I am so grateful that our children know this wonderful, kind, giving, patient, humble man who goes wherever he is asked to help people whether it's Haiti, India, or New Orleans. Who travels around the U.S. inspiring people, who sleeps little, who prays over the food, who cooks for us, who has a great sense of humor, and who loves my kids.
I am so grateful that I got to spend a week with him. I always learn so much, mostly by observing him.
He told a group of people a story that really affected me. When he first joined the ashram in India, everyone was assigned seva (selfless service). He was given the job of cleaning the cowshed. He was a learned filmmaker and had just graduated from the most prestigious film school in India. He figured he would be asked to help with photography or video. He figured it would be an important job. He figured he would be given the perfect camera to work with. Needless to say he was annoyed to be relegated to the position of a farm worker.
He hated the seva. One day he decided he wasn't going to milk the cows. He wasn't going to clean the shed. He was just going to meditate.
So he sat down and closed his eyes.
Soon he heard a rustling noise. He opened his eyes and found Amma herself feeding and milking the cows. She scolded him, saying that the animals were hungry and uncomfortable, and counting on someone to take care of them. She wouldn't let him help. Every time he tried she shooed him away. He felt horrible and ashamed, watching Amma do all the work. But true to Amma's ways, she was teaching through her example.
The next day he went back to the cowshed and did his seva with gusto. Every day thereafter he went and took care of the animals, feeding them, milking them, cleaning their stalls. He began to really love the animals. He began to love cleaning the cowshed. He began to really love his seva.
And that was the beginning of his life as a monk.
A week after hearing that story I began to see my seva as a wife and mother differently. I was a little burned out. I had a girl who had been helping me clean but she stopped coming in December. The kids had been on school break and returned while I was on retreat. I was feeling overwhelmed at getting all of the work done once the kids were back in school, worried I would have no free time for myself. Housework, cooking, cleaning, dishes, laundry, vacuuming, taking the trash and recycling and compost out...for a mother the work can feel endless. But there was work to be done. So I began deep cleaning the house, one room at a time. I wiped baseboards. I rearranged drawers in the kitchen. I cleaned out closets and got rid of stuff we don't need. I put out small vases of flowers. I began taking my house back. And Gary is now folding all of the laundry. The kids are pitching in more. For me, every day of seva is so enjoyable. I try to enjoy it all, whether it's things I love, like gardening, or things I don't enjoy, like dishes. Somehow it all feels more like the same to me. If I am in a good mood, and singing to myself, it doesn't matter what I am doing. And every room I clean makes me feel so good, so accomplished. The house is being loved, and the house seems happy. And no one will love it like we will.
