To Iswari on Amma's knowing and laughing

[Guest guest]

Iswari wrote:

 

When I first met Amma, I asked her some questions. Unconsciously, I was

testing her out. One of the questions was about what my spiritual practice

should

be. Every time I read of someone asking that (e.g., in the Awaken Children

books, and devotee stories), Amma would respond that s/he should chant Lalita

Sahasranama. I remember saying to myself, "If Amma tells me to do that, then

she doesn't know me at all and I won't EVER do it!!!!" ...So, Amma foiled my

test, by

responding, with complete graciousness and spaciousness, "Just do something,

anything, that gives you joy for a few minutes, every day!" I remember

thinking, "Oh, no! She saw right through my test and she didn't fall for it!

She

knows me! This is the real deal!" ;-)

 

So, fast forward some six years later. Just this summer, I started feeling

some inner pull to the Lalita Sahasranama...Yesterday, I was so busy, though,

that I only listened to the recorded stotram and I thought to myself, "Hmm,

maybe that's what I'll have to do for the next few days because I have so much

work to finish and so little time!" -- and that's what I intended to do.

However, my heart felt otherwise! I was sitting here at my desk, and I felt

Amma staring at me from one of her pictures that I keep in my office....and I

felt this longing building inside me, until I couldn't think of anything else.

I HAD to chant these 1000 names!

 

So, here I am LONGING to do something I swore I'd never, ever do...and I

feel her laughing!

 

 

 

Dear Iswari ~ thank you for sharing this charming and delightful story. Not

only does it illustrate Amma's omnipresence, but you tell it with enchanting

innocence. And Amma did get the last laugh. I can see Her rolling on the floor

in laughter, thinking of Her daughter Iwsari being inextricably drawn to the

Lalita Sashasranama. I think perhaps we ought to make a folder in the files

section for personal stories like this. They should not be lost. Who knows,

one day they may end up in Amma's bookstore as a collection of "Stories by

Devotees."

Jai Jai Ma ~ Linda