Purifying your mind by serving your spiritual Master

On my first Christmas trip, which was in 1990, I went to Hawaii and then Bali with Guru. Every morning, early in the morning, we would wake up about 4:35. We would go down to the beach and wait for Guru, and Guru would practice throwing shot put. He had many special shot puts made from lighter ones to very heavy ones. The heavy one was very heavy, maybe 80 kilograms. Guru would practice. We would give Guru the shot put and then we would also pick it up. There was a line of us and we would take it in turns to give Guru the shot put and then also pick it up.

With the very heavy weights, you would have to go very close to Guru. I was not super strong. I'd have to go very close to Guru to be safe and to give it to Guru safely. You were very, very close to Guru when you would do this. As a guard, often you would have to work around Guru. You learned how to purify your consciousness, to be in a good consciousness because when you're around Guru, you're very aware of his consciousness and you want to be your best too.

Just being physically around Guru, it is always a challenge to really lift your consciousness, to be in a very good consciousness, because Guru is very sensitive to the people and the things around him. It was a wonderful lesson to really clear your mind, purify your mind, and just be a complete instrument in that moment to serve Guru, to help Guru with whatever he was doing.

If you serve your Master
Sleeplessly and breathlessly,
In one incarnation you can get
The most astonishing results
Of one hundred incarnations!

Sri Chinmoy 1

• 1. Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, part 5, #4890, Agni Press, 1998