Day before and 1st Day of AV50

[Guest guest]

Namah Shivaya dear Listers.

 

Day before AV50.

 

The Amritavidyalam buses filled the taxi yard outside the back gate of the

ashram and before dawn hundreds of us stumbled down with our luggage, found

the bus with our hotel name on the front and climbed aboard for the 3 hour

ride to Cochin. We arrived mid morning, and because bus driver had no idea

how to get to our particular hotel, he drove to the stadium. So we got a

preview. Sure enough, there was a life size reproduction of the front of

Amma's temple standing in front of the stadium, so it felt like we were

arriving back to where we had just left. The driver stopped outside what

would soon be the Western dining area. It needed a lot of work, so while we

waited, some of us helped pick up debris from the dirt floor which would

soon be covered with huge rolls of carpet. A lot of the debris was bright

tissue paper from the beautiful tissue mandalas decorating the roof of the

tent.

 

After the driver got directions, we headed for ³The Kamyakam², our assigned

hotel. The driver kept having to stop and ask directions. Once he had to

turn around in the main street in noon rush hour. Amazing. In such

situations anyone on the scene can jump in and act as traffic director.

Picture a bus turning around in the middle of rush hour on your most crowded

street.

 

When I registered in Chicago, without too much thought I put down 3 star

a/c, outskirts quiet location, wondering what it would be like to get back

and forth to the programs. Well....the bus quickly left the main streets and

managed to get through a series streets (imagine alleys) to deposit us

at...a ferry landing on the backwaters of the northwestern shore of

Eranakula, which is really where we were. (Maybe someone on our list can

tell me why everyone calls it Cochin?) As we boarded the ferry for the 15

minute ride to "The first ever complete luxury backwater resort in Kochi," I

was feeling both charmed (what a beautiful setting) and alarmed (how were we

going to get back to the stadium?). It turned out to be a fairly new 4 star

set on an island. It was the last hotel brought on board the AV housing

project because the sevites were desperate. It was beautiful! And the

interactions between the hotel staff and this bunch of westerners would make

a movie, either comedy or soap opera or film noir (starring the ³pet eagles²

with the clipped wings), depending on who's point of view. It did feel like

one of the many gifts Amma gave for the effort we made. It sat on a large

pond complete with paddle boats overlooking the backwaters. The sunset that

night was almost as breathtaking as Amma¹s divine face, and the setting was

so peaceful that I have to admit I wondered whether I really wanted to go

back to the concrete, diesel fueled air and inevitable mass of people in the

unavoidable heat the next day. Not to mention the transportation challenge.

Blessedly, the A/C didn't work as well as leaving the window open, so we

didn't have to keep shocking our bodies with frigidaire air and Keralo heat

like those staying at the more western style hotels.

 

The program was to begin the next day with an Interfaith Ceremony starting

at 5 am. By our calculations that meant getting up at 3 am, catching the

ferry at 3:30 in order to meet the bus which was scheduled to be at the

ferry landing around 4 am. First leap of faith since the driver had no cell

phone....

 

About a dozen of us decided to do this....because in the Amma drama, we are

all a little crazy...

 

First Day morning.

 

So there we were at the ferry landing in the dark, watching the ferry head

back to the hotel and finding no bus. No phone. No taxis. Well, maybe the

bus would be there soon....Half hour passed. Another comedy film in the

works. Two women from Taiwan with almost no English stood by themselves over

there. A group of French speakers stood in a little group over there. I sat

down over what my nose quickly defined as a sewer (a theme to recur later)

doing japa as best I could, one devotee started chanting Amma¹s names, a few

were saying we should start walking toward the stadium. We all watched local

residents bring in several herds of water buffalo. Amma had us right where

she wanted us! Minds chattering away, helpless in the quiet outskirts of a

big city none of us knew. Couldn't go back to our beds. Couldn't go to

stadium. Time to surrender to the process. Karen (from our list) started

talking with the french speakers revealing a language skill I didn't know

she had. That brought them in on the group decision making process. Should

we start walking? Should we have our own interfaith ceremony right there (by

now I was more than willing to move off the sewer). We finally agreed to

start walking, took a few steps as a group and....the bus roared into view.

"Take one step to Amma, and She will take 100 steps to you." It was just

one of the many miracles unfolding in every nook and cranny of a city that

was taking a 5 day holiday to celebrate Amma¹s birthday. We later heard that

the bus never showed up at some of the hotels that morning.

 

Arrived to overwhelming throngs close to 5 am. Made way to huge morning

program tent, complete with hundreds of fans in tent ceiling. This tent held

thousands. My friend Meenamba and I ended up on the very edge of the tent

in the midst of some Indian women. Soon the girls from Amma¹s orphanage

poured in and surrounded us. We listened to speech after speech in English.

Most of the women around us could not understand. They sat for hours and I

later realized we westerners would never have had the patience to do that.

Meenamba had studied a little Malayalam and got out her note book and pen

and started writing little notes back and forth with Amma¹s daughters. I was

reminded of an evening at the Ashram during bhajans when I was sitting in

their midst. My memory went back to the late 80¹s when I first heard about

Amma adopting the orphanage, participating in the support of it, never

imagining that I would end up singing in their midst 15 years later. What

struck me was how very well they were, having ended up with the best mother

in the Universe. Their blessing became my blessing, our blessing. Eventually

I was drawn into the interaction. They got all excited about my spiritual

name and one of them wrote it for me in the beautiful curves of Malayalam.

It¹s smiling up at me from an ink stained paper as I write. How does one

capture such moments to share with others? Amma had brought me from

something so abstract to something so deeply real and healing. It was only

the beginning. And I suspect that every person who attended AV50 has many

stories about these moments of real time love and peace making.

 

At one point late in the morning program Shri Bawa Jain invited everyone in

the tent to stand and hold hands and focus on the needs of widows and

orphans. This was welcome because it was something the whole group could

experience together. One problem: none of the women around us could

understand the invitation. So we were reaching out to them and they were

looking at us with wonder. This inspired Meenamba to go to a swami and urge

more translation.

 

This segment ends with the ³let¹s go for lunch to the Indian kitchen² leela.

After stopping at the western toilets behind the western canteen, we made

our way through huge crowds to the huge crowd in the Indian dining area.

There were many lines serving thousands of people, but we couldn¹t even

figure out where a single line ended. This was because it was more like a

sea of people around each serving line.

And the men were pushing the women out of the way. This was the first day,

and everyone was learning how to do what had never been done. Finally a fine

group of young volunteers made a human chain around the entrance to the line

and allowed only the women to enter. I suspect it was better organized the

next day, but this child could not bring herself to try again. I learned a

lot about my unconscious ideas about personal space through these

experiences. Pranams to all of Amma¹s children who served 2.4 million meals

at that kitchen and thank you, Amma, for allowing me to receive one.

 

Offered with deep gratitude and wonder and Amma¹s lotus feet.

premarupa

Aum Amritesvaryai Namah