Tokyo, July 27, 2010:
Amma was wearing a beautiful golden saree with red border. One of the devotees described Amma in that saree as “Sinduraruna vigraham” (Meditate on the Divine Mother, who has a body of the color of saffron/vermilion-red).
The Tokyo program was made possible by the tireless efforts of the sevites. One could see people doing seva in every corner of the hall and outside (snack shop, kitchen).

When Devi Bhava ended, Amma came out of the temple and started walking towards Her car. Then She stopped and looked at all the sevites and asked them to come closer. In appreciation of all their efforts, Amma wanted to take a group photo with all the sevites from Tokyo. There must have been about 200 sevites and they all happily surrounded Amma for a photo. Amma asked them to say “Namah Shivaya” – they did, which made them smile. The sevities around Amma looked like colorful butterflies surrounding a beautiful flower – Amma!

- Sudhakar

They have been our trusted ‘chalaks.’ Rick, Steve, and Corey. These three drivers have been bringing us from city to city for the past two North American Tours. While we are fast asleep, exhausted after a long Devi Bhava, they are wide awake – navigating the highways across the US.

They became part of the family – they know most of us by our first name. Amma knows them too (of course) – they have gone for darshan more than once. And yes, they drivers also caught the seva bug. Where other bus drivers would probably stay in their rooms watching TV, eating food, or out sightseeing until they are needed for the next leg of the tour, these drivers made their way to the kitchen in Washington, D.C. washing dishes and pots, and also chopping veggies. Rumor had it that they were lured there by the promise of a pizza (made by one of the tour staff – which they have praised up and down repeatedly). No matter whether it’s pizza or spiritual enlightenment – these guys were having a great time scrubbing and chopping away.

They started with the tour in LA, and their job ended upon our arrival in Toronto. While we were setting up for the first Toronto program, they headed on their way back to Missouri where their headquarters are located.

We hope they come back next year – and every year thereafter……

- Sri Pati

watching ‘embracing the world’ video triggered some memories in me. it was sometime in 1998 and i had been a part of amma’s free housing project – amrita kuteeram. amma had organized a team of volunteers which was to build 25 thousand free houses for the poor. as a forerunner, we visited every applicant’s address and our task was to filter out ineligible ones. the selected applicant or families were sorted out again according to the urgency of the need and that task was to prioritize constructions for the first year, second year, consecutive year and so on.

amongst one of the applicants, we found a special case wherein reading the address in the application the address, not even locals let alone ourselves, were able to find the address mentioned. to our surprise, even though the house address was in the city itself, it was not at all easy to identify this house. with the help of a local man who had in fact submitted an application in their name, we tracked the location of the family.

it was around 4pm when we reached the address mentioned in the application. there was an old lady living under a dozen palm leaves set against a jackfruit tree. this old woman was in her late 70′s and looked deathly pale. the little hair, she had was tied up and she was wearing a violet blouse and was wrapped by a dirty cloth. there was no emotions of life on her face. her paleness was so deathlike that if one would look into the eyes, it was as if she were not alive. she could not stand up properly and was sitting in folded-legged with knees up and with the face in between her knees.

as was our task, we enquired about her details and whereabouts. her name was kathu. she had 3 children: 2 boys and a girl. the eldest one who was in his early fifties was completely unstable, psychologically. he would not talk to anyone. for years, he had been living under another jackfruit tree nearby. he did not do any work either. he would not even get up at all and would be lying under the tree all the time. in fact, the place where he was lying down was devoid of grass while the surrounding area was thick with green grass. kathu’s second child is a girl. this daughter had got married and then had separated after a year. she was also psychologically unstable. the main problem with her was that she would abuse everyone around with really foul language. no one could stand up to her and she was in the habit of always talking to everything around! kathu’s third child was a boy who was not as psychologically unstable and was in his late 40′s. he did some work, brought back little to the house, that actually fed the others. however his mental stability was like the phases of the moon and almost always varied as per the moon’s position.

after all that information, we asked her whether she had food. “nothing is there” came the reply.
we insisted “break fast?” and then “no” was the reply again.
we kept going “yesterday?”. again no was her answer.
with that, we asked: “no? when did u last had food?”. she weakly mumbled “one week ago”.
shocked we asked “what was it?”. she again replied “some raw onions.”.
to verify our shock, we kept asking “where did u get that?”.
kathu replied “my son brought from leftovers of a marriage party.”.

it was extremely shocking. i could not believe my ears. i was afraid to ask further -when she had food before that?

even though i had heard about poverty, i never thought of it in such a condition here in the state of kerala. a local politician also had been assisting us, guiding us to find the houses of the applicants. that very politician has never came across this family although he and his family had lived in the town, alongside the same road!

