After living in the ashram for some years, I have grown accustomed to seeing nature respond mysteriously to Amma.
We have all seen beautiful images of snakes on Amma’s head, or the video of the chipmunk running up and down Amma’s arm. When you stay some time at the ashram, you will eventually notice that every night, at twilight, thousands of birds flock from all directions, flying in to the ashram from across the backwaters, all insisting to sleep only in the ashram trees. They have an entire palm tree forest to choose from, but come bedtime, they all flock here to sleep in Amma’s Divine lap.
These mysteries abound around Amma, and one such mystical experience caught my attention some years ago:
The sun was rising over the Arunachala mountain in Tiruvanamalai, and Amma was continuing her night-long darshan well into the morning. Only a smattering of people were in the field below the stage, already hiding in the shade from the hot morning sun. The open field which had once been completely full of people the night before was now empty. Most of the remaining people were gathered on and around the stage, huddled, all watching and admiring the miracle of Amma’s darshan.
As I peered up toward the stage, I saw yet one more group of beings gathering quite close to, and in fact right above, Amma on the stage: dragonflies. Curiously, hundreds of dragonflies were all flitting and fluttering in an enthusiastic clump just above the center of the stage, with what would have been a perfect view of the splendor of Amma’s radiant face after her all-night darshan.
I couldn’t help but feel that these were not mere dragonflies. Were the beings of the subtle realms so desperate to catch a glimpse of Amma’s darshan? After all, where was the pond? Where were the flowers? There certainly was one reservoir with the most fragrant flower in all the three worlds on that stage. Did the devas themselves come in disguise to see it?
Shortly after Amma’s 2020 tour to Thiruvanamalai, came the pandemic. But dragonflies did not need to practice social distancing, and I began to see a familiar whimsical sight during bhajans: like clockwork, at the start of the Arati, while Amma sat gazing out at all of us, one lone dragonfly would appear out of nowhere, flying this way and that, back and forth in front of the stage and all around Amma. This was not a single occurrence and continued for years. Even to this day, I often catch a glimpse of one lone dragonfly flitting through the bhajan hall during bhajans or Arati.
This subtle, mystical experience culminated on the auspicious morning of Amma’s birthday on the 27th of September, 2022. That morning, I decided to sit outside on the balcony to enjoy the morning sun. I sat, admiring the stretch of palm tress and the ocean, and then I began to notice: oh! A dragonfly!
Oh! Another one. And another one! My focus shifted from the ocean in the distance to the – hundreds – of dragonflies that were flying right in front of me through the air. I stood up and peered down over the balcony and saw the most breathtaking view of all: There, down below, literally directly above the roof of Amma’s house on the morning of Her birthday, were thousands of dragonflies.
Laying these words, and my awe of Amma’s immeasurable omniscience that spans all of creation, at Her Divine Lotus Feet.
-Tejaswini