10 Nov, Lake Garda, Italy – Europe Yatra 2025
On the drive from Munich, Germany to Piacenza, Italy, cutting through the Alps mountains, Amma stopped by Lake Garda, the country’s largest lake, to spend some time and have lunch with the tour group. The temperature was around 13°C; the warm autumn sun welcomed Amma as she walked to her chair. The cold air was alive with chirping and the crackling of dry leaves. Tall trees, nearly bare in the cold, stood waiting for winter.
Amma admired the vast lake, framed by mountains and endless sky. Someone invited her to move closer to the water. But Amma was already seated. She said the sky reminds her of the Infinite—the boundless, our true Self. Amma continued: “At present we are like birds living in a cage—fed, pampered and loved, yet sorrowful—unaware of the freedom and joy of flying in the vast sky. In the same way, we remain ignorant of our true nature. Our real potential lies hidden within, and we are unable to experience life in its fullness. Our goal should be to go beyond limitations and awaken to this Truth.”
Recalling a school-day story of the clay ball and the dry leaf, Amma explained that external supports and joys are temporary; our only true refuge is the Self. We must awaken to this reality and live with constant awareness like in an exam hall.
Someone pointed out the swans and ducks in the lake, tempting Amma to go nearer. She shared an anecdote from the San Ramon ashram: a pair of swans and a duck never got along. But when one swan died, the duck and the remaining swan grew close, even saving food for one another. “Suffering can awaken compassion,” Amma said.
Amma distributed prasād and chanted Brahmārpaṇam. Before starting her lunch, she looked up lovingly at the trees and spoke to them:
“O trees! we will have to eat without feeding you.
I am very sad about it.
It’s under your shade we are sitting and eating.
But we are not aware about it.
We are going to eat without feeding you.
Then how can you be happy ?
There isn’t even a breeze and your branches are bare.
Are you sad?
Are you hungry?”
Then Amma added,
“You do one thing:
We will eat now and then sing for you.
If you enjoy it, sway your branches—then we’ll know you are happy.”
Amma offered a spoonful “to the trees and the wind,” and a breeze lifted the food right off the spoon!
After lunch Amma sang a few devotional songs. At first the air was still; but when Amma sang classical pieces, the branches began to dance in the wind. Amma told the trees how wonderful it was to see them swing, taking it as a sign of their joy.
Amma then walked towards the lake. Amma really loved the crackling of dry leaves when hundreds of people walked over them. Reaching the lake, Amma called to the swans in Italian—“Vieni, vieni!”—beckoning them to come. Though they were far and there was a crowd, two swans glided straight towards Amma when they heard her voice, and she fed them with pieces of bread.
Later, Amma sat quietly on a nearby bench, watching the lake’s ceaseless ripples. She shared her “conversation with the ripples” to some of her children later—her sadness at not being able to kiss them and tell them stories as she did in childhood by the backwaters, and her wish to hug them. She told them she was showering them, in her mind, with hugs and kisses, and asked if they had any thoughts to share with her.
The day glowed with nature’s soulfulness: picturesque beauty, the song of wind and waves, the dance of trees and clouds, the silent majesty of sun and mountains and the crackling sound when you walk over the dry leaves which Amma enjoyed a lot.
Earlier Amma had spoken of true freedom—going beyond our limitations. She then lived that teaching in her tender conversations with trees, swans, and ripples. For her, all are divine. It was echoed in the song she sang during the lunch stop: “Sṛṣṭiyum nīyē, sraṣṭāvum nīyē—You are the creation, You are the Creator…” Enfolding the beauty of nature and the Truth shining through it, Amma’s blissful rendering filled our eyes with tears and hearts with joy. Words fall short before the depth of that union we witnessed.
-Sakshi
