Shri Mataji came to Rome and we had a puja and a public programme, and on the day She had to leave I was the driver. The flight was at twelve o’clock and at about half past eleven, Shri Mataji came out. It was quite late and we could not possibly reach the airport, as it was at least an hour’s drive. She sat in the car and we went very fast. She went to sleep and when we were ten kilometres from the airport, there was a big traffic jam. Finally, we reached the airport at half past twelve and saw all the Sahaja Yogis outside the airport and wondered, because usually they would be inside. We stopped and Shri Mataji asked what was happening.
‘Shri Mataji, the flight is cancelled,’ they said.
‘Let’s go and eat something,’ She suggested. We went to a restaurant at the seaside and had a nice meal of fish. Someone had a newspaper and saw that a certain place was for sale, so he asked Shri Mataji if we could go and see it.
‘Yes, why not?’ She said. He phoned and made an appointment and we went to see it. It had two big buildings and the owner had divided it into two, along with the land. He had been trying to sell it for years, but no one was interested because it was too big, so the price came down and down. We went inside and the more we saw of the one half, the more we knew this was the right place. We came and told Shri Mataji.
‘Go and see the other one, too,’ She said. So we did and then She said we should buy both of them. Shri Mataji said that if the flight had not been cancelled, we wouldn’t have found this beautiful ashram which was used for the children’s school. She said we always got worried when She was leaving and we had to be more relaxed about Her departures.
Akbar Samii