A tale of Hershey kisses (was Free-and-easy)

August 7, 2004

On a beautiful twice blessed Seattle (with the sun out and clear blue

skies) day, having nothing better to do I was going through the

archives of this list; when suddenly it dawned on me that the missed

out kiss that Snehalataji mentioned was not a kiss from Amma but a

Hershey kiss. So here is a little story on a Hershey kiss,

During Amma's public program in Seattle, I arrived in the evening to

find the place beginning to be swarmed by people and what seemed like

a mile long line for darshan tokens. I hanged around till the time

came for Amma's arrival. Just a few of minutes before Amma arrived,

the whole place was bustling with activity; there were all these

people who were running around with "Amma this" and "Amma that" on

their lips. It looked like a roomful of babies were running around,

so uncoordinated, unconcerned and so utterly innocent !!

There was a thick line forming around the entrance where Amma was

supposed to enter. I silently pitied all those people, after all what

is need for this anxiety and childish behaviour; I felt I was way

above them. After all Amma is omnipresent and all, so what is need

for any outward show and I decided that I will stay away from the

crowd. As soon as I decided this, someone came and told me there was

space up front where Amma enters and I could go and stand there if I

wanted.

Now this is really odd considering how people file in 3-4 person

thick rows to greet Amma with no space usually to even stand up, let

alone sit down. I selected a nice spot to sit down just at the

entrance, with lot of room to myself, again silently pitying all the

people running around. I decided that I wont make any special attempt

to greet Amma. A few minutes later Amma entered; She entered and I

just looked up with indifference and more out of curiosity. At that

very moment, She winked at me and gave me a split second glance that

shook me inside out; I was literally choked and was about to cry out;

it was only a glance but a lot transpired in that one moment.

Instantly I threw away all logic and decided to join the crowd who

was running around with so much joy. There was a picture of me seated

while Amma was entering the hall (the guy on the left side sitting) I

found later on at http://www.amritapuri.org/slideshow/usa/usa2004.php?

app=/slideshow/usa/π=26

Later in the evening, while seated on the floor around 2-3 am, I

suddenly found two Hershey kisses with lot of flower petals rolled on

the floor suddenly towards me. Apparently some had accidentally

dropped these, but the curious way in which it appeared was like in

the old movies, where a gift from heaven is accompanied by lots of

flowers. I felt that these were gifts from Amma and I should eat

them. But another part of me said not to eat something left over by a

stranger and esp. lying on the floor; who knows the bearer of these

kisses may have small pox or something and even if something was

blessed by Amma, I have to use commonsense and caution.

For the next one hour, I was in the midst of a great conflict whether

to eat it or not; after all it was the Satguru's gift, which is equal

to amrita. I normally consider Hershey's (along with Coke, pepsi and

thums up) as a toxic substance to be avoided generally except when

blessed by Amma. My dilemma was exacerbated so much that I was

beginning to have a headache and all over two hershey kisses - to eat

or not, what a difficult problem :-).

I decided to stand in the darshan line as the program was nearly

ending at 3.30 am and all the while a little voice kept nagging me to

eat it, and another voice countered, dont eat it! I had my hug and

hershey from Amma and just as I was about to leave while still being

tormented whether to eat or not, Amma asked me "Son did you eat

anything"; at first I just said no and a moment later, with a

resounding thud it dawned on me that the two hersheys on the floor

was gift from Amma; and even though there are a million other things

to be concerned about, Amma had enough care and concern to remind me

of such trifles. I immediately ran to find the two hershey's waiting

for me and ate them without any hesitation.

I had another glance from Amma somelater later during the retreat

that really jolted me; I felt like I was like jelly and was about to

fall to the floor. I decided that henceforth I will not try to make

any pretensions nor any expectations(for a short while), when I meet

Amma again. After all Amma is in charge, the best I could is to do

NOTHING and just be an empty vessel to be filled with Her grace.

-yogaman

> Nothing to do or undo,

> nothing to force,

> nothing to want,

> and nothing missing----

>

> Emaho! Marvelous!

> Everything happens by itself.

>

August 7, 2004

Thank you for sharing such a good Amma experience. Are you the one sitting on

the left while viewing the pic, which would be on Amma's right? Also, is your

hair on the longish side, but above the collar? If so & if you've ever helped

sell CDs at the MA Ctr's bookstore during Amma's tour, then I think I recognize

you.

Sweta

childofdevi <childofdevi wrote: