“Amma” Krishnammal Jagannathan at The Metta Center

Krishnammal Jagannathan, known as  “Amma” (“Mom”) spent some days with Gandhi and sang songs at his independence protests. After marriage, she joined Vinoba Bhave’s Bhoodan movement to walk tens of thousands of miles for the landless. In 1959, she hosted a visiting Martin Luther King, Jr.  In 2008, for holding the beacon of Gandhian legacy into the 21st century, 82-year-old Krishnammal received the Opus Prize and the Right Livelihood Award and she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On November 11th 2008, we hosted Amma for lunch at the Metta Center, and then she joined Michael and Joanna Macy ⎯author of the term “The Great Turning”⎯ for a stimulating panel discussion (footage from which will be used in Metta’s upcoming feature film Weapon of the Brave).

Amma’s presence was invaluable itself, and perhaps it is her stories that will continue to nourish and inspire us for decades to come. She recounted one of four occasions where she stared death right in the face and did not flinch: the mob supporting some landowners surrounded Amma, threatening immolation with cans of gasoline. Amma calmly responded by requesting to sit and meditate first. Her would-be assailants jeered and continued to threaten her, but they would not harm her. Soon a crowd of villagers had gathered. Amma summed up the event with one of her unforgettable quotes:

“I was not afraid to die, but they were afraid to kill me.”

Being in the presence of this extraordinary human being, awoke in us a stronger sense of service and power. Following the teachings of Vinoba Bhave, she explained to us how she helped the landless people in many villages sometimes without knowing their language.  As she told us,

“You don’t need to learn their language, because we all speak the language of the heart.”

Amma’s visit was a true blessing, and will be a source of inspiration for a long time to come.