Amma Uses More English

[Guest guest]

In the few days I was able to be at San Ramon while Amma was there I

saw various instances that she is using English more often. The

singing of the bhajan in English always got applause. That was one

big obvious public use of English.

 

Another public use of English occurred during one evening session.

Instead of stopping Swamiji for a short chat privately,

she "accidentally" blurted out her thoughts in English. The topic

was women as political leaders in communities and nations. Swamiji

had just translated something like "After all, women are more

numerous in the population," when Amma blurted out "Oh, I don't know

that. Maybe {in} some places..." Then she talked privately to

Swamiji for a moment and he continued.

 

Also, when I was doing prasad seva, a young man came up behind Amma.

She said to him in English, "Sing! Go sing!" He explained that he

was going to sing but that the sound equipment was being put away.

Brahmachari Dayamrita, standing on the other side of Amma, made a

comment to Mother in Malayalam. She answered him in English,

saying, "Because yesterday he sang and it was sweet...and

different." The young man blushed bright red and said "thank you".

The Mother gave a sideways glance toward this young man and smiled

affectionately, saying more in Malayalam to Dayamrita. I only caught

the Sanskrit word, "brahmachari." Mother seems to have seen a

possible future for this young man.

 

It seems Mother understands a lot of English and surely has

vocabulary but chooses not to use English a lot. Otherwise how can

she know when the Swamis have left something out when they are

translating for her. This time in San Ramon she was telling a story

about a very fat man. Swamiji left out how much he weighed and Amma

insisted that he say it. Swamiji said "Amma thinks this man weighed

5000 pounds. Sumo wrestlers weigh that much." So you can see why

Swamiji left this out and maybe how Amma who is used to thinking in

the metric system might come up with such a big number.

 

"Used to thinking" is important. I said something in English to

Mother at a particular moment. Br. Dayamrita had said he would do it

but, at exactly the moment it was needed, he was busy telling Mother

something in Malayalam about some men and Bangalore. So Mother was

listening on the right side to Dayamrita in Malayalam when I rudely

said 7 English words in her left ear. (This particular devotee had

come that she wanted to know about.) What happened is that Mother

heard the last English word and gave a happy, affectionate darshan

and extra prasad to this devotee based on the last English word. The

devotee was very happy and those guys are probably doing whatever

that good thing was in Bangalore right now.

 

I am happy that Mother is using more English. When I had prasad

seva, I saw several Malayalam speakers come up to Mother for their

hug and just ASK A QUESTION. Mother would stroke their hair and

answer them. Nice. No need to wake up early, deal with nutty

question triage people, wait an hour and a half on line and wonder

whether the Swami on duty bothered to translate your question

properly or wonder who was answering it, Mother or the Swami. This

particular bit of nuttiness can go away as Mother uses more English.

 

Aikya

 

Aikya

 

 

Ammachi, Ravishankar Krishnan <ravkris>

wrote:

> "New". Yeah, right!

>

> Jai Ma!

> Ravi

>

>

> Amma learns a New Bhajan

>

> What is really going on when Amma learns to sing a

> bhajan in a language She supposedly doesn't know? She

> likes to please Her children wherever She travels, so

> during the last spring tours, for example, She learned

> some new versions of a few otherwise familiar

> bhajans-so it was that In New Delhi there were several

> Hindi bhajans; in Calcutta, a few Bengali versions; in

> Reunion Amma learned to sing "Ishwar Tumi Daya Karo"

> in French.

>

> And in San Ramon, a few days ago, that same

> bhajan-"Ishwar Tumi Daya Karo" emerged in a new

> language: English. The English words were

> transliterated into Malayalam characters, in with only

> a few tries Amma had mastered "Grace Us With Your

> Compassion Lord":

>

> Grace us with Your compassion Lord

> I have no one but You my Lord.

> You are my friend and my family Mother and Father, my

> Everything

> You are my soul refuge O Lord

> I have no one but You my Lord

>

> When we watch Mother "learning" something, questions

> naturally come into our minds: Does She really NOT

> know these words? Is it really hard for Her to make

> these foreign sounds? She gives every appearance of

> moving from confusion to comprehension, from

> awkwardness to mastery. And yet we recall the story of

> the Russian devotee who brought Her a letter in

> Russian at a time when there was no translator near

> the chair-so what could She do but reply-in his own

> language! Or the Brazilian woman who had never met

> Mother before, and approached her with cool curiosity.

> She drew near, watching-and suddenly was overwhelmed

> with emotion. She began crying, and couldn't stop. She

> reached Mother's lap, and Mother, Who didn't know her,

> didn't know she was Brazilian, didn't know she spoke

> Portuguese, touched her chin, looked into Her eyes,

> and said lovingly, "Don't cry." In Portuguese.

>

> Now, how are we to understand this?

>

> Maybe we need not understand, but simply enjoy the

> different faces of Amma as they unveil.

>

>

>

> SBC DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!

> http://sbc.

[Guest guest]

Namaskaram Aikya,

 

I used to think that my being able to speak Malayalam was a big

advantage; but never have I found this out to be true; when i had a

question that I REALLY wanted to get an answer, usually I got it from

someelse (usually one of the swami's or the crowd that hangs around

Amma) but when I had a question, amma would ask me "enthua mone

visesam?" but always i would be too dumbfounded to say anything.

 

 

HOW MANY HOURS SHOULD YOU SLEEP??

 

Well personally I am at my best when I sleep for 3 hours, though I

end up lying down for 11-12 hours through laziness/lack of motivation.

