If you haven't read this story.... it is very moving

[Guest guest]

everybody deserves to see her face 14 June 2006 —San Ramon, California, USA

 

Themba first met Amma in the mid-1990s in New York. At that time, he was a

troubled spiritual seeker—a young man who was inspired to search for Truth yet

who still occasionally found himself in trouble with the law. {read his email

from 2002}

Though Themba's father had instilled in him a basic spiritual

understanding, he seemed unable to transcend the pitfalls associated with young

men growing up in America's poorer neighborhoods. He became a gang member, used

and sold drugs, and regularly engaged in violence and theft. He even still

carries a bullet in his chest from a rival gang member's gun. Themba says that

he was inspired by the teachings of the spiritual masters but, at the same time,

he was irritated that the proliferation of such teachings seemed limited to

America's middle and upper classes. " I felt like, 'If this is so real, how come

it ain't reaching the ghetto? Why isn't the universal message coming to the

'hood? " he says. Themba wanted a spiritual teacher who put their words into

action, someone who didn't just speak about how every man, woman and child is an

embodiment of the divine but who also served his fellow man accordingly.

At that New York program Themba leafed through Amma's biography and was bowled

over by what he read. Amma said that in her childhood her inner voice had told

her, " Your birth is not merely for enjoying the pure bliss of the Self but for

comforting suffering humanity. " He was further impressed with Amma's response to

that inner voice: " Thereafter, I renounced everything but the love of my

children. "

" I had never heard anything from the spiritual masters that was that

profound, " Themba exclaims. " Amma kept it real: She said, 'Yeah, I renounce

everything except y'all.' In that moment, I fell in love. I was blissed out. I

was so overwhelmed that I didn't even go for her hug that year. And I had the

experience that every time she was hugging someone, she was hugging me. "

As Themba watched Amma give darshan that day, he heard an inner voice of his

own, experienced an inner vision: " I started seeing busloads of homeless people

in North America being brought to get Amma's darshan. And I started seeing

busloads of African Americans, Latin Americans and all these different cultural

persuasions of people just coming to reacquaint themselves with Amma, with their

mother. "

And the next year when Amma came to New York, this is exactly what Themba did.

He gathered 15 homeless people in a van and took them for Amma's darshan.

" I just believe that everybody deserves to see her face, " he says. " I just

feel that everybody deserves to know that their mother is here with them. "

But Themba's story does not end there. " Old habits die hard and I got caught

back up in the lifestyle and wounded up locked up again, " he says. This time, he

was sentenced to stint in Riker's Island, one of New York's most infamous

penitentiaries, after being picked up on an old warrant.

In retrospect, Themba feels that his prison sentence was, in fact, an

opportunity for him to serve " Amma's children in prison. "

" Through Amma's grace, it ended up being more like a spiritual retreat than

anything else, " he says. " Prison was my first ashram experience. "

Soon after his incarceration, Themba asked his father to send him some of

Amma's books. He did so, and Themba tore out one of Amma's photos and used it to

create a small puja in his dormitory. He began to take happiness from the fact

that hundreds of other prisoners were now seeing Amma's face each time they

walked past his small shrine. As he puts it, " Even behind bars, Amma was giving

me a purpose. "

Then, Themba says, Amma began to speak to him in his heart. " She said: 'No

matter what happens, you just be an example of love. Pray with the Christians,

pray with the Muslims, the Bloods, the Crips1, the thugs, the criminals… I don't

care if they about to go on death row—you just keep loving them.' And brothers

began to gravitate to me. She began to send people to me. They would be like,

'Who is this woman?' And I saw society's so-called 'hardest' just melt at the

sight of her face. I never got any disrespect for Amma's picture. They would all

just melt and be like, 'Who's that?' I ain't being romantic. I'm being real.

" And when I would chant 'Om,' they would tease me, but Amma was like, 'That's

all right, let them tease you, because they are learning something new. So it is

uncomfortable for them but they are learning something new, so you go ahead.'

