Amma

As we as humans go about our daily lives living in 195 different countries and speaking in over 40,000 languages, we are alike in more ways than we know. You and I witnessed very particular events, lived through very specific experiences, and are greatly affected both positively and negatively by the people we encounter throughout our lives. The commonality surrounding most all of these events, experiences, and relationships is that we all have the same choice. It is our choice to change internally the way we see ourselves, others, and the world around us based on that which we have experienced, witnessed, and been affected by. Some choose to see their lives with greater understanding of the relative privileges they possess, some choose to be more religiously, politically, or racially tolerant of those around them, some choose to go into the world of academia in order to gain a greater understanding of a conflict they recently discovered, and some just go on. Some just go on with the viewpoint that whatever they may have experienced, witnessed, or struggled through in the past is not of great importance and should not have any such effect on the which they go about their future. The main point to be made is that no matter what we choose, we have always chosen.

The reason I am bringing about such discussion of living one’s life and making choices is to illustrate a very particular relationship between the two. When we witness an event, live through an experiences, or encounter a person and then continue down our own individual paths carrying the results of these occurrences in one of the ways mentioned above, we have made a decision with regards to way in which we have chosen to change, to be affected by the past.

While the title of this posting may not have seemed relevant until now, the given information was most necessary in order to convey to you the absolute way in which Krishnammal Jagannathan affects those around her. She is a very small woman standing maybe only four feet ten inches, but her presence can sometimes make you feel as though you are sharing the room with benevolent giant. She is a woman who, when she speaks, is able to command the respect of those who hate her, open the eyes of those who cannot see, and wake all who are sleeping. When around her, whether for 30 seconds or 30 days, she does not allow you the choice mentioned earlier. When you experience her presence, witness her work, or begin to understand her struggles, you instantly change but without a moment to make a decision as to why or how. It is truly magic, to find yourself more aware of your privileges, more tolerant of others, and more interested in the world around you, all without any real explanation as to why you suddenly feel the way you do. When I was busy trying to come up with even the slightest rationalization as to why I changed internally and emotionally more in one week’s time then I have throughout my entire life, I had a small epiphany. Everything Krishnammal embodies, her struggles her relationships and her actions, constitute a new and more real definition of service. Not to wait for the problems to come knocking at your door, not to see poverty on the streets and suddenly feel such strong guilt or sadness that you decide to help, and not to read in some book at a library of the political or religious reasons behind mass suffering half way around the globe, but just to move forward as if all these struggles were her own. Krishnammal does not take the time to humble herself; she just walks her own path as if she is carrying the world’s problems on her shoulders and has no other option but to work until they are lifted.