Eye to Eye

[Listen to Asha read this story]

We were having dinner at Swamiji’s house, about six of us, all old friends who had worked closely with Swamiji for years. A married couple in the community had just announced that they were separating. It was sad news, though not unexpected; their relationship had always been difficult.

“A few months ago,” I said, “I went shopping with her to buy a shirt for her husband. I found one that looked perfect. ‘This would match his eyes,’ I said. Her reply astonished me. She said, ‘It would? I don’t know what color his eyes are.’

“No wonder they are getting divorced!" I concluded.

“They’ve been married for years, and she doesn’t even know the color of his eyes!”

Almost everyone at the table agreed that it was astonishing. Then Swamiji, looking puzzled, said, "I never notice the color of people’s eyes. I don’t look at their eyes, I look at them, behind their eyes.”

Someone quoted the well-known saying, “The eyes are the window to the soul.”

Swamiji continued, “I don’t even know what color Seva’s eyes are.” For years, Seva had been one of his closest friends and co-workers. He saw her nearly every day. Her big brown eyes are almost her defining feature.

Seva happened to be sitting next to him, so Swamiji turned and looked carefully at her face.

“Oh, I see,” he said. “They are brown.”

He knew her eyes, he would recognize them anywhere, not by their color, but by the goodness and divine aspiration he saw in them. In fact, the first time they met (in this lifetime) in San Francisco, in 1967, from her eyes Swamiji recognized her as an old friend from the past and knew they would be friends again in this lifetime.