Ahimsa, and lack there of

Sorry to miss free recipe sunday. My girlfriend and I went to NYC to see Amma (www.amma.org). This was my second trip to see her, so I am still a "newbie". She is an awesome humanitarian, and most who see her feel she is enlightened. She has devoted her life to God. She leads a selfless life. She is truly awesome to behold. She is also known as the hugging saint. When you go to see her you wait for darshan or a blessing in the form of a hug. She loves everyone unconditionally. In the practice of yoga there are yamas(principles) and niyamas(practices in life to be followed). We are human, but we try to follow these "rules for living" to bring us more spiritualty. I have spoken before about nonattatchment or aparigraha. Today I want to talk about ahimsa, or nonharming. Ahimsa is about nonviolence in speech, thought and action. I spend alot of time in my classes speaking about ahimsa, especially in forward folds, where, people tend to pull at their feet to get further into the pose. I think ahimsa is important for people to practice. We live in a world where humanity struggles with kindness. Alot of people are out for #1. I see this, daily, and I now recognize it as ignorance. People need to see the big picture. We all have something in common, we are, all from the same origin. There is a thread that binds us together. So why all this talk of ahimsa? I want to share something with you that happen to my girlfriend and I when we went to see Amma. We have not seen each other in about 4 months. We went through our teacher training together, and that is how we met. In hushed tones while we were waiting for our darshan we were "chatting". Now we were in the Manhattan center, there are vendors all around the sides, and Amma is up front. There is a live band playing music. People are sitting on the floor up front mediating and just enjoying being in the presence of Amma. As were my girlfriend and I in our own way. The woman in front of us turned around and said, "Can I ask you a question?" and I'm thinking to myself, sure but, I'm not too familar with this process of seeing Amma, and I don't live in the city... so we both say "sure". (now, we have little smiles on our faces because we're so happy to be experiencing this, and we're happy to be spending time together). The woman then in a very nasty tone says, "you would think in the prescence of such a supreme being you would not be talking to each other like your on some street corner, go to the back of the room". The look on her face....anger...hate....pure and unadulterated disdain. I think my girlfriend and I nearly fell off our chairs. Here we are, completely, belittled. In the enviroment of love. Hmmm, what's that all about? Should we not have taken it to heart? Were we in the wrong? possibly. Could it have been said in a nicer, kinder way? Um, I believe so. So I didn't feel angry at the woman. I felt sorry for her. Because she's ignorant. She doesn't get the big picture. Such a shame. Spread love people, or at least try. Listen to the Beatles, "All you need is love"
More knitting to come, almost finished with my shoulder cozy.....