25th, July 2010, Mysore

Mysore ashram was fully decorated, every where people were walking with a hearty smile, atmosphere was filled with devotion and divine vibration and it seem to be as if our AMMA would come!! Early morning the conclusion of 9 days Guru Gana Homa, then Guru paduka abhisheka, bhajans, satsang, afternoon flute concert, and evening ‘Nagara sankirthana’ where more than 500 devotees participated by singing bhajans and playing drums. It was a memorable Guru Poornima celebration. The students of Amrita colleges did an amazing seva. The decorations, vegetable cutting, cleaning, serving food and plate washing….

My seva on that day was subscribing Matruvani. In the morning I was about to start my work by sitting in the entrance of the hall. I saw a devotee coming near. I said “Namah Shivaya. Your Matruvani renewal is pending. Please, open an account with a life membership!” She looked at me in dilemma.

She said “I always want to subscribe for life. Every year renewal will be late and i miss some Matruvanis and feel sad. But giving Rs.500 at a time is difficult for me. What shall I do?”

I know her financial difficulties, her faith and love for Amma. So I said “No problem. Today is Guru Poornima. You subscribe for life membership. Amma will help you. For time being I will pay for it. Whenever you have the money, pay by installments.”

She was so happy, little emotional too. She subscribed for life membership with a wide smile.

Within next 20 minutes, she again approached me with beaming smile. She slipped her hand into the purse and took out a new-fresh 500 rupee note and handed it over to me. “Amma has given me” she could utter only that much and she was in tears.

Later she narrated how she got that money… After subscribing she walked outside feeling happy for subscribing and sad for lending loan for that and praying Amma. When she stepped outside the gate, a car was moving slowly and suddenly it stopped. A devotee was in that car and called her and gave Rs.500 by saying “This is for you on Guru Poornima. Om Namah Shivaya”. The car moved away.

She stood like a statue for a while with that crisp new note in her hand, exactly five hundred rupees, unbelievable, yet, true…tears rolled down on her cheeks…

I was overwhelmed and my eyes were wet. Yes..this is our Amma, all knowing compassionate Amma. She has given a precious gift for her daughter on the auspicious day.

– AP Lalitha

“Why don’t you smile?”, Amma again and again tells us to be happy irrespective of circumstances, that ‘Ananda’ is our true nature, and so on.
“Smile…keep smiling…” an ashramite friend told me in Amritapuri few days ago. She reminded me of the last program day in Pune last March. At the end of the program, while singing new Kannada bhajan ‘devi devi devi..’, Amma looked deep into my eyes so lovingly and through gestures She communicated ” Why have sorrow? I am with you!”. All knowing Amma! My friend continued “Think that Amma is in front of you, looking at you with Love and smiling beautifully. Amma is with you, She is with us all”. I admitted in sorrow “But i am not able to see Amma within me or outside. I don’t even feel Her presence. She has to help me in this!”At lunch time i another long-term ashramite. He inquired about my spiritual practices and asked me whether i could feel Amma’s presence. With pain and ashame, I honestly replied “No”.

That night, I went for Amma’s darshan. I was in Her arms for a long time as She was talking to someone. I could feel the warmth and heavenly fragrance coming out of Her as if She was dipped in a perfume furnace! After a while She whispered “Muddu magale..” (darling daughter) repeatedly. That is all. I touched Her sacred feet and came out. Amma did not speak; no special smile or no intent gaze on outword. But it was the most beautiful and unique darshan experience that I started feeling grow in me slowly. I was covered by that sweet smell for many hours. I slept peacefully with the feeling that my Amma was holding me tightly in Her arms. Next day morning i woke up at 4.15am for archana. And, yes, Amma’s fragrance was still around me!! I asked my friends whether they had applied any perfume and started sniffed the room here and there!

We left Amritapuri at around 9am. On our way back to Mysore, we visited the AIMS hospital in Cochin, Kalady, the birth place of Sri Shankaracharya, and the Sri Krishna temple at Guruvayoor. Sometimes i was experiencing a kind of heat in my heart, some other times on my crown or in my ears or hands….and oh! along with that was the fragrance of Amma. Now and then i was covered by that heavenly perfume which i could smell, but not my friends. I had no other option but to immerse blissfully in the presence of Amma.
We reached Mysore early the next morning, and the fragrance was still there as I chanted Amma’s 108 names.

