Meditation with Amma at Amritapuri beach

29th September 2012- Saturday

Saturday is not the day of Amma’s Satsang at the beach. But Amma, out of her compassion to meet the inmates, which she does on every Mondays (at evening at beach), Tuesdays at Kali Temple and Fridays (at evening at beach), perhaps wanted to compensate her absence on Friday. The whole of Thursday (27th September, her birth day) right from 9:00 AM till the next day 10:10 AM, Amma had spend more than 25 hours at a stretch at the Special birthday venue at the University grounds. Right from 3 PM on 27th she was giving non-stop darshan to several tens of thousands of devotees.

Leaving behind all the stresses and strains like a child play, Amma was at the beach on Saturday, and she was at her jubilant best too.

After the usual Ma-Om Dhyanam session of about half-an hour duration with the inmates,  Amma continued with the current subject of discussion that has been going on for the past 2-3 satsangs. It was about the importance of spiritual seekers saying “no” when the situations demands (and “yes” under different circumstances) based on viveha (discrimination).  Amma was emphasizing that an earnest seeker should always be vigilant; he should always have shraddha (watchful awareness) and he should know what is right to do and what is not.

Amma said just to please someone or to get acceptance in a company or by succumbing to peer group pressure, if an youngster says “yes” to smoking, it may lead him to other vices one after the other — drinking, drugs and what not and his whole life may get shattered.

For the past several satsangs, Amma has been reiterating the dire need for shraddha and viveka buddhi for the Ashramites. You may be a very nice person otherwise, but if you are not vigilant enough, you may get into trouble.

Amma started hilariously describing a recent happening in the Ashram, with her dramatic facial expressions and actions that created peels of laughter in the gathering.

Amma said that a few days ago, a mentally disturbed person came to the Ashram with a purported desire of settling down as a Vanaprastha householder in the Ashram. His worried wife and mother too were there together with him in the darshan queue. Even before he could open his mouth before Amma, the wife wanted Amma not to concede to his request because she has lots needs and desires to be met in the outside world. Amma reassured her that She would never take people just like that and started probing deeper into the man’s troubles. It was reported that he seemed to behave as though mentally disturbed, after a recent bout of fever, but Amma suspected a deeper and long existing ailment in him that caused his quirky behavior.  Amma suggested a thorough medical check-up for him and assured them that everything will be alright sooner. Amma made him sit behind her for a while.

Amma mentioned that after Amma retired to her room after darshan was over, the person suddenly got very violent; he was shouting at his wife, started spitting at her and behaved uncontrollably.  Lots of people gathered around, including some brahmacharis, who wanted to intervene with good intentions. One Ashramite, assuming that the man was under fits, started frantically searching for a iron piece to be given in his hands (as there is a common erroneous belief that people affected by fits get calmed down when they grip a piece of iron). And lo, he could only locate a knife and without thinking a second time, he thrust the knife into the hands of the man in fits!

More chaos! (When Amma narrated this with her gestures, the whole gathering at the beach was rolling with laughter). Then a group of brahmacharis somehow managed to pin down the violent man and snatch the knife from his hands.

And there, adjacent to the man was Brahmachari S, who was always known for his calmness and serenity, who was never seen expressing anger or outward emotions. And people saw him for the first time with eyes bulging out in anger and tell-tale facial expressions of pain, anguish and rage. Reason?

In an over enthusiastic attempt to prevent the man from spitting at others, he had put his hand over his mouth and the man caught the bramhmachari’s fingers with his teeth and was applying his full jaw pressure on the fingers; Brahmachari S- could not do anything to wriggle his fingers out from the man’s vice-like grip of the jaw and that pain and anguish came through his facial expressions.

Amma, in her inimical way, with a doze of exaggeration perhaps, was emoting the facial expressions of the brahmachari to the utter entertainment of the croud!

Amidst all these fun and frolic, Amma made sure to drive home the point that one requires viveka Buddhi to handle such situations. How foolish it was to thrust a knife in the hands of a mentally disturbed person! How inappropriate it was to close the mouth of the person who seemed to be under the grip of fits!