Last Meeting With Sri Chinmoy And Alo Devi During Their Trip To Puerto Rico⁸

Alo Devi: With my overwhelming gratitude, I want to offer my soul's grateful appreciation to all of you who have served us so devotedly during this past month. Those self-giving disciples who have cooked for us and washed our clothes, those who have cleaned this Centre in this intense heat, asking nothing in return — you have truly made a golden niche in our spiritual hearts. There you reside inside our glowing gratitude.

Those who arranged television interviews and radio programmes; those who have driven us to so many appointments in the city, and others who have taken us around for sightseeing and leisure; and those who have selflessly brought flowers for the shrine, candles and incense; those who have cooked and baked most delicious refreshments for every meeting — you are seated in the shrine of our thankful souls.

Without ego and without demand, you have served the Supreme in us. We know how much time, effort and physical energy have gone into your service. You have asked for nothing except to labour soulfully for your Guru and Alo. We have been wanting to tell you how much your pure and beautiful self-giving has touched us. Self-offering is one of the true qualities of the Puerto Rican soul and you have manifested it most divinely.

I have not yet mentioned Sudha, who has worked the hardest of all, as she always does. She is our President, and all the responsibility falls upon her. We make all demands on her personally and, unfortunately, we berate her for all the group's shortcomings and all the Centre's mistakes, although it is often not her own fault. Sudha bears everything with a rock-like endurance and a true humility. The Master and I want to thank her again, as we have done so many times in the past three years, for all that she does and all that she has borne in running this Centre.

At the beginning, she obtained the premises here; she paid the entire rent from her own money, she furnished the entire Centre, including three sets of private quarters for Guru, myself and herself. She set up the Library and later the Printing Room. She bought all the flowers, incense and refreshments for each meeting twice a week. In the outer world, Sudha created the AUM Centre in Puerto Rico and, in the inner world, she was the very life breath and direct instrument of Gurudev's divine consciousness.

The disciples here used to tell us that when they opened their eyes during meditation here, and looked at Sudha's face, they saw Guru's face instead of hers. This is the outer proof of her inner oneness with us.

As Gurudev said in his farewell talk in June, the Puerto Rican Centre is the Mother of all our Centres. It is not only because this Centre was established first, but because the aspiration here is most intense and the spirituality is very deep and full of consciousness. This comes from the culture of Puerto Rico and the spiritual nature of the Puerto Rican soul.

It is natural that we should look to this Centre to give a kind of divine example to all our other Centres. Our New York Centre is our geographical headquarters because we live there, but our Puerto Rican Centre is truly our spiritual headquarters because our souls have found their true home within you, all our closest and dearest disciples.

Now we want to start growing, not only inwardly, but also outwardly. You know that the Supreme has ordained that Guru should become world-famous. This is so that Guru's consciousness, which represents the Consciousness of the Supreme, can inundate the world. Those of you who can help us fulfil that mission, to spread Guru's Light all over the world, will have our most powerful blessings. We want Sri Chinmoy to enter into the world arena, not for name and fame, but because it is God's Will; it is God's way of offering a new, illumining spirituality to the entire world.

So if any of you here in Puerto Rico can help him to become known in other countries or in cities in this part of the world, we would be most grateful to you. You will be participating in a very important plan, a Divine Plan conceived by the Lord Supreme Himself.

Guru and I want to offer very special gratitude to three of our young disciples: Bandhana (Lily Casanova), Hladini (Katherine Wood Marina), and Chaitanya (Juan Marina). It is they who have learned to run our precious printing press here which publishes Guru's spiritual writings. Without these three divine soldiers of the Supreme, we would have no publications. They have worked like slaves in this terrible heat to put out our two recent AUM magazines. They work for hours at a time, standing on their feet, running back and forth, doing all the manual jobs that are required to maintain the printing machine. These three divine servitors have never made one word of complaint and have offered only love, joy and consecrated, meticulous service.

Guru and I have seen and observed all this, but we have never thanked them adequately. We want them to know that their self-effacing work, their divine effort, and their souls' sweetest contribution to our special mission here in Puerto Rico have evoked our deepest gratitude. Our hearts and souls are yours, dearest Bandana, Hladini and Chaitanya. We bless you in our deepest love.