Love Breaks All Rules

There used to be this charming little fast-food restaurant on Washington Street in Hoboken. It was the only place I’d been in for quite some time (and since) that still served chocolate sodas from a fountain. So, I enjoyed dropping by from time to time to enjoy this treat. When I did, I sometimes found myself chatting with a very charming cashier at the checkout. She was quite young, around nineteen, but I soon learned she was going through some very difficult times. I don’t usually talk about Swami to strangers, but this poor girl seemed so troubled that I felt compelled to do so, in this particular instance.

So, I started relating a few incidents in my own life where Baba “interceded,” as well as those of a few of people I knew. But, either she didn’t seem to be quite registering what I was saying, or perhaps it was actually making her a bit uncomfortable and was just too polite to say so. But I persisted, and after some time, there appeared next to me a very large fellow about (6’ 4” in height 350 lbs), wearing gold chains and all. At first I thought he was “security” and was about to tell me stop annoying the employees. But he just stood next to us, listening. At one point, I told the young lady that our most popular “prayer” was “Om Sai Ram.” Now the cashier didn’t say anything, but as soon as I said this, the gentleman next to me muttered, “Could you please write that down?” So he produced a little yellow sticky pad and I simply wrote the words, “Om Sai Ram.”

It turned out that this enormous fellow (named “John”), was the (decidedly non-Indian) owner of the restaurant. So, we chatted a bit, I told him a few more stories, and then I left. For about six months, I didn’t see John at all.

One evening, as I was walking down Washington Street, I noticed him sitting in a lounge chair on the sidewalk in front of his store. It was quite busy on the street, and a bit odd to see anyone just sitting there in a chair. But I stopped and said “Hi,” and just out of courtesy, asked about his business. He replied, “Oh, I don’t make any money with this (pointing to the store). In fact, I barely make payroll.” A bit taken aback, I asked, “Oh? Then how, may I ask, do you make ends meet?” John said, “Have you ever heard of Atlantic City?” I kind of chuckled; having grown up in NJ and lived there most of my life, and replied, “Yes.” He said, “Well, that’s where I go to gamble.” I was of course rather shocked and said, “Do you mean that you can actually make a living out of gambling?” John said, “Well, before you gave me that prayer I used to lose 8 out of 10 times. Now I win eight out of ten times. I take it out of my wallet and put it right next to my cards. I know how much to bet, and when to walk away.”

Needless to say I was astonished. This was not even a picture of Swami that I had given him, just a little piece of paper with a three-word mantra written on it. He continued, “Remember when I last saw you about six months ago? Well I was about $2 million dollars in debt, now it’s only about $900,000, and most of that is from mortgages.” I said, “You made all that through gambling?” He said, “Yes.” Truly rattled at this point, seeing as this guy had made over $1 million dollars in just six months with the little sticky, all I could say (with a slightly nervous chuckle), “Well, I think then that you deserve an actual picture.” And I dropped one off in an envelope the next time I was at the store.

Things seemed to actually escalate at this point. Once when I dropped by he told me that he had met the swimmer Michael Phelps (who had just become the most decorated Olympian of all time with 22 medals) at the blackjack table and they teamed up, and made quite a killing. Another time (and he was letting me have anything in the restaurant free of charge by now) he took me aside and said, “Now don’t tell anyone this,” looking all round, and produced a roll of $100 bills about six inches wide, with Swami’s picture sitting in the hole in the middle!

He then told me that he was also an experienced stock trader, and was using this same ‘technique’ in the stock market to trade options. As anyone familiar with options knows, they are particularly treacherous, with most people losing their entire investment within nine months. And, John was trading in the most dangerous ones, the options that expire in just one day. This means that if the option does not go up within a few hours of buying it, then you’ll lose most of (if not all) of your investment. And since I had told him that major Hindu festival days, such as Krishna Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturathi, were particularly auspicious, he was trading the options on such days (as he was getting “inner promptings” to do so…). Despite the enormous risk, John was making tens of thousands of dollars per trade doing this!

After a while, John showed me a picture of a beautiful luxury condominium in Florida, with an ocean view, he had just purchased on ebay. As someone, whom I told this story said, “You’re just making this up!” My simple reply was, “I’m not.”

I suppose what had me “flummoxed” about all this was regarding the short list of the things which Swami had said, quite explicitly, to not do: smoke, drink alcohol, eat meat, or gamble. At first, I thought Swami might have granted John this grace because, early on, John told me that one of the most difficult things about his financial problems was that he had to put possessions that had enormous personal significance to him, in hock. I could almost feel the emotional pain he was in when he confided this to me. So, at the time, this made at least a little sense. But the leela [divine play] apparently went on well after he was in a position to buy whatever it was back, and then some more.

I wish I had some ultimate moral to this tale (besides “don’t try this at home, folks…”) But John sold the restaurant a few months later, and quite frankly, I haven’t seen or heard from him since. I do have his cell number. But he has never returned any of my calls or texts since disappearing.

I hope John is still on this amazing “roll.”  But, as we all know: no matter how much carte blanche grace we may receive initially, there is always a time when the seemingly endless “free ride” arrives at a curve in the road, and we are required to start learning how to use all this love to grow and mature spiritually. “To whom much is given, much will be demanded,” says Swami.

Oh, but I’m sure John will be enjoying this particular Swami “honeymoon,” just as long as it lasts….

~Richard Margolin
Manhattan Sai Center, New York, New York, USA