On Hating Everyone Around Here
San Ramon, California
“I love you Amma! I love you I love you I love you!”
 She
hugs him and asks, “How do you feel about all these people
here?”
“I hate everyone around here!”
The blond boy in Amma’s lap is about three years old, and
he’s telling Amma how things are for him:
“I hate everybody else!”
Amma considers this, and then asks him:
“How would you feel if everyone hated you?”
“I don’t think I’d like that.”
She recognizes what they call “the teachable moment”.
Fortunately there is a woman nearby who speaks Malayalam and translates
what Amma tells the boy:
 “Your
eyes see because of God’s power.”
He looks at her.
“Your ears hear because of God’s power.”
He is listening.
“You can breathe with your nose because of God’s power.”
He squirms and makes a face.
“So how will the grace of God’s power come?”
She asks him.
She answers the question herself: “Grace comes from God, and
also from the good will of other people. So if you can’t love
people, at least don’t say you hate them!”
 Suddenly
a little girl who’s been standing nearby pushes close and…Amma
hugs both her and the little boy who hates everyone around here!
At once the little kids laugh, everyone around here laughs, and
so does Amma.
“Amma,” the world-hater pronounces, “You’re
a funny girl!”
Amma asks what he said, and the translator tells her.
“Amma likes to be a joker!” she responds. Then she
asks him: “How do you like Amma? As a joker or as a king?”
“As a joker!”
 Everyone
laughs, and Amma tells him, “Amma likes to make everyone laugh!”
But that is not the whole story. Something else has been happening—it
is often like this near Amma’s chair: something said apparently
to one person is heard by someone else who feels it was really meant
for him or her.
The translator confesses: “This morning I was in such a bad
mood—I hated everything and everyone around here. I think
she was talking to me, too! And when we all laughed…I wasn’t
hating anymore!”
Grace.
San Ramon
11 June 2005
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