With love from Hyderabad - Kirsten

[Guest guest]

Kirsten's latest news from the N. Indian Tour

 

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 00:29:51 -0800 (PST)

Kirsten

With love from Hyderabad

 

Om Namah Shivaya!

 

I am now in Hyderabad, recovering from the flu, severe

dehydration and dysentery. I am feeling much better

today, having been taken care of by a loving Indian

family and given various antibiotics and electrolytes.

One of the buses and the camper were in an accident

on Shiva Ratri on the way to Bangalore. No one was

seriously injured, though many of us suffered from

minor head/face injuries and a few puncture wounds.

Amma's grace protected us from suffering from more

serious injuries, and we were even able to joke about

it shortly after the accident occured. The camper is

still being repaired, so we have travelled in various

different buses the past few legs. Swamini said that

regardless of where we were in the world, we would

have had to suffer this karma and that Amma lessened

the severity. We all felt Her grace and protection,

and are so grateful that everyone was okay!

 

We stopped for lunch and chai with Amma two days ago,

which was wonderful because She was so relaxed and in

the mood of a child!! She ate more food than I have

ever seen Her eat, and then crumbled biscuits as

prasad for us. During the chai stop, She practiced

bhajans but Her voice is so hoarse from the

cold/sinus infection that all of us have been

suffering from that it was difficult for Her to sing.

She keeps placing Her hand to Her throat, and also

wipes Her nose and coughs. She read some letters and

did the cutest thing with Her eyebrows, lifting them

up and making us all laugh! In the satsang after

lunch, She said we shouldn't think that Amma is the

cause of our suffering, which I have found very

helpful these past few days....my tendency when

suffering is to want to leave Amma, rather than having

the understanding that the negative events are due to

my own past actions!

 

There have been so many profound experiences and

prayers answered, I would love to share them with you

but don't have time right now:-( I received a name

from Amma before leaving for the tour, and there was a

long leela surrounding this which I would like to tell

you about in the near future. Amma is the master "doctor",

creating the perfect situations which enable

us to transcend our negative qualities!

 

I have not attended many of the programs as I have

either been too sick or tired. I rolled prasad, served

as a "runner" and a "timer" once, and have sat on

stage for 2 hours total so far. Most people sit on

stage and do stage seva throughout the evening, but I

always go to sleep by midnight and wake up at 7am.

before doing more seva. Most of the devotees stay up

most of the night, doing stage seva.

 

She hugged 54 thousand people in Mangalore, from

10:30pm to 4:30pm the next day! The longest darshan

ever I believe! She invited us to join Her in

Thalassery for bhajans, which was very intimate....She

is very casual and relaxed around us, which is

something I have never experienced before.

 

I will try to write more soon. I haven't had time to

get to the Internet lately, but hope to do so more

frequently soon!

 

With love in Amma,

 

Niscala (pronounced Nish-chala, meaning "stillness")

(Kirsten