As we started doing registrations for the present 2-week tour, we expected the number of registrants to be similar to the recent tours. But with the crowd of westerners in Amritapuri not having reduced much since the New Year (coming down just from 1600 to 1200), we suspected that we could be facing a new situation…

Still we never expected the numbers to get close to 400 registrants… When we finalized the buses and departure time came, 420 westerners had joined the tour!! All past records were clearly broken. With an additional 300 Indian ashramites, the tour’s vehicle-caravan consisted of 13 buses, 3 big trucks and a good number of cars. More than 700 disciples and devotees traveling along with Amma on the road!! A moving ashram…

With such a huge group, we expected Amma to travel on her own, and that our caravan would just follow at its own pace. But would Amma agree to this? No, she didn’t.
We started from Amritapuri at 7am on the 13th, and by 11am, Amma had joined us on the highway…

And she stayed with us, moving at our speed… She waited for us when we had a quick rest stop at the Ernakulam school, and spent a whole 2 hours with us at the Thrissur school for the lunch break: distributed the food plates to all, made sure everyone is served, gave special attention to the local devotees who joined us and interacted with all joyfully…

Again for the dinner break, she instructed that we all stop at the Thalassery school, where she again served the meals, interacted with all, and sang joyful bhajans…

Our journey lasted more than 24 hours and Amma was moving along with the caravan the entire time: At 4am on the 13th everyone had given their bags for loading; at 4:45am on the 14th, we reached Mangalore along with Amma after a memorable travel day.

– Priyan