Maitreyi (the leader of the Toronto Sri Chinmoy Centre at that time) taught me how to meditate on Guru's picture. When I had my first meditation, she just showed me a picture, the Transcendental photo of Guru, and said, "Just look at it." That's it. That was the only instruction: “Look at this picture.”

I thought maybe she was a little bit crazy, but she was very peaceful. So I said, "OK, I will try." I sat down and looked at the picture and immediately I saw Guru's big smile. The picture smiled.

When Guru smiled, I was like: “No, no! I'm crazy!” But then again, I felt in my heart a big smile: Happy, happy, happy! I couldn't understand, but I thought: “OK, this is good. I want to continue.”

My mother, Gariyasi, was also meditating. I wrote a letter to Guru to tell him I was meditating, and Guru said, "Come to New York. Come and see me."

Guru asked me to come to the meditation on Sunday morning. I wore a sari, and it was a beautiful meditation. Then he asked me to come up to him and he gave me this blessing, with his hands on my head, and said he was initiating me and that I was officially a disciple.

My only Beloved Supreme,
Do bless my breath
To be Your permanent heart-student.
Do bless.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. My twenty-seven Hungry Prayer-Tears, Agni Press, 1991

During the 70s, we had many art exhibits in downtown Manhattan. We would rent an abandoned building or one storey of a building, maybe for a month. We would clean it up and set up an art gallery.

Now, in the early 70s, there weren't many manifestations, so everybody worked on the gallery. We were very young and more dynamic. So you would do your regular job, and after work you would work all night at the gallery, then go back to work. This would go on for days and days until the gallery was completed.

The landlord would let us do this. He would rent the space out to us, which was quite big. We had to strip everything out, throw out all the old stuff, and then we would paint it and set up Guru's paintings. This was before all Guru's bird paintings, the small bird paintings.

Anyway, the gallery was set up and I was guarding it overnight. Maybe 1974, ’75. I remember I was sitting in a chair and suddenly—this is maybe 2:00 in the morning—the gate to the gallery swung open and several guards came in, followed by Guru.

Now, I had very little contact with Guru in the early days. So this was exciting for me. The guards came in, put Guru's big chair down and a small table with painting implements down next to it. Now that was the closest I'd been to Guru to that point. Guru sat down and I was just staring.

Guru started painting like a tremendous bundle of energy. After Guru was finished, he took a picture of the guards that were guarding that night and then left. I clearly remember that Guru was like this ball of energy. When Guru finished painting and left, then this energy left. It was like, wow!

Other than when I first met Guru, that was my first intimate contact with him.

Just silence the mind.
Lo!
Cosmic energy enters
Into our entire being,
And tremendous energy
Flows in and through us.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 15, Agni Press, 1999

I became a disciple when I was 10 years old. There was a meditation group and my mother had been going to meditate with the group for maybe a few months.

Then there was an exhibition of Guru's Jharna-Kala paintings in London.
There was a film of Guru, who had just completed one hundred thousand paintings. I went to this film and I remember seeing and hearing Tanima's group, the Bengali singers with saris on singing Guru's songs. The music just hit me like this [pointing to her heart].

A few weeks later I was with my mother; we were passing the place where the exhibition was, and I was singing a song. I said, "Mum, where does that tune come from?" It was the most beautiful melody. It was just going round inside me. My mother, of course, didn't know. She didn't remember anything. I said, "You have to tell me where the tune comes from." She couldn't help me.

A few weeks later I found out that it was one of Guru's tunes. It was the original Jharna-Kala song! I always say that was my first connection with Guru, and it was a connection that I made myself. It wasn't until I was 13 that I saw Guru for the first time.

I am happy, supremely happy,
Because my Inner Music Teacher,
God the Supreme Musician,
Takes my aspiration-heart
As His choice instrument.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 228, Agni Press, 1996