Poverty - the greatest enemy

Amma had just finished giving darshan, to over a thousand devotees who had come to see her from many places. Amma who spends all her time for the benefit of her children, then sat with the small group travelling with her, and further inspired them with her words of wisdom.

Someone in the group asked Amma what she meant, when she said that poverty was the greatest enemy, during her closing plenary lecture at the Parliament of World Religions in Barcelona . In response, Amma recounted her childhood days, when she saw her schoolmates struggling even to buy paper to write their exams and saw them suffer from lack of money to even pay the exam fees that was so low. She has seen utter scarcity for water and no monetary help was available to improve the conditions. She used to visit about 50 - 60 houses daily to collect scraps of tapioca peels and other throw-away stuff that can make good fodder for the cattle. While doing so, she saw the hunger and the poverty of those people whose homes she visited. Amma said that when hunger strikes a person, he loses his discrimination. Just as someone who falls into a deep hole will hold on to anything in order to survive, the hunger stricken person will perform any deed, any mistake in order to alleviate the suffering. Poverty is one of the basic reasons why people commit theft and murder, and become terrorists and prostitutes. Poverty not only affects the body, but also weakens the mind. Such minds are influenced in the name of religion and injected with the poison of terrorist ideals. That is why she considers poverty the greatest enemy of humankind. Looking at it this way, Amma feels that 80% of the problems in society would be resolved if we were to eradicate poverty.

Amma further added, "Just as a person who carries heavy loads knows the pain of carrying heavy things; just as a person who has been loved knows love....so does a person who suffers from the painful pangs of poverty understand its sting."

Amma said in a loving tone, "My darling ones, whenever you get any free time, spend at least half an hour doing something useful...probably some artifact or some such that you can donate for a worthy cause...that can bring relief to some unfortunate soul."

The conversation slowly shifted to a dance that a devotee performed for Amma to the song, "Everywhere I look I find you...". Amma started singing the song. One child of Amma said that she loves the word "Amma" rather than any other God's name. Amma said that the word "Amma" which means "mother" is very intimate and reassuring. The child shares the milk that flows from the mother's blood and food... so intimate is the exchange that the child totally identifies and feels secure with its mother. Even when we yawn we murmur "Amma" so spontaneously - that intimately woven is that word and bond with the mother into our own hearts.

Our mind and thoughts are an open book for Amma. Inexplicable are the moments we spend with her. Like an inner guiding light, Amma, the omniscient one, not only knows our emotions and thoughts, but also helps us deal with our innermost desires and anxieties with a motherly concern...so much more intimate is this exchange than just food for the body, that she is truly the mother of our soul.

- Bipin