A Swami story (from San Ramon)

[Guest guest]

Swami Poornaamritanaanda told us a story from the early days, of how

Amma watches over all her children and protects them. I am recounting

in the first person.

 

" During the very first days, when there were no monastics- at the

time myself and Swami Amritaswaroopananda were college students; our

names were Balagopal and Sreemon and we used to visit Amma in the

evening. Prior to us meeting Amma, Amma had several householder

devotees who used to come and meet her regularly. When we began to go

see Amma, Amma used to show considerable affection towards us and

this made all the householder devotees very jealous of us"

 

"These householder devotees started spreading bad stories and rumours

about us. They told Amma that Balagopal and Sreemon are spoiled

college students and they are only coming to see Amma because of all

the affection that Amma is showing. These devotees warned Amma that

both of them would later on bring a bad name to Amma "

 

"So one evening when Swami and me went to meet Amma, Amma totally

ignored us. She did not even say a word, She behaved as if we were

invisible. Though we were very hurt, we did not say anything and went

about our tasks at the ashram. The same thing was repeated the next

day , and the next day and the day after.... this went on for a month"

 

"At the end of a month, we decided that we would eat only if we

received food from Amma's own hands. And since Amma was ignoring us,

we stopped eating for a few days. Totally starved for a few days, we

went to the Ochira Parabrahma Temple (this is temple of vast power

near Amma's ashram); and we saw a yogini meditating deeply at the

temple. Suddenly the yogini opened her eyes and called us both; she

then gave us a few bananas to eat and told us to break the fast. I

felt that Amma herself had made the yogini do this so that we would

not starve. However since we decided that we would eat only from the

hands of Amma, we did not eat the bananas and we went to the ashram.

There Amma greeted us and spoke to us for the first time in a month"

 

"Amma said, 'son, the householder devotees complained about you and

they said that you were spoilt boys and that you would stop coming to

see Amma if Amma did not speak with you; so Amma ignored you totally;

Amma knew that your devotion to Amma is genuine and I wanted to show

these householders that you would still keep coming to see Amma even

if Amma ignored you totally. Amma feels very bad that I had to put my

children to this much trouble'. Amma then fed both of us"