Recently Amma gave a call in China to recognise and honour variety, instead of speaking of oneness vaguely. That is the way to harmonious living. Amma referred to the fact of how different nationalities, citizenship, colour, creed, languages, culture, age groups, etc are living in one home called Amritapuri for about 4 decades now.

And now one can see innumerable instances of Amma, the propounder of One Truth, honouring the variety. ‘Take a single grain of rice from the cooking pot; it will tell if all the rice in the pot is cooked,’ says a proverb. Take any example from Amma’s deeds, the ever effulgent truth of Amma’s teachings shines forth.

Just the example of any bhajan session with Amma. How many varieties of songs are sung everyday: Joyous fast hits, soul-stirring melodious tunes, and other kinds in between! How many deities are sung to: Ganesh, Krishna, Rama, many aspects of Devi, Shiva, Muruga, and Self as well! How many Paths described in them: devotion, knowledge, selfless service, etc!

In how many languages: Samskritam, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, so on! Sometimes English, French, German, Finnish, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Mandarin so on up to Swahili!

These days Amma is getting the texts of all the bhajans She sings shown on large screens. There are twelve large screens on either side of the stage showing the songs along with their meanings in seven European languages. This display of PPTs of Bhajans live is for the benefit of Her children come from far and wide; for them to sing bhajans not mechanically but through active participation, understanding their meanings. This serves the purpose of Upanishad, meaning to get knowledge sitting in the Guru’s presence.

In all of them, and through all of that variety, Amma is reaching our hearts, directing us to the One Truth that can be told in terms of universal value called Love, or termed as Atma in scriptural idiom. The last but one song yesterday carried the same message as Her China speech:
We are all beads strung on the same thread; each one is different but all of us are One.

– Sandhya