All year long they wait.\u00a0 Devotees from the Southwest and others from all over the country and abroad who have heard about, or experienced the magic of Amma in New Mexico, (whose state motto is “Land of Enchantment”), wait for those few days in June when Amma arrives.\u00a0 However, the devotees don’t just wait.\u00a0 They begin preparing in the autumn with the launch of the program guide advertising sales, and organizational meetings begin in January before the June program.\u00a0 This may seem like a very early start, especially considering the lightening speed with which the programs are organized in India.\u00a0 Yet, considering that approximately 20,000 hours of labor by hundreds of volunteers are required to transform the Marriot Pyramid into a program venue and to run the program, such an early start is not as strange as it might seem.\u00a0 From the vantage point of one who lives most of the year with Amma in Amritapuri, the hard work and enthusiasm of the devotees, most of whom only see her once a year, is humbling.
\nThe New Mexico program began in the living room of Steve and Cathi Schmidt, who hosted Amma sight unseen in 1987.\u00a0\u00a0 Amma gave very long darshans that year, sometimes singing whole songs while someone was in her lap.\u00a0 I had that chance in Taos, NM when she sang most of the bhajan Bhagavan during my darshan. That life changing experience led to moving to her ashram in India, with summers living at the Amma Center of NM.<\/p>\n
The next year, 1988, the program expanded into a large tent on the Schimdt property, and from that simple beginning a small permanent structure was built to house the satsang.\u00a0 In 1996, Amma directed that the second U.S.\u00a0 Ashram be built there.\u00a0 The program was hosted on the land, a pinon forest with a history of Native American presence, for several years until the increasing crowds required the move to large hotels in Albuquerque, NM.<\/p>\n
The days before the program are always fraught with intense activity.\u00a0 Phones at the Amma Center ring constantly with questions about the program and Amma.\u00a0 In the Amma Center greenhouse, dozens of tulsi plants were grown. These tulsi plants were infused with so much archana and mantra they practically glowed in the dark!<\/p>\n
Storage sheds were emptied of all kinds of things that only see the light of day once a year.\u00a0\u00a0 Equipment for the snack shop, water station and staff room, supplies and toys for the children’s program, etc., were loaded into a large rental truck and devotees’ cars for the one hour drive to the Marriot in Albuquerque.\u00a0 A crew had also been organized to meet the national tour truck to help unload it and set up at the hall.\u00a0 Meanwhile, at the hotel, a lovely backdrop of pink fabric and flowers was assembled.
\nGreen Friends activities are an important part of the New Mexico satsangs and recycling stations were highly visible, even in the bathrooms, where the paper towels are recycled.\u00a0 All plastic, paper and food waste is recycled or composted at Amma’s NM program.\u00a0 The water station supplied pure water and encouraged using refillable steel bottles instead of plastic.<\/p>\n
In one of Swamiji’s instructive and inspirational classes at the retreat, he spoke of the “remarkable and eventful journey from a New Mexico living room to the huge hall at the hotel.\u00a0 (A journey that has been echoed all over the world.)\u00a0 However, he pointed out that whether Amma gives darshan to a small crowd in a house or gives darshan in a stadium- it’s all the same to her.\u00a0 She is changeless, content, blissful and unperturbed in all circumstances\u2026all the marks of one established in Supreme Consciousness.
\nIn her satsang the first night, Amma spoke about the beauty and unity of nature and how only humans “generate discord.”\u00a0 She mentioned that the difference between jarring noise and beautiful music has to do with the Center Point of Love.<\/p>\n
To illustrate the musical point, Swamiji (Amma’s satsang translator) asked for the tune of a lullaby and to his surprise the audience began humming the melody of a popular lullaby.\u00a0 From a few tentative notes in the front row, soon the whole hall was humming along.\u00a0 Amma’s point was reinforced and finally Swami had to ask us to stop so Amma could finish her satsang!\u00a0 It was a beautiful moment, underlining Amma’s point.\u00a0 We were one family at that moment, in unity, and making beautiful music.
\nNew Mexico is home to many indigenous peoples who have managed to retain most of their customs and traditions.\u00a0 These cultures also stress that prayer and good thoughts and actions keep the world in harmony and balance.\u00a0 The Native Americans help keep this balance through a ceremonial calendar that includes group ritual singing and dancing.<\/p>\n
I thought of how at Amma’s programs on the US Tour we are also doing this, as we fill the atmosphere with prayers, chanting and singing for several days in cities across America.\u00a0 Often we even dance with Amma as well as sing with her!\u00a0 To meet the challenge of producing these programs successfully, we must work in love, harmony and unity.\u00a0 For many of us, the love at our Center Point is love for Amma, but perhaps over time, as we live and work together, we will learn to love purely as Amma does, freely and without demands or expectations.<\/p>\n
After four harmonious days, Amma left for Dallas and within two hours the efficient, though sleepless crew, had emptied and cleaned the hall and surrounding rooms and packed and loaded the trucks!\u00a0 Back to the sheds at the Amma Center came the same items that had been removed a few days ago.\u00a0 However, in future years, things may not have to be transported very far, as there is a good possibility that the program will come back to the land where it all started.\u00a0 Having flowed out from that Center Point of Love in 1987, and created a strong and unified satsang and ashram; and having hosted 26 years of Amma’s heart opening and transforming programs, that unifying energy is circling back.\u00a0 One can only imagine what amazing things will happen in the years to come!
\nRta S.
\nNew Mexico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
All year long they wait.\u00a0 Devotees from the Southwest and others from all over the country and abroad who have heard about, or experienced the magic of Amma in New Mexico, (whose state motto is “Land of Enchantment”), wait for those few days in June when Amma arrives.\u00a0 However, the devotees don’t just wait.\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-with-amma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4964\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}