Switzerland

Then we went to Switzerland: to Zurich, the main city of the German-speaking part. There we had a wonderful experience. I spoke at a college where there were two hundred or more in the audience. They seemed to range from twelve years of age to about twenty-three.  
 
As soon as I ascended the platform, the students started sneezing, smiling and doing all kinds of mischievous things. For them, the most important thing was to giggle. Oh, what kinds of things they did! For three minutes this went on. Then I said to them, "Look, you are smiling outwardly. It is such an easy thing to do." I myself started smiling at them. "Smiling is such an easy thing to do. You are doing it and I am doing it. Can you do something much more difficult? Can you smile inwardly?  
 
"You are children and you are always fond of difficult games. Now I want you to smile inwardly. It is difficult to smile inwardly. You try." While I was smiling at them, I was using my soul's light. As I smiled at each child, he or she became calm and quiet. Another thing I was telling them: "Since you are all children, you always want to be courageous. Smile inwardly and make others feel that you have done something great."  
 
By the time they smiled inwardly, they had all become quiet. Then I gave my talk. It was very well received. The older ones asked very significant questions. The youngest ones were about twelve; the oldest, maybe twenty-three. They asked me very significant questions on meditation. I was so pleased with them.  
 
[...]  
 
After an hour or so, they were supposed to leave to play basketball. Therefore almost all of them left. But there were twenty or twenty-five left. Then the President of the college said, "While they were misbehaving, I was looking at you and you were smiling at them. If it had been me, I would have stood up and told them to get out of this place. I was thinking of giving one boy a slap to make him behave properly. I was about to do that. But you were smiling at them to make them behave. You have real power."  
 
Then everything was over. One or two students wanted to meditate. They were about twenty years old. I said, "Now two persons want to meditate. If anybody else wants to meditate, I am ready to take you to the other room to meditate." They applauded for seven or ten minutes. A few professors and the chaplain came with them. They all came inside another room for meditation. The professors were directly in front of me. For five minutes, I told them how to meditate. I taught them how to make the mind calm and quiet. After the instructions, they had a wonderful meditation.  
 
Then they said to me, "Please give us your picture. your photograph!" But where were the pictures? Unfortunately my Transcendental Pictures were all exhausted. (I wrote to New York and X. sent twelve or fifteen pictures they had at the Centre.) So I gave them my extra passport pictures. Of course, in my passport picture, there is light. I also had with me a few other pictures that I would never give to anybody, as they do not show any inner qualities; they are only informal snapshots. But about twenty-five passport and other photos I did give them. They were so happy that they could take my picture with them. But I felt so miserable that they needed spiritual pictures of me, because they wanted to meditate at home, and where were my pictures?  
 
A few days later many pictures came from X. in New York. We started distributing them at different places. Even then, after a few days we ran short. X. had sent only the few photos remaining in the New York Centre, and then we started giving out ordinary pictures.  
 
Now Switzerland: I like the place very much—very solid, clean, orderly. Switzerland is the land of dynamism and the land of beauty. Both Alo and I were very happy in Switzerland. We felt that the spiritual life could be accepted there because of its solid base and its ethereal beauty.  
 
We went to the mountain-tops on a cable-machine and had a wonderful experience. I think you saw some pictures we took on the mountain peaks. We had a really successful experience in Switzerland, and we met some seekers whom we think will help us in the future. 

[Extracts from "Anecdotes about the European Lecture Tour, 27 January, AUM Centre, San Juan, Puerto Rico" in Sri Chinmoy, The Master Speaks To The Puerto Rican Disciples 1966-1972, Agni Press, Jamaica, NY, 1993, pp. 79-112.]