Amma in NM & NYC traveling

[Guest guest]

Just back from the Albuquerque retreat, where Amma put Brianna and me as

roommates! Far out sister-bonding for some last-minute travelers! Sweet

Prajna finally got her Mother-name after four years and a 22-hour bus ride

from L.A., and I can only imagine what the return trip was like! It was

such grace to spend time together...

 

Thanks Amalia for the calendar update. This child just had to be with

Mother for Guru Purnima, and She made my plane reservations (which were

supposed to be ticketed 14 days in advance for the voucher) manifest. I

can't remember how Mother got up from the chair after the Pada Puja - what

grace to see and be part of that ceremony - but She stood at the edge of

the stage handing out payasam with the gorgeous giggly mood of a mother,

teacher, child, goddess, all wrapped into one. I could have looked at Her

face, framed with curls and smiling with a graced expression new to my

experience, forever! I just wanted to stand at the edge of the stage and

watch, not get prasad!!

 

As always, there were so many developments over three days that make the

details hard to share (especially since I didn't have my notebook during

the Q&A). Mother did remind us to live like "tailors," constantly taking

new measurements of the ever-changing world, to not count on people's

dimensions being the same. One day a person can be cruel, another day

good, and the next vice verso, so it is no use expecting them to stay the

same. When you go to the tailor, they always take your measurments to

make sure the waist and girth hasn't gone up or down, and we could take

the same attitude.

 

The Tewa dancers, who performed at Amritavarsham, were also in attendance,

and did a Buffalo Dance and the Tewa-Zuni Deer Dance on the middle day.

Two of the dancers were married by Mother on the morning of July 4th, and

there were two other weddings and some baby feedings as well. Much sacred

energy in those mountains!

 

Amma wore a brilliant sapphire/violet sari, and was absolutely luminous.

Very playful Krishna mood. At the end She wore an orange-flame colored

mala and looked again like the water-fire symbolism we saw at Rhode Island

in 2001.

 

There was a permanent ramp built up to the stage, which made access for

those in wheelchairs much easier. My last sight of Mother was her flying

down this ramp, arms outstretched, with a shining darkness to Her face,

like velvet love, and soft curls halo-ing under Her headcovering. The way

She moves is impossible to describe -- floating and quick and softly.

 

Ah, the difficulty of words... I don't know how to surrender my ego, or

cultivate the attitude of gratitude which so many of my devotee family

seem to carry in their humility. I pray Mother teaches me to restrain and

channel these animal instincts into pure devotion, and graces my

stone-cold glass heart to melt and bloom into Love.

 

An addition to Gabriella's travel notes. If you are headed right to the

program, once you are at Penn Station (which is directly below Madison

Square Garden) you are just blocks from the NYC venue. 311 W. 34th

Street is between 8th and 9th Avenues.

 

http://maps./maps_result?ed=3tavVup_0TqYR9n_bTKPSh.f_2HYPg--&csz=New+Yo\

rk%2C+NY&country=us&cat=

 

My husband had been working down in this area until a few weeks ago, and

noticed increased security - perhaps due to the upcoming convention. So

if you see armed soldiers keeping guard in the station or by subway

entrances, please do not be alarmed. It is more like Europe or South

America in that way then it used to be here. Hope everyone had a blessed

Fourth of July. I imagined the fireworks reflecting in the Empire State

Building, topped in red-white-aand-blue, were like Mother's Love showering

us with Grace.

 

xoPrashanti