World Wanderers: Life is an adventure. It’s not the destination that’s rewarding, it’s the journey.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Amma's Ashram

The next day we set off to the Ashram of the guru, "Amma," or "the hugging mother." As we pulled up outside the bubble gum pink set of buildings, I have to say we were in awe--it wasn't at all what we were expecting. It was like a miniature city or world with cafes, different high rise pink apartment buildings, a huge meditation/darshan hall, a beautiful, colorful temple, gardens, shops, etc. Pictures and stickers of Amma hung everywhere and you could purchase everything from photos of her holy feet to prayer beads to a sleeping eye mask made out of her old sarees. We stayed right across from the temple with a beautiful view of the river.

View from our room at Ashram

The very pink Ashram

Amma's "gift" is her healing hug which tens of thousands of people can line up for in a day. She is known to go for 22 hours at a time without stopping to eat, sleep or go to the bathroom, continually giving hugs, love, compassion and words of comfort to people. Some say her energy can be a miracle and heal. She has a Cinderella story of being beaten and used as a servant by her own family but has apparently always had a special gift and started meditating when she was 6 years old. She claims that she is one with God or Krishna and that He flows through her. She is a bubbly chubby little lady with slightly buck teeth but obviously a heart of gold.

AMMA

I have heard some people describe her as the Jesus Christ of our age (though a bit of a direct comparison, I wouldn't entirely disagree---as far as I believe, Jesus was also a human being with a gift to love and spread wisdom who had a higher sense of spiritual awareness or knowing which he tried to enlighten people about and transmit to them--he also was an activist--just like Amma).

Entering the ashram, right away we noticed that everyone was dressed in white flowing outfits and had these walnut looking necklaces on. It was all very mysterious and the way people spoke and acted made it seem a bit cult-ish. Don't get me wrong, there are wonderful things about Amma and what she stands for that I really respect. For example she has started an NGO called "embracing the world" which has done amazing humanitarian work, including natural disaster relief, empowering females in India, educational programs, microloans etc. I also like the fact that she claims that her religion is love. That is basically how people describe her and she describes herself--non-judging, unconditional love. She really has a way of comforting people and giving a sense of purpose and belonging as well as love and all this I think is brilliant. It was some of the people there however, that made me question what everything was really all about.

The temple at the Ashram

There were of course lovely, happy smiling people that we saw there but A LOT of the people we lightly crossed paths with seemed to have a huge chip on their shoulder. As a place that is all-encompassing love, it seemed quite strange that I was picking up on such a negative vibe but I suppose places like the Ashram do attract people of all sorts including troubled people who are looking for a new path or relief which I'm certain Amma provides for some. There was a lot of petty complaining and people talking badly about others that I noticed which seemed like a strange component to such a peaceful, loving place. Especially since the people that were doing it were residents (the Ashram is home to something like 3000 people). Others seemed completely over the top with everything in almost a non-genuine way--it's difficult to explain but it just seemed, as I said, like a cult.

Amma is an amazing woman with her endurance and endless compassion but for Des and I, the holy hug or "darshan" was fairly anti-climatic. We were in the huge hall and Amma and her western volunteers were all up on the big stage with Hindi music playing (she writes all her own songs) from people sitting in the crowd on the floor. TV screens were all around to give people a better view of Amma hugging.

We waited the whole day and were rushed in towards the end of darshan as we were told we were late. (Even though the guide earlier had said it would be at midnight and it was only 930 at this stage). An old lady that was running the line-up started yelling at us loudly telling us we are late and need to hurry--she kept rushing us and giving very dirty looks as if we were sacrilegiously disrespecting Amma's time-frame. Fair enough, Amma had been hugging non stop for ten hours by this stage, but we didn't know any better! By the time we were on the stage, we were the last ones in the line up and we were turned away---then frantically a western volunteer rushed us back to receive darshan, us being literally pushed onto the stage and into the line-up. It was all very disjointed, confusing and not harmonious at all as I had imagined. Finally when we reached the front of the queue, our faces were dabbed with a cloth to wipe any dirt or sweat and we were pushed on our knees to wait to approach Amma for our hug.