However when I am with Amma, i find that i can manage on 1-2 hours of

sleep(her entourage has probably conquered sleep:-)). At the recent

retreat at the Bay area, around late at night, when the bhajan's had

stopped, a lot of people ask questions, some of which seemed very

silly to me(of course, the questions were really intended for someone

there); some one casually asked "how many hours of sleep does one

need?"

 

Amma said " 5 hours should be enough, if you sleep more than that, it

will diminish your brainpower; though many doctors say 8 hours are

needed, i dont think that it is true"

 

At once amma pointed to one person rather abrubtly and asked him how

many hours do you sleep- this went on with several people and the

usualy answers were in the range of 6-8 hours; i began feeling really

bad with my 12 hours of sleep and I knew that if mother were to ask,

there was no chance for me to lie(after what does she not know!);

suddenly her eyes fell on me and i prayed AMMA PLEASE DONT EMBARASS

ME;

 

with a mischevious smile she spared me and she then turned to someone

else; then she said, business people sleep only for 3 hours and they

do just fine HMM.... i am an about to be-entrepreneur.. and perhaps

there others who can relate to that conversation too.

 

So the MORAL of the story is that no need to ask questions directly,

answers will find their way to you:-)

 

Aum Namasivaya

yogaman

 

> I am happy that Mother is using more English. When I had prasad

> seva, I saw several Malayalam speakers come up to Mother for their

> hug and just ASK A QUESTION. Mother would stroke their hair and

> answer them. Nice. No need to wake up early, deal with nutty

> question triage people, wait an hour and a half on line and wonder

> whether the Swami on duty bothered to translate your question

> properly or wonder who was answering it, Mother or the Swami. This

> particular bit of nuttiness can go away as Mother uses more English.

>

[Guest guest]

But see -- you are able to follow those little casual conversations

around Mother.

 

How many hours should one sleep seemed to have the answer ayurveda

would give: "It depends..."

 

Being stunned to silence around Amma is a different issue with

multiple causes.

 

Aikya

 

Ammachi, "childofdevi" <childofdevi>

wrote:

>

> Namaskaram Aikya,

>

> I used to think that my being able to speak Malayalam was a big

> advantage; but never have I found this out to be true; when i had a

> question that I REALLY wanted to get an answer, usually I got it

from

> someelse (usually one of the swami's or the crowd that hangs around

> Amma) but when I had a question, amma would ask me "enthua mone

> visesam?" but always i would be too dumbfounded to say anything.

>

>

> HOW MANY HOURS SHOULD YOU SLEEP??

>

> Well personally I am at my best when I sleep for 3 hours, though I

> end up lying down for 11-12 hours through laziness/lack of

motivation.

> However when I am with Amma, i find that i can manage on 1-2 hours

of

> sleep(her entourage has probably conquered sleep:-)). At the recent

> retreat at the Bay area, around late at night, when the bhajan's

had

> stopped, a lot of people ask questions, some of which seemed very

> silly to me(of course, the questions were really intended for

someone

> there); some one casually asked "how many hours of sleep does one

> need?"

>

> Amma said " 5 hours should be enough, if you sleep more than that,

it

> will diminish your brainpower; though many doctors say 8 hours are

> needed, i dont think that it is true"

>

> At once amma pointed to one person rather abrubtly and asked him

how

> many hours do you sleep- this went on with several people and the

> usualy answers were in the range of 6-8 hours; i began feeling

really

> bad with my 12 hours of sleep and I knew that if mother were to

ask,

> there was no chance for me to lie(after what does she not know!);

> suddenly her eyes fell on me and i prayed AMMA PLEASE DONT EMBARASS

> ME;

>

> with a mischevious smile she spared me and she then turned to

someone

> else; then she said, business people sleep only for 3 hours and

they

> do just fine HMM.... i am an about to be-entrepreneur.. and

perhaps

> there others who can relate to that conversation too.

>

> So the MORAL of the story is that no need to ask questions

directly,

> answers will find their way to you:-)

>

> Aum Namasivaya

> yogaman

>

> > I am happy that Mother is using more English. When I had prasad

> > seva, I saw several Malayalam speakers come up to Mother for

their

> > hug and just ASK A QUESTION. Mother would stroke their hair and

> > answer them. Nice. No need to wake up early, deal with nutty

> > question triage people, wait an hour and a half on line and

wonder

> > whether the Swami on duty bothered to translate your question

> > properly or wonder who was answering it, Mother or the Swami.

This

> > particular bit of nuttiness can go away as Mother uses more

English.

> >

[Guest guest]

> How many hours should one sleep seemed to have the answer ayurveda

> would give: "It depends..."

>

 

Yes Aikya this is very true, Amma herself is of the Kapha dosha- so

the answer she gave(5 hours) is very appropriate for those of the

kapha dosha. Ayurveda comes under the samkhya school of philosophy;

samkhya and yoga are sister schools; samkhya leads to yoga; for the

average person one has to establish a firm foundation on samkhya

before going on to yoga(ideally); rules for how much sleep applies to

one at the samkhya level.

 

Someone on the spiritual path is on the path of yoga, and these rules

no longer apply; conquest of sleep is the ideal for those on yoga.

 

We have the most famous example of Lord Krishna telling Arjuna that

moderation in all things is what is required, including sleep; what

is meant by moderation is according to one's capacity(since Arjuna

himself was one who had conquered sleep and did not sleep at all),

what is moderate for someone at yoga, maynot be moderate for someone

at samkya; now that i have written this much, I realise that i have a

long way to go:-)

 

yogaman