TASTE: Sacred service
By CHRISTOPHER J. KOLON | For The New Mexican
July 3, 2007
As East Indian spiritual leader Amma attracts thousands of devotees at each stop on her tour, a tireless, traveling volunteer kitchen staff prepares delicacies around the clock
When East Indian spiritual leader Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (known to many simply as Amma, or Ammachi) comes to town, Julie Rose goes shopping.
Rose, co-owner of Bountiful Cow Cheese Company in Santa Fe, is one of about 100 local volunteers who help make the “hugging saint’s” annual visits run smoothly.
Rose was the official “shopper” for Amma’s June 23-27 Albuquerque visit. It was her fifth year in the position.
As Amma’s tour staff barreled east overnight from Los Angeles accompanied by a semi-truck full of equipment, Rose was arranging her initial purchases in the kitchen of the Hotel Albuquerque in Old Town: 800 pounds of potatoes, 700 pounds of rice, 170 pounds of lentils, 200 gallons of milk, 80 gallons of yogurt and hundreds of pounds of fresh produce.
And that was just the first day.
Amma attracts thousands of devotees, spiritual seekers and the just plain curious to her annual five-day New Mexico program. Her kitchen staff must be prepared to make as many as 1,500 meals each of the first two days and closer to 3,000 meals each of the subsequent three days.
The 36-person kitchen-tour staff managed to have the first day’s lunch ready at 12:30 p.m. — as scheduled — even though they had just arrived in Albuquerque at 5 that same morning, many with as little as one and a half hour’s sleep.
Even with the help of a hundred or more unskilled program participants volunteering an hour or more of their time in the kitchen as seva — or selfless service — that’s still a logistical miracle.
Volunteers keep the wheels moving
“Somehow it always magically comes together,” said Triptta, the kitchen manager. “There is a love and eagerness to serve Mother. I can do so much more here than I could ever do alone.”
Members of the kitchen staff commit two months of their time to tour with Amma. They meet in Seattle before the first public program starts on May 31 and travel cross country, making stops in 12 different cities before the tour ends in Toronto, Canada, on July 23. During that time, they prepare food for all the participants in the 17 programs on Amma’s summer tour schedule.
The tour staff interviewed for this article chose to use their spiritual names rather than their secular ones. But each of them also is an ordinary person — teacher, nurse, business owner — who volunteers to work 40 or more hours per week during the tour in service to their spiritual guru. Not only do they donate their time; they also pay for their own room, board and transportation on the road.
M.A. Math, Amma’s umbrella organization of international humanitarian services, funds a variety of charitable works including disaster relief, the construction of free homes in Amrita Kuteeram, India, and international health care and educational projects. Each penny earned through food sales on the North American tour goes to fund these projects.
Amma’s aid organizations have donated more than $40 million to tsunami relief and were one of the largest non-governmental contributors to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund.
The language of hugs and food
In the hallways outside the hotel ballrooms where Amma gives darshan — a Sanskrit term describing an audience with a holy person — to thousands of followers and other visitors by hugging them, a veritable bazaar of food, drink and information booths spring up.
Thirsty devotees can slake their physical — if not spiritual — thirst at Banana Leaf Espresso and the smoothie stand slyly named “Amba” Juice. Annapurna (no relation to the Santa Fe restaurant) will sell you a cup of aromatic chai to go along with your puri and chickpea curry. A variety of mainstream and vegan baked treats are available at Amma’s Snack Shop, along with savory items like pizza and raw food wraps.
Amma’s kitchen staff supplies each of these venues with freshly made vegetarian fare each day — in addition to preparing lunch and dinner daily. And they seem to do so effortlessly, with smiles continually on their faces even as they face mountains of vegetables waiting to be cut, trays of bhajis waiting to be fried and thousands of empty plates waiting to be filled.
“There is a dance that goes on here,” said Sri Pati, head baker, as he filled tray after tray of cookies with apricot jam. “We share work and duties among each other. Each venue presents its own challenges, but it all works out as we work together.”
