The Uncomfortable Bus Ride
http://www.blissful-wisdom.com/the-uncomfortable-bus-ride.html
During one of my earlier visits to the ashram of Mata Amritanandamayi in Kerala, India, the ashram visitors, who had come from all parts of the world, were offered an opportunity to travel with 'Mother' on her festival tour of North India. This involved sixty Westerners in each of three buses, loaded with luggage on the roof, making their way to almost fifteen different cities scattered across Northern India. The tour buses began in Kerala, traveled to Mangalore, continued up to Bangalore, came back across to Mumbai, went on northwards to Jaipur, then New Delhi, and ended in Calcutta. These buses were not luxury buses. The seats were like benches with only a little padding. To keep steady, while the bus bounced and jumped over the bumpy narrow roadways, one hung on to the metal bar in front of one's seat. That same metal bar served as the head rest for the three people sitting on the bench seat in front.
The Mahatma used these long, grueling bus tours to smooth out the impatient temperament of the many self-centered visitors she had invited along. The one hundred and eighty travelers were subject to long, twelve hour journeys with minimal 'pee' stops. Sometimes the buses would stop to wait in the heat of the midday sun while the other two buses caught up. The doors would remain closed and the riders were asked to remain seated. Oftentimes, the buses would be fully loaded, ready to go, but remain parked in the baking heat while some decision was being made by those in charge. This kind of thing always brought out the worst in the bus-riders! Tempers would flare. Even arguments would ensue. I have to admit my daughter, Daelyn, and I once witnessed two female ashram residents actually break out fist fighting in the aisle of our tour bus! The inner selfishness and impatience simply bubbled to the surface in these unpleasant and testy conditions.
Amma, who was overseeing the entire tour, told us a story as we sat by a river during one of our welcomed lunch breaks one afternoon. She said that in the old days a group of devotees would travel by foot for almost one month to complete a long, arduous trek to their sacred pilgrimage site. This Mahatma claimed that the determined and devoted travelers would often make the journey wearing only flimsy sandals on their feet. They would endure extreme heat from the direct midday sun, and would often travel a few days before replenishing their drinking water. The days would sometimes bring rain and, thus, no fire could be started to cook the simple meal of rice. The nights would sometimes bring wild animals to fend off. Often a traveler would stumble and fall, and others would come to aid and assist, making their own burden even greater. And yet, by the time the steadfast group had completed their pilgrimage, Amma told us they had received the blessing of patience, endurance, self-sacrifice and inner peace. The long grueling bus rides we were undergoing paled in comparison to the hardships which those pilgrims underwent.
Many of us were departing homewards after the New Delhi festival program. So on the final trek from Jaipur we were to make a nine hour bus journey - four hours by bus with a brief dinner break, and then a final five hour ride at night into Delhi. That was the plan.
However, about an hour after the dinner break the situation started to change. First, one woman wanted the bus to stop because she needed to relieve herself. That was fine, but fifteen minutes later another woman wanted us to stop because she felt sick. This time the driver refused to pull over and the woman actually threw up on the bus. Another fifteen minutes went by and someone else asked for the driver to please stop. The trouble was that the driver had his own agenda. He didn't want to stop at all. He didn't believe there was any kind of problem. When a fourth woman on the bus asked for permission to go to the toilet, I laughingly shouted out that this was another person now joining "the loose motion club". This seemed to help everyone lighten up a little. Even the bus driver soon realized that those seated on his bus were slowly, one by one, coming down with "loose motion". Within about two hours after the departure from our dinner spot, three quarters of the people on the bus were having to intermittently get off the bus due to diarrhea. Needless to say, there I was at three in the morning kneeling on the dirty floor of the crowded bus with my head on the seat and feeling absolutely exhausted from the 'loose motion' ordeal which I had undergone.
We pulled into Delhi nine hours after our suspicious evening meal the night before. Four hours later than expected. The amazing part about the entire event is that I never felt more compassion and love for a group of people than I did that morning for those bus-riders. Over the course of that unpleasant ordeal, people on the bus had shared the last of their personal toilet paper, had offered their fresh, unopened water bottles to those without, and had shared the few bags of crackers and medications that were so necessary in stopping the 'loose motion' sickness. During that final, long drawn out journey, with so many stops along the way, everyone had supported and cared for one another.
