My Amritapuri Experience: Part 2

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Continued from Part 1...

 

A little detour before we get around to narrating how the Mother Of

All Truckers ran me over...This is India after all, and here we never

go directly from point A to point B without going everywhere else

first!

 

Before we began the ride my American fellow traveller requested me to

sit up front with the driver. He wanted to lie down on the back seat

and sleep. He had come prepared with a pillow and a blanket. I was

happy to oblige. The thought that my American brother was possibly a

shade more attentive to his personal comfort than I might have

expected from a long-time follower of Amma did cross my mind but only

very briefly. I was in a happy, expectant mood and my mind did not

pursue that line of thought very far. At another time, in another

place perhaps my mind would have given that vasana (the tendency to

evaluate others and spot their defects) greater play, but not that

night.

 

So I sat on the front seat with the driver and brother Sam (not his

real name) tucked himself in on the back seat. I initiated

conversation with the driver in Malayalam. Before launching my

expedition to Amritapuri I had developed the intention of talking to

as many people there as I could. Extensive socialization is not

something I am normally pre-disposed to engage in, being an introvert

for the most part, but I was determined to milk this trip for all the

experience I could gather.

 

I learned that the driver had landed his job as ashram taxi driver

through another branch of Amma's establishment in North Kerala. I

tried to probe his attitude/feelings for Amma but he was not overly

communicative. I asked him what he thought of Her and he said that

since so many people come to see Her and since She is doing so much

by way of charity and education and so on She must be good. I was a

little disappointed that he seemed to be making intellectual

deductions about Her goodness from circumstantial evidence and was

either unable or unwilling (more likely the former) to provide a

first person view. On the other hand I was happy to note the absence

of any serious reservations or negative views.

 

I got the sense that he was not really into the spiritual circus (I

use the word 'circus' not to display my personal irreverence but as

an extrapolation of how I thought he might view it) but more

concerned about his material situation. I detected in him a certain

grudging acceptance that he was reasonably well off considering his

family situation (which also, btw, we happened to discuss; he had

some responsibilities but there did not seem to be any life and death

issues) and considering that there are people in India and elsewhere

in the world who are infinitely worse off. However I also caught a

whiff of discontent, something in his manner that suggested he was

not satisfied with the way things were and wanted something

better. "Who does not?", I thought.

 

I am really getting into the swing of things with this narrative. For

the uninitiated, that means we are in for a long haul here, a long

and boring ride to nowhere in particular. I would urge all those I

have bored thus far to take the chance to exit and not read any

further. I am extremely sorry, dear brothers and sisters, but I

cannot control myself. My verbosity knows no bounds! Once I let the

words flow, they flood the plain. A flood of the very plain (dull),

to put it otherwise, for those who are fond of puns and word play!

But for those who wish to poke around in the garbage heap of my

recollections in the hope that a useful nugget or two might turn up I

shall continue.

 

To be continued in Part 3...

 

Om Amriteshwaryai Namah

 

fg