God speaks through me²⁷

At seven o’clock I went out to run. O God, with such difficulty I ran one mile. When I was nearing the starting line again, an old man shouted, “Hey! Good morning!” He was screaming and looking around.

I thought to myself, “Perhaps he is just looking around and not speaking to me.” But again he screamed, “Hey! Good morning!” So I answered, “Good morning.”

He had a cane. Next he shouted, “Come here!”

O my God, morning command has come! He was commanding me, “You help me cross the street. I was waiting for the bus, but the bus wouldn’t stop for me.”

He was on the wrong side of the street. Why should the bus stop or go on the wrong side to get him? He was an old man of about 80 and he walked very slowly as I helped him across the street. He said, “What is your name?” in a commanding way.

I said, “Ghose!”

“Ghose? I had a friend named Ghose. He is dead.”

I said, “I am alive.”

After we crossed the street, he commanded, “Now you wait with me here until the bus arrives.” I have to wait for the Sunday bus? But if I say no, then where is my sympathetic heart? So I said, “I can do something else. I have many students here. I will send one of my students in three minutes.”

“Three minutes?” he said.

“Five minutes,” I promised. “In five minutes one of my students will be here to wait with you.”

He said he had to get breakfast on Sutphin Boulevard and then go out shopping. On Sunday, what kind of shopping will he do? Anyway I had promised to send someone in five minutes, but I was unable to walk even. I was getting such pain!

I tried to run, but as soon as I took two or three steps, I saw a car come and stop in front of the old man. It was Nathan, and Vinaya was driving. So God speaks through me.

I shouted to them, “Stop!” but they had already stopped. I asked them to take him for breakfast. As I am lame, the old man could barely get into the car. Finally, Nathan took his leg and lifted it into the front.

The old man never believed that I would send someone. He thought that I would just go home, but I would have called Ashrita to get someone. He didn’t believe me, but God wanted him to see my sincerity.

This man lives in Ranjana’s building, behind her apartment.