Ah, so the hugging mother ashram. What a different environment to the last, quiet, spiritual uplifting Sri Aurobindo stay. Not that this was not intense, great and interesting... far from it.
The first sight we glimpsed from the boat were soaring pink highrises that we were shocked to learn were the buildings of the ashram. Not quite the wooden shack with dirt floors of India fantasy. We stepped off the boat beneath a huge white bridge (built by Amma - the hugging mother - to allow evacuation in the case of the next tsunami) and into topsy turvy Alice through the looking glass world. The complex was huge and confusing, and we wandered for a while looking lost, until coming to a large pink temple topped by a Krishna statue and surrounded by hundreds of Indians and westerners in white outfits (saris, scarves, lunghis, shirts, pants - everything was spotlessly white). The white outfits stood out clearly against the pink buildings (we later discovered that all of them were pink). No-one paid the slightest attention to us, until another relativley recent arrival directed us up many flights of stairs to be registered at the foreign office.
After filling in our forms (the first so far to ask about mental illnesses!?), we found out that we were lucky enough to have been allocated a room rather than a dorm, as the man behind the counter assumed that we were a, umm, how to put it, romatically involved trio. :)
The room was spartan, but spotlessly clean, what you would expect from an ashram, with slim mats to sleep on and one rug for sitting on the floor when the beds were not spread out. While Steph and I went for the free vegitarian lunch in the huge hall, Aaron busied himself feeling like a fish out of water (poor boy) and did perimeter scans, refused to leave his bags and to take off his shoes in case someone stole them.
Walking around later, we discovered the sheer size of the place - it houses 3000 devotees, and almost this number again in westerners passing through. Oddly enough, westerners, particularly young blond females, seemed to outnumber the Indians, and while some were amazing, lovely people, others we spoke too seemed slightly, umm, fervent. The place also has an ayurvedic college, dining and concert halls, three cafes, juice bars, holisitc health centres, many different shops and recreation centres.
Maybe it was the influence of the ashram, or just the tiredness of travel, I had a really emotionally up a down day, from feeling like bawling my eyes out, lonely and sad, to experiencing an almost trance like state when listening to the devotional concert given by Amma and her musicians after dinner. Even sitting in the temple was enough to put me in a state of deep relaxation, rather like what I experience after a particularly rewarding mediation session.
The next day, before leaving, we attended darshan, where we recieved the blessing of Amma in the form of a hug. This was, as with everything else intensly confusing, and we had to see about 5 or 6 peopl just to organise a place in line. Once in line, we waited for about 2 hours, but had a good view of other people getting blessings, and for many it seemed to be an overwhelming expereince. Some cried, others came away beaming, scores sat and prostated themselves at her feet. When it came to my turn however, I can't say that I had an enlightened moment, or even a very pleasant time. Followers surrounding and carefully controlling the expeience made us kneel, and before I knew it, it was shoved into Amma, who pushed my head into her breast and held i there while she conducted a conversation over mny head in Mallayalam. Finally, she let me up after turning my head, intensly crooning "my daughter, my daughter, my daughter" and shoving a lolly into my hand. Sorry devotees, i think I'd prefer a hug from my mum any old day!
As we left, I realised that while I liked the vibe of the place, and could live there for a while if I had something to do (ie study ayurveda), Amma was not a woman who illuminated the path to god for me. I think that instead, she is an incredible humanitarian, who has built schools, houses for the homeless, started unis and free hospitals, among many many other things. Many people are worshipped for less. Plus, she makes great music, and who can fault the power of that :)
