Part 2: American Devotee, Indian Chauffeur

A little detour before we get around to narrating how the Mother Of All Truckers ran me over...this is India after all, and here we never go directly from point A to point B without going everywhere else first!

Before we began the ride, my American fellow traveller requested me to sit up front with the driver. He wanted to lie down on the back seat and sleep. He had come prepared with a pillow and a blanket. I was happy to oblige. The thought that my American brother was possibly a shade more attentive to his personal comfort, than I might have expected from a long-time follower of Amma, did cross my mind but only very briefly. I was in a happy, expectant mood and my mind did not pursue that line of thought very far. At another time, in another place perhaps my mind would have given that vasana (the tendency to evaluate others and spot their defects) greater play, but not that night.

So I sat on the front seat with the driver and brother Sam (not his real name) tucked himself in on the back seat. I initiated conversation with the driver in Malayalam. Before launching my
expedition to Amritapuri I had developed the intention of talking to as many people there as I could. Extensive socialization is not something I am normally pre-disposed to engage in, being an introvert for the most part, but I was determined to milk this trip for all the experience I could gather.

I learned that the driver had landed his job as ashram taxi driver through another branch of Amma's establishment in North Kerala. I tried to probe his attitude to and feelings for Amma but he was not very communicative. I asked him what he thought of Her and he said that since so many people come to see Her, and since She is doing so much by way of charity and education and so on, She must be good. I was a little disappointed that he seemed to be making intellectual deductions about Her goodness from circumstantial evidence, and was either unable or unwilling (more likely the former) to provide a first person view. On the other hand, I was happy to note the absence of any serious reservations or negative views.

I got the sense that he was not really into the spiritual circus (I use the word 'circus' not to display my personal irreverence but as an extrapolation of how I thought he might view it) but more concerned about his material situation. I detected in him a certain grudging acceptance that he was reasonably well off considering his family situation (which incidentally, we happened to discuss; he had some responsibilities but there did not seem to be any life and death issues) and considering that there are people in India and elsewhere in the world who are infinitely worse off. However I also caught a whiff of discontent, something in his manner that suggested he was not satisfied with the way things were and wanted something better. "Who does not?", I thought.

I am really getting into the swing of things with this narrative. For the uninitiated, that means we are in for a long haul here, a long and boring ride to nowhere in particular. I would urge all those I have bored thus far to take the chance to exit and not read any further. I am extremely sorry, dear brothers and sisters, but I cannot control myself. My verbosity knows no bounds! Once I let the words flow, they flood the plain. A flood of the very plain (dull), to put it otherwise, for those who are fond of puns and word play. But for those who wish to poke around in the garbage heap of my recollections, in the hope that a useful nugget or two might turn up, I shall continue.

Om Amriteshwaryai Namah