Immediately

In each city we visit on the Christmas trip, Guru will usually offer a Peace Concert for the local people. On occasion these Peace Concerts are quite spontaneous, with only a few days to prepare, promote and make final arrangements. When we were in Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, I was assigned to try and find a venue for a large Peace Concert to be given in this spiritual Buddhist city. Unfortunately we had no luck with the authorities in waiving red tape and official permits. The only place that was available was outrageously expensive, so Guru decided to hold the Peace Concert in the meeting room of the hotel where quite a few disciples were staying. Because we did not have official permission from the authorities, we could only advertise it by word of mouth. Disciples invited taxi drivers, people they met in the street and even storekeepers at shops where they had purchased goods. The day of the concert, Sarama approached me and asked if she could invite the owners of the small hotel where she was staying, which was in a different location from the hotel where the concert would be. I suggested that Sarama approach one of Guru's assistants and ask him to check with Guru. We were standing in the meeting room, which was being rearranged for the concert, and Guru was sitting in the front of the room sketching his dream-freedom-peace-birds. When Sarama approached Guru's assistant, he considered this not an important enough reason to disturb Guru. Sarama was upset, but I could see that the boy was adamant in not disturbing Guru. I looked at Guru and inwardly said: "Guru, what can we do in this situation?" He immediately stopped sketching, looked up and said: "You people must bring in more chairs as the disciples staying at the other hotels will want to invite the owners."

Sipra (Adelaide)