This incident happened during Amma’s visit to Mumbai this year on the Bharata Yatra 2010.
It was the first day in Mumbai, Amma was on her way to the public program in Sivaji Park. There were a few vehicles following Amma’s car. Very close to the venue, vehicles got held up in a traffic jam. Amma stepped out of the car and got into the camper which was right next to the car. Just then, a middle-aged lady standing on the pavement of the road holding the hand of a twelve-year-old girl, came rushing towards the camper. A devotee escorting Amma’s vehicles stepped out and requested the lady to move back to the pavement. The lady walked back very dejected.
The traffic jam cleared momentarily and the vehicles moved ahead of the junction onto the opposite lane for another stop. Now, Amma stepped out of the camper and again got into the car, getting caught in very slow-moving traffic.
This lady now walked across the junction and tried to approach Amma’s car from behind. The same devotee again rushed out to stop her before she got to the car. He stopped her out of sight of Amma and tried to console her saying she could get darshan in a few hours if she came to the program venue. Suddenly, Amma lowered the window glass of the car and motioned to the devotee. He ran to the window and then turned around and called the lady saying Amma is asking for her.
Amma stopped the car and gave the lady and her daughter a long hug, kisses and prasad through the car window. The lady came back, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She thanked the devotee and said, “I have never met Amma before. It was just today that I happened to see a roadside banner announcing Amma’s visit to Mumbai and I realized she is a spiritual master. When I saw Amma step out of the car, I recognized her as the same person I saw in the picture on the banner.
The truth is that I just stepped out of the hospital for a walk, where my husband is lying in bed comatose, and my young son is admitted to the intensive care unit awaiting a kidney transplant. I was in deep distress. I didn’t know what to do. When I saw Amma step out of that car, I just broke down weeping, I know not why”.
But Mother knows… right?
-Kannadi