Sunday night 8.30 pm, amma’s still giving darshan, lots of people left, i made my way upto the stage thinking i could sit around her for about 30-40 mins, normally when the crowds are so much i try to avoid sitting around amma for long because the outsiders also would be yearning for the same chance, but i thought i could sit for sometime and get up.
I got a good spot, right behind amma luckily as someone got up as soon as i got there and the helpful stage monitor made sure i got the seat!

So i was Sitting there,not trying to focus on anything other than mother in particular, but 2 western men,one of them holding a big camera in his hands caught my attention, i watched the guy without the camera signalling desperately to someone beside me, he was holding something in his hand…what was it? Amma’s prasad! He had no idea what to do with it, didnt know what it was, and the woman next to me, who was supposed to know then guided him(all through hand signals!) to eat the chocolate and then put the vibhuti(sacred ash) between his eyebrows…the whole thing was ofcourse very funny for me as an onlooker but made me reflect on the difficulties the westerners, especially the europeans(since many dont speak english) have to go through to get here, the southernmost part of our country!

Now logically reasoning it out, why would an european, come all the way to a south indian village to meet a person who knows neither english nor his european tongue? The power of Love. Obviously.

Reminds me of the incident during bhajans when amma emphatically announced, “can there be logic in devotion? Definitely not! Devotion transcends logic.”

vikas.
september 24,2006.