One of the unique features of Amma is she never openly admits that She is Divine or She is different or above ordinary. The miracles or wonders that occur in Her presence appear very common and natural and the real import or significance of the incident will unfold only at a later date. She generally discouraged people from talking about Her “miracles”. The experiences relating to her are highly individual. More often than not, the full impact of the experience is felt only by the person who experiences it.
Several devotees have described seeing Mother clearly in dreams or visions long before they had heard anything about her or seen photographs of her.
One of the more remarkable incidents of this type involves neither a dream nor a vision, but apparently an actual flesh – and blood encounter with Amma in the renowned temple of Lord Venkateshwara on the wooded ridge above the city of Tirupati some three hundred kilometers from Jillellamudi village.
Sri Chandran, a native of Gudiyattam in Tamil Nadu state, was a frequent pilgrim to the Tirupati shrine. He recounts how, during one of his visits there, a striking woman of short stature with numerous glass bangles on her wrists and a large kumkum mark in the center of her forehead emerged from the inner sanctum and offered him a handful of blessed food. He wondered why there was a woman within the sanctum where only male priests were allowed, and also why she had singled him out from the crowd for a gift of prasadam. Perplexed, he glanced back at her radiant form as he filed out of the shrine along with the other pilgrims. Sri Chandran waited for some time at the entrance to the temple for the mysterious woman to leave, but she never appeared. Eventually, he was compelled to go away puzzled.
Some weeks later, he was visiting a shop in the town of Mangalagiri in Guntur district, when he saw on the wall a large photo of the very same woman who had given him prasadam at Tirupati. He made inquiries and found out that she was “a powerful saint” who lived at the nearby village of Jillellamudi. Immediately, he decided to go there to see her. Upon reaching the House of All, Sri Chandran asked the first resident he came across, “Does Mother ever visit Tirupati?” “No, Mother never leaves this place at all”, was the perplexing reply.
When Sri Chandran went upstairs to see Mother, he was thrilled to observe that everything about her – even the color of the sari that she wore and the type of bangles on her wrist – were exactly the same as when he had seen her at Tirupati. Amma smiled broadly, just as she had done while handing him. the prasadam in the distant temple. Then she directed him to go downstairs to eat. And when he did so, the Tamil gentleman. narrated to those who were eating there an account of his. mysterious meeting with Amma in the inner sanctum at Tirupati. This tale naturally aroused the curiosity of those who heard it. Two young men went immediately to Mother to try to get confirmation directly from her. When they returned a few minutes later, they asked Sri Chandran eagerly what sort of prasadam Mother had given him in the temple. “Sugar candy,” he replied. Hearing his answer, the young men smiled at each other in triumph and shook hands. It seems that when they had asked Mother what prasadam she had given to Sri Chandran at Tirupati, she had answered jocularly, “You know my condition. What else do I have to give?” The ashramites, who were well aware of Mother’s chronic diabetes, immediately understood this to mean that Amma had given sugar. Naturally, they were elated when Sri Chandran’s answer tallied with Mother’s.
Amma hardly ever directly confirmed any stories of a miraculous nature. At most, she might hint obliquely at her role, as she did in this case. But ultimately, she left it to the devotees to decide, on the basis of their own faith, whether or not she was instrumentally involved.
When Sri Chandran went back to Mother after eating and asked her directly whether she had appeared to him at Tirupati, she adroitly sidestepped the query. “It is all right if you think of the one who gave you prasadam as Mother,” she replied, putting the onus of faith firmly back on to his shoulders.
Sri Chandran found his experience sufficiently compelling (even without receiving direct confirmation from Amma) for it to instill faith in her divinity. In the years that followed, he was to discontinue his regular pilgrimages to the Tirupati shrine, visiting Jillellamudi instead. Amma and Lord Venkateswara, he now believes, were one and the same divinity. But for someone hearing his story secondhand even if he or she has no particular reason to be skeptical it can hardly have the same impact or produce a stable and enduring faith.