More Amma in San Ramon

[Guest guest]

The M.A. Center was mobbed last night, the last chance for the public

to see Ammachi before Devi Bhava on Sunday evening. That will be

crowded too. The woman who rode with me was quite cranky about the

whole thing, even though I told her that it gets more and more

crowded toward the end of the week. Like many of the people who know

Ammachi already, I volunteered to watch the program on closed circuit

television from the shed where food is served. This gave the

newcomers a chance to be in the hall with Amma.

 

The man who takes wonderful pictures of Ammachi gave the talk.

Perhaps because of the large number of new faces in front of her,

Ammachi surprised everyone by having an impromptu question and answer

session.

 

Someone asked her a question about a single sentence Yogananda had

said about kriya yoga, the spiritual practice he fostered. In the

statement Yogananda was praising kriya yoga, a feature of which,

apparently, is to manipulate the breathing and stop the heart

temporarily.

 

Ammachi gave a great answer which advocated reading and understanding

all that a master says. She told about a rather flippant comment by

Vivekananda to an extremely lazy man. Apparently Vivekananda had

quipped, "Why don't you at least steal?" He meant that doing some

kind of work would counteract the laziness and bring the man to the

next stage, from which he could again improve. People have taken

this out of context and say that Vivekananda approved of stealing.

Returning to kriya yoga, Ammachi said that people need to see the

circumstance in which the master was speaking and to whom. She

commented that, if stopping the heart was the road to liberation,

every cardiac bypass patient would be liberated. She also said that

no one should think that she disapproves of the practice of kriya

yoga, only that people should understand what a master says in

context and know what else the master has said or written before

coming to a conclusion.

 

Devotional singing did not go on as long as usual. We in the shed

sang loudly, enthusiastically and I even played my little cymbals.

The place rocked!

 

Aikya