one of us went to buy some food items. in 10 minutes, he was back with rice and tapioca and we gave all that to the old lady and asked her to prepare food for the family. she was so weak and could hardly get up and walk. she took a vessel and started walking. we were surprised. what was happening? where is she going? lo! there was no water in the house to cook food. she would have to climb down a 50 meter hill to get water! touched and shocked, we asked her to sit back and bought water ourselves. we were told it was her younger son who brought water. we then helped her prepare tapioca. it was washed and put in the pot. we asked her to light a fire. she did not even have a match box. luckily one person in the group had a matchbox. so we lit the fire, put rice in another vessel and allowed her do the rest.

while the water is warming up in the vessel, we added her name to the top priority list and started our journey to the next applicant.

that night, i could not sleep. i was crying thinking about her and that family – the helplessness of that lady, the craziness of the children. my tears lasted not just that day, but for a full week! every time when i sit for food, i see her suffering face. i have heard about poverty but had never imagined such a plight especially in our kerala state which boasts of 100% literacy rate.
later an ‘amrita kuteeram’ house was built for her. the locals even came forward and gave a helping hand to finish the house early.

to me, in the past, when amma was talking about helping the poor it seemed only as a nice idea; when amma mentioned not to waste food and water it had rung inside me only as an economic statistic. i had never ever thought that such shocking realities exist. that day was an eye opener to me. i saw the plight of hunger. today, even after decades, memories remain afresh of one of those houses that i then visited as part of the housing-enquiry. guess why?

that was the first time i cried for someone. this is the transformation amma has brought in me.

~ dhyanamrita

watch video

Devotees and school community from Davangere offered Seva in the MAM’s House Building project taking place in the village of Dongarampura, in Raichur, where the MAM has built 250 houses.
Those participating took this service work as a God given opportunity and offered it to Amma with love. A family of five closed the hotel that they own to join the group. Several others including businessmen, engineers, employees, etc. took leave from work to be available to serve Amma’s cause. One of them gave up household responsibilities to other family members to stay in Raichur and handle the accounts and other duties. Some of the sevaites where patients with chronic ailments such as high BP and diabetes; but they daringly plunged into heavy physical work in a temperature reaching 46 degree Celsius!

In the group were five young Amrita school students, who while chanting Amma’s name loudly, loaded and carried jelly stone sand mixture in bowls and tools larger than them.
In addition to the school’s teaching staff, school drivers, attendants, ayas  and gardeners participated in the work.

The work involved the following:
Sand Filling: Since the houses are built above the ground  (in view of any future floods), the floors inside the houses needed to be filled up. Within 3 days, the floors of nearly 20 houses, where thus filled with 2 1/2 feet of mud.
Foundation Filling:  The foundation of 5 houses were erected at higher levels, so they needed to be filled up.
Moving Blocks: To build toilets and entrance steps for 35 houses, hundreds of half solid blocks of 15kgs were moved, by passing them in lines.
Site cleaning: Teams cleaned up the entire site. Iron rods, nails, binding wires, cement bags, ropes and other re-usable items lying scattered, were collected and sorted in an orderly way (The ropes were made into balls for easy re-use). Same for bags of cement and solidified cement which could be re-used for flooring and PCC work, and for  solid blocks, half solid blocks and reusable waste. All these now valuable items were given to the store.
Scattered sand and jelly stones were carried to form heaps or to fill cement bags for easy carrying to a next site.

A huge area on the backside of the site was also cleared.

And the work is not yet over! There are going to be several more villages needing similar work. Working on sites doesn’t have the specialness and warmth of Amritapuri. There is no timely supply of food and Chai. There are even no trees to sit under when the sun scorches. Helpers don’t pour in like during the tsunami rehabilitation work, for this is not Amritapuri. However the power of Amma’s invisible hands is very visible…

–Anjali

Davangere is truly blessed to get another opportunity to participate in the seva work in Raichur. Our previous one day visit to Raichur gave us such a lot of inspiration that we wanted to visit Raichur again for a longer time. Taking Amma’s permission we once again went to Raichur for a week.

We reached Raichur on 18^th April early morning. Our 27 members’ team consisted of non-teaching staff of Amrita Vidyalayam and devotees. It had people from all ages (from from 15 years to 60 plus years). We had 7 ladies in our team. 7 people joined us in Raichur. They were devotees and 4 workers from Yadgir, a small district 100 kms from Raichur.

We started our first working day with archana, and worked from 8.30 am till 11.30 am then again from 3 to 6.30 pm. From the next day onwards we started from 6 am and worked till 2.30 pm at a stretch. We had our breakfast on site and came back back to the camp for lunch. We worked again from 3.30 to 6.30 pm.

We experienced Amma’s Grace and protection each and every. We cannot describe Amma’s Glory with words. The scorching heat never seemed to bother us, and we never considered stopping the work because of it. We realized its effects only when we saw our tanned skin! Our inside has become very bright too. We felt that the refreshing breeze was Amma’s loving touch. We slept happily in the open air where we could count the stars of Amma’s glories. In the evening we chanted Archana and sang spirited Bhajans forgetting everything and merging in Her Love. Strangely we never felt tired.

