Amma and the smiling monk.

[Jitendra Hydonus]

While being in the physical presence of Amma this summer i sat watching mother give darshan to a very long line of devotees... one by one. A monk standing behind her for hour after hour kept a smile on his face for hours while a blind man in the front row was swaying back and forth in ecstasy as is face showed bliss as he chanted for hours to the kirtan.

i waited observed and meditated for hour after hour. Suddenly i saw the monk who had been smiling hour after hour leave the stage.... i immediately went to the side of the stage where he was at. A women kept talking to him and he continued smiling even though he appeared to want to get going. As if in some moment of being able to free himself of the gripping soliloquy: He turned to me and i said i just had one question; 'Swami how is it that you were able to keep smiling for hours?' He answered; "Standing next to Amma it is very difficult not to."