The hills and valleys of San Ramon smiled as Amma’s warm presence chased away the spell of rain and wintry chills and brought back sunshine to its slopes.

It was the first evening program and Amma had started giving darshan. Amma asked one devotee who was having a spot of laryngitis whether he had a cold. “It’s just my allergies, Amma,” the devotee tried to wave it off. But Amma persisted. Eyeing him and some other hardworking ‘sevaks’ (volunteers) around her with motherly concern, Amma said, “It’s because you work hard continuously and don’t take enough rest.”

“How can we take a break, Amma, when you never take a break yourself?” one of them argued.

“How can Amma take a break?” Amma asked. “Then everything will stop!”
True. In the wake of the recent Tsunami, the ashram and Amma have shouldered more than any single organization in their share of relief work. And if Amma takes a break, then things would indeed come to a standstill.

But hearing Amma’s words, one couldn’t help drawing a parallel to words spoken in another time, etched in the pages of the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna describes to Arjuna why He himself, the Lord of all the worlds, who wanted or stood to gain nothing, was still performing action. “Utside yurime loka na kuryam karma chedaham” “The worlds would perish if I cease to perform my action…”

One massive initiative that Amma has undertaken is the building of homes for those rendered homeless in the aftermath of the Tsunami. If there is a load that even a mother like Amma cannot bear, it is the load of suffering children. During darshan time, even as Amma is attending to the myriad personal problems of her children who come for darshan on one hand and administrative issues on the other- doing, as always, perfect justice to both- she is also thinking of new as well as ongoing ways to help the Tsunami-hit. Of ways to support them and make them stand on their own two feet. Of ways to make them strong and self-reliant.
“The work in progress is very demanding- everything has to be done by stringent new government rules that makes everything more difficult,” Amma explains. “Amma has required that almost all the woodwork and other necessities for homes be manufactured indigenously….” By indigenously, of course, Amma means building everything from scratch within the ashram with the volunteer labor of an expert in-house production team. “One brahmachari is responsible for building 12,000 doors and windows,” Amma quietly explains.

So it is that one single job, the considerable work of building 12,000 doors and windows, is broken up and cheerfully shouldered by volunteers who are thrilled to do this for Amma…. work that lights up their life with meaning. And right there in their midst, sharing their work and inspiring them to do more is Amma herself. Whether near or far, Amma sees and smiles, silently applauding her children’s spirit of sacrifice and service to the world, blessing the effort and goodwill that is making this a reality, invisibly wiping every drop of sweat on every toiling brow.

- R. Menon

Tsunami Relief Efforts

Amma in the west

Meeting Amma

Events Calendar