Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

So on my penultimate evening in India I decide to go and see Amma at one of her Brahmasthanam temples as she is currently on tour in Kerela. Known throughout the world as 'Amma, the Mother of all'. Motherhood, in its ultimate sense, has nothing to do with bearing a child, but with love, compassion and selflessness. It lies in totally giving one's self to others. Seeing the whole world as an extension of her own self, Amma is ever ready to fore go her own body's needs in order to bring a smile to someone's face, wipe their tears or to simply listen to their sorrows. The sweet manner in which she laughs and jokes with people, shares in their success and failure has endeared millions to her throughout the world.
Amma is also known as the hugging mother and she has been known to individually hug over 50,000 people in a day!!!
Apart from what I have explained above I did not really know much more regarding what I was going to be involved in during the evening ahead...
I arrive to a crowd of people heading down a long narrow road towards the Brahmasthanam, mainly local Indian's to Trivandrum and the odd Westerner dressed all in white (who I can only presume are avid followers of Amma). Amma's face is postered everywhere, there are book stalls, food & tea kiosks, and then one of the biggest cow's I've come across yet ambling down the street-now in my past cow experiences people are blind to their presence however this cow is really causing a stir and people are eager to get out of it's path so followed suit, I mean it was one massive cow!
You have to realise that I am fairly confused about what the hell is going on for the majority of the evening (nearly 5 hours) and there is a massive queue at least 1/2km long when I arrive however once purchased a ticket (51 rupee's in cost) I get told to walk straight through?!
I collect my clay pot of Ganga water covered with a coconut leaf from the Temple and take a seat next to some Indian women. There are hundreds of chairs all arranged in lines vertical to the stage with tables in front of each containing individual simple pots containing oil and wick, leaf, incense, and food. Later discover that these are all simple offerings which are made prior to meditation. Puja then commences....Puja is ritualistic worship of the Divine performed to keep us in harmony with cosmic forces, thereby removing and overcoming the sorrows of life and bringing spiritual upliftment. By doing puja, thoughts and vibrations of spiritual forces are created around us. These spiritual forces work to eliminate the negative influences in our life and help surround us with positive energy which can bring us peace of mind, material prosperity and enable us to more clearly touch the Divine, our true nature. WOW! Ha! Only down side of the evening is the whole thing is spoken in Malayalam so I do not understand the prayers recited, instructions for the puja, songs, mantra's (although these can be learnt over time) etc. So basically understand nothing - feel a bit like a lost puppy. Thankfully a very sweet Indian lady next to me helps me through a little and tend to just follow suit with what everyone else is doing.
She also tells me that Amma will individually hug everyone in the crowd plus those queuing outside and will most likely be there until 6am until she has seen everybody who wishes to meet her....incredible. Sadly I am too confused by the whole affair and decide that I would rather come back once a little more educated on Puja and the rituals to get my hug from Amma. I will most certainly be back at some point in the future. The whole evening is rather magical and omitting the fact that I am totally clueless still enjoy the evening. Only negative is that after the Puja has finished, each of the 2-3000 worshipers need to take their pot of blessed Ganga water back to the temple - so basically thousands of people scramble to get there first so they can be in early line for their hug with Amma. STAMPEDE! Actually thought I might suffocate - by the time get free I am ready to get my tuk tuk back to the safety of the hotel. Stop to buy a book on the way out though so can do a little reading as clearly need to.