An Interview with Amma
July 13, 2005
Washington D. C.
From Chicago, Amma’s US Tour made its way east to the first stop on the East Coast, the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. On the second day of the three-day program in D.C., a journalist from a leading newspaper interviewed Amma.
As the woman came and sat next to Amma, Amma was in the middle of a discussion about disaster-resistant houses for tsunami victims in India. For a while, the journalist sat and watched Amma giving darshan. Seeing Amma hug people in the long darshan line without stopping, the reporter asked Amma if she did not feel tired.
Amma smiled and replied, “It is not a difficult job for a mother to take care of her own children. It may be a demanding job for a nanny, but not for the child’s own mother. It is not the work itself, it is the attitude with which we do the work that makes any job easy or difficult. However, I do not see anyone who comes to me as different from myself.” Amma laughed and added, “Do we ever say that our own head is becoming too heavy for us to shoulder?”
The reporter then wondered how Amma came to feel that hugging people would make them feel better. Amma explained that she felt the pain of distraught people as her own pain. When a child cries, its mother feels its pain and runs to comfort it spontaneously.
“In the beginning,” said Amma, “when someone told Amma their troubles, I held that person close, hugged them and comforted them on my shoulder. Then another person came along and Amma did the same; then another person followed and then another…. People began to feel and notice that Amma was hugging them in complete identification with their pain.... It is like when people who have been drinking drainage water for a long time are given pure water to drink. Won’t they notice the difference and be happy? This was how the hugging darshan began.”
Imagining how difficult life must have been growing up in a conservative and remote coastal village, the reporter asked if there was there a lot of opposition against a woman hugging people.
“The opposition, both from the family and from society, was primarily against the idea of Amma moving away from the ordinary path of marriage and family,” Amma replied. “Amma was brought up in a family where many restrictions were placed on women. Girls were taught to tread so gently that the ground under their feet would not shake and to talk so softly that even the walls would not hear them. They were not allowed to speak to, or look at men, and were allowed to go out only after any visiting men had left.
But motherhood has been greatly revered in India through the ages. Amma was quite surprised that there was not much opposition; that there was a general acceptance when Amma began hugging people who came to her. The purity of motherhood has always been an integral part of Indian culture. Perhaps it was this high regard for motherhood that made the society accept Amma’s motherly hug!
The reporter then wanted to know about Amma’s religion.
“I am a mother,” Amma answered. “I was brought up as a Hindu. But religion is only a pointer.” Amma then pointed into the distance. “When we point at a fruit hanging on a tree, if you look at the finger, you won’t see the fruit. In order to see the fruit and pick it from the tree, we need to go beyond the finger. Religion is similar; if you hold on to it, you will miss the goal, the Truth, which is the real fruit. Above all, Amma is a mother. Motherhood is beyond religion.”
The reporter then asked Amma if she felt that God spoke through her or whether she thought of herself as God. Amma’s humble reply was, “I do not claim anything. I have offered myself to the world. Once you become an offering, what is there to claim as there is no ego? God is in everyone. It is just that God’s presence manifests in each person differently. There are bulbs of different wattage- 0 watt bulbs, 30 watt bulbs, 100 watt bulbs, 1000 watt bulbs etc. The same electricity passes through them, but manifests itself in different brightness as it passes through each bulb. Both a porter (in India, a person who carries luggage on his head) and a scientist are using their heads. One uses his head to carry a load; the other uses it to unravel the mysteries of the universe. So, the potential is there in everyone. Everything depends on our attitude and the way we develop our inner capabilities.”
With all the work that Amma fits into a day, did she ever spend time alone, the reporter wondered. “Hardly,” Amma answered with a smile.
Switching to a different topic, the reporter asked Amma why she wore a white saree. “White is the color of purity,” Amma responded. “When you wear a white saree, it is easy to see any dirt that comes on it. Similarly, if there is any dirt in the mind, it should stand out, so it can be easily seen and removed.”
Touching on the recent London bus bombing, the reporter wanted to know that if such activities were supported by religion or if they were simply the acts of misguided people.
Amma’s expression became very sad and she stated how deeply it pained her that so many innocent people died in these terrorist activities. “No religion condones bloodshed,” she stressed. “The single-minded purpose of all religion is to know oneself. The fundamental principle of every religion is love and compassion and to do all that one can to uplift humanity.”
“Religion should teach us to love humanity. Religion should teach us not what we can take from the world, but what we can give back to humanity. Amma believes that any religion that does not do so is not a religion at all. When Amma looks into the world, she sees tremendous darkness today. We should be constantly alert. Our alertness should be like that of a person who is being held at gunpoint. Only if we act with extreme awareness can we move forward.”
The journalist concluded her interview and asked Amma if Amma would hug her too. In a short while she was in Amma’s arms receiving a wonderful darshan - surely a great way to end a day of good work.
- tour update
|
Amma 
Amma
Tours 
Being
with Amma