So, I, who am a Westerner, have been translating a Swami’s talks about Sri Shankaracharya’s commentary of the Gita in Malayalam to English for the Western devotees here. What? Yes, I think many people are surprised at this. Let me tell you a bit about how this began.

Before Amma left the ashram for Her world tour, She said that a Swami was coming to give satsang after She left. She said that it would be good if someone translated this for the Westerners. At that time, a senior brahmachari who knew that I studied Malayalam patted my back, as if to say that I should try this. At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I was doing some other seva also, so it would be difficult, but I thought I would give it a chance.

So, to prepare for the satsangs, I got some recordings of satsangs from previous years here and set out to practice translating. It was difficult at first, but I started to get pretty good at it. However, the Swami had yet to come. It had already been 3 weeks, and he was very ill. I wasn’t sure if he would come at all.

At that time, another senior brahmachari, Br. Shivamrita Chaitanya asked me to travel with him to play keyboard for a bhajan and puja program that he led all over Kerala. I didn’t hesitate and agreed at once. But then I remembered that I was already doing a seva for Amma’s TV channel, so said I would only travel with him for a week.

I thought, ‘oh, it’s only a week away from the Ashram. There’s no need for me to ask Amma.’ I thought this would be a nice chance for me to have some fun traveling with the brahmacharis. It’s also nice that wherever we go, we’re treated very nicely, with good food and sweets. Such were my thoughts.

The day before, I had a strong feeling that I should ask Amma for Her permission to go. So, I sent an e-mail to a tour staff member to ask Amma. However, when it was time to leave, I hadn’t received an answer, so I decided to go. We all took a vehicle to Amma’s Trivandrum Ashram, where we would be located in between programs. On the way, we stopped at a small temple of Amma’s, and a devotee there fed us some sweets, of which I had a few. Then, we reached the Ashram and fell asleep.

The next day, I woke up, showered, and did archana. After archana, I went to do some yogasanas, but was feeling so tired, that I just lied down in shavasana. Then, I heard a voice, ‘Piyush, don’t you want some breakfast?’ Oh, no! 2 hours had passed. I felt so exhausted. Somehow, I made it back to my cot, and lied down. I felt horrible. I couldn’t get up. I also had bad stomach pain, so I couldn’t eat. I thought, ‘oh Amma, this must be Your punishment for not getting Your permission!’ Thus, that whole day, I was in pain.

The next day, I decided to go back to Amritapuri.
That next day, I took some medicine, and was back to normal. I was convinced that this was Amma’s lesson; don’t do something without the Guru’s permission. This seemed like something really good, but it ended up being a painful experience. Like this, there are some situations that we may see as bad, but actually help us to open our hearts and grow spiritually. Thus, I learned that relying on my own sense of judgement can be dangerous.

Anyways, that day that I returned, I found out that the Swami is feeling well and will start the satsangs in a few days. What a coincidence! If I had gone traveling for the pujas, I would’ve missed a good part of the satsangs. So, I could see that Amma’s divine hands were controlling all of these situations. 
— Piyush