Another Tsunami story

Sep 25, 2006

Shashimukhi runs a small thatched shop outside the gate of the Amritapuri Ashram. I got into a conversation with her as I was buying a tender coconut, and asked her how long she had been running the shop.
"This particular shop is only a month old", she said. "I had a shop
before, but it was destroyed when the tsunami came. The waters came and a lot of my wares, chairs etc. floated away."

"My house was also ruined," she continued. "But," pointing to a new
brick house with a rooftop terrace across the walkway, "Amma gave me a
new house."

"Looks nice," I commented. "How do you like the house?"

"You are welcome to go and take a look inside," she offered. "And if
you come back, I will tell you many many good stories about Amma."
I took up Shashimukhi's offer and went to her house. Her 9-year old
granddaughter was home on this Sunday, and was sweeping the porch. When I explained why I was there, she invited me in and showed me the house.

Her mother joined us.

"It is a nice house," the granddaughter Vrinda told me with a grin. "We have the necessary conveniences, and it is big enough."

"We added the floor tiles," her mother added, pointing to the bright
vitirfied tiles that lined the floor.

They let me take a few pictures that you can see on this page.

Amma often tells us that, if we see someone fall in a pit, we should not think that it is their karma and walk away. Just as it was their karma to fall into the pit, it is our karma as an onlooker at that time to help them. Every word we say has power only if we live by it. The above story is one of those innumerable instances where Amma , " walks her talk"

- Reported by Vallath Nandakumar.

Tsunami relief work