28 Jan, 2008

Before sunset, Amma stopped in an empty field with the traveling devotees. Amma’s chair was placed facing the fading sun, and all the devotees crowded around. As the sun set, Amma spent some time with everyone meditating. After meditation, Amma and Swamiji tried out a newly tuned Malayalam bhajan; Amma was making corrections to the song. Here are the lyrics; ‘satyasvarupamam nityaprakashame pratyaksha devate, vishvamate.’ ‘Oh embodiment of Truth, Eternal Light, percievable God, Universal Mother!’ ‘Through thousands of births, I have searched to attain your divine presence.’

Then Amma sang some of the other new bhajans, mostly in Tamil. At one point, a large group of brahmacharinis hopped out of their seats like lightning, screaming ‘snake!’ The snake was quickly chased away, to everyone’s relief, and everyone was soon laughing.

Amma asked the devotees to tell a funny story. One Westerner told a story about learning Malayalam. Once, an Indian family moved back from the West to Kerala. The two sons didn’t know Malayalam when they came back. One day, they came back excitedly to their mother. They said, ‘we learned two knew words in Malayalam.’ The mother said, ‘what are they?’ The sons said, ‘we learned how to say ‘grape’ and ‘orange.’ ‘Well, how do you say them?’ They said, ‘grapu,’ ‘orangu.’ (If anyone has been to Kerala, they will get the joke)

Dinner was served to everyone, well after the sun had set. Amma went back to her camper to finish the rest of the journey to the next destination.
– Piyush