I am a nurse who teaches fire safety in the home. Last August Sri Chinmoy accepted me as a disciple, but I was so sick I had an oxygen tent at my bedside going all night. Oxygen makes everything more flammable, and any spark or flame will turn into a raging fire within seconds. I lit two candles in blue glass candleholders, and I also lit some incense in a separate burner, with a plate to catch any ashes. The oxygen was on. I awoke twelve hours later. The fire was out. A superficial glance revealed a small hole in the cloth where the incense had dropped and started to burn. It was black all around, but it was out. Also, the candleholders appeared to be absolutely clean—no drops of wax, no candles, no wicks. When I came home from work, I looked closer and realised the glass of the candleholders was completely cracked and I had to throw them away. This was a miracle. I should have burned to death. The entire apartment should have gone up in flames within two minutes. I can give you no explanation, except for God's grace.

Marilyn (New York)

I have been working in New York at the Oneness-Fountain-Heart restaurant since November of last year and therefore was away from my family during Christmas. On Christmas Day I was at work when, at some point during the afternoon, an immense feeling of grief came over me concerning my parents. It wasn't at all a sentimental feeling, but rather one based on a feeling of loss. It was as though they were no longer alive! This feeling stayed with me for the rest of the afternoon and I remember sharing my predicament with a co-worker who had noticed that I was quite shaken. Along with this state came waves of regret for not having shown my parents enough love and gratitude while they were alive. The depth of this emotion was also one which I had never experienced before. The following day I received a telephone call from my sister in Australia. I told her about my experience and, amazed, she began telling me that our parents had in fact, been in a potentially fatal accident on that same day. As they were driving along a busy highway towards the coast in wet weather, their car lost control and started spinning. As the car was spinning rapidly, it miraculously missed each and every steel power pole along the roadside and all the surrounding cars. When I later spoke to my parents, my mother recalled that as they watched each pole flash by, they were sure that they would collide into the next one, or if not a pole, a car, and that would definitely be the end for them. They finally came to a halt, totally unharmed, with the car intact and facing in the right direction, and with all other cars well clear. She said it was as though God Himself had reached down with His Hand and saved them! I felt tremendous gratitude that Sri Chinmoy had brought the awareness of God's Protection into my life, and that he had taught me to value my parents more.

Tas (Melbourne)