18 Feb 2012, Amritapuri

Yesterday Amma suddenly came out of room, and started brick seva. Luckily I was near her room at that time, and saw people running for seva and went along to help with the bricks. Amma was carrying bricks, and we were all helping in carrying bricks from one point to another, where some construction was taking place. I called a couple of people and said “Amma is here, come fast for brick seva” and they all came running. {news}

Amma went near the construction site on the grounds on the western side of the ashram. There were a lot of bricks piled up and they had to be brought from the pile to the point where the construction was going on. We were told “all of you pass these bricks down.” So we formed a line, and started passing the bricks one by one. But Amma came in and said that it would take too much time that way and it would be better that each one just carried a couple of bricks from the pile to the site. So that’s what we started doing- we took 2 or three bricks each and went, put it at the site, came back, took a few more and went again. But the star of the party was Amma of course. She was carrying up to 5 bricks at a time. Some of us even asked Her “Amma that’s too heavy dont carry so much.”

Amma replied, “No, no. I need the exercise!”

Apparently, giving 15 hour Darshans daily to thousands of people is not exercise enough for our hard working Mother.

Seeing Amma carry 4 bricks at a time, I too tried that. But i could manage only 3 at a time. My hands started paining. Consoling myself that I am not an avatar, nor a mahatma, I continued at 3 bricks per trip.

I had had a long day, at work, came back tired and had another after dinner meeting discussing serious university matters. Was so tired, but the funny thing was that after hauling bricks in the night, I felt so energised and blissful. Imagine, any other day, if you had to work the whole day, come back tired, and someone called you and said, “Hey would you like to haul some bricks now?” What would your reaction be? But when Amma calls, its not work anymore, it is fun – it is a joy, a blissful thing.

It was funny, normally people are tired and would like to get rest at night. But here suddenly, 200 people were all running, literally falling on each other, to haul bricks!! All because there was this beautiful little lady in the center, with a beaming smile, walking back and forth with bricks in her hands.

I remember a similar incident a few years ago when Amma was hauling bricks during a similar seva session. I actually went up to Her and said, “Amma tomorrow is a darshan day – you have to give darshan.. please go take some rest.” Amma replied, “I can’t think of all that now,” meaning She doesn’t think of tomorrow. She does the best She can at every moment . If I know that I had to work 15 hours the next day, I probably would run off and go to sleep early, but Amma lives in the moment. The future has been surrendered to the Supreme…no worries about that.

I received a lesson in how work becomes a joy when it is worship. And a glimpse into what Amma means when She says “In Love, there is no effort”.

bala