Fireworks Meditation

[Guest guest]

Vishu Eve,13 April 2002, Amritapuri

 

Amma had finished playing with Ram; normally, She would go up Her steps to

Her room.

 

This night was different.

 

Instead, suddenly She made Her way to the front steps of the temple. It seems

the computer students from the ashrams' Institute had arranged a special

fireworks display for the night before Vishu (New Year's day in Kerala.)

 

So there She sat, surrounded first by the few who had trailed Her from the

Ram playtime, but then by more and more, until probably two or three thousand

residents and devotees had gathered on the steps, in the small "cupolas",

beside the lions, near the front gate and the bookstall and the banyan tree,

and on the roofs and verandas of the brahmacharinis' quarters and the flats.

 

Hissssss......BANG!"

 

Everyone jumped.

 

Everyone?

 

Maybe not Mother.

 

You watch closely:

 

"Hissssss.....BANG!"

 

You jump; She doesn't seem to. But She laughs, shoves the shoulder of someone

sitting near Her.

 

"Hissssss...BANG!!

 

BANG!!

 

BANG!!"

 

 

You know the first BANG!! is coming, from the hiss, and you are ready this

time, and don't jump. But the next two bangs are surprises...you jump. Did

Mother? Her eyes are dancing; Her face is glowing in the light from the

sparklers that She and some children near Her are holding. But She seems to

be simply sitting there, rock-solid.

 

Is it your imagination?

 

"BANG!!"

 

No hiss this time, and no preparation-you jump. But Mother is leaning over

close to one of the devotees, saying something that seems to be serious. Even

though this particular BANG wasn't specifically expected, it didn't seem to

have startled Her nor to have taken Her attention away from what She was

engaged in.

 

Maybe one of the times you were jumping Mother was too, so you can't be

certain She was never startled on this firecrackers night. But all those

times you saw Her NOT jumping might have stirred a memory of one of the

examples She so often gives:

 

Mother says that if we know fireworks will go off nearby, we're prepared, and

not shocked when they do. Similarly with life: if we understand the nature of

life-that it is never all pleasant and easy: there are both good times and

bad, gains and losses, joys and suffering-then when the hard times come, we

won't be rocked. We can face anything life brings with equanimity.

 

Even if Mother did jump once or twice during the fireworks display, you can

safely bet that She is never rocked by anything in life. She knows what life

brings-ups and downs—and has no expectations to be shattered.