Around 2014, a Chinese lady came to eat at our restaurant, the Oneness-Fountain-Heart. Our restaurant was located quite close to Flushing, which has a large Chinese population, but until that time we had not had that many Chinese customers. She came a second and third time and then she said to me: “I like your restaurant, I like your food, I will bring you 1000 customers!” I smiled and thanked her and thought, well let us see how much of this will materialize…

It happened that this lady was part of a Buddhist group in Flushing. She started to bring their friends who were all vegetarians, and then their friends started to bring their friends and so on… The percentage of Chinese customers steadily increased in our restaurant and they were all very friendly and spiritual people. Sometimes I joked with her when she came and said: “Ok, now we are at 365, or yes, we are getting close to 500. I am sure that in the end she brought these 1000 customers and it was simply an amazing experience.

Five or six times we had large parties with them of up to 35 or 40 people. All Chinese Buddhists, sometimes they also brought some monks in their dark red robes. I asked already at the first party if we should sing some of the songs that Sri Chinmoy composed in honour of the Lord Buddha and they enthusiastically agreed. So we brought some extra singers (one time even Paree’s group came) and each time we sang 4-5 Buddha songs and it was a real experience! They were filming, some crying, many with folded hands and for us it was always a very uplifting occasion.

PS. They were also very good eaters (including the monks) and always ordered a lot. Then they shared all the dishes among themselves.

During my father's ascent to the other world, I could not only feel but actually see the inner workings of our Guru from the other world. This is one of many such experiences.

I stepped into my father's hospital room for one last time when he had just passed away. The sun shone gloriously through the large picture window. The clouds and sky formed that beautiful, familiar pattern of rays of sunlight emanating from the clouds that you see in books and paintings signifying God's presence or arrival. The rest of the hospital was cold but the sunlight warmed the room.

My father’s bed was neat and tidy, with the exception of an unraveled hand towel by my father's feet. I ignored it, then looked at my father's face, and the thought flashed for one second through my mind, I wished that his jaw was closed. I came to find out later that after someone leaves the body, as the jaw muscles relax, it is customary for the staff to place a small towel under the person's chin to keep the mouth closed. The towel placed under my father's chin by the hospice nurse had rolled away.

I first prayed to my father's soul, "Just fly! Fly!" I then prayed to Guru, "Please take him to the highest place!" Guru had often told us that he would accompany our parents’ souls to the higher worlds after they left the body.

Over the course of the next hour or so, as I was arranging things, and would occasionally look over, I saw that my father's mouth, on its own, began to close ... then closed completely ... then a slight smile formed ... and eventually it was a full smile! The hospice nurse was in total disbelief! My cousin, who had come to help me, was in shock (and filmed it on her tablet as proof!).

Guru let me know that I did not have to worry. He heard my prayers and he had taken my father to the highest place!

A miracle is nothing other than
The inner light coming to the fore
To increase our faith
In our spiritual life.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 16, 15859, Agni Press, 1999