A spiritual friend explained to me: “The fragrance was coming out of the Amma who is within you, not from outside. Amma has awakened your inner Amma temporarily and that is why you felt Her presence. Now it is upto you to awake the inner Amma, in other words yourself, by intense spiritual practices and feel Her divine presence permanently”
Now this child of Amma is craving, searching and longing for AMMA. i know that Amma is within me and everywhere else. I know that Amma knows my every thought, feeling and action. Yet i commit mistakes after mistakes – some are small and some are BIG! Even then She, the ocean of love and mercy, shows incomparable love,concern and compassion; showers so much of Grace. In return, what shall i offer, other than myself??
I pray  “Amma…forgive me, accept me and merge me in You…Amma..Amma….”

lalitha

Om Namah Shivaya!

I bow to my divine Mother, Amma, who watches over me with love. It has been 3 years now since I had Amma’s darshan: I got excited when I saw Amma’s poster for her Delhi program in 2007. I called up the Delhi Ashram and I was given directions to reach the place. I reached the Ashram without any difficulty as it was Amma who was guiding me every step of the way. I reached early and had the good fortune of sitting fairly close to the stage and  reveled in gazing at Amma for over 2 hours until it was my turn for Darshan. When Amma hugged me that day, She filled my being with love and reached the depth of my heart.

10 days after Amma’s darshan, I discovered a tiny lump in my right breast. My Husband is a surgeon in the Army Hospital so all the tests, including the FNaC and the true needle biopsy were fast tracked. I had a key chain of Amma in Devi Bhava in my hand through all the tests and I could feel her loving presence all through. The FNaC results indicated it was a benign filloid and I was to have my surgery three days later. All through that week I could feel Amma’s love and I had the confidence that everything would be fine. I would talk to her all the time and I felt like a baby in the womb completely protected by Amma’s love and Grace.

Two days before the surgery I saw Amma in a dream and heard her say: ” tu, tu, tu” and I knew that Amma would be there with me always and would make sure that I was fine. When I was on the OT table I closed my eyes and began performing mentally a Pada Puja to Amma’s feet. 3 hours after the surgery I was out of hospital and back home. When the results came in, the tumor was confirmed as being benign. I never realized how worried my husband and parents were until the results came in but I wasn’t worried for a moment as Amma was with me all through. Amma was with the surgeon who operated on me, with the pathologists who did my tests. She is with me always and I feel so full of love and courage. I am so fortunate to have Amma in my life and in my heart always.
I wish to share this love with everyone around me all through my life.
Om Amriteshwaryai Namah! Amma I love you with all my heart!

Your loving daughter
Priya Kaushik

It’s been more than fifteen years now, when I first saw Amma giving darshans and fell in love with her after getting her hug. Many experiences have got me to the realisation that Amma is not bound by the limits of her physical body and that she will transcend the barriers of time, space and distance whenever she hears the heart wrenching calls of her children. No matter where Amma is physically, she is always a tiny little prayer away from us!

I had a wonderful experience which I would like to share with the world. The incident happened on 28 July 2009.

28 July 2009 was just another day for the rest of the world. For me, though, it dawned to herald in a new beginning in my life. I was to get engaged the same evening. I woke up with a happy heart and the realisation that Amma had physically blessed this union. I obviously had every right to feel blessed on my special day.

But somehow, with ‘the evening’ approaching, I was getting restless and nervous, wondering whether I was actually ready to take the plunge into married life. Negative thoughts took over and within no time I plummeted into the dark recesses of depression.

Finally… under the grip of a massive panic attack, I asked my brother to take me to Amma’s Ashram in Delhi so that I could let go off the negativity. This had been my practice for a long time. Whenever I felt lonely, sad or just not my usual self or even happy I would rush to D-3, Vasant Kunj, (that’s the ashram’s address), my spiritual home.

As soon as I reached the ashram I removed my shoes, near the elephant statues (as is my usual practice) and dashed to the temple. I prayed asking Amma to help and guide me. I prayed fervently and looked for a sudden calmness, apparent peace and renewed faith to engulf me. But nothing happened. I was as restless and nervous then as I was when I walked into the temple. With time not exactly on my side, I quickly completed the last circumambulation asking Amma why she had forsaken me on such an important day!

Lost in my own thoughts I proceeded to the place where I had removed my shoes. With a dejected and rejected heart, feeling Amma hadn’t blessed me with her silent reassurance. With a heavy and gloomy heart I wore my footwear almost absent mindedly. I nearly tumbled over so instinctively I grabbed one of the elephant statues at the entrance. HEAVENS!! I couldn’t believe what I saw. There were two neatly folded brown envelopes containing vibhuti (the way Amma gives them during darshan) I was totally blank. I didn’t know how to react since I vividly remember not seeing anything on the particular elephant earlier. Wasn’t this short of a miracle! I ran back to my brother and recounted the whole incident. With Amma’s blessings very apparent in my hand we drove back home, happily.

