Category: AshramDiary
life at the Amritapuri ashram
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Days of Grace
The weeks between Amma’s arrival from US tour to her departure for the Europe tour were filled with joy and beauty. Starting with India’s Independence Day on August 15th, continuing with the Ganesh Festival, Onam, Krishna Jayanti, AmritaVarsