Will she or won’t she?  That was the question on everyone’s minds on Holi.  Most years Amma has been in North India on this day, but this year it was a darshan day at Amritapuri.  Would she play Holi with us?
Darshan was coming to a close and there was a Pada Puja at the end.  As the puja ended, it seemed that Amma might just stand up and leave.  But some devotees showed Amma a pichkkari and some coloured powders and her interest was clearly aroused.  She asked for the musicians to play “Ayi He Holi”.  “Ayi he holi bhari pichkkari… The festival of Holi has come.  The water pistol is full of coloured water…”  As the song began, she charged the pichkkari in a bucket of water and an intent and mischievious look came over her lovely face.  She took careful aim at a few tempting faces nearby and soon sprays of pink powder also joined the pink water being sprayed in all directions.  Amma began “dancing” as she sat on her chair and alternated dancing and squirting as  “Ayi he Holi” reached a crescendo.  Definitely Holi had arrived at Amritapuri!
Yet not everyone could fit on the stage.  The hall was full of people watching Amma on the big screens. Hundreds of us were sitting far from Amma.  Far beyond the reach of the colour and her comments, glances and smiles.  We could see the joy on the people’s faces on the stage and hear their shrieks when Amma took aim.

“Ranga nahi tan re…More Shyam hamre sang khelo holi…The body is not smeared with colour…O Shyam, come and play Holi with us”
But we were too far away to play, or were we? The atmosphere was so ecstatic and Amma looked so joyous, that the joy of Amma’s Holi play permeated the whole hall.  Amma asked for another song. “Vraj Me Aisa.”  Yes, Amma’s “Vrindavan had risen in tumult” when we saw “the divine butter thief was going to celebrate.”  But the words of the song that Amma dwelled on the most were: “Kanha he ek,  Gopi anek.  Iske sang vo racayenge ras… Krishna is only one, yet the Gopis are many.  How will he manage?  With which one of the Gopis will he dance?”

Amma sang these lines over and over.  “Kanha he ek, Gopi anek”.  I felt that just as in the song, during the “Ras Lila dance of Holi”, Amma had materialized beside each one of us, laughing with us and smearing our faces with pink powder.  Indeed by the end of the song, Amma seemed to have entered another and higher realm and taken us all with her, on the stage or off it.  “Hari bol!  Hari bol!” she cried. “Hari bol!” we responded.  Looking around the hall, I could see some people grinning from ear to ear, some with tears running down their face, and others sitting in deep meditation.
As Amma finally left the stage, the full moon of Holi, earlier obscured by clouds, shone brightly over the hall.  The whole atmosphere was radiant and permeated with joy.  I imagined this joy fanning out from Amritapuri and spreading far and wide to reach all of Amma’s devotees all over the world.  Some might have been beginning their work day or smiling in their sleep.
Certainly the thousand and more people milling around the hall were smiling.  Some, covered with colour, had clearly been in reach of Amma’s aim.  Others had gone to the stage after Amma left and smeared on some prasad colour.  Krishna is only one, yet the Gopis are many.  How will he manage?  With which one of the Gopis will he dance?”  Somehow Amma had managed.  If we were open, we could feel one consciousness, off or on the stage.  If we were open, she managed to make us feel that she had danced and played Holi with each of us!
Rta S

8 Mar 2012, Amritapuri