A Schizophrenic's Meeting with Amma

[Guest guest]

OM!

 

I have a really neat story about a friend of mine who visited Amma

for the first time during her summer tour.

 

He (Peter) is a lifelong schizophrenic who has had many electro

shock treatments and has been on various medications for many years.

I don't pretend to understand all of his difficulties but I do know

that his primary worry has always been that he is eternally damned

because he has "sinned against the Holy Spirit in his mind."

According to the Bible to sin against the Holy Spirit is the one

unforgivable sin. For all his life he has been in great fear of

literally spending eternity in hell with flames burning him. He had

a VERY BAD Catholic upbringing.

 

Peter and I met several years ago because we live in the same

apartment building. He is on disability. He is one of the nicest

guys I've met. He gives plenty to charity--mainly to the

Missionaries of Charity. When he found out that I'm interested in

God, even though from the Eastern standpoint, he wanted to talk to

me about whether I believe in hell, etc. I started to invite him

over to my apartment to watch spiritual videos and he was always the

perfect gentlemen, thanking me and being so grateful that I would

invite him, a schizophrenic, to my place.

 

So when Amma came I asked him if he would like to see her. First he

said no because, he said, schizophrenics have a hard time with

concepts such as God. I took his refusal to be the Guru's Will and

left it at that. Then, interestingly, he came knocking on my door a

few minutes later saying that he'd love to go see Amma. We went. He

was nervous in the car but in Amma's presence he was so still. When

he got hugged by Amma she also patted him on the cheek. Afterwards

he kept saying that he met a real saint. A few months have gone by

now and every Friday when he comes over for a video he always brings

Amma up. She is quite clear in his mind (that's interesting too

because he has severe memory problems). Yesterday he said that when

he went up to Amma he didn't feel that he was a sinner or evil, but

that "I felt like she was the mother and I was the child." WOW!!!

What a testimony to Amma's Shakti!

 

I waited so long to post because I wanted to see if Amma would fade

from his memory. But she hasn't! Like when we watched a Ram Dass

video yesterday he said that he likes Ram Dass but he doesn't do

anything for him like Amma does. I told him that Amma is like Ram

Dass' Guru, Neem Karoli Baba.

 

Jai Ma!

 

Umesh