A kind of love not from this world

On December 21, 1969, Guru came to Puerto Rico for a short three-day visit. The first meeting with Guru was on a Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. Everybody was waiting for him because he had gone out for a walk.

The older disciples were downstairs inside the Puerto Rico Centre with all of us seekers, talking to us about Guru while we waited for him. I had had many, many dreams of Guru by that time, so I was telling them about some of my dreams.

Eventually we went outside. The Centre was located towards the end of a hill. I was facing down the hill as we spoke. Suddenly my hands spontaneously folded and I turned around to look up the hill.

At the top of the hill I vividly saw a young Indian man coming down and playing with a yo-yo. Everyone asked me how I knew it was him.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “Is it him?”
“Yes, it’s him,” they assured me.

It didn’t take long for Guru to come down the hill, and there he was right in front of us. He was looking at us and smiling at each of us individually. I found myself melting, totally melting, at the love that I felt flowing from him. It was the kind of love not from this world, and I knew that it came directly from God. With that love came this incredibly beautiful smile that went right through you and filled everything inside of you.

And that was how I met my Guru for the very first time.

God loves me,
God loves my crying heart,
God loves my smiling soul.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. My perfection-promise to God, Agni Press, 1993