And soon people were coming up to me and asking, 'Can you teach me a little

meditation?' "

Themba began to tell his fellow inmates about Amma. He says that many of his

fellow African Americans identified with Amma's life story—the fact that Amma,

like them, had been subject to persecution due to her dark skin. Soon there were

three, then four, then five more altars to Amma set up in Riker's.

" Some of these belonged to the so-called 'most threatening' and 'hardest'

children of Amma, " he says (reminding everyone " she's everybody's momma " ). " So

these people became like my guardian angels. So then even the people who were

teasing me weren't saying anything… because all the hardest people in the dorm

were chanting 'Om' with me. "

After some time, Themba wrote a letter to Brahmachari Dayamrita Chaitanya, the

head of the M.A. Center, Amma's ashram in San Ramon, California, telling him of

his situation and what he was doing in Riker's.

Br. Dayamrita offered to send him as many books of Amma's teachings as he felt

he needed. Dayamrita also gave Themba his phone number and told him to call him

anytime.

Although Themba was speaking to Dayamrita, he says that in his heart he knew

it was Amma's attention that was on the situation. " Amma was fulfilling my

dreams, " he says, " because I always wanted to know that the message of the

spiritual masters was for real. I always wanted to know that it was not just a

message for certain people. And Amma was proving it to me right behind bars,

right in prison. "

Then in 2004, Themba was released.

As a free man, Themba was key in helping the M.A. Center start Circle of Love

Inside {news}, a program that arranges letter writing to prisoners. This is an

subsidiary branch of a project the M.A. Center has been conducted since the

mid-1990s called simply Circle of Love, which arranges the writing of loving and

encouraging letters to people who are lonely, grieving, sick or isolated.

" People are really lonely locked up, " says Themba. " Many people's families

have turned away from them. Actually, for someone in prison, getting a letter is

maybe the equivalent of getting darshan for us—that's how serious it is. "

" Many people who are in prison are dark-skinned like Amma, and they had a lot

of abuse, and for them to read how Amma, who is dark and was abused like them,

has become a spiritual leader... it really moves them. The life she has lived

and the life she lives now are particularly inspiring to this population of

people. "

Today, Circle of Love Inside is active in nine states, with volunteers from

around the world participating. So far, the group has also sent more than 200 of

Amma's books to various individuals and prison libraries. It also arranges

prison visits.

" The Circle of Love program was started in the late 1990s. It was inspired by

how Amma, when she was just a little girl, would go out into her village and

take care of the sick and elderly, " says Br. Dayamrita. " In corresponding with

Themba when he was in prison, we came up with the idea of expanding the program

to include prisoners. "

A devotee named Aikya Param is currently organizing the letter writing for

M.A. Center. Aikya says she has been overwhelmed by the response she has

received after telling prisoners about Amma. " I remember the first letter we got

back, " she says. " I couldn't believe it. It was so full of love and faith for

Amma, whom he had never met.

Through the Circle of Love, the prisoners have even been taught prisoners

Amma's " Ma-Om " meditation technique.

" The prison systems have begun to be saturated with Amma's face, " says Themba.

" And for me that in itself is really something, because I just believe that

everybody deserves to see her face. I just believe that everybody deserves to

know that they are loved. "

Themba is currently involved in another project called " Mother's

Murals. " Stemming from Themba's desire that everyone have the opportunity to see

Amma's face, Mother's Murals is trying to inspire others to paint murals of Amma

on the walls of poor communities throughout North America. The first one, in Bay

Area's Richmond, was recently completed. " I just believe that everybody deserves

to see her face. I just believe that everybody deserves to know that they are

loved " says Themba.

" I have done nothing here. It is all just Amma's grace, " Themba says. " My main

prayer is that this will inspire a wave of devotion and service towards Amma's

children in all circumstances—not just the ones we are comfortable with.

" We could help to bring Amma's love to the homeless people right here in

America, the people that feel forgotten and lonely and lost, the people who have

no hope.

" I hope that we will begin to go into uncomfortable situations with Amma's

face and our hearts open. May we be more inspired to reach out to those who

aren't as fortunate as we are. That's my prayer " says Themba.

—-Kali Charan