'Guru was like this ball of energy'

During the 70s, we had many art exhibits in downtown Manhattan. We would rent an abandoned building or one storey of a building, maybe for a month. We would clean it up and set up an art gallery.

Now, in the early 70s, there weren't many manifestations, so everybody worked on the gallery. We were very young and more dynamic. So you would do your regular job, and after work you would work all night at the gallery, then go back to work. This would go on for days and days until the gallery was completed.

The landlord would let us do this. He would rent the space out to us, which was quite big. We had to strip everything out, throw out all the old stuff, and then we would paint it and set up Guru's paintings. This was before all Guru's bird paintings, the small bird paintings.

Anyway, the gallery was set up and I was guarding it overnight. Maybe 1974, ’75. I remember I was sitting in a chair and suddenly—this is maybe 2:00 in the morning—the gate to the gallery swung open and several guards came in, followed by Guru.

Now, I had very little contact with Guru in the early days. So this was exciting for me. The guards came in, put Guru's big chair down and a small table with painting implements down next to it. Now that was the closest I'd been to Guru to that point. Guru sat down and I was just staring.

Guru started painting like a tremendous bundle of energy. After Guru was finished, he took a picture of the guards that were guarding that night and then left. I clearly remember that Guru was like this ball of energy. When Guru finished painting and left, then this energy left. It was like, wow!

Other than when I first met Guru, that was my first intimate contact with him.

Just silence the mind.
Lo!
Cosmic energy enters
Into our entire being,
And tremendous energy
Flows in and through us.

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 15, Agni Press, 1999