The 2-week tour to Mangalore and Kerala ended with the Trivandrum darshans on the night of 25th/26th Feb. Coming to the stage at 11am on 25th, Amma gave darshan till 2:30am. Wanting to reach back Amritapuri at the earliest and avoid the hot day-time driving, we had planned to load the bags at 1am and be ready to board the buses and head back home as soon as Amma finishes darshan. The 13 tour buses started at 3:15am and reached Amritapuri around 5:30am. Amma joined us at 8am. 3 more buses transported the additional people who had come from Amritapuri for the day, making it a total of 16 buses ‘filling’ the NH47 highway from Trivandrum to Karunagapally…

The tour buses caravan…

Upon reaching, we all needed precious time to rest, unpack, freshen up and sleep for as many hours as possible. It was a Wednesday and we all were convinced that Amma would resume darshan on Saturday; of course after coming out for meditation on the beach and bhajans on Friday and maybe even Thursday…

But, during our absence large numbers of visitors had checked-in at the ashram hoping for a chance to meet Amma at the earliest. About 1100 westerners were again staying overnight on daily basis! How could Amma not answer their dearest wishes? Wednesday night she came out to lead the bhajans and we learned after bhajans that the very next day will be an official darshan day!! Yes, just 28 hours after reaching home from a strenuous 2-week tour, Amma was back on stage for a long new 12-hour darshan day! It was Shivaratri night, so ‘logically’, Amma should have ended this previously not announced darshan around 6pm, or 8pm, or 10pm, go to her room for a brief time than come back to lead a session of Shiva bhajans… but she didn’t! She stayed on stage taking her time to talk to those coming to her till 11:20pm… Staying on her chair she gave her Shivaratri message and started the special Shiva bhajans right away, till 12:30 past midnight… Her Shakti energy was at its peak when the last bhajan ended.

Amma singing on Shivaratri night

Basically none of the 700 tour members had yet really the time to fully rest, and we resumed right away with the full ashram weekly schedule. Friday afternoon was a meditation and question/answer session on the beach, and back now to full darshan days for the weekend.

Amma leading the meditation Friday 28th February afternoon

When words are used by writers, disciples and devotees to describe what Amma does, do they give justice to the reality of her phenomenal generosity, dispositions, caring and deep involvement in guiding each one on the path of self-discovery, growth, learning and higher realizations? I doubt… Her living example is never fully translated in the words that try to describe it. The fullness of her life is more than testimonies try to recount.

– Priyan