Travel Day 990 – Amma Ashram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Yesterday we had finally left the ashram at 1am in the morning, but today we managed to be present pretty much the whole time while Amma was on stage form 11am to 5am the next day…
Amma in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
When we arrived in the morning, the ashram was already packed with people, leaving us on the floor and in the corner somewhere just to join the satsang and the teaching. While we were listening to the music, I had to think again that it was crazy, but Amma was still on stage when we left yesterday and she was already on stage again this morning. That was her life…
Everyone I had talked to yesterday told me that the tour had been incredibly stressful for everyone, but the people on tour only joined for a few weeks. Amma on the other hand spent her whole life like that. Obviously she was constantly busy during her tour, but even when she came back to the Amritapuri Ashram, she would follow the same program as she did when I was there. She never actually had a break or a vacation and she was always there for the people, it was really great, but a bit crazy at the same time…
Amma’s Ashram in Chennai at Night
For us the day was quite pleasant as we simply enjoyed the program and the presence of Amma. But we also enjoyed that so many amenities were set up again with two different food canteens, chai shop and fresh fruit juices. But best of all, everything was either for free or really affordable, leaving one with the feeling that this place was not about money at all and of course most of the services were simply done by volunteers…
Since I knew quite a few people around here from the Amritapuri Ashram, it obviously wasn’t too long before I was approached as well and asked if I could not help out for a little bit. Of course I could help and in the end even my friend joined in as we were asked to wipe people’s faces before they could get the hug from Amma. Due to the extreme heat and the constant sweating, every single face had to be wiped a couple of times…
Amma’s Tour is slowly moving on
So in the end we found ourselves in the Darshan line for a few hours until the early morning, wiping people’s faces. Obviously men could only wipe the faces of men and obviously not every man was happy to be touched and wiped. So it became quite a challenge at times to talk very friendly but slightly forceful to the men in line in order to comply with Amma’s wish and to have every single face wiped…
Only here I realized that Chennai obviously wasn’t a tourist destination and so all the people coming for Darshan were really only local Indian people,leaving my friend me appear as if we would be part of Amma’s Westerners staff. While we enjoyed that position for a while, we were even happier that we could help out and got integrated into the tour. Who knows, maybe next time around I would join an entire tour though India with Amma… : )
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