Trip to Ashram (a little long)

[Guest guest]

Kenna wrote:

 

> Seems to me that Amma is playing with us through this as She does through

> everthing else!

 

Play she does.

 

Last January, I went to the Ashram in India for the first time. Well, first

time to Amma's Ashram, third trip to India.

 

I flew out of Jacksonville on Delta to Atlanta to JFK in New York. There, I

had a nice little layover of 6 hours before catching a Kuwait Air flight to

Kuwait then on to Trivandrum. I was the first person in line when Kuwait Air

opened their booth. I passed over my ticket, passport, etc., to the clerk.

After she flipped through it all, she look at me and said "Where's your

Kuwait ticket?" In there, I responded. "No, it isn't here" she replied. The

Atlanta to JFK ticket was gone as was the JFK to Kuwait. The Jacksonville to

Atlanta was still there.

 

Instantly, I realized that some gate ticket taker pulled the wrong ticket. I

felt the anger rise up inside of me as I saw my India trip evaporate in front

of my eyes.

 

But, I caught it. I felt Mother looking over my shoulder and watching my

reaction. OK, Amma, I said, you want to challenge me on my patience? I'll

give you a challenge! If you want me to go to India, produce a ticket!

 

In the next second, I wondered about the wisdom of challenging Amma. But, I

dismissed the thought. She might enjoy it, I surmised, rather sheepishly.

 

"You will have to go back to Delta" said the Kuwait clerk.

 

So, out the door I went hoping to find a shuttle bus in the middle of a snow

storm that was starting to blow. And me, from Florida going to South India,

without a coat. I was cold! Finally, a bus came and it took 45 minutes to go

around the airport from Terminal 4 to get back to Delta in Terminal 3.

Fortunately, I found two very nice ladies in a Customer Service booth. Now,

these folks had good vibs! Years of experience so they know all the little

ins and outs plus human warmth that is so rare these days.

 

"I have to call Jacksonville", she said. Horrors! That means they have to

find someone who is not busy in JAX (lotsa luck) to search all the flight

envelopes they created that day and find my flight, then search through the

hundred+ tickets to find mine. My India trip continued to dissolve before my

eyes. After 20 minutes, she advised me to come back in a half an hour. "I

can't figure out how to call JAX on the company phone." was the next thing I

heard. I found a place to eat and then returned.

 

"We heard from JAX but don't understand the message" the clerk said when she

saw me. I reminded Amma of my challenge.

 

Another hour went by and it was getting close to the departure time of the

Kuwait flight.

 

To shorten the story, I sat back and just watched all of this happening just

like seeing a movie. My mood was quite joyful watching the events and seeing

how Amma was going to work Her way out of this one. I was having a ball while

being in a near state of panic.

 

Finally, it was confirmed that Delta had made the mistake. At Jacksonville,

they had pulled the Atlanta/JFK ticket, at Atlanta, they pulled the Kuwait

ticket. TWO blunders if you will. The ticket for the original JAX to Atlanta

leg was still in my packet. They had to confirm this from both JAX and

Atlanta.

 

The lady rewrote my complete ticket while I smiled at Amma and expressed my

appreciation for Her meeting Her challenge so well. Then came the surprise.

 

"You have been so PATIENT through all of this", said the clerk, "I am going

to give you a couple of vouchers".

 

Sure enough, she did. I looked in my packet and found two vouchers for either

(a) a glass of wine or (b) a hard liquor drink.

 

Amma? You are giving me a free drink?

 

Peter

[Guest guest]

Jai Kenna:

 

> We also flew via Kuwait to Trivan. last January! I wish I could see your

> picture. We were at the Ashram all that time together

 

I'm sure we would recognize each other! I was there from around Jan 25th to

April 1st. and did the panchakarma program. What a trip that was.

 

There is more to the story.

 

Interesting that the 19 year old son of my next door neighbor booked onto

exactly the same flight as I did. At least for the NYC to TRV portion.

 

I hitched a ride to the airport with them. His whole family went up to see

him off as if they might never see him again. He had booked an earlier flight

at about 9 am into LaGuardia and was then going to taxi to JFK. I left an

hour later and went directly into JFK.

 

Upon arrival at the airport, we discovered that a major snow (that solidified

rain stuff) storm was due in New York that day. They encouraged me to get the

earlier flight. Better to get into NYC before the storm or you might not get

in, they said.

 

Well, everything was already overbooked and it might have upset Amma's plans

for me if I changed so I kept my original flight.

 

Around six, I hadn't seen him. Finally he shows up looking quite hassled.

When his flight was landing at LaGuardia, the pilot aborted at the last

minute and was rerouted to Washington. The snow storm had hit. He waited for

3 hours sitting in the plane on the DC runway pondering his fate.

 

My flight was fine (at least up to that point). Landing at JFK was no problem.

 

Peter

 

PS those seats on Kuwait are made for midgets. Never again.

