from Swami Kriyananda
The phone rang, more than once, but I saw no reason to interrupt my meditation to answer it. I was living at Mt. Washington, headquarters for Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles. My room had a small basement and I had turned that space into a meditation “cave.”
I was responsible for our meditation groups and in that capacity was scheduled to fly to Oakland to meet with leaders and members there. I knew who was calling. It was Bernard Tesiere, who was to accompany me to the plane, but I checked my watch and saw that I still had plenty of time.
A short time later, my meditation was again disturbed, now by urgent knocking at the door of my room. “Why are they so impatient?” I thought. This time, I switched on the light before looking at my watch. It was a whole hour later than I thought! My wrist had been turned at an angle and I hadn’t read the watch correctly! If I missed the plane my entire program would be interrupted.
Quickly as possible, I gathered my things, and a few other friends to help, and we rushed to the car. I did the driving. As I speeded along, one friend watched out the back for police cars, the other looked out the front. We all prayed urgently to Master for help, that I make the plane and not be stopped for speeding.
There were about seventeen stoplights along the way. All were green! When I reached the check-in counter I asked the woman there to call the gate and if possible hold the plane. As I ran across the lobby, I reached into my pocket for the ticket. Some loose change came out with it and fell onto the floor, but I couldn’t even stop to pick it up.
They did hold the plane. So I made it in time.
