Conversations with AMMA were compiled by Late Dr Sripada Gopala Krishna Murthy out of diarized and recorded discussions with Amma by several brothers and sisters. While Prof M. Sivaramkrishna garu has already translated a few conversations and added his scholastic commentary on the same, another creditable attempt has been made by Smt. Yadavalli Kameswari, who also translated a few Chapters into English. Smt. Kameswari is the eldest sister of our dear brother Sri Varanasi Dharma suri, who needs no special introduction to the Jillellamudi fraternity.
Editor
Will you enlighten us Amma? (Page – 14)
[Unbounded faith leads to absolute surrender a sure way to bliss tells Amma]
Amma sat in a packed hall at about 4.40 P.M. One of the members asks her
Member: When did you acquire these powers, Amma?
Amma: Powers! I am what I have always been with the same powers that I always had. There is no change in me. But people see in me what they want to see. A yard contains inches, not vice versa. Every one measures me with his yard stick.
Member: But everyone is magnetized by you. What do they see in you?
Amma: You must ask them since it is they who see something in me and they are drawn to me. According to me it is nothing but their Faith that draws them to me, faith absolute that transcends all definitions. It is this faith that exists and grows at the root of everything. It is God. It may manifest itself as blind surrender that surpasses all logic and reasoning; or it may manifest itself as boundless knowledge that tries to unravel the secrets of creation. When you are devoid of these two, you stumble at every step. You doubt, you have your own misgivings. If you are fortunate to be blessed with any one of them, it propels you to God.
Member: But we surrender to you completely. Our responsibilities are yours.
Amma: If you surrender, where is the pain, grief or gloom? But remember, absolute surrender and absolute rejection are the two sides of the same coin. We reach the Omnipotent [ANANTA SHAKTI] by rejecting the unnecessary and the unwanted-namely our prejudices, our egos and our subjectivity. Then you attain undiluted happiness.
The search for the Almighty is like the unfolding of the flower. When the bud unfolds, the delicate vibrations and the imperceptible opening may elude the senses. The entire process may go unnoticed. But the full blown beauty and the intoxicating fragrance capture our hearts. The search for God is a continuous process-a seemingly endless travel and suddenly you realize you have reached your destination.
Member: But why do we sit and worship the idols if it is a search?
Amma: It helps in realizing God. The path to the All Powerful is long and strenuous, beset with doubt and dismay. Most of us have a limited perception and fail to concentrate and comprehend the Almighty as a formless One. So we keep the micro the icon. But your faith makes it the macro, endows it with energy. If you can see, there is energy everywhere, in everything. Fuel has the energy to burn and the bowl to receive it. Put them together, with your ingredients inside the bowl and lo! The food is ready. What you call an icon, is not an icon, it is the very God. It becomes so because of your faith. The traditions we revere, the rituals we follow, the spiritual practices we adopt are all props to reach the Divine.
A yard contains inches, not vice versa. Everyone measures me with his yardstick.
Absolute faith and absolute surrender are the two sides of the same coin.
AMMA’S CROWN [page 27]
One devotee from Palakol talks impulsively and gets excited while talking with
Amma. His talk with Amma. Devotee: Do you perform pooja?
Amma: To get you closer to me is my pooja. The sense of belongingness with everyone and everything is my pooja.[worship of God.] Devotee: Do you pray?
Amma: To create the bond of oneness between you and me is my prayer.
Devotee: What is the difference between dvaita and advaita?
Amma: [Taking a flower and removing the stalk] this is dvaita dualism. When both are together it is adwaita.
Devotee: I do not believe in personality cult. I do not consider any human being as a God.
Amma: Good! Follow sincerely whatever you believe in.
Devotee: What do you think of rebirth? I do not think of it at all.
Amma: Devotee: You mean to say there is no rebirth?
Amma: According to me, no. When we cannot divine what is right in front of us, now, at present, why talk about rebirth? We think of rebirth as the fruit of our karmas [actions] good and evil, in this birth. But can we do something bad, against our good senses, even if there is no carrying forward of these actions into our next birth? Can you kill ten people without any feeling of guilt if I say that is not an evil karma and that has no impact on your rebirth? You can’t. You are guided by an unknown power. Why talk about rebirth?
Devotee: Do you believe that the creation will come to an end?
Amma: No, there is only transformation, no annihilation.
PENURY OR PROSPERITY? – [page 44] –
Prosperity and penury are the two sides of the same coin, tells Amma. Poverty has an equally important role to play as prosperity.
Brother: Amma, which is better, to be rich or to be poor? Amma : According to me both are divine.
Brother: Which divinity do you prefer?
Amma : I prefer poverty. I invite hardships. In lieu of them, I would like to spread sunshine to one and all-the sunshine of happiness.
Brother: Do they have the same origin?
Amma: Everything has the same origin. Everything is divine. Just as fire scorches to purify, poverty makes you suffer to purify you.
Brother: Fire is essential for our very existence. But why poverty? Why should it exist at all? Does it not belittle human dignity?
Amma: It has the same purpose as prosperity. Nature wills it to exist. If there is no poverty, how will you realize the value of prosperity?
Just as fire scorches to purify, poverty makes you suffer to purify you
WARS, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL [page 54]
There is a loud hue and cry about wars, how inhuman – they are, what colossal loss they cause and what havoc they create. What about internal wars that have more sinister sequences, that tip the scales from the human to the bestial? Amma speaks about it.
Brother: Amma, do you think there will be more wars? Do you foresee many changes in the future of the world?
Amma: Nothing has reached a crescendo. Let us wait and see.
Brother: So you think there will be wars?
Amma: A war need not necessarily be between two countries. There is a war in every heart, in every house, at every juncture, amongst all brothers. Only we give different names to this. If a man kills another man, we call it a murder. If members of a group quarrel and kill each other, we call it a fight. On a larger scale, if one nation fights with another, we call it a war. The names given are different. The underlying feeling of hatred is the same. There is an incessant, unpleasant conflict all the time.
Brother: Will this change?
Amma: Yes, the last three decades have witnessed lots of changes. Attitudes are more positive. Politics have taken a turn for the better. People have become more inquisitive.
Brother: Do you think there is an increase of love or hatred?
Amma: No doubt hatred is on the increase, but love is also abundant growing proportionately. Devotion and spiritualism are taking deeper roots. There is a quest, a thirst to know the unknowable. There is a noticeable vibration – a chetana – in every heart. We do realize that there is an internal war, a conflict that must end sooner or later.
(to be continued……….)