special cashew & kabadi with amma
8 march 2009, enroute tiruvalla to amritapuri
it was special but not a surprise.
on the way back from tiruvalla programme, amma visited an old house. it has not been painted for years, not modified for the last 30 years at least. situated on the side of the main road, this is one of the houses amma used to visit in the early days.
the mother of the house, who is in her sixties, welcomed amma and did padapuja. she poured milk, curd, ghee.. chanting her mantra. and in excitement she forgot to wash amma’s legs at the end. since i was assisting her, i had to pour water and insist her to wash them.
in their puja room, pictures of early days with amma, amma in krishna bhava–were all there.
this lady of the house used to bring for amma boiled kappa, chembu, kachil, all root items, whenever she came to the ashram. now here at the house she has prepared the same for amma. we also had our own healthy portions. it was really tasty… especially after the whole night program and empty stomachs even at 12 noon.
after talking to the family amma came out to the courtyard. amma started explaining
“this is the ground where i used play kabadi*1 with this mole (daughter).” that square-sized court yard seemed to rejoice once again in the memories…
there was a cashew tree standing in the courtyard. it had full of ripe mangos. the nut is attached outside to the mango. the mango is juicy and good to eat when ripe. seeing the ripe mango, my first thought was to give this one to amma. but how can i reach. lo… suddenly one mango just falls next to me. i tried to blow off the sand, took inside to wash.
i gave that to amma. amma asked for a knife and started to cut into pieces.
seeing the ripe ones on the top, my childhood vasanas rose up. i picked up a stone and flung it upward into the topmost branches. i got one. took another stone, and another one fell. seeing that, swamiji joined. he took a stick and tossed it up in the air. it went miles away from the mango. my next two or 3 throws didn’t bring any result. this time we were together in the throw, aiming at the same mango, and two mangoes fell at the same time. swamiji claimed he did it. i accepted it. anyway the mangoes were for amma. and amma had got a knife and started cutting the mangoes into pieces…
the amusement didn’t last long. the onlookers, people from the road came in to see amma.
~dhyanamrita
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1. (kabadi is played as follows: two teams occupy opposite halves of a field and take turns sending a “raider” into the other half, in order to win points by tapping or wrestling members of the opposing team; the raider then tries to return to his own half, holding his breath during the whole raid.)
🙂
JAI MAA ! Let us take this as AMMA’s teachings to be PURE from inside and not from outside. Like LORD KRISHNA running to receive the pure, innocent Sudama, AMMA reached the Blessed child house because of her PURE MIND, HEART, TRUE BHAKTI FOR her MASTER AMMA, eventhough her house was not painted for years, not modified for 30 years. The blessed child went into BLISS forgetting all her desires and even forget to wash AMMA’s DIVINE FEET. Her true Love for AMMA, preserving all the old photos(AMMAS LEELA), still feeding HER Beloved AMMA with the same traditional boiled kappa, chembu, kachil, all root items, is like Sabari feeding LORD SRI RAMA. Playing Kabbadi, AMMA feeding all with ripe mangos from cashew tree is AMMA’s LEELA as KRISHNA LEELA, UNNI KANNAN playing pranks and feeding all HIS friends with butter. JAI MAA !
very happy.How lucky and pure that lady might be! Amma visited her house many times, even played kabaddi with her!! Oh!i was very happy and excited. Always swami’s writing has the humorous touch.The narration of throw of stones made us to smile for long time.
The cashew and mango trees are different.But I was confused to read ” there was a cashew tree standing in the courtyard.it had full of ripe mangos…”
Om Amma
Will Amma come to our house and bless us and our family as well. It is our prayer for long years.
As we follow Mothers example let us not forget to visit those places and people which provided nurturing for us in our early days
.Ouch!…then Amma put the mango pieces in the mixer and turned it on. The final result was mango nectar which was useful for the public… Never play kabaddi unless Amma is on your side. If she isn’t it would be frightening to go to the other side but after running back to our safe havens we begin to realize that it is best to be caught by her and defeated. Still it is a game for the stout hearted only.