I Should Have Known Better - Amma at EarthDance

[Guest guest]

Om Namah Sivaya, dear list members,

 

I have been meaning to get this written for you all, relating my

experiences at EarthDance a couple of months ago. It was a very

special weekend and I don't know why I would have thought different,

but I spent the weekend there with Amma.

 

It began the first night when She let me know she was there.

 

It was cold. I wasn't sleeping well. (Someone the next day said it

got down into the middle 20s.) I was in my tent, waking every hour or

two (not my idea) to see if my legs had actually frozen yet. There

was always music playing somewhere. Usually it was coming from more

than one place. Sometimes one source would be a little louder than

the others and I could listen without it all being blurred together.

 

This particular time, everything was jumbled as I came to a more or

less waking state. There was music out there, but different sources

were overlaid to the point that I couldn't really separate them in my

sleepiness. Since I couldn't make sense of the music, I just let my

mind go blank, and as it usually does when that happened, I began to

picture Amma's smiling face as I tried to sink back down into sleep.

 

Under it all as I thought of Her, I began to unravel the sound

threads to the point where i could hear something begin to emerge.

There was a solid wall of rhythm guitar just under the loudest sounds

and it took me a while to filter out everything else. It sounded so

familiar but was so much better than I remembered. So full. Then I

could make out the vocals, but the power of the song came from the

roll of the rhythm guitar... a solid wall coming from John.

 

Under the spell of the music, lying still in my sleeping bag, I let it

wash over me and fill my being. As the pulse of the music became my

pulse, a big sleepy smile must have been on my face. I knew the song

well, but hadn't heard it for years.

 

I Should Have Known Better - The Beatles

 

I should have known better with a girl like you

That I would love everything that you do

And I do, hey hey hey, and I do

Whoa, whoa, I never realized what I kiss could be

This could only happen to me

Can't you see, can't you see

That when I tell you that I love you, oh

You're gonna say you love me too, hoo, hoo, hoo, oh

And when I ask you to be mine

You're gonna say you love me too

 

So, oh I never realized what I kiss could be

this could only happen to me

Can't you see, can't you see

That when I tell you that I love you, oh

You're gonna say you love me too, hoo, hoo, hoo, oh

And when I ask you to be mine

You're gonna say you love me too

You love me too

you love me too

 

I sank back into sleep knowing Amma was there.

 

The next morning, after breakfast, our little party began to look over

the schedule and figure out what we wanted to catch until the big 4 PM

event when all 10,000 of us would gather in the main venue to unite

with the rest of the EarthDance attendees around the world to Pray For

Peace. There were a number of great acts in one of the smaller venues

that we wanted to catch, so we wandered up the walk towards that place

basking in all the love that just seemed to blanket the place.

 

As we approached the walkway up to the little amphitheater that was

our goal, we saw a shrine to Ganesha off to the right of the main

trail! Ganesha is my man, so I approached the shrine and knelt on the

carpet that had been placed of the ground in front of the altar with

the large brass statue of Ganesha surrounded by offerings. As my eyes

wandered over the offerings spread out on the table, they settled on

the framed picture of Amma that was there among the other objects! My

heart leapt with joy! I settled in and spent some time there with my

mala and mantra and eventually moved off into the day's planned

activities, but stopped by the shrine whenever I found myself in the

area, and started the day's activities there for the remainder of the

festival. Amma's picture grew, too. The smaller one that was there

Saturday morning was replaced with a larger one on Sunday!

 

As 4 PM approached, everyone began working their way towards the main

stage area where the Peace Prayer was to take place. Back in the

middle rear of the arena was a platform that held the "Elders," a

group of spiritual elders from many paths that had held a council

earlier in the day. I made no conscious decision to belly up to them,

but was drawn there instead of more toward the main stage where

everyone else seemed to be gravitating. It was fairly open around

this area and so I moved up to this platform and stopped when I was

about 10 feet from the platform with the area in front of me clear.

As it turned out, this was where all attention was directed as the

program began, various of the elders talking, praying and chanting,

with a Native American dance taking place in the open space between me

and the platform.

 

Directly before on the platform me was a Buddhist holy man and oddly

enough, simultaneously lifted our malas from around our necks and

began chanting. I took my mala in hand and was chanting "Lokah

Samistah Sukino Bhavantu." As I continued praying in the midst of

this sea of kindred spirits the inevitable happened: As people began

to realize that this platform was to be the center of it all, they

began to press forward, naturally wanting to be closer to this

powerful vibration of love coming from these gathered holy people. It

began to get rather close, and since it was mid-afternoon on a hot,

sunny day that had me about half sunburned already, I began to feel a

bit light-headed and overheated.

 

I decided to forget about that and pour my concentration back into my

prayer. I closed my eyes and visualized Amma's sweet face as I

chanted. All of a sudden, from somewhere directly above me and in

front of me, I was bathed in a fresh cool breeze that seemed to

envelop me in a refreshing, energizing air. It just dropped out of

the sky overhead and was so sweet. It was almost as if a big bucket

of sweet cool air had been tipped over right above me.

 

I smiled and knew that our prayers were being heard.

 

 

Aum Amriteswaryai Namah

 

In Mother's Arms,

Mike