16 Dec 2009, Amritapuri
It was breakfast at Amritapuri. An old man clad in torn dirty rags was spotted sleeping at bramacharis dinning hall. As I neared him, I had to hold my breath as he was stinking badly.
We found that he hailed from Kambam in Tamilnadu. He had bruises on his fore head. As we enquired, he said, “That is the mark of my prarabdha. He explained that his elder son angrily pushed him down and that had caused the bruises. We asked in one voice, “What?” and with tears he said, “It is all for the 3 acres of land that I own. Both my sons had tried to kill me earlier to grab my wealth. They assault me now and then for their share.”
“Why don’t you just give their share?”
He said, “If I do that, they would dump me onto some waste bin”.
He said that he had been visiting Amma since 1989. In 1989, he thought that somebody had done some black magic to his family and he came to Amma for help. He added, “But, when I went near Amma, I went blank. I was fully drenched by Amma’s love.” We listened lovingly as his eyes twinkled reliving those vintage memories.
He expressed his desire for Amma’s darshan. But, he was badly in need of a bath. So, we took him to a bathroom and gave him a bath. Actually, we wanted to throw away his dirty clothes and wanted to offer our set of clothes. But, he refused to accept our idea. He said, “I have just come here for Amma’s love and grace. Though I don’t have anything to give her, I don’t want to take any material things from here.”
Admiring his attitude we volunteered to laundry his dirty clothes and took him for Amma’s darshan. As I translated, Amma was pained to listen to his story. When she asked him, “How did you manage to come here alone?” he replied, “By thy grace.” Our hearts melted as we saw Amma wiping his tears away. She made him sit next to her and told him to stay here for few more days. Also, she told us to care him properly. Amma looked at the bramacharis around and remarked, “People care their cows only for her milk. If it stops giving milk they don’t hesitate to sell to a butcher. This is the nature of the worldly love.” The man nodded affirmative.
One of us told Amma, “Amma had been stressing on the need for etiquettes and respect for elders in her recent satsangs for ashramites and today we got an excellent chance to practice it.”
It was past 10 Pm and Amma’s darshan was still continuing. Swamis were singing and the speakers were loud. The man was falling asleep at one corner of the prayer hall. He said, “Because of my worries, I won’t sleep even after past mid night at home. But, now that I have unburdened before Amma, I feel light and ‘am feeling sleepy.” I pointed out that the hall is noisy. But, he said, “My heart is full” and he spread his mat right under a huge speaker. Unmindful of the noise and crowd, within in few minutes, the 88 year old fell asleep.
Perhaps after many sleepless nights, here he is sleeping peacefully in the lap of his most beloved Amma. Hope he scores a peaceful century by Amma’s grace.
– Ramkumar
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