Amma's holy feet

Once I reached her I was pushed into her round belly and big bosoms and she held me for quite a while as she spoke to someone else she had just been healing. Then she grabbed my head and turned it and whispered a mantra in my ear three times and let me go. I am a strong believer in energies but to be honest, I didn't feel any especially powerful energy from the hug--mind you, we were the last of the lot and Amma was probably exhausted. Des on the other hand, strongly disliked the experience and how pushy and cranky everyone was in the build-up--it was very hot and his forehead was sweating like crazy--Amma was even wiping it for him herself! Ha, we laughed about that a lot--Des sweating on Amma.

On our way off the stage a lady that was obviously working/volunteering for Amma was asking me if I had brought Amma a gift---it was really inappropriate in my opinion. To me, that wasn't what Amma was about--it wasn't about material reward but about spreading love for the sake of humanity. The whole night was just a big question mark for us. The next day however, was lovely.

The next day we spent reading and doing reiki by the beach. It was a great energy around the place and very relaxing. In the evening thousands of people gathered on the beach and Amma came out in the middle of the crowd and we all meditated together as the sun set over the ocean and the dolphins played in the horizon. There was then a question and answer period which was nothing too profound but the energy of the meditation was beautiful and obviously very strong. During the question period a lovely girl with down syndrome about 20 years of age came and sat beside me. She gave me a big hug and then laughed (it was a sweet, high laugh that reminded me of the Dalai Lama's laugh) then she said "it's ok." She then put her hand just hovering outside my arm as if she was reading my aura or something---it was very interesting but I think she has a gift. We then went on to play food guessing games and making pretend sandwiches as Amma spoke her wisdom--no disrespect to Amma but the little girl was full of beans and had a contagious little laugh!

Following meditation on the beach we went inside to the hall and Amma and a big group of musicians played Amma's songs for hours on stage. It was very powerful and the vibration in the hall as you can imagine was very high. It almost reminded me of those gospel choir/ God programs you see on TV where the priest is up yelling enthusiastically about feeling God and people are passing out all around him...ok it wasn't that dramatic but there was one lady in front of me that started yelling uncontrollably while reaching up to the sky with her eyes closed and then twitching and covering her mouth---it happened for minutes on end and then she would almost be thrown back to a lying down position---then it would happen again. Other people were pulling imaginary energy into the crown of their heads and rocking back and forth.

The music was translated into English on the screens around us and it was all about loneliness and misery--obviously something Amma had experienced in her childhood and I'm sure a lot of the people living there had experienced a strong sense of as well--Amma providing a loving haven for everyone and anyone who chooses to renounce everything in life (they are all openly celibate) where everyone is supposed to be equal and accepted. All in all, it was an unbelievable experience at the Ashram and I admire Amma and what she is doing for the betterment of human rights (and the spreading love part). It serves it's purpose definitely for some people who are searching for something in particular but there is not a chance of me signing up anytime soon! :)

The bridge that Amma built to ensure quick evacuations incase of another tsunami

Backwater Houseboat in Kerala (The hijack)

Taking an overnight train down to Kerala in Southern India, we decided impulsively to get off a few hours before our stop in the city of Alleppey. We were immediately approached by a rickshaw driver who was going to take us to our guest-house and a shop where we would look and he would make commission for bringing us there---part of the experience of taking trasportation in India! They always kidnap us to make a quick buck---sometimes it's frustrating but other times it's pretty fun being driven all over by the crazy drivers with an ulterior motive! :)

On the way, he offered us a very affordable price on a houseboat experience on the backwaters of Kerala. When discussing it a few weeks ago, we had resided to the fact that we couldn't afford it as it was way out of our backpacker budget but his offer was too good to refuse--it became blatantly apparent why, soon enough.

Des eyeballed the houseboat, which was once an old rice barge. They are beautiful things with kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, dining rooms etc. Ours wasn't the pick of the lot but decided that for the price, it would do perfectly for such an incredible experience!

Des and I climbed aboard the boat which we had to ourselves and cruised around the lush backwaters surrounded by paddy fields (lush green rice fields), palm trees, many other rice barges, people bathing and washing their clothes in the water, rowers, fishers, (the chinese fishing boats were amazing as was the man who would hold his breath underwater for minutes on end and then collect mussels by the bucket and throw them into his little boat) . It is a tropical paradise that we were able to admire from the comfort of the roof of our boat. We had a "captain" that drove the boat and and another fellow that cooked and served our food. Neither could speak a word of English which became a problem when we were trying to discuss the fact that we were promised several things in the quoted price that were definitely not followed through with, which in turn ended up to be a bigger rip-off than we expected.

