News from Dubai!!!

[Guest guest]

Dear Divine Sibs,

Received this from a friend -

Om Amriteswariye Namaha!

 

I'm writing from the Business Center of the hotel in Dubai where some

devotees have put eight of us up...The rest are in two houses of

devotees, we're a small group of about thirty travelling with Amma to

Her first appearance in the Arab world! It was touch and go of course,

we didn't have visas even as we got on the bus to go to the airport,

the plane was oversold by 100%, but with Her grace the whole thing

worked out. Word got out on the plane Who was on board and Amma gave

darshan from first class to people who kept streaming up from the

entire plane to see Her!! We also had been forwarned to wear western

colored clothing, not appear to be a group, etc but there was no

trouble coming in.

 

The program hall in a redone warehouse 20 km outside of Dubai in a

warehouse district, it's now a Sikh temple but still has two big garage

doors on it to get in and out. It fits three hundred people, but six

thousand showed up last night. There was a curfew of midnight, and

when the crowd heard that and feared they wouldn't get in there was

almost a riot, they had to keep closing the doors and only letting a

few in at a time for a quick, Indian-style darshan. At one point we

were locked in from the outside and Swamiji headed over there with a

tabla hammer and began banging on the garage door lock! The Keralans

were thrilled to have their Mother fly to Dubai to see them, so many of

them work here and don't get a chance to see Amma in India. She

continued way past the curfew of course to receive everyone. The

police came but there was no trouble...

 

Tonight there is another program in the same place, tomorrow night at

this hotel unless they try to find another venue. Amma is staying in a

house and apparently giving darshan to hundreds during the morning time

from the house, but we westerners aren't invited to that...

 

It's amazing to be in the middle of this desert but be in an extremely

modern city with unbelievable architecture, construction everywhere,

oil prices must really be booming...and yet occasionally you can see a

woman on the street (rare to see any women) dressed in full black

dress, veil and all, and it feels like a mix of the 21st century with

the 13th or so.

 

Amma is in fine form, relaxed and chatting with people as She ignores

yet another curfew in a country where any religion other than Muslim is

only partially tolerated and public preaching of any other religion is

not tolerated, yet no trouble so far, we know Who is in charge...