2 June 2006 — Seattle, Washington, USA
On the first night of Amma’s ”Northwest Retreat,” a seven-year old girl named Amritavarshini from Eugene, Oregon came for Amma’s darshan. As the child approached Amma, she gently placed a garland around Amma’s neck. The garland was not made of flowers, but of dollars—$200 to be exact, everything the girl had in her savings.
As Amma held her, the child began to cry. She then gave Amma a letter she had written earlier that week with the help of her mother.
Dear Amma,
How can we cure sick people around the world? How can the world see that we are ONE in harmony and stop bombing each other? How do we make slavery and racism go away? It really puts me in deep sorrows. Please give this money to the world that is sick.
Please take care of all the sick and the poor.
Love,
Amritavarshini
Amma told the child and her mother to sit by her side.
”Why are you crying?” Amma asked.
”I don’t know, it’s just… being by Amma pricks me. It’s really good by Amma for some reason.”
”What do you want to do for the world?” Amma asked her.
Fighting back tears, the child said, ”I want to make peace for the world.”
The girl’s mother explained that about a week before she had come home to find her Amritavarshini in tears. When she asked her why she was crying, she replied that it was because of the slavery, wars, disease and poverty in the world. The girl then told her mother that she wanted to give all the money in her savings account to Amma.
”Children like this are the hope for the world,” Amma told everyone around her, as she wiped Amritavarshini’s tears. ”We should fall down and prostrate at the feet of children like her. It is children like her who will change the world.”
Amma then added: ”May her innocent wishes come true.”
—Sakshi