My Amritapuri Experience: Part 7

[Guest guest]

Continued from Part 6…

 

Before I go further with this (interminable) account of my stay I

would like to make a small clarification. Since I have arrogated to

myself the right to post anonymously, I believe I also have a duty to

protect the identities of the people I encountered during my stay.

Therefore my descriptions of characters in these accounts may be

altered to mask their true identities. There are no deep or dark

secrets to hide and none of the participants in my experience

stipulated confidentiality but I still deem it appropriate to take

the identities out of the narrative. There is a story to be told

(some may join issue with me on that!) but I see no reason why any of

the characters that feature in it must be addressable.

 

So let us see, where was I? Yes, in the Indian accommodation office,

waiting for the Western accommodation office to open. It opened at

11am as scheduled and I went up to meet whoever was in charge

there. 'Achan' in the Indian acco office had smoothed my path with a

phone call even before I set out on this mission so I climbed the

steps to the Western acco office in the old temple with confidence.

Over there, I spoke to a 'brahmacharini' of European origin. She took

my passport and handed over the keys to a room in the Western block.

Although I was travelling alone and the normal policy was to group

people together three or four to a room, she was kind enough to allot

me a vacant room where I would be the sole occupant for the first 3

out of a total 5 days of intended stay. I had arrived, quite

deliberately, in a lean season and there were probably lots of

vacancies.

 

I had arrived after midnight on a Wednesday morning and planned to

stay until Sunday to take in the 'Devi Bhava'. So my plan was to take

in a 'darshan' every day when it was available. Friday was the only

non-darshan day in my calendar so I would take in a 'darshan' a day

upto Monday morning when I planned to depart the scene. I had

mentally gone over the dosage (in pills of Amma experience)

beforehand and figured it was about right: 3-5 darshans in India and

the same number in country X when Amma comes a-visiting, once a year.

That was more than enough for me at the existing level of longing for

Amma. After all, I had not felt, upto that point or even

subsequently, the waves of indescribable bliss that many have claimed

to experience in Amma's presence. Therefore I approached this

calculation pragmatically; I was not out to spend every minute and

second with Amma.

 

I gathered my luggage, thanked the 'brahmacharini' at the counter and

went off to my new quarters. It was in the building overlooking the

swimming pool and 'kayal' (inland waterway). The room located at the

end of a long corridor on a high floor. I let myself in and surveyed

the scene. After my experience of the night before, this was like the

Presidential Suite at the Waldorf Astoria. (I have never stayed at

that swank hotel and never will but I exaggerate merely for dramatic

effect). I was overjoyed. The relief I felt was so immense that even

with my limited literary skills I could have composed a sonnet, on

the spot, to 'The Room'. Posterity will record with gratitude that I

did not succumb to the temptation to litter the universe with my uni-

verse.

 

To be continued in Part 8…

 

Om Amriteshwaryai Namah

 

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