Full of gratitude

🌸When Amma (Guruji’s mom) breathed her last in 2000, Sri Sri was at Varanasi. There were about 8000 people whom he had to address the very day he lost the person dearest to him. I was with him that day and saw the depth of his silence, serenity and patience in attending to everybody in those difficult moments. Yet the smile did not fade.

To the devotees who were with Guruji at the time, and knew of his attachment to Amma, it was a lesson in equanimity.

Rajshree Patel recalls: `I always knew he loved his mother very dearly, but I did not realize the depth of his love until after she had passed away.

At the International Millennium Course in Italy, a month or so after the passing away of his mother, I discovered yet another dimension to Sri Sri.

On one hand everyone is the same to him, his love is impersonal and yet, I was learning, it was deeply personal. We were sitting in an assembly of 1500 to 2000 people. Someone in the front row was holding a magazine with Amma’s photo in it.

Sri Sri, with a certain depth in his voice, was speaking of the importance of gratitude in life.

After a brief pause Sri Sri said: “There was a woman in my life who loved me more than herself.” Everyone sat up. He gestured to the magazine and added: “She was my mother.” A tear of deep love and gratitude for her rolled down his face, and I suddenly felt a total connectedness to him and started crying uncontrollably

And for the first time in all the years that I knew him, I saw the deepest personal love possible, free of attachment and demands, yet full of gratitude

Rajshree Patel