The experienced devotees watch for signs: a stirring among the musicians, gathering of cameramen, a flurry at the sound system\u2026the intent and intense begin to jockey for position, the closer the better.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this usually leads to the same savvy and experienced folks scoring the “best” spots near Amma at practically every venue.\u00a0 However, Amma has her ways, and practically anyone can be catapulted into the perfect spot to experience Amma’s divine bliss in song.\u00a0 However, the real “perfect spot” has little to do with proximity, but tuning of the mind and heart.<\/p>\n
After the excellent view from the place I was sitting was blocked by a photographer, I moved to the stage almost directly behind Amma, where I had an excellent view of everyone’s face but hers!\u00a0 Amma began to sing “Muka Hridaya”.\u00a0 Hearing Amma sing this classic bhajan took me back to past days when Amma would take us to the beach late at night to meditate.\u00a0\u00a0 It was glorious to sit with Amma in the stillness of the dark night with the waves swelling slowly toward the shore.\u00a0 The stars twinkled dimly in the humid sky, echoed by the tiny lights of the fishing boats lined up on the horizon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At the end of the meditation, Amma would often rise and walk along the seashore.\u00a0 Arms lifted to the sky, she would sing as she walked along the shore with wavering steps.\u00a0 The waves would search for her feet and her nose ring would scintillate like the stars.\u00a0 This was one of the bhajans she would often sing on those evenings.<\/p>\n
With a start, I returned to the packed steel building of the present, as Amma began to sing “Kattinu Katayi”.\u00a0\u00a0 Again I remembered another time Amma sang this bhajan, maybe a dozen years ago in the Kali Temple at Amritapuri.\u00a0 Amma began to sing the profound lyrics based on the Keno Upanishad”: O Mother, who shines as the Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, Eye of the eye. Thou are the Life of the life and thy Being is the life of the living.\u00a0 As she sang tears began streaming down her face without ceasing.\u00a0 Finally she was unable to continue the song.\u00a0 She buried her head in her hands, but the tears flowing from the corners of her eyes would not cease.\u00a0 With tears in their eyes, the ashramites sang “Hridaya Pushpame Parayunin”\u00a0 to her: Tell me, O flower of my heart, what is that emotion that makes your eyes moist?”\u00a0 The music swelled and the tears swelled until Amma got up and left the hall and we were left there immobile and in stunned silence.<\/p>\n
But tonight was the night memories were made for the bhajan “Aye Haan”.\u00a0 It was the last of the three bhajans Amma sang that night in the new Chicago ashram.\u00a0 I watched the faces of the people below staring intently at Amma.\u00a0 As the song progressed, their expressions changed and the focus seemed to shift to some other Loka.\u00a0 Tears, closed eyes, smiling faces, ecstatic faces.\u00a0 A couple of men who were the last ones in the queue waiting to get darshan sat in front of Amma for two songs utterly incredulous at how fate had put them there.\u00a0 They actually seemed to be in a state of shock as they perched on their chairs, directly in front of the flood of bhakti and shakti that was pouring from Amma.<\/p>\n
Walking on the damp grass under the waxing moon that hot and humid night after Amma had left the hall, I thought how Amma has been doing pretty much the same things for her entire life.\u00a0\u00a0 She feeds people, meditates with them, sings with and to them, travels to programs; it’s just that the scale has massively changed.\u00a0 She used to feed the ashramites a rice ball at lunch, now she hands hundreds of devotees their plates at a meal.\u00a0 She used to sing alone or with small groups of people, but now it is often with thousands.\u00a0 She mediated on the seashore or under the coconut trees with a small group, now she meditates in sports stadiums.\u00a0 However, Amma never changes.\u00a0 She is ever relaxed, blissful and complete.<\/p>\n
Neither can the eyes reach Thee, nor the mind grasp Thee.\u00a0 Words are hushed in Thy presence, O Mother.\u00a0 Those who say they have seen Thee have not really done so, as Thou, O Great Goddess, are beyond the intellect.<\/p>\n
Rta
\nElburn, Chicago<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The experienced devotees watch for signs: a stirring among the musicians, gathering of cameramen, a flurry at the sound system\u2026the intent and intense begin to jockey for position, the closer the better.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this usually leads to the same savvy and experienced folks scoring the “best” spots near Amma at practically every venue.\u00a0 However, Amma […]<\/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-4979","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\/4979","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=4979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4979\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}