Amma was at eh Manhattan center last week. i stood in a line running around the block to get i thought just hug. but i ended up getting sucked into a 2 hour meditation session followed by live music and a vegan meal prepared by her followers from her ashram. it took 3 hours from there to make my way up to Amma though line after line of devotee to get what was a pretty amazing hug. here this woman must have just hugged 300 people before me and probably almost a thousand people the 3 days she'd been here and still her hug was still going strong. she attacked me with the force of his good will with this bear like clasp pulling me into her flowered bosom for a good 20 second count while whispering blessings to me in hindi. after the hug i was asked if i wanted to paticpate in a mantra. I'd been there so long already i said why not. i was asked to join one of the groups sitting in circles of folding chairs behind the stage. each group of 5 or 6 was lead by a devotee whom explained the master/guru system and asked if we already had a guru and felt conflicted excepting Amma as our guru. she explained the commitment it required to repeat our mantra daily and hold a picture of amma if we can and give blessing to her and know that she does the same every day towards us.
the level of commitment i felt from the group varied. ONe either side of me sat guys with strong commitment and interest in spirituality, one was an earnest prematurely balding Indian guy, maybe about 23yrs old but his head made him look older.
the other guy was a kind of Hispanic hipster i think i know from somewhere but cannot place. he had an amazing mouth full of braces you couldn't help but notice because he had the biggest friendliest smile on his face all the time.
they both asked the most thoughtful question of the group and seem most educated about gurus.
the other two people in the group were a pair of girlfriends,i guess were either from Jersey shore or long island. every townie feel about them mixed with a upper middle class sense of entitlement. one was decked out in Indian garb, she had wrist chimes on both wrist which seem too much. when ever i saw Indian woman wear the same thing they usually wore just one. but white people have a habit of overdoing it when they try to dress in other cultures tradition wear.
she reminded me of a aunt i had who would go to Chinese restaurants in a strip mall wearing a silk Chinese dress she got in china town Boston. a bit much for the occasion.
her friend wasn't dressed much more appropriately but as least she was being herself. she has a mini denim skirt and spandex top better set for a club. she was quiet and timidly lost in this experience. i guess her friend must have dragged her along.
I agree to take my mantra and by doing so i agree to expect Amma into my heart, i sat by her feet for a some time then again entered another line to hear my mantra. i was sat by her as she hugged person after person, while her attendant took the pins from my hair for Amma wouldn't hurt herself embracing me. when it came my turn again she warmly but with disarming strength embraced my face and put my face to her bosom and whispered my mantra to me. then just a quickly she released me, a devotee slipped a piece of paper with my mantra written on it for me and i was swept away to another group to explain the meaning of my mantra.
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