Roses and Thorns

9 - 11 October 2000, Zurich

After leaving Helsinki, Mother reached Zurich on Sunday evening, October 8. Her stop in Switzerland was for 3 days. The programs were held in Dietikon one of Zurich's suburbs and the hall was near the main highway to Bern, making it easy to reach from other cities in Europe.

The morning programs were crowded like always. It is unbelievable how Amma's presence magically transforms a cold hall into a place of Love and Peace. The evening programs drew even bigger crowds and ended after 4:30 AM. Amma gave plenty of time, love and attention to everyone coming for darshan. The local newspaper 'Tagi' published a nice article about Mother.

During the second day's evening program, Amma called a resident in the Amritapuri ashram travelling with Her, and asked her to sing and than tell a story. The resident related that recently in the ashram it was noticed that the roses which were grown by the brahmacharis were always in beautiful bloom, while those grown by the brahmacharinis (female disciples) barely had any flowers and developed many thorns. This had become a source of nice jokes and teasing at the ashram, and now the question was put to the audience on why this was happening to the roses. The obvious answer was that the roses cared for by the boys, received better attention, and were treated with love. But Mother was waiting for other answers -jokes ...and they came. Someone said that the roses cared for by the girls did not bear flowers, because as soon as they blossomed they were plucked and offered at Amma's feet! The girls felt momentarily satisfied, but one more answer flashed: 'It is said that one should offer his negativities to the guru. This is what the boys were doing by offering the thorns of their roses to Amma. This way their flowers were always beautiful and fragrant. By offering the flowers and keeping the thorns, the girls had sickly and thorny rose plants!' Amma and everyone enjoyed a good laugh.