Every year Amma tops off Her South India tour with the North India tour. Traveling in several buses, She and Her children cut across the great Gangetic plains for nearly two months, giving darshan.\u00a0 Enroute she passes through the city of Mumbai and every year thousands wait for Her arrival. Before She comes, Swami Amritaswarupanandji does a program but this year he did not turn up at the expected time. Instead, he went to the Middle East. That is when the rumblings began : Amma is not coming.<\/p>\n
Then Avyayamritji, Swami of Mumbai Ashram, traveled to see Amma.\u00a0 Everybody hoped that it was to plan Amma\u2019s upcoming tour.\u00a0 Devotees in Mumbai kept a keen eye on his movements.\u00a0 He came back saying that Amma won’t come to Mumbai this year.<\/p>\n
Swami Amritswarupanandji, came on his own for programs after that.\u00a0 And, it was clear that he had come to console us because Amma was not coming.\u00a0 We had two programmes.\u00a0 Talks and bhajans and meditation \u2013 all great experiences.\u00a0 However, what made his trip unforgettable was the last song on the last day.
\nOn that evening, when Swamiji finished the bhajans and was ready to wind up with meditation a devotee from Pune who was apparently a follower of Vitthala began requesting him to sing Mata Rani.\u00a0 Swamiji was hesitant. The devotee from Pune, wearing a loving smile, shirt, pyjamas and a white cap, was insistent.\u00a0 Swamiji smiled and did not look like he would oblige.\u00a0 The devotee did not budge either.\u00a0 Soon, more people began asking and suddenly we could see Swamiji was going to sing Mata Rani.\u00a0 The songbook\u00a0 was placed before him and with eyes glittering, full of fun and play, he began to sing.\u00a0 It was such a joyful rendering of the song that many people stood up immediately and began to dance.\u00a0 The whole hall had enjoyed all the bhajans but this one was unmistakably the queen of them all.\u00a0 It went on and on for a while. However, in retrospect it was too short like all good things that end too fast.<\/p>\n
Well, did Amma finally come to Mumbai in 2009?\u00a0 Yes, I felt that. We left from the program with a big scoop of liberation \u2013 burdens reduced, knots undone, veils removed and a sense of bliss. Like the monsoon clouds bring the rain, Swamiji brought us Amma on his robust rendering of Mata Rani.\u00a0 So Amma rode on a song this time – not in a bus and came to Mumbai after all..<\/p>\n
Vibha Vasi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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