Des and I have been pretty patient with the way India works and sometimes the lack of manners, the rip-offs and scams etc but we were pushed to the limit the next day upon complaining to the manager. We splashed out on this experience and were given the bare minimum--for example, our dinner, although lovely consisted of 3 scoops of dahl each, a fish the size of bait like a 6 inch sardine (that was supposed to feed 2 of us) and some rice with chappatti, when we were promised a gourmet seafood meal. We were also told we were going to have airconditioning (not a big deal until the guy tried to charge us A LOT of money extra for it ontop of the already paid amount). Our mistake was paying ahead of time as the manager of the boat blamed the rickshaw driver--keep in mind, that NONE of what he was saying was adding up---he played the victim and despite being the BOSS, said he was helpless in getting our money back. We tried everything but the only thing he wanted was for BOTH Des and I to come with him to the rickshaw drivers house to get our money back--it was such a joke the way he handled it--it really summed up the way India works sometimes. He ran around dramatically waving his hands and yelling at the top of his lungs, blaming others and never taking onus for his role in everything. Anyway, I put my foot down and said I wasn't leaving the boat until we were compensated (all we wanted was a partial re-imbursement) and that Des could go with the guy to meet the rickshaw driver. Once again, making no sense what-so-ever, he said that both of us had to go or no one would go. It wasn't happening for me. I knew the moment we left the boat, we lost all hope of compensation as it was easy to imagine the result--the rickshaw driver either wouldn't be home or wouldn't answer his door. (He had already been hanging up every two minutes on the guy). He wasn't the one responsible anyway, the attention had simply somehow become completely diverted to him.

The manager told us he had no money to give back to us as he paid 75% commission to the rickshaw driver and we had to get it from him (balogna!). He said we could stay on the boat for an extra day and night if we wanted to (we definitely didn't). After hours of sitting there, trying to negotiate and a fake attempt by the manager to help the situation, Des said the only thing we could do was get out of there and make an official complaint to the tourist board.

So, we packed our rugsacks and departed the boat to a nearby narrow bridge made of plywood that crossed a small part of the river. UH-OH. Des made it over just fine and as I went to cross it, the weight of my rugsack threw me off balance and I went toppling over into the river with everything strapped around me! Shocked, I just stood there like a drowned cat--Des threw off his stuff as quickly as possible and came running to lift me and my things out of the dirty water. All I can say is IMMEDIATE KARMA came knocking from me getting drenched and us getting ripped off so badly!

I headed back to the boat to shower off the black muck and dry out my rugsack and clothes. The guys that worked on the boat felt very sorry for me and helped me lay all my clothes out. I think it all happened for a reason because right after this, a German couple were brought to the boat and despite Des's warnings not to take it, they decided they really wanted the good price.

So basically Des and I hijacked the boat!

We were told we could have a free day and night on it but the manager wanted the money from the German couple. We had told him earlier the amount of rupees we wanted back and he said he didn't have it on him so this was the perfect opportunity to catch him out! We said he could pay us the money back from the German's money they paid--well he was having none of it! He offered us half the amount, acting like he didn't care if we stayed on it--despite the frantic look in his eyes and his voice. We dug in our heals, opened up a kingfisher beer to share and said we weren't leaving until we got the money that he had promised earlier.

S L O W L Y he came around. Paying us bit by bit and telling us that was his last amount he would pay and us shaking our heads and saying then we will stay the day that he promised if he wasn't going to compensate us properly. Finally, he quit the sherade a gave us the amount back. PHEW. I packed up all my semi-dried clothes quicker than you can imagine and we got outta there!

Happy out, we found a cheap guesthouse in the heart of Alleppey. We dined for next to nothing on beautiful South Indian food such as Thalis and Dosas. We went to see a Bollywood movie but left at intermission as it was all about rooster/cock fights and it was probably the worst movie I have ever seen--I wasn't sitting through 3 hours of watching animals pecking eachother's eyes out! The streets of Alleppey were filled with people selling gorgeous flowers bouquets and strings of fragrant flowers such as Jasmine and beautiful, fragrant spice stalls. We ate tapioca chips from a street vendor--delicious--and I went and had a sari fitted and made. Des bought one of the local man-skirts that every man wore around Alleppey--basically a white linen sheet sarong. He loves the comfort of it and the locals loved seeing him in their gear, ( I think they felt quite flattered) telling him he looked BEAUTIFUL! I agree :)