because, according to her, I was a real swami, a real saint. A few years ago, she brought her child to my house for blessings. She said, “Look, we were in the same section and now you have become a saint, a swami.” She was very proud that I was an Indian. She was very nice, and I blessed the child.

In 1981, when I was giving some lectures and concerts in Canada, Vijaya happened to be in Toronto. She wanted to come and see me, but she could not come because of family problems. Her husband also likes me very much.

In India, whenever you see a swami, a spiritual man, you give him something. So she put fifty dollars in an envelope and wrote, “For the Swami.” She gave the money to Shivaram to give to me so that she could get inner blessings for her family and for herself.

Even in those days, when I was a junior clerk and she was a junior clerk, she saw something in me.