The Time Difference

One time, Ann Harrison went to California to visit a friend. Before she left, she gave me her friend's telephone number. So early one morning I placed a call to that number. I did not know it was only three o'clock in the morning in California I thought the time was the same all over America.

Her friend answered the phone, and I said, "Is Ann Harrison there?"

Her friend answered, "What! Do you know what time it is?" She was so mad.

She happened to be the spiritual leader of that community.

Afterwards I told Ann that her friend had blessed me and Ann felt miserable.

Many years later, this friend came to our meditation. She was from the Self-Realization Fellowship. She bowed down to me and said, "Swami, I am so happy that you hold meditations." Immediately I remembered that she was the one who insulted me on the telephone, but I did not have the heart to tell her.

[Source: "My Talk to the Walls" in Sri Chinmoy, My Consulate Years, Agni Press / Aum Publications, Jamaica, NY, 1996, p.106.]