Laharwalpora was an area that had its structures under water for more many days. Long queue of people gathered in no time as soon as we started or medical camp there. After those dreadful waves of flood, soothing waves of Amma’s love and compassion was reaching out to this village via the medical camp.

For some reason, out of the all the people who turned up for the medical camp, women and children were much more in number than men. Our lady doctors and paediatricians were seeing maximum patients for the day.

Here in this village there were not many local people who could help translate. But luckily the drivers from the vehicles we had hired volunteered to help with translation. Soon the young boys from the village offered their help to translate. In fact they seemed to enjoy the translation part of it. There were cases of gynecological problems, scabies, allergies, back and joint pains etc., but we had enough variety of medicines to cover all the cases.

I noticed one young guy who was going around asking some people to not see any of the doctors at the camp. Later he came up to me with a disturbed look on his face. With a somewhat harsh tone he asked, “What is your religion?”. Before I could open my mouth, one elderly man came up and said to him, “Shut up! Can’t you see that these people are genuinely wanting to help us. They are not like those who ask you to change your religion for some money or aid. They have come all the way from kerala to help us. I have seen Amma on TV. Such people are above any religion just like Lal Ded and Habba Khatoon*. The only religion of such people is Love”.

That was a nice mini-capsule of a satsang dose for me too. I nodded my head in affirmation looking at the young boy who had asked the question. Suddenly the cover photo of Amma’s facebook page, which says the same thing (My Religion is Love), flashed in my mind. I wrote the Facebook URL of Amma’s page on a small piece of paper and asked the boy if he knew what facebook is. He just snatched the slip from my hand and left the scene immediately.

I had a brief conversation with the elderly man before getting back to helping with translations and with dispensing medicines in pharmacy. I was surprised to later find the same young boy helping to manage the crowd and ensuring that everyone is getting the medicines. What a transformation! And such transformation is the natural effect of true religion of love.

– Amit

—–
*Lal Ded (Lalleshwari) and Habba Khatoon are Kashmiri mystic-poets of 14th and 16th century respectively.