We were curious to visit an ashram and a friend had recommended Amma´s in Amritapuri in Kerala. Amma means mother and she is also known as the ‘mother who hugs’, because she travels the world hugging those who seek her blessing (or darshan). We didn´t expect her to be physically at the ashram, but the Sunday we arrived we discovered that she was to return on the Tuesday from a two month tour of India. Wow! We were actually going to get to meet her and receive her darshan. And even though I’d never met Amma, or really knew much about her, the collective energy of the place and the excitement of the people there heightened my anticipation and expectations.
The ashram is a pleasant place to be: it’s clean, they recycle rubbish, they practice permaculture, there´s a lot of green spaces, the surrounding nature is spectacular - the backwaters of Kerala are to one side, and to the other the beach, lined with coconut groves as far as the eye can see; there’s delicious Indian and Western food, there’s free filtered drinking water, internet, and many other necessary day-to-day services for being comfortable while you stay. Westerners and Indians share the community and it’s an open place. I felt welcome there to explore and experience.
ERRATA. I can’t continue to write this post in this innocuous way: it would be gratification for the intellect and an insult to the heart. Yes, I could make some interesting reading of the external actions we carried out for those seven days, yet it would be empty because the most significant aspects of the week occurred in the inner realms of my being - is it ever otherwise? It’s as if the external world is a rich game of experiences and interactions, which forever eco back upon our soul. I say game because of a conversation I had with a woman called Uma from Valencia. She said, “We are here to play, laugh, enjoy and be grateful, because planet earth is the envy of the universe. Everyone in the universe wants to be here!” I like that for remembering to be thankful for this unique chance to evolve.
One might imagine that a lightening-flash-spiritual moment occurred when enlightened Amma took me in her arms. It simply didn’t happen! In fact, what I felt was much more subtle, slow-burn and holistic, in the sense that the countless experiences I lived during the week infused me with certain insights, and pointed to the ego, to the nature of the mind, to awareness of lessons and above all to love in all its splendours.
This from Eckhart Tolle seems appropriate:
Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment.
So simple!
One final anecdote I must share: over the last few years, I have been fortunate to enjoy some wonderful one:one relationships with teachers and practitioners, so I found the hordes of people surrounding Amma bewildering, and I felt I was craving something more intimate. Then I saw the gift that had been staring me in the face. I was helping to clean the temple in the evenings and a woman called Hridya was the supervisor. From the start, we had a strong connection and instead of cleaning we just wanted to talk and share all the time. Like me, she is not the kind of woman who would usually shirk work to talk, but it was funny to notice that neither of us had much control over the blatant lure of conversation next to cleaning. She’s been living at the ashram for a number of years and I really appreciated her sharing bits of her life experience and perspective with me, as it gave me a deeper sense of the energy and workings of the ashram, provided a space to reflect on daily happenings, as well as the joy of a natural-albeit-brief friendship of the kind that sometimes takes years to emerge! Thank you.
A saying from Amma:
Love just flows. Whoever is willing to take the plunge and dive in, will be accepted as they are. There are no terms and conditions. If you are willing to take the dip, you will be accepted. If you are not willing, what can it do? The stream remains where it is. It never says no. It is constantly saying yes, yes, yes…
