13 Jun 2009

Devi Bhava just ended about 45 minutes ago.  Amma wore a beautiful maroon sari with gold decorations and trim.

Friday was the second day of the retreat.  Amma held a Q&A session outside.  It was quite cold and actually started drizzling briefly just as Amma sat down on the peetham (which was covered).  She looked up at the sky with a concerned face and said that she had asked Dayamrita earlier to ask everyone whether they would want the Q&A to be inside or outside given the cool windy weather (no rain was insight)- and she would go with the popular vote.   So Amma was jokingly blaming us for being out in the cold – and we all had a good laugh.  The ‘rain’ lasted only a minute or two and the Q&A continued.

Afterwards, Amma went into the dining hall to serve everyone dinner, then she headed over to the childrens’ table where she passed out papadams (fried crisp wafer) to each child.   At Amma’s plate was a bowl of ice cream which has been a tradition.  Amma then grabbed a bunch of papadams and dutifully cracked them into small pieces and began to mix it into the bowl of ice cream.  Amma has done this before, but as she finished this one, someone put an even bigger bowl in front of her and she took it and dumped it on a flat plate and began crushing more papadams into it.  Amma motioned for the plate to be passed around as prasad, and a few of the children sitting next to Amma offered to do so.  It appeared that when Amma gave them the plate, Amma realized that they would start eating it all instead of taking a bit and passing it onwards.  Amma playfully offered them a spoonful, then pulled it back and put it her mouth, before finally given them their share and giving the plate to an adult to be passed around.

Bhajans on Friday night were:

• Sri Ganayaka
• Krishna Govinda Gopala Nama Gavo Nacho
• Kanivotu Kattarulitaname
• Iswara Parameshwara
• Oh Lord of Vrindavan
• Jai Ma Ambe.

On Devi Bhava night, while the Swamis were singing, the little boy who has been sitting on Amma’s peetham during bhajans and satsang was given a microphone and began chanting Amma’s 108 names – which is in Sanskrit.   His name is Siddharth and he’s 5 years old, and his pronunciation was like that of a Sanskrit scholar.  Everyone gave a big round of applause when he finished.

Next stop:  LA

Sri Pati
San Ramon