Oxford and Cambridge
At Oxford, I had a sad experience due to my own stupidity, although Alo blames herself. It was extremely cold, and it was raining. Inside the college where I was due to speak, they ushered me into an ante-room containing a large, comforting fireplace. I was standing with my back toward this old-fashioned fireplace, trying to get warm and dry. I was wearing my grey overcoat and my silk Indian dhoti and kurta. I had planned to take off my overcoat only at the time of the talk, and now I was trying to dry off and warm myself up. It was so cold in that room that I was practically standing against the fireplace. I stood there for about fifteen minutes while the steam escaped from my wet coat.
All of a sudden there was the smell of something burning. My coat had caught fire and my silk robes were also about to catch fire. I jumped. I said, "Alo, I have caught fire!" At that very instant, she had jumped, and said, "Deva! You're on fire!" She immediately pulled the coat off. It was smelling terribly, smelling like anything. Five minutes later I had to give my talk. It was a talk on "The Higher Worlds."I was standing on the platform, and I was giving my talk, and I was smelling like anything. For ten or fifteen minutes there was an unbearable smell of burning, acrid cloth. It was a foul, unbearable odour. I was giving my talk, and there was this smell of burning cloth. What a situation! But fortunately, by God's Grace, my Indian robes did not catch fire. (Alo said her inner being was constantly telling her to ask me to move away from the fireplace at least two or three feet, but she was tired and didn't do it. She was very familiar with British fireplaces from her year at the University of London in 1955.)
Although I was smelling like anything, we had a wonderful question and answer period. The questions were very sincere. They asked about Hinduism and many other things. There were no problems: no smoking, no foul behaviour or anything like that. When the meeting was over in Oxford, several people made written comments quite voluntarily. Some young girls, university students, said, "We envy his peace. During the time he talked and while answering questions, he was inundated with peace. The whole room was inundated with peace and we sensed this."
Other students said, "Other swamis who have talked about spiritual matters have been very difficult to understand. But here Sri Chinmoy has made it very easy for us. It seems to us that he has expressed everything as in a parable. Although we are all university students, and we thought he would give us mental nourishment, he has given us our hearts' nourishment and our souls' nourishment."So this was Oxford.
Now for Cambridge. At Cambridge University, six or seven professors came. They taught subjects like Indian archaeology, Southeast Asian art, Japanese language, Indonesian music, etc. They asked me many significant questions.
One student who was studying international law was so moved; he thought that spirituality was not meant for him because he would have to be dishonest, to some extent, when he entered into his career. He would be a lawyer, and he knew that lawyers, at times, resort to lies. After the talk, he said to me, "If I follow your spiritual path, I will be able to be a chosen instrument. I will not have to lie. The Supreme will speak through me. I will be able to escape the necessity of deception." He was deeply moved.
In another University, I forget which one, I spoke about human love and divine love. I said, "Human love is an express train, destination: frustration. Divine love is a local train, destination: illumination." One boy was so deeply moved. He said to me, "You are absolutely right about human love. Divine love is something I yearn to experience. I am going to meditate. That is where I will find divine love."
A woman who is a biographer of Sri Aurobindo and other eminent figures asked me very serious questions. Some of them were about my past, and I answered them.
There were other professors and well-known writers who asked me very sincere questions. I was really successful there. Sri Aurobindo had studied at King's College, Cambridge.
The woman from Trinity College who was the biographer of Sri Aurobindo, knew that I was from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and knew that I had written many, many things about Sri Aurobindo while I was in India. After asking me quite a few questions, as I've mentioned, she came to me and said, "About six years ago, one of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo gave a talk at this very College: Trinity College. This gentleman gave a two-and-a-half-hour talk. He did not allow people to ask him questions. They found it very difficult to go up to the level he spoke about: the higher mind, the overmind, etc. Many of them left. At the end of his lecture he was feeling physically cold. He said, "Do you have anything here for recreation?" The young boys answered, "Yes, downstairs we have a ping-pong table." So this Indian speaker ran to the basement with them and played ping-pong to warm up.
So the lady biographer said to me, "Sri Chinmoy, it is again very cold here. Do you want to play ping-pong to warm up?" I said, "No, I have spoken, and now I have brought forward my inner heat. So I don't have to play ping-pong." She began cutting jokes about my predecessor.
So these talks at Cambridge and Oxford were very, very significant. The two universities really deserve one's appreciation, as do Harvard and Yale in the United States. My audiences heard my talks with great seriousness and sincere appreciation.
