posted by Kamala on Sep 30
Dearest Friends and Family,
We found some hilarious jokes in Anni’s diary which we wanted to share…On tours stops in India, and sometimes elsewhere, Amma occasionally will ask for a joke. While we never had the chance to give Her any, we wanted to be prepared. Trying to keep a ready repertoire of jokes on hand, was an ongoing effort on our part, and we made efforts to find good jokes, and prepare them in the event that we were ever called.
These two anecdotes, talk about situations with Brahmachari Gurudas, or Gurudas, as he is more commonly known. Our family nickname for him (and we have nicknames for everybody) is Goo-dasy. He is a hardworking brahmachari, who for the most part has been a real human being to us, acting as a family friend to the children, sharing stories of Amma and spiritual concepts with us. We came to know him in this regard through numerous small projects that we began to beautify the area around Amma’s room, over the years, which often entailed his assistance in his more official capacity for securing bricks, cement, masons (he himself knows masonry also) etc.
From a distance, it appears that he is always busy. It appears he has numerous ashram duties, of various types of physical labor, from working with the laborers, hauling sand, cement, cleaning the cow shed, being night duty guard attendant, dealing with the waste, setting up latrines, the kitchen, etc., etc., really, his activities are so numerous it is hard to say what all he does. He is always ready to lend a hand to anyone, for anything. Along with Brahmachari John, he also attends to the funerals, and disposal of ashes ceremonies, and was there with us when Anni’s ashes pot was thrown into the sea. We used to take care of the darshan hut, and this story is from that time, one day when Anni and Link were working on it.. Anni entitled it:
“Repairing the Darshan Hut
One day, before Amma came back from some foreign tour, in 2003, Gurudas decided that it was time to paint the Darshan hut roof. [this must mean the poles that hold up the thatch roof]. So accordingly, Lincoln and he brought in two tables (to tie together); so that one may reach the roof. As we were tying them together, Gurudas looked at me and said:
“See, you’re not tying them tight enough. When you tie, they should be so tight that your face turns purple, and an onlooker should be able to distinctly see the outline of every muscle in your face, and your veins should bulge and your eyes should bug out.”
After we were finished with the tedious task, he turned to me and said,
“You’ve still not tied it tight enough.”
“Yes, I did.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I tell you, I did”
“Then will you get up and stand there?” he asked.
“Of course I will, “ I said, preparing to climb to the top.
“How do you know it won’t fall?”
“You two tied the other 3 legs.”
“Ay!” he said, “but we were all thinking the same thing!”
On tours, besides various duties, Gurudas also is the person who hands out tokens for darshan with Amma on the gents side. In India, this can be a very powerful as well as dangerous position. Once Amma starts darshan in the outside programs, where often 100,000 and more people are desperately wanting to get a token to see Her, and get in line, so as not to wait the whole night…the token man is in very hot demand. We have seen, with our own eyes, from a helpless distance, Gurudas roughed up by a burly mob, the hair on his head in several peoples fists, his beard in the grip of other fists which rocked his head to and fro, demanding his personal attention. It was after this that Gurudas began going on all the tours completely clean shaven. Amma often jokes about this.
It appears that Gurudas suffers an inner conflict. There is his duty as Amma has told him – to give tokens out to the hundreds of thousands of people. There is his duty as a spiritual son of Amma, to see that Amma’s form is kept well and safe. When the darshans are very heavy, going 12 and more hours, sometimes 24 hours, it is very hard to be kind or patient with hundreds of people who have just come, and want to get darshan for a program which had begun the previous day! Anni’s story exemplies this conflict in a way, well known on the Indian Tours. She entitled it:
“Token Man
In Palakkad tour, [Northern Kerala] 2002, I was walking towards the Canteen and kitchen around 11:30 PM. On my way, at least 3 people asked me where the ‘Token man’ was.
“I don’t know, maybe around Amma,” came the reply. (Tokens are only distributed until 12:00 AM) [time was fast running out for the token-less]
When I reached the kitchen, who should I see there, but Gurudas, the long lost ‘token man’ sitting in the far corner of the inaccessible store room, with a stack of tokens in his hand, looking around thoughtfully….”
That’s all for now.
Loving you,
Kamala Aunty, Anni and Link