We were ready for every adventure that was in store for us. We visited the Krishna river twice and had cool baths, and we visited a Shiva temple up the hill. It was such a beautiful and breathtaking place. Nature was showcasing its mystery and glory. There were huge stones sitting on the tips; only Amma knows the mystery behind them. While returning from the temple, we sang bhajans with great spirit. Each and every moment in Raichur was a splendid celebration for us. We were lucky enough to witness the Bhoomi Puja of the new site 8 kms away from the present one. Amma is going to build some more houses there!

When we worked there was only laughter and love, and we enjoyed each and every moment. Although we were engaged in heavy work which we are not used to, there was no pain or struggling effort. Things happened spontaneously. It was just like when sitting in Amma’s Divine presence. We effortlessly could forget about food and sleep. In our team we had people who were over 60 and had diabetes and BP. But they felt no handicap or unease. They were fit and worked enthusiastically. We experienced the true import of Amma’s saying ‘Where there is Love there is no effort’.

The workers in Raichur were very inspired and they showed us a lot of love and warmth. Not only this, the workers from Yadgir who joined us got so inspired that they went back to their place on Saturday night and got more workers by sharing their memorable experiences in Raichur.

On the last evening (25^th April), when we went around just to see how much of work was done, we couldn’t believe our eyes.  Realistically, it was not in our capacity to do so much of work within such a short period. So, we really could see that Amma’s magic has worked! We are ever-grateful to Amma for giving us such an opportunity to be her tools. And, we are all ready for another opportunity of such seva in Raichur!

– Anjali

It was a great opportunity for devotees from Davangere to do their little service towards Amma’s housing project going on in Raichur. The weather in Raichur is very hot and there are not many facilities around. It is located 30 kms away from the city.
We reached the site by 11.30 am on 27th February. We were a bunch of 25: teachers, students and devotees from Davangere.  We wanted to give good food to the workers and volunteers who are toiling day in and day out in that hot sun to build the houses for the flood affected people. We carried all the ingredients with us and cooked the lunch for them on site – ghee rice, chapati, roti, green leaves curry and butter milk. The workers really enjoyed the food that we had lovingly prepared. As dinner we served them fruit salad, cucumber salad and lime juice. They were overjoyed to have that treat as well. We were really happy that we could do this humble service to Amma, who resides in their very hearts.
This venture has become a memorable experience for us. We were so inspired by this trip that we are planning further visits and more seva in coming days.
- Anjali

Today we went on a safari around the Athi River side of the Amrita children’s Home property line. We were surveying the construction site,taking documentation of the physical boundaries of the 11 acre plot. We found a mature indigenous tulsi plant with seed pods, so we collected them for our tulsi start. We also saw hippo tracks everywhere along the water’s edge. The natives say the hippos are more vicious than big wild cats, crocs and alligators. Especially if they have babies…….they are deadly if you get near their young. They tell us to stay completely away from these mammals.

Our local guide who walked with us was hired by Amrita Children’s home as an askari (gateman). He lives down the road from Amrita Children’s home in a Masai Village. They are a local tribe that depend solely on cows for their livelihood. Their homes are built of cow manure, sticks and they graze the cows in the local area. This year the monsoons did not deliver and so there is no grass.

When we went to their village they told us the cows are dying and sometimes they go without food for 5 days. One woman spoke to me for a long time about how this is affecting their families. She told me they can’t send their children to school because they are required to pay money for tuition that they don’t have. The children all had flies hanging onto their eyes and mouths and the children were coming after us and reaching out to hold onto our shirt, hand whatever they could touch. When I felt their soft little innocent fingers touching me I was immediately called to their heart felt pleas. I felt like it was Amma calling us to the aid of these people. We have read about many people like this, we have all seen it on TV, but when you meet an emaciated mother with her child on her back looking you in the eyes, telling you her story, you are never the same. Once Amrita Children’s Home is stabilized our goals are to reach out to neighbors with ongoing food and educational programs in the local area. Our long term goal is to reach out to 2000 local people for an ongoing food program.

Take a look at these statistics:
- In Africa 50% of the people live below the poverty line.
- 25.4 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV
-3/4 of all women infected with HIV live there
-3.1 million new HIV infections arose there in 2004
-2.3 million people in the region died in 2004
-There are 12 million orphans in Africa
-By 2010 UNAIDS predicts 27 million orphans
Every two months more people in Africa die of AIDS than were lost in the Indonesian tsunami

Once you look these people in the eyes, you can get a glimpse of Amma’s teaching that all are one. It wasn’t so easy to come home and just put some music on or forget what we saw. We realize the gems that Amma has given, are an opportunity to embrace this situation as fully as she allows us to be her vehicles. If I walk away from this situation, not doing my best, I feel like I am walking away from Amma.

Hanuman and Nikhila