Amma experience

I've heard about Amma- the Hugging Mother. She goes around the world and...gives hugs... Thousands of people queue for hours to get this special hug from enlightened Kerala born woman.
We arrived to an ashram and quite an ashram it is! It loges a couple of thousands of people in its 3 11-store buildings. The place is like a city: buzzing with all-white dressed ghost like illuminated smiling faces. There are canteens, shops and most importantly a hall with chanting happening all day long while Amma is doing her job.
All together the place does not correspond to my idea of an ashram - quiet, reflective, non-commercial oasis of peace and meditation. And as Vio doesn't like crowds, my first reaction was to get the hell out of there... I stayed for the sake of experience...and for the ocean :-)





 I'm going for "Darshan" - an experience of Amma's hug. People clatter around her sitting there for hours. The idea is to be as close to her body  as possible to "feel the energy". I don't... But I'm fascinated and stupefied with the phenomenon of worshiping or a cult rather. My psy mind kicks off.
We are queuing to get our turn of a blissful hug. To enforce (for some to introduce) the idea of order in Indian culture we have lines of chairs - we hop our bums from one to another as the line progresses, with all kinds of offerings on people's laps. It looks like a very serious, spiritual...musical chair game...
I hopped close to Amma. The five members of stuff, all men!, are supervising and making the whole process go smoothly. They help is extensive - I'm asked to kneel down waiting for my go. Suddenly my hand is placed next to Amma's thigh, my head is directed (with very assertive grip) to Amma's shoulder intensively scented with some kind of a "nice"smell (the nicest smell, when intensive, stops being nice...). Now! I'm right in the experience! It becomes long experience as Amma is having a chat with someone behind my back "hugging" me at the same time. The helpers give her a hint - I hear "Polish" coming from each helper. Amma got it - she whispers to my ear "ty moja corko", polish version of "my daughter you". She touched me with that one so we have a great laugh :-) She puts sth into my hand and the experience is over. Next!
As you can see, I am not a good material for a religious person... Pity, it would have been nice to have a guru...

The whole idea of guru in India still puzzles me. I've seen some "sadhus" = sages. In the West they would have been kept in psychiatric hospitals. Here they are "special people". Have we, in the West, lost touch with unseen, with spirits? Have we lost faith? Do we need to see to believe? Do we need all the same, "normal" to feel safe? Do we allow people to be "special"? Or is it the Indians who are not in touch with "reality"?  Who are still in superstitions?
The Tibetans, Ladaki and Nepalese still burn churpa, very aromatic brunch of a tree, every morning at the entrance door to keep the bed spirits out of the house. Maybe we are surrounded by other spirits? Maybe we coexist with other beings' worlds?  Maybe there are different dimensions that we don't see and only "special" people are able to perceive?

Thanks to my nice company in the ashram, that consisted of a Swiss, Brazilian, Irish and Israeli, I had a good time there. I especially appreciated time out of the ashram :-) when we walked along the ocean through quiet keralan villages or went to watch the dolphins.

One nice thing about the ashram - I have never seen such an equal mix between Indian and western population. And what a variety of people on both sides - from simple (poor?) looking to rich and educated. All equally devoted to Amma.

FAMILY TIME AT 3pm
A young family is sitting on a mat at the back of their house, facing the ocean and...play! What a lovely picture. The little one is 3. Her father is boxing with her, they all rustle and end up with a teddy bear fight. I wish one day I would have my priorities straight! Having the time for the important stuff in life on Thursday afternoon... Of course, I was invited for a tea :-)