. . a fish. . a chick. . or a turtle. .

[Guest guest]

Namaste

Amma is fully established in spiritual consciousness. Because the spiritual

potential within Her is fully awakened, our own spiritual awakening happens

easily in Her presence. Amma's touch, glance and thought can awaken us

spiritually. By Her mere will, our spiritual potential can be awakened. The

different ways of awakening can be compared to that of a hen, a fish and a

tortoise.

The hen hatches her eggs by brooding on them; the eggs are hatched due to the

heat produced by the constant touch of her body. In a similar way, Amma can

awaken the spiritual potential in us by just touching us. The second example

is that of a fish. A fish will spawn its eggs, and then keep looking at the

eggs intently. By the intensity of that look, the eggs will hatch. Amma,

however, doesn't have to look at us that intently -- a single glance from Her

is

enough to awaken the spiritual potential within us. The tortoise will lay its

eggs on the shore; it will then go back into the water, and from there it

will keep thinking about the eggs. By the intensity of the tortoise's thought,

the eggs on the shore will hatch. In the same way, by a single thought

(sankalpa), Amma can awaken our spiritual potential. . .

Have you ever seen an iceberg? As we look at the iceberg floating in the sea,

we are able to see only the tip of it, a very small portion. The larger part

of the iceberg is beneath the water and is therefore invisible to us.

Likewise, we are able to perceive only an infinitesimal part of Amma's

greatness.

An infinite part of Her greatness is hidden from us. I remember a story that

Amma once told. There was a mouse in a forest. One day the mouse was running

around, frantically searching for something. As it ran, it came to a pond

where a huge elephant was bathing. As soon as it saw the elephant, the mouse

stopped and shouted, " Hey elephant! Get out of the water! " At first the

elephant

didn't take any notice of the mouse; after all, an elephant is such a huge

animal and a mouse is such a tiny creature. So the elephant pretended that he

didn't hear the mouse. But the mouse was very persistent. He kept on shouting,

" Hey elephant! Get out of the water! " Finally, reluctantly, the elephant

came out of the water than the mouse shouted, " That's enough. You can get back

into the water now! " The elephant was very upset. Angrily he asked the mouse,

" Then why did you ask me to come out? " The mouse replied, " I have lost my

swimming suit, and I just wanted to see if you were wearing it. " How can an

elephant get into the swimming suit of a mouse? The idea of the story is that

we

can no more comprehend Mother with our limited intellect than an elephant

could fit into the swimming suit of a mouse! Our intellectual capacity can

never

be sufficient for us to understand how great Amma is, or who She is.

By Swami Ramakrishnanada Puri

in Matravani 1998

Aum Amriteswaryai Namaha

**************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination.

Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out

(http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000002)