That morning, as I watched my fellow companions emerging from the tour bus, my heart felt so full of love and warm regard for each of them. I realized what Amma had meant when she had told us; "the blessing for those individuals of the past, who made their long spiritual pilgrimages, was in the inner transformation which occurred within each of them during the pilgrimage itself".
The Mahatma used these long, grueling bus tours to smooth out the impatient temperament of the many self-centered visitors she had invited along. The one hundred and eighty travelers were subject to long, twelve hour journeys with minimal 'pee' stops. Sometimes the buses would stop to wait in the heat of the midday sun while the other two buses caught up. The doors would remain closed and the riders were asked to remain seated. Oftentimes, the buses would be fully loaded, ready to go, but remain parked in the baking heat while some decision was being made by those in charge. This kind of thing always brought out the worst in the bus-riders! Tempers would flare. Even arguments would ensue. I have to admit my daughter, Daelyn, and I once witnessed two female ashram residents actually break out fist fighting in the aisle of our tour bus! The inner selfishness and impatience simply bubbled to the surface in these unpleasant and testy conditions.
Amma, who was overseeing the entire tour, told us a story as we sat by a river during one of our welcomed lunch breaks one afternoon. She said that in the old days a group of devotees would travel by foot for almost one month to complete a long, arduous trek to their sacred pilgrimage site. This Mahatma claimed that the determined and devoted travelers would often make the journey wearing only flimsy sandals on their feet. They would endure extreme heat from the direct midday sun, and would often travel a few days before replenishing their drinking water. The days would sometimes bring rain and, thus, no fire could be started to cook the simple meal of rice. The nights would sometimes bring wild animals to fend off. Often a traveler would stumble and fall, and others would come to aid and assist, making their own burden even greater. And yet, by the time the steadfast group had completed their pilgrimage, Amma told us they had received the blessing of patience, endurance, self-sacrifice and inner peace. The long grueling bus rides we were undergoing paled in comparison to the hardships which those pilgrims underwent.
Many of us were departing homewards after the New Delhi festival program. So on the final trek from Jaipur we were to make a nine hour bus journey - four hours by bus with a brief dinner break, and then a final five hour ride at night into Delhi. That was the plan.
However, about an hour after the dinner break the situation started to change. First, one woman wanted the bus to stop because she needed to relieve herself. That was fine, but fifteen minutes later another woman wanted us to stop because she felt sick. This time the driver refused to pull over and the woman actually threw up on the bus. Another fifteen minutes went by and someone else asked for the driver to please stop. The trouble was that the driver had his own agenda. He didn't want to stop at all. He didn't believe there was any kind of problem. When a fourth woman on the bus asked for permission to go to the toilet, I laughingly shouted out that this was another person now joining "the loose motion club". This seemed to help everyone lighten up a little. Even the bus driver soon realized that those seated on his bus were slowly, one by one, coming down with "loose motion". Within about two hours after the departure from our dinner spot, three quarters of the people on the bus were having to intermittently get off the bus due to diarrhea. Needless to say, there I was at three in the morning kneeling on the dirty floor of the crowded bus with my head on the seat and feeling absolutely exhausted from the 'loose motion' ordeal which I had undergone.
We pulled into Delhi nine hours after our suspicious evening meal the night before. Four hours later than expected. The amazing part about the entire event is that I never felt more compassion and love for a group of people than I did that morning for those bus-riders. Over the course of that unpleasant ordeal, people on the bus had shared the last of their personal toilet paper, had offered their fresh, unopened water bottles to those without, and had shared the few bags of crackers and medications that were so necessary in stopping the 'loose motion' sickness. During that final, long drawn out journey, with so many stops along the way, everyone had supported and cared for one another.
That morning, as I watched my fellow companions emerging from the tour bus, my heart felt so full of love and warm regard for each of them. I realized what Amma had meant when she had told us; "the blessing for those individuals of the past, who made their long spiritual pilgrimages, was in the inner transformation which occurred within each of them during the pilgrimage itself".
