Kind of funny… My lady and I were driving up past where my teacher, Swami Satchidananda’s house was once located, in Montecito, California the other day and I recounted the story I had undoubtedly told her some time ago. 
 
I always conclude these stories with the fact that, “You have to remember all this for my memoir when I’m gone.” She always just rolls her eyes and says, “I’m not going to remember anything and I’m certainly not going to write your memoir.” But, for those of you who care, here’s an interesting story, that leads to an interesting fact about life, that I lived just today.
 
Anyway, this initial tale takes place when I was about seventeen. I was helping this electrician, who was also a disciple of Gurudev, and we were putting in the electricity to his jacuzzi at his hillside home. After a long day at work, the guru amazingly invited us to use his bathroom to do our clean up, as we were dirty from the day’s work, and there was going to be a Satsang at Yogaville West a little bit later that evening. So, we needed to clean up.
 
Overall, this was a pretty amazing thing. Not only did I find it amazing, but when I told the other disciples about the fact that we had been allowed to use the guru’s bathroom, they were all dumbfounded and envious.
 
Overall, I think Swami Satchidananda liked me. I was very young during that time period. Like I stated, I was seventeen, and I believe he always liked the fact that some people, like myself, turned to the Spiritual Path young in their life.
 
Soon after this, I became his sound man, doing the sound and recording his words for all of his lectures. But, at this point, I was just a young enthusiastic disciple, who was a bit starstruck that I was even getting to hang out anywhere near our guru, let along to be face-to-face and having conversations with him.
 
Anyway, Ernie and/or Bhagwan, (as was his Sanskrit name), he went into the bathroom first. He was the actual electrician, much older than I, so I, of course, insisted that he go clean up first. My mistake!
 
He took a long time in the bathroom. I was standing out there waiting, wondering what he was doing in there for so long. Finally, when he came out, I went in there and the bathroom was a complete fucking mess. Not only did he throw the towel he used on the floor, he had just left the dirty water from washing his hands and his arms and his face and his whatever all over the sink. Remember, this was our guru’s bathroom. This was a wholly sanctuary. And, Ernie had literally destroyed it. How could anyone behave like that???
 
What happened next, is that I immediately went about cleaning up his mess. And, this was no small task. He really made a major mess! So much so, that by the time Gurudev’s secretary came knocking at the door, asking for me to hurry up, so Gurudev could use the bathroom, I hadn’t even had the time yet to wash my own hands. Which, I had to do very quickly, just to keep everything moving along.
 
Ernie made the mess. But, it was me who had to clean it up. Yet, I was the one who looked like I was taking too much time. But, think who would have been blamed if I had not cleaned it up, as I was the last one to use it.  
 
I wrote about this story in a chapter in one of my books. Recounting this, once upon a time, in the long ago and the far-far away. Nothing has really changed in the story. How could it? This just presents the fact that it is one of those things where you truly realize the essence of life. The essence, that you just don’t make a mess in other people’s bathroom—particularly when you don’t need to. And, this was the bathroom of our guru!!!
 
Anyway, to take the story to today… I had to go into my doctor to get my blood work done. As you may know, when you get your blood work done, they also want a urine sample to check your blood sugar levels and all of that kind of stuff. So, after the blood had been sucked out of my veins, they handed me a cup, and I went into the bathroom to provide my urine sample.
 
In there, what I noticed, was the fact that the person who had gone in there before me had taken the little anti-bacterial wipe that they put inside the bag with the cup that you’re supposed to provide your urine sample in—they had ripped it open, used it, and thrown on the floor. They threw it there on the floor and left it there. I mean, how could anybody do that? The bathroom was immaculately clean. But someone had just simply opened up their anti-bacterial wipe, used it, and thrown it and the wrapper on the floor. I was dumbstruck. How can anybody behave like that?
 
You know, though this is one small example, it does truly illustrate the realities of life. Some people just don’t give a fuck. They do what they do, they don’t care about the impact of what they do has on others, and then they just move along, leaving their trash and their dirty water behind. How about you? Do you behave in this manner? Really, do you think about the impact you are having on the space(s) you move through and the people you interact with?
 
When we look at situations like this, I think we all understand the way that we should and/or shouldn’t behave. And, we may even shake our heads and question, “How can anybody behave in that style of manner?”  But, it goes on all the time. In fact, you may be one of the perpetrators of this style of behavior. And, if you are, like many/most, you don’t even care. Because if you are one of the people that doesn’t care about the impact you are having, be it small or large, then you probably don’t care about what you are doing to the lives of other people while you are doing what you are doing.
 
I can say/we can all say, “This is the wrong way to behave in life.” But, look around you, it goes on all the time.
 
Is there an answer to all of this? No, not really. I mean we can get mad at these people, we can get angry with them, we can lecture them, we can even yell at them, but if doing stuff like that is at the root of who they truly are, is anything that we say or do going to mean anything to them? Probably not.
 
So, what does this tell us? What it tells us is that it really must be us who walks the path of not only cleanliness, and niceness, but of actually caring about the impact that we have on not only other people, but the entire world around us.
 
What did I do when I was done in the bathroom, I picked up that person’s trash that was laying on the floor and threw it away. Just like in Gurudev’s bathroom. I did not want to be thought of as the one who caused that mess. Then, I washed my hands and left.
 
Me, I did all I could do, even though that person didn’t do all they should have done.
 
Think about this the next time you are doing what you’re doing, speaking what you’re speaking, or living what you are living. What you do, be it good or bad, has an impact on others. Don’t you always want to have the best impact possible? Leaving any space you enter into better than it was, rather than worse than it was. And really, think about the karma if you leave the bathroom a mess, and somebody else has to clean up after you. Is that what you wish to be the definition of your life?