13 Feb 2008

The Thalassery program was over and it was time to get on the busses and head towards Bangalore. It was raining most of the time so there was some doubt as to whether Amma would stop with us, but when night fell the caravan of busses came to a halt and everybody ran outside. Amma’s camper was parked and everyone gathered outside waiting for her to come out. When Amma came out she was a bit concerned since we had stopped next to cultivated fields and she did not want everyone rampaging through the field crushing everything in the process, so she led everyone carefully to a place where minimum damage was inflicted to the delicate ecosystem. As always Amma was exhibiting full awareness and consideration towards even the smallest of the smallest of life forms.

The stop was a lot of fun with Amma practicing new bhajans and asking for jokes to be told. Priyan told a joke about an atheist who never prayed to God until one day he was confronted by a man-eating lion. God appeared in front him and asked why he now was asking for help and if he was about to become a believer. The man answered, “No, I don’t want to become a believer, but can you please make the lion into a believer in God.” God said, “So be it”. After that the lion bowed down to the atheist and in a very prayerful mood started chanting, “Brahmarpanam, Brahma Havir…”

Amma laughed a lot at the joke. After that followed some funny imitations of certain ashram inmates which made everyone including Amma roll with laughter.

These moments with Amma on the tour are really beautiful and make all the hardships worthwhile. Everyone got back into the busses in a blissful mood and the Yatra continued.
– Viswanath