Akshay, a tall, fair-haired German who lives at Amma’s ashram in India and speaks English with a disconcertingly lilting, Indian accent, has been in charge of making the Indian snacks since 2000.
“It makes me happy to make others happy,” he said. One of the ways he makes others happy is by crafting lightly battered bites of eggplant and cauliflower, called bhajis, which are fried and served with tamarind-apple or mint-cilantro chutney.
Another of his specialties is the south Indian idly sambar, which is rice and a kind of light-colored lentil called urad dal that have been ground together with water and left to ferment for a day. Steamed, they have a texture akin to cornbread; fried, they are more like heavy pancakes.
“They are much easier to digest than bread or dairy products for breakfast,” Akshay said. “They are so light and pleasant; once you have them, you will never go back.”
In addition to South Indian cuisine, diners are treated to a variety of Western fare, though all decidedly vegetarian.
During this year’s program, the kitchen produced savory ratatouille, minestrone, cornbread and Texas-style chili in addition to Indian dishes.
On Sunday afternoon, the kitchen was filled volunteers — cooking, cleaning and singing along to the Indian spiritual music playing on a boombox in the corner. Pictures of Amma were placed around the room.
The hotel kitchen’s standard supplies, such as pinto beans, canned tomatoes and ground beef, shared their space with cheeky visitors from the East: stacks of tofu, jars of tamarind paste and piles of papadams (a type of Indian bread).
Rose said that when Amma’s kitchen staff arrives, “The chef at the hotel usually bows out of the way and gives us space. We descend and take over.”
Hotel Albuquerque’s executive chef, Tony Trujillo, sat alone in his office, most of his staff having been delegated to other hotel venues. Many chefs are territorial, protective of their own sacred space — their kitchens. But Trujillo was relaxed.
“They are very clean, precise and tidy,” he said, “pretty darn amazing cooks. They make bakery items that you think had come from a French pastry shop, with such attention to detail. I don’t have any problem with them in here.”
Amma herself doesn’t participate in the cooking; she is far too busy spending hours hugging and comforting people. She does, however, personally serve the children and adults dinner on the second day of the retreat.
Meet the touring cooks
Niramayan, a San Francisco Bay Area importer of Brazilian furniture, has been cooking on tour for 11 years. Initially, he did not care for East Indian food and was not trained as a professional chef; now he is in charge of Indian dinner specialties.
“I really like pongol, which is savory rice and dal, spiced with cumin and black pepper. And our raita, which is made with yogurt, buttermilk, sour cream, grated zuccini or carrot, cucumber, paprika and salt,” he said.
When asked why he takes two months out of his busy life to go on tour, he answered, “Let’s put it this way: this is my life, serving Amma by feeding people. It takes me 10 months of work to be able to do this.”
Sri Pati concurred. “I have the opportunity to do it. I love being with Amma. I get to help support her charitable organizations and I help make people’s experience pleasant.”
“Why not?” he replied before going back to his cookies.
The ‘Hugging Saint’
Born 53 years ago in a tiny fishing village in the state of Kerala, in Southern India, Mata Amritanandamayi, referred to by her followers as Amma, or Mother, is revered throughout the world as an outstanding humanitarian and spiritual leader. She travels annually through North America, Europe and India dispensing hugs to all who come to her programs desiring one.
Darshan is a Sanskrit term that literally means “to see.”
Traditionally, Hindu spiritual leaders who give darshan are seen, but not touched;
blessings may come from simply being in their presence.
Amma’s darshan is unique in that she embraces all comers with a long, motherly hug.
These hugs are considered by her devotees to be the embodiment of unconditional love.
While on these tours, Amma’s organization raises money to fund its charities
in India through sales at her food, book and spiritual goods stores and from fees for her spiritual retreats.
For more information, visit www.amma.org or contact the Santa Fe-based Amma Center of NewMexico by telephone at 982-9801 or on the Internet at www.ammacenter.org