Amma started her program in Dallas today morning. As her children from Dallas and nearby areas waited expectantly, Amma entered the hall. It was a poignant moment and many shed tears to see Amma after a year-long wait.

Amma was welcomed into the city of Dallas today morning by Mayor Joe Chow and his fiancé, Che Che Chow. After they garlanded Amma, Mayor Chow spoke to the crowd and said how excited he was to be in Amma’s presence. He also expressed his appreciation for Amma’s remarkable efforts to help humanity the world over.

Midway through darshan today morning, a 7 1/2year old boy, Vajraang, came up for darshan with his family. Although seeing Amma for the first time, and despite his tender age, Vajraang was able to carry on a long and forthright conversation with Amma. In many ways this is the ideal conversation that every person would want to have with Amma; that every disciple would want to have with their Guru. But most of us find this hard to do, since we lack that simple innocence of our childhood days. We are beset with self-doubt and often wonder what others will think of us if they heard us have such an 'immature' conversation with Amma. Here are some excerpts of this hour-long exchange.

After Amma hugged him, young Vajraang presented his case. "I have three questions for you, Amma," he told her, his words measured but fluent, in Amma's native tongue of Malayalam. As Amma raised her eyebrows in mock surprise, he asked, "Can I ask them now?" Amma nodded her head.

"The first question is, Can I sit on your lap now?" Amma laughed and pulled him onto her lap. "Ask your other questions," Amma urged him on.

"My second question is, Can I come to your ashram in India and be your disciple? and my third question is, Will you give me a mantra?"

Amma hugged him close and laughed again. Then she looked at the people around, like a proud mother, as though to make sure that everyone heard what he had to say. "Sit beside me," Amma told the family and Vajraang took up his hour-long position right next to Amma.

Amma: "You want to come to the ashram? What will you do there?"

Vajraang: "If I come to the ashram I will not go back. I will stay there forever. Will you accept me as your disciple?"

Amma: "But I am your disciple!"

Vajraang: "Oh, no! That will never work! Will you accept me as your disciple?"

Amma continued to hug people lined up for darshan and was silent for a while and the boy turned to the Swami (monastic disciple of Amma) who was standing next to him.

Vajraang: "Amma is not answering"

Swami: "The question is whether you are ready to accept Amma as your Guru."

In a little while, Amma turned to him again.
Amma: "Did you eat?"

Vajraang: "No, today is Ekadasi. I am on a fast today."
In the Hindu calendar, Ekadasi is a day on which it is considered auspicious to fast. Everyone was surprised again as growing children in India are usually discouraged from fasting and if they indeed do so, it is usually purely by choice.

Vajraang: "I fast two days every week".

Amma: "No, no. Once a week is good enough. What kinds of food do you like to eat?"

Vajraang: "I like a lot of foods, but my favorite is Oothappam" (a South-Indian salty crepe with onions on the top).

Amma: "If you come to the ashram, you will only get ashram food. You won't get tasty food like Oothappam at the ashram. What will you do then?"

Vajraang: "I will eat the food in the ashram. After all any food there is your prasad (consecrated offering), Amma".

Amma: "Your parents told me that you are fasting too often. My son, you should go and eat now".

Vajrang: "Amma did you eat?"

Amma: "No, I usually do not eat in the mornings".

Vajraang: "But if you don’t eat, Amma, I will not eat either. After all, the sishya (disciple) is supposed to follow what the Guru does.”
Very often Amma goes on for days eating nothing or close to nothing. For those who constantly find it hard to bear Amma’s continuous fast, this verbal joust seemed amusingly appropriate.

Amma: "But what if I go on for days without eating, like I usually do? You will find it very hard to keep up with that".

Vajraang: "I am used to fasting. But certainly I will not be able to keep up with you."

Amma: "Will you have the same innocence and when you grow up?"
Amma usually says that when children are young, they have the innocence and curiosity of a beginner, and hence their minds are wide open to learning. As children grow from childhood to adulthood, the individual ego sets in and their minds narrow down. This is why Amma says that one of the first steps towards God is to have the childlike innocence of a beginner at all times.

