A spiritual retreat meant to experience relaxation, peace and joy. With Amma we get all of these along with hope and inspiration for a life filled with optimism and faith.

Tonight was the second evening of the Albuquerque retreat. The second evening of a retreat usually begins with meditation and a question and answer session with Amma which is followed by a delicious dinner lovingly served by Amma to all of her children present. Soon after Amma sings Bhajans and then starts to receive her children. As darshan goes on, there is also a cultural program where Amma’s children offer entertainment with their varied talents.

The question and answer session was very inspiring as always. Amma brilliantly answered the questions put forth by many of the retreat attendees, with her uncanny wisdom and outstanding simplicity.
Here is an excerpt from the Question and answer session with Amma:

Question: Since God created everything and everything is according to his will, aren’t sin and everything evil part of his will too?
A brief summary from Amma’s answer:
Just as fire can be used to burn a house down or to cook food, God has endowed us with the power of discrimination to choose good actions against the bad ones. When such is the case is it not absurd to blame God for our indiscriminate actions?
Once a pick-pocketer got caught by the cops and was put behind bars. He cried, “Oh God! I always prayed to you and then why did this happen to me?”
Amma reiterated the point that it is our responsibility to use the power of discrimination with yet another example- If we are given a plate of food, even in pitch darkness the hand will not lose its way to the mouth and feed the nose instead. Similarly the power of discrimination is well within us and it is up to us to utilize it.

After enjoying a good meal served lovingly by Amma, the retreat attendees were eagerly waiting for their darshan from Amma. To add to the treat of the retreat attendees a variety cultural program was planned by Amma’s children. The featured programs consisted of a native American dance, a traditional south Indian classical dance and a group dance dedicated to the Divine Mother. The atmosphere was festive and joyful. The group dance accentuated the mood for celebration and devotion to God. Everybody clapped to the rhythm of the dance and it seemed like that whole place was dancing in unison.

After all that fun and laughter, the atmosphere slowly became quiet and many slipped into peaceful meditation in Amma’s divine presence as she continued to receive her children into the wee hours of the morning.

As a group of Tamil (a South Indian language) speaking people gathered around Amma, Amma spontaneously started singing an old Tamil devotional song, much to the joy of her children, especially the Tamilians. She then pointed to one of her disciples who is a Tamilian and said that he would become ecstatic if Amma spoke in Tamil!

At the end of darshan, Amma received the last person in the line who came on a wheel chair with utmost love and a totally different mood. She was fully focused on him and gave all her attention to him and his wife. The whole crowd watched her shower her love in so many different ways. Amma then turned to her children who were eagerly looking at her for more entertainment! After all a mother is the one who truly knows how to delight her children.

When about to leave, Amma said that she once danced with the children in her orphanage and demonstrated her moves much to our joy and excitement. There is something very special with Amma’s moods. They have such a powerful effect on our minds. When she danced, everyone was smiling happily. After Amma left the hall, everyone was still laughing and smiling a lot, a gift that she had left with us to enjoy - her gift of love.

- Seetha

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