My dearest friends (and any yoga instructor teaching on the north shore of MA who asks!) will receive a copy of Amma’s biography as a holiday gift from our Raja Yoga studio this year. Yeah, we went there in mid-October!
I’ve been reading excerpts in the morning as part of a personal “puja”, or study/worship practice.
Here’s the thing: just as a zebra will never become an elephant, I will always stand up for underdogs and remain skeptical in the face of authority (characteristics that made me a good auditor); however, if even 5% of what is written in Amma’s biography is True…
(and here’s the thing – she’s VERY much alive – there are A LOT of people who could stand up and refute any of what’s written!! – but NO ONE is!)
….she’s a living saint.
Amma is worthy of ALL of our respect and admiration! Even if you’re an atheist, you HAVE to give this woman props for her Phelps-esque Olympic devotion to God! No wonder she’s been received at the UN. I really hope you read her story!
From today’s reading (page 64) [Sudhamani eventually became known as Amma]:
[When Sudhamani was about 16]…..If there were any time remaining after completing her embroidery work, Sudhamani would return to the chapel, which had an inner apartment like a cave. In the dim light, she would gaze upon the crucified form of Jesus Christ. Seeing Jesus on the cross, she felt Him to be her beloved Krishna. Immediately, she would become enraptured. Returning to the plane of normal consciousness, she would weep, thinking of the love and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and Krishna. She would think, ‘O, how They have sacrificed everything for the world! People turned against Them, but still They loved them. If They have done it, then why can’t I? There is nothing new in it.’
Sudhamani was acutely aware of the extreme poverty of the villagers. Seeing their sorrows and sufferings, the little one would weep in the silent hours she spent in the shrine room. She would pray, ‘O God, is this life? People are toiling day in and day out just for a bit of food to satisfy their hunger. O Krishna, why do you allow them to starve? Why do they become afflicted with diseases? Everywhere I turn I come face to face with selfishness and people’s sufferings caused by it. Youngsters pray for a long life and children pray for an early death for their aged father and mother. Nobody is at all interested to care for the elderly. O Lord, what kind of world is this? What is the purpose of creating such a world? O Krishna, what is the solution for all this?’ Such were the prayers of the innocent girl.
Whatever you believe about life or Amma, it’s a universal Truth that we get out of something what we put into it (it’s science!)
That being the case, consider what Amma must have experienced and witnessed as a consequence of her interminable, lifelong devotion!!
Imagine coming as close as humanly possible to witnessing what’s been described over millennia as beyond human comprehension. Remember, consciousness (evidence of the existence of God) doesn’t exist in time and space the way our body and mind do, although it reveals itself as:
- patience – some say “curiosity and compassion”;
- intuition – our “inner voice”; knowing without cognition that something is True;
- awareness – recognizing that our body/mind is only two thirds – at best – of what we are; and
- bliss – perhaps best described by people who’ve experienced sensory depravation: a calm stillness beyond thought.
Somewhere along the path that typically begins with Asana (ironically, poses are the third in a series of five exercises intended to facilitate lengthy prayer, or meditation), faith kicks in and when THAT happens you change. 😉