[Guest guest]

Peter:

 

We also flew via Kuwait to Trivan. last January! I wish I could see your

picture. We were at the Ashram all that time together, with eyes only for

Amma. Anyway, Amma played with us also. As we stood waiting in the Kuwait

line in Chicago, full of so many mixed feelings about this, our first trip

to India, we heard the ticket agent tell several people ahead of us that

they hadn't confirmed their tickets 72 hours in advance, therefore, they

weren't on the flight. I began to panic, we pulled out our ticket, and sure

enough, it said you are supposed to confirm 72 before. We hadn't done it. We

began to think we weren't going to get on. What was there to do but put it

in Amma's lap and let Her decide if we were actually going. Fortunately,

when we got to the window, there seemed to be no problem and the rest of the

flight was uneventful and full of blissful anticipation.

 

Jai Ma Leela,

 

Kenna

 

>PeterWhite1

>Ammachi

>Sat, 26 Aug 2000 01:44:28 EDT

>Ammachi

> Trip to Ashram (a little long)

>

>Kenna wrote:

>

>>Seems to me that Amma is playing with us through this as She does through

>>everthing else!

>

>Play she does.

>

>Last January, I went to the Ashram in India for the first time. Well, first

>time to Amma's Ashram, third trip to India.

>

>I flew out of Jacksonville on Delta to Atlanta to JFK in New York. There, I

>had a nice little layover of 6 hours before catching a Kuwait Air flight to

>Kuwait then on to Trivandrum. I was the first person in line when Kuwait

>Air

>opened their booth. I passed over my ticket, passport, etc., to the clerk.

>After she flipped through it all, she look at me and said "Where's your

>Kuwait ticket?" In there, I responded. "No, it isn't here" she replied.

>The

>Atlanta to JFK ticket was gone as was the JFK to Kuwait. The Jacksonville

>to

>Atlanta was still there.

>

>Instantly, I realized that some gate ticket taker pulled the wrong ticket.

>I

>felt the anger rise up inside of me as I saw my India trip evaporate in

>front

>of my eyes.

>

>But, I caught it. I felt Mother looking over my shoulder and watching my

>reaction. OK, Amma, I said, you want to challenge me on my patience? I'll

>give you a challenge! If you want me to go to India, produce a ticket!

>

>In the next second, I wondered about the wisdom of challenging Amma. But, I

>dismissed the thought. She might enjoy it, I surmised, rather sheepishly.

>

>"You will have to go back to Delta" said the Kuwait clerk.

>

>So, out the door I went hoping to find a shuttle bus in the middle of a

>snow

>storm that was starting to blow. And me, from Florida going to South India,

>without a coat. I was cold! Finally, a bus came and it took 45 minutes to

>go

>around the airport from Terminal 4 to get back to Delta in Terminal 3.

>Fortunately, I found two very nice ladies in a Customer Service booth. Now,

>these folks had good vibs! Years of experience so they know all the little

>ins and outs plus human warmth that is so rare these days.

>

>"I have to call Jacksonville", she said. Horrors! That means they have to

>find someone who is not busy in JAX (lotsa luck) to search all the flight

>envelopes they created that day and find my flight, then search through the

>hundred+ tickets to find mine. My India trip continued to dissolve before

>my

>eyes. After 20 minutes, she advised me to come back in a half an hour. "I

>can't figure out how to call JAX on the company phone." was the next thing

>I

>heard. I found a place to eat and then returned.

>

>"We heard from JAX but don't understand the message" the clerk said when

>she

>saw me. I reminded Amma of my challenge.

>

>Another hour went by and it was getting close to the departure time of the

>Kuwait flight.

>

>To shorten the story, I sat back and just watched all of this happening

>just

>like seeing a movie. My mood was quite joyful watching the events and

>seeing

>how Amma was going to work Her way out of this one. I was having a ball

>while

>being in a near state of panic.

>

>Finally, it was confirmed that Delta had made the mistake. At Jacksonville,

>they had pulled the Atlanta/JFK ticket, at Atlanta, they pulled the Kuwait

>ticket. TWO blunders if you will. The ticket for the original JAX to

>Atlanta

>leg was still in my packet. They had to confirm this from both JAX and

>Atlanta.

>

>The lady rewrote my complete ticket while I smiled at Amma and expressed my

>appreciation for Her meeting Her challenge so well. Then came the surprise.

>

>"You have been so PATIENT through all of this", said the clerk, "I am going

>to give you a couple of vouchers".

>

>Sure enough, she did. I looked in my packet and found two vouchers for

>either

>(a) a glass of wine or (b) a hard liquor drink.

>

>Amma? You are giving me a free drink?

>

>Peter

>

>

>

>

>Aum Amriteswarayai Namaha!

>

>Ammachi-

>

>

>

>

 

_______________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

 

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at

http://profiles.msn.com.