You know how to fool everyone¹

As I was coming out of the plane at the Eugene, Oregon airport, there was an old man with a cane right in front of me. With his right hand he was holding the rail, and he was dragging his legs. I was behind him doing the same because of all my back pain and leg pain. He turned around, mad, and said, “What are you doing?” He thought I was mocking him. He said he was 76 years old. I said that I was not mocking him, only I had leg pain. He believed me.

When I got to the motel, I went to the gift shop to buy some candy. The saleslady started to talk to me. She was saying, “How are you? Did you have a nice day?” and other things. Salespeople like to talk to everyone, so I didn’t think she was talking to me because she knew who I was. I only smiled at her.

When I gave her a dollar for the candy, she gave me back a quarter. Then she said that she had gone to one of my meditations once, and had seen me meditating in my dhoti. Now I was in western clothes. So she said, “You know how to fool everyone.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,The world-experience-tree-climber, part 1, Agni Press, 1986
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/we_1