Turned Away by the Gatekeeper

At our apartment in Hawaii, the gatekeeper is quite short and fat. I call everybody 'fat' now that I have lost weight! Every day he sees me going in and out. One day, when I went out, I did not have with me my key card to get back into the building. I said to him, "Could you please open the door for me? And you can see the name. It is Ghose."

He barked at me, "Show me your identification."

I said, "I am not carrying any identification."

"You do not carry identification? The police will arrest you," he said.

He was delaying and delaying. A young girl who was there was shocked at how rudely he was behaving towards one of the tenants. I thought of calling Savyasachi, since he has another card. I told the man that I would return with the key card. My intention was that I would not come back for at least two hours.

When I returned, the gatekeeper was still there. I gave him the card. He took it. He was smiling at me. Then we smiled at each other.

The following day, he was standing outside the gate. Usually he sits on the chair inside. He saw me, signalled to me, smiled and showed me the way upstairs. I could not believe it was the same man!

11 December 1998

Hawaii

From:Sri Chinmoy,The Canvas of Time, Madal Bal, Czech Republic, 2019
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/cat