A Child's Question

The day before yesterday, around 7:15 in the evening, I went out for a walk. I had a very unusual experience. I covered about 300 metres on 150th Street. I was walking on the sidewalk. Two young boys between ten and twelve years old were doing that famous thing: skateboarding. It frightens me all the time. They were doing it on the street, and then one boy jumped up on the sidewalk. I could not believe it!

At that time, I happened to be in a very high consciousness. Then this young boy came and just stood in front of me with his skateboard. He looked at me very seriously and said, "Excuse me, do you believe in God?"

Then I smiled at him. It was very difficult for me to talk. I said, "I do believe in God."

He asked me, "Which religion do you follow?"

I could not believe I was getting this kind of question from a boy ten or twelve years old. I could not enter into any real philosophy, so I said, "I belong to the Hindu tradition and I come from India."

Then the other boy arrived. He said, "We know you, we know much about you." Both of them started smiling and then they went away.

I could not believe that this little boy looked straight into my eyes and said, "Do you believe in God?"

24 October 2000

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