It’s surprising how Amma helps her children and takes pain to make us realize that we are not alone in this Universe and if we look around we will find subtle and not so subtle signs of her omnipresence.

Those packets were clear indicators that Amma listened to my prayers. It is so humbling to know that Amma, the Universal Mother has had time for this insignificant soul. That she took out time to tell me that she is there for me is the biggest engagement gift I could ask from you, my dearest Mother….

Needless to say, the two packets are always with me and have since then become my lucky charms.

- Divya Sharma

INTERVIEW WITH Mrs and Mr RAMANATHAN

The sweet couple, Mrs Radha Ramanathan and Mr Ramanathan smiled at me disapprovingly, when asked for an interview.  But soon, they began to share their valuable experiences quite spontaneously.

Dr Ramanathan is a Professor of English in Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham at Amritapuri Campus.  Ms Radha serves in the HQ administrative office of Amrita Vidyalayam Schools of Amma, helping in co-coordinating the activities of several schools, most of them affiliated to the CBSE Board.
When asked about Amma, they responded enthusiastically, describing Amma as ‘everything’.  They are very much inspired by Amma’s acts of selfless service, love and compassion.  They feel that it is not necessary for any individual to think of being spiritual ‘separately’ or ‘additionally’ – it is enough to take her advice seriously and ‘simply’ follow Amma.  Life would become meaningful, beautiful and complete as a matter of course, then.
When asked about their first meeting with Amma, they felt nostalgic. They came to know of Amma about twenty years ago from their friend Prof. V.A.Muralidharan.  They met Amma for the first time in Chennai and felt a deep sense of devotion sprouting from within towards ‘The Lady in White’.  They soon became devotees of Amma and decided to be at Amma’s service till their last breath.  They decided to settle in Amritapuri and to spend their time at the lotus feet of Amma.

Here is a very interesting incident narrated by them.  They had decided to leave Chennai for good to settle in Amritapuri and were considering if ten months would be sufficient to distance themselves from Chennai,  where they have their roots and for the completion of medical treatment Ms Radha was undergoing.  They, then happened to meet an astrologer who asked them if they were planning to move to a location of divinity soon!  They answered him in the positive, rather surprised at these words.  The astrologer then told them that if they were ‘really serious’ about their plan, they had better make it out of Chennai ‘right away’ – that, if they delayed, the chances would be that they would never leave Chennai!!  When the couple revealed to the astrologer then, that their plan was to go to Mata Amritanandamayi Devi’s Ashram in Amritapuri, the astrologer advised them to make it without the least delay, and they did.

Within a week of reaching Amritapuri, Mr Ramanathan had to assume office as the Head of the Department of English in Amma’s University here – as if the ‘summons’ had been sent through that astrologer only for this purpose!  But before the first month at Amritapuri ended, Ms Radha had an accidental slip-and-fall, suffered a spinal jam and had to undergo related treatment at Amma’s super specialty hospital, AIMS, at Kochi.  Mrs Ramanathan feels that if that fall had occurred in Chennai, every word of the astrologer could have come true, whereas, here, though the ‘accident’ did happen, the hospitalization was for a couple of days only, the treatment surprisingly minimal and inexpensive, and the suffering quite ‘manageable’!

The couple is convinced that the visit to the astrologer (whom they had never met before that day or thought of consulting!) was just one example of Amma’s immense Mercy towards Her children.  Here, it was for the dual purpose of giving Mr Ramanathan the opportunity to serve in Amma’s institution and to ‘take under protective care’ Mrs Ramanathan who had suffered health problems of serious nature.

Mrs. Ramanathan became highly emotional about a recent incident too.  She was found to be suffering from acute pneumonia rather suddenly and was admitted to AIMS.  She was taken straight to the intensive care unit and those were moments of terrible anxiety.  That night, she woke up in the ICU feeling the scent of ‘vibudhi’ (holy ash, given by Amma) but found that no one else there, patient or nurse, had any idea of such a scent!  It suddenly occurred to her that it was Amma’s inimitable way of reassuring her devotees and felt confident that all would be well soon.  In the next forty eight hours, the doctors found her improving surprisingly fast (for her  age and previous physical conditions).
This couple poured out their feelings which gave expression to their deep love and gratitude to Amma.
This interview left me – a rather ‘casual’ interviewer – with a stronger faith on Amma, than ever before.  I was able to perceive Amma’s Grace, that the couple had experienced.
Mrs Ramanathan assured me that Amma responds to any person whose prayers are sincere and for a worthy cause.  Nothing can bring one closer to AMMA, than staunch adherence to values like truthfulness, devotion, honesty and selfless service to all.

