Now I am telling you a juicy story. Many years ago I gave a Peace Concert in Washington, D.C., and I was introduced by the then Ambassador of India. His name was Siddhartha Shankar Ray – so kind, so compassionate. He comes from a very noble family. Once he said to me, “We are silly ambassadors. We come for a few years, then we disappear. But you are the real ambassador, literary ambassador. You will remain permanently in the heart of America.”
Before the concert, it was decided that I would meet with a few VIPs, very important people. About nine or ten important people were in the room. I greeted them and gave them flowers. A young woman came up to me and said she wanted to interview me. I said, “I shall have to perform now.” She said, “But I will not be able to stay until the very end.” I said, “I am sorry. Now I shall have to perform.”
In the concert, I started with the song, “Sakali Tomari Ichha.”20 Then I sang “Ami To Tomare Chahini Jibane.” At that time I had practised these two songs many, many times. Then afterwards with the harmonium I sang many songs. On that day I sang very well. A few months later I got a copy of a magazine named Jagari. There was an article saying that I have no singing voice. It went on, saying my music is tolerable, but not my singing voice. The article was written by the lady who had wanted the interview.
The funniest thing is that Jagari’s editor happened to be my very good friend. He was a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram quite a few times, although he lived in Calcutta. Tremendous admiration he had for me. It was this magazine editor who had declared a prize for a poetry competition when I was quite young, 15 or 16, and I sent one of my poems. In the contest, first was Nishikanta, one of the main Ashram poets, second was Dilip Roy, such a great poet, and then me, a 15- or 16-year-old, came third (see p.137 for full story). Years ago, the same editor wrote me a letter. He wanted to print an article in his magazine about my activities, with information from me directly. He was my friend, but because I was busy, I did not respond. So perhaps he got malicious pleasure by printing an article written by that lady about my Peace Concert in Washington, D.C., about how badly I performed. He knew that my brother Chitta and Mantu lived in Pondicherry. He sent them a copy so I would know that he was inspired to print an article against me. When I heard from my brothers, I laughed and said, “I do not want a copy.”
Then five or six months later, he wrote a letter asking my brother Chitta to send him material about my achievements in America. If anybody wants to know anything about me, my brother will give the whole world. Lots of material my brother sent to him. Can you imagine what the editor did? He wrote more than a five-page article about me, all positive, with deep appreciation, using the material he got from my brother. His name was Apurba Kumar Saha.
So you go up, stay for five seconds, then you go down, then again you go up. In the poetry competition years ago, hundreds of poems they got in Bengali. I stood third, and the editor and I became friends. Then this is what that lady did. I did not have the slightest idea that she was connected with Jagari magazine. So never forget: Sakali Tomari Ichha – everything is Your Will, Mother Kali.
“Sakali Tomari Ichha”<em> is a famous devotional song in the tradition of Shyama Sangeet, a genre of Bengali devotional songs dedicated to Mother Kali, composed by Dewan Ramdulal Nandi, Hindu poet of 19th-century Bengal. It was widely sung by Pannalal Bhattacharya and others, with the first line translated as “O Mother, all is done after Thine own sweet Will.”<p>↩
From:Sri Chinmoy,Concern: A Reality of the Heart, Agni Press, 2025
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/crh