20 Oct 2007, Amritapuri

Outside it was pouring rain. But inside the Main Hall, on the stage, it was pouring love – both to and from the screen. It’s Devi Bhava again in Amritapuri – this time web cast from Switzerland.

The bell rang at 10:30pm announcing that the connection had been established and Amma was about to come out. The camera was focused on the peetham in front of the mandapam, where Amma would sit for satsang and puja. As we all sat there in anticipation of Amma’s arrival, I couldn’t help but again feel as if there was no distance and I was in the same hall with everyone in Switzerland. I’m hoping this feeling will come again and again with each DB.

When Amma came out, She blessed the water, then gave satsang, followed by the puja. While the puja instructions were being read to the crowd in Swiss German by a devotee, Amma started to point at the laptop sitting next to Her on stage which was broadcasting videos of all of us gathered here (both Brahmacharis on the stage, and Brahmacharinis in the Temple).

Amma leaned over and started looking intently at the screen and waving to us. She seemed to be so happy to see us all there. We were beaming back, waving back, loving back to Her. Even though when we see Amma looking a the PC, we can’t tell where She is looking, I really felt at some point that Amma was looking at ME and that She knew that I was there – just as She was with everyone else in the room. A wonderful feeling of peacefulness came over me.

Another chat with Amma from inside the Mandapam, this time she was calling out some of the names of a few people on the screen.  Then it was time for Devi Bhava to start. Due to a technical error, we only had audio until the the end of Arati, but when the video returned, there was Devi giving Darshan. And we all looked to see what color sari Amma was wearing.

While guessing the color of Amma’s sari before she comes out has been a sort of tradition for devotees, trying to name the color afterwards is a different story – especially if it’s something new and not easily identifiable. Add to that viewing Amma over the web – and who knows what color you’re seeing? On the main screen on the stage, at first glance it appeared similar to the one in Holland – but a bit darker. Turqouise-ish? Aqua-ish? But then the smaller laptop screen showed a bluish-green. With this conflict, a debate ensued among the Brahamacharis: bluish-green, or greenish blue?. When we asked our web contact in Holland, ‘Teal’ came back as the answer. So I looked it up on the web. “Teal blue is a medium to dark greenish blue color of low saturation,” so the greenish-blue Brahmacharis win this round. Next sari color contest….Munich…

Sri Pati