by Raviteja

Ms.Vijayalakshmi, Principal of Amrita Vidyalayam, Kochi has been a follower of Amma for the past 18 years. We met her accidentally along with her collegue Ambika during Amma’s 56th birthday celebration on September 25, 2009 at Amritapuri.
Vijayalakshmi could not control her emotions when talking about Amma. Her heart and soul is filled with Amma as she feels the presence of Amma in each and every breath of her life. In 1994, she had a miraculous experience which reinforced her trust in Amma.
She was hospitalized for a major surgery. The cause of this health problem has been irritating her for past couple of years and surgery was the only solution recommended by doctors. She had never told Amma about this problem ever before.
On the day of surgery, the doctor called her husband and had discussions with him on the procedures. Vijayalakshmi’s anxiety, tension and stress was increasing as she awaited to be operated, in her ward. Finally the doctor and her husband came to her ward and conveyed the matter that the surgery is going to take place that day itself. Just a few hours before the start of the surgery, her doctor received a telephone call. The caller told him that he was calling as per the instruction of  ‘Mataji’ and conveyed him not to perform this surgery and disconnected the phone.
Doctor did not know what to do and conveyed this matter to Vijayalakshmi’s husband.  On hearing this she had nothing else to think. She requested the doctor to withhold the surgery and allow her to get discharged from the hospital. Vijayalakshmi remembers that at that time Amma was in San Francisco.
Even after fifteen years from that day, she has not faced any health issues related to that surgery. She believes the condition which required the surgery was cured only because of Amma’s blessings. Vijaylakshmi believes that Amma will be with everyone who is in need and show the right path to follow in their life. She feels honored to have gotten a chance to serve in one of Amma’s institution and considers this as one of the most satisfying task of her life.

I did not know Amma before coming here. I came here seven years back. My only source of income is a shop that was setup after I came here.

I would say that every day since then is an experience by itself in this sacred land. I feel that only people with the real seed of spirituality can come to this place, no amount of advertisements or any other external force can bring this much amount of people to the place.

It is my good fortune that has brought me to Amma. There seems to be a power that guides the whole process. The place in itself holds a lot of sanctity that retains the truth deep in the sands of the sea. It is the same power that links all the people together in this place, just like a thread that links all pearls together into a beautiful garland. I would call this extremely powerful power as Love. This power of love can be felt in the air of the ashram and this balances the life force around.

Amma has always played a very dynamic role in moulding true human beings. She has explored all possible ways by which she can contribute to humanity and the planet. She is building up some of the best quality students. Amma, through the institutions, infuses the capability into the students so that they can permeate into the lowest strata of society. I really aspire that I am able to contribute to the maximum of my effort to ensure that the love and service of Amma penetrates to the hearts of the whole humanity.

Living in this place, knowingly or unknowingly, makes one proud to say that he/she is a resident of the place where Amma was born. It gives me an immense pleasure and security to belong to such a place.

Every day since I came here is an experience. Though it is tough to pull out one out of miracles, I would like to share one experience of mine which was during Amma’s 50th birthday. As the function was at Cochin, everybody was going to the venue and the ashram was virtually empty. I could not go for the program as I could not shut down the shop. One of the days before Amma’s 50th birthday, I had the last group of visitors, who were foreigners, probing through the shop. On knowing that they were going for the program, I handed over to them a birthday gift for Amma, a small statue of Ganapathy.

The next day, the shop was opened, and the day was silent as there were not much customers. As I was whiling away the time, I saw an old man who was walking to the backwaters. I felt like calling him, and I did. As he approached me, I could see that he was in tattered clothes and that he was a wanderer. He came over and sat on the floor in front of my shop. Looking into my eyes, he uttered a few words that really shook me and filled me with awe. He spoke in a crisp and clear language that the Ganapathy was received. I was astonished by what he said, and my heart brimmed with gratitude and love. The person also told that he had to go Cochin, where the program was being held. I spoke to him for long and helped him get to Kayankulam, from where he could go to Cochin. My eyes filled with tears of happiness and joy as the ‘man’ went into the auto. It was an over-whelming experience that was deeply embedded into my memoirs to be treasured forever.

- Shyam

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