Fwd: Amma news

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In a message dated 9/23/04 8:30:29 AM Eastern Daylight Time, CLPINCKNEY

writes:

 

<< Lavanya was very moved by this story and wanted to share it with

everyone. It is from www.amritapuri.org

 

I am Receiving the Gift

 

Friday, 10 September 2004 — Cochin, Kerala

 

For the past year now, there’s been a few extra cameras around Amma. Not

the ashram videographers or the news channels or Amrita TV, but the

cameras of Jan Kounen, a film director based in Paris who is making a

documentary on Amma to be called Darshan.

 

Kounen is rising star in modern film, a director with a subtle eye,

whose films often possess a dreamlike quality. His last two works were a

documentary, Shipibo Shaman Healers and a Hollywood-released mystical

western titled Blueberry.

 

He first started filming Amma in the weeks prior to Amritavarsham50,

Amma’s 50th birthday celebrations, knowing, as he says, “that the 50th

birthday was going to be important.†It was one of his cameramen that

could be seen swooping over the massive crowds on the crane, some 60

feet up in the air. Kounen first thought the birthday itself would bring

him all the footage he needed, but deciding he wanted more, he brought

his crew along for spots of Her 2003 Europe Tour, part of the 2004 North

India Tour and then for a couple weeks this September back in Kerala.

 

"I first met Amma in Paris [2002]," he says, remembering back. "It was a

strange thing because a friend of mine asked me if I would like to meet

a spiritual master, and I thought that would be like 20 people in

someone’s living room, because in Paris a spiritual master will not

attract 4,000 people—unless it is the Dalai Lama or someone like that. I

went and as soon as I walked in the room, I saw Her sitting there giving

darshan—Her eyes. I knew it was something serious. I just sat down

without moving for an hour straight."

 

Kounen says that he was unable to receive Amma’s darshan that night

because it would have taken until 6:00 in the morning and he had film

work to do early the next day. He figured he would have to wait until

the next time She came to Paris. But then he received a phone call the

next day from a producer asking him if he would be interested in doing a

documentary on Amma, and a few days later he was in Amsterdam in Amma’s

arms, asking Her if She would allow him to make the film.

 

"It was interesting," Kounen says about filming Amma during

Amritavarsham50. "She is going so fast. At first the eye doesn’t catch

it. It just kind of looks disorganized, like a blur. It was too fast. So

I decided to shoot Her in slow motion. Only then did I really start to

see, ‘No, it’s not like that. There is such grace and beauty there.

Everything is so deliberate. It is like a ballet."

 

After spending hundreds of hours watching Amma through the lens of his

camera and going through the footage, Kounen says for him the most

beautiful moment is the end of Devi Bhava when Amma is standing gazing

out at all the devotees. When trying to explain it all he can say is

“Her eyes, her eyes….â€

 

When asked about his initial response to seeing Amma up on stage in the

bhava of Devi, he admits that at first he was a little taken aback. “At

first, you go through your mind and your education and you think, ‘What

is this? This is crazy—crazy with a smile… But then you look into Her

eyes and all that is gone. Only pure love is there.â€

 

With the ever-growing public awareness regarding Amma and Her vast

charitable mission, Kounen believes that now is an important time to

make a film about Her—before She has the fame that comes along with

winning something like the Noble Peace Prize.

 

"When I first took up the project and started filming, I thought, ‘This

is a good person, doing good things. [in turn], I can do something good

for Her.' But as it went on I realized, ‘No. I am the one who is

receiving the gift.’"

 

—Kannadi

 

 

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