13 July 2002, Rhode Island Retreat
It might have been meditation time, but before things got serious and silent, Mother was laughing and pointing…
She drew everyone’s attention to a man watching Her through binoculars. “Where there is love,” She said, “there is no distance.”
The people ranged around Amma on the grassy hillside at Rhode Island’s Bryant College joined in the laughter, and the man kept gazing.
Then Mother wanted to say more about distance:
“The sun is so far up in the sky, and yet it makes the lotus bud in the pond blossom.”
This is the last of the five U.S. Summer Tour retreats; perhaps that (along with the binoculars!) is why Mother’s mind turned to distance, to separation; soon She’ll be leaving Her American children, to return home to India.
Home to India — and to the children She’s been separated from for nearly two months now, the children of Her home ashram in Kerala. She remembered, and narrated, an incident with one of the brahmacharis there just before She left for tour. Knowing very well Her teaching that “where there’s love there’s no separation,” he offered his variation: “Amma,” he said to Her just before She left, “Where there is telephone there is no distance.”
More laughter; then a few soft smiles at the children nearby, and Mother and all those gathered grew silent, and meditated.