Vajraang: (spontaneously) "If you remain my Guru, Amma, then how can I not remain the same? Amma, you have not eaten anything, aren't you hungry?"

Amma: (gesturing towards the people waiting in line for darshan) "I am eating love. How will I be hungry?"

Vajrang: "Eating love? What does that mean? I don’t understand."

Amma: "However much food someone gives you, if it is not given without love, will you feel satisfied eating it?"

Vajrang: "What do you mean by this?"

Amma: "What if some one gives you food without love and carelessly? Even if your stomach gets filled, will your heart get filled?"

Vajrang: "No"

Amma; "So it is the love with which we offer our food matters. Without this love, no food that we eat seems complete. It is like the story of Ganapathy whose huge appetite was satiated by a single handful of parched rice. Why do you think his huge appetite was satisfied?"**

Vajraang: (in response to Amma’s question)"Because the food was given with love?"

Amma: (nodding) "Aa..haa!"

Vajraang: (like it just occurred to him) "Oh, so love is your food, right?"

Amma nods, beaming. Vajraang stands silently for some time watching Amma hugs person after person.

Vajraang: "Amma, don't you getting tired of hugging and hugging people".

Amma: "How will I get tired of hugging and hugging people? Tell me, does your mother ever get tired of hugging you? Does the sun ever get tired of giving light?"
When asked this question, Amma often answers thus, usually adding, "Does the river ever gets tired of flowing? Does the wind ever get tired of blowing?"

Vajraang: "Doesn't it hurt you?"
Amma does not answer.

Vajraang: "Why does it not hurt you?"

Amma: "Because they come to me with love in their hearts."

By now the darshan line had come to an end and Amma was getting ready to get up.

Vajraang: (In a serious tone) "I will do all the seva you want, Amma, but take me to the ashram with you. I have to go there. Please..."

Amma: (as she walks out towards the door) "It looks like he will eat me up!!"

Amma often says that for a true disciple, the Guru is food and drink. The disciple should be ready to eat up the Guru. By this, Amma means that a true disciple has an insatiable appetite for true knowledge. This hunger can be appeased only by a Guru's presence and guidance. For such a disciple, everything that the Guru represents is food and drink - the Guru's teachings, ready to be assimilated into the disciple's everyday life.

"Was this what Amma meant by her parting comment? Is Vajraang a true disciple?" those who have heard the conversation wonder.

Someday, time will tell.

** The story goes thus: Once Lord Shiva, father of Ganapathy, the auspicious God of all beginnings, asks Ganapathy to attend a feast thrown by Kubera, the God of wealth. To curb Kubera's pride in his wealth, Ganapathy eats everything at the feast and yet his hunger is unappeased. After eating everything in sight, Ganapathy finally chases Kubera. The humbled Kubera rushes to Lord Shiva and seeks refuge from Ganapathy's voracious appetite. Lord Shiva gives Ganapathy a handful of parched rice. Ganapathy immediately becomes calm and his hunger is appeased. Here Lord Shiva represents pure divine love, love untainted by any material desires.

This unappeasable hunger of Lord Ganesha also symbolizes the intense longing of a disciple to attain true Jnana or pure knowledge, which a Satguru alone can bestow. The parched rice that Lord Shiva gives to His son represents a mind that is devoid of thoughts and ego. Just as a parched seed doesn’t sprout, a mind that is completely destroyed cannot generate anymore thoughts. Without thoughts the mind is no-mind.

The mind through the sense organs flows out into the objects of the world outside, which in turn creates further thoughts and desires in the mind. This is an endless circle. Destruction of the mind through spiritual practices brings an absolute halt to this cycle. In that state, one becomes fully established in the state of pure knowledge.

- tour update

Tsunami Relief Efforts

Amma in the west

Meeting Amma

Events Calendar