"For Whoever Doesn't Have Any Mom or Dad"
San Ramon, California
 Mikael
seems a shy boy. While his little brother is having darshan, he
kind of hangs back, and when Amma pulls him close, he lets her hug
him, but doesn’t get playful.
He is on a quiet mission.
Reaching up he holds towards her a baggie, and in that zip-lock
is money.
Amma doesn’t generally accept money. It’s in the Indian
tradition that spiritual people don’t do so, for several reasons.
For example, what is a spiritual encounter can suddenly begin to
seem like a business transaction if money changes hands. And, suppose
some wealthy person gives a big gift, and the next person in line
is poor—and feels somehow inadequate.
“It’s for whoever doesn’t have any mom or dad,”
he explains.
Amma sees that the gift means sacrifice; this makes the gift as
valuable as jewels.
 “Your
heart is like gold,” she says, rubbing his chest. Gesturing
then towards his gift, she says: “This is your heart.”
Because it is his heart, she accepts his gift for the orphans in
her care.
Later it emerges that Mikael Noll has been working on this project
for a long time. Every week, he earns an allowance of $5 from his
parents. Of this, he regularly puts 20% into a savings account,
and 10% he sets aside for charity. It has taken him close to a year
to save up the $20 he has just brought to Amma.
Clearly this is a family in which the children are learning early
on to care about those less fortunate, and to reach out a helping
hand. As Amma has often said, when children are young, it’s
easy to mold them—it’s easier to make a path by treading
on young grass than by walking across a stone surface.
Mikael’s mom is asked: “Have you known Amma for long?”
“This is our first time,” she says.
Then she looks at Mikael’s grandmother: “She brought
us. She’s known Amma for two years.”
Moms
and dads do indeed make a difference. No wonder Mikael is concerned
for “whoever doesn’t have any mom or dad.”
And what does he like to buy with what he spends on himself? “Yugi-oh
cards,” he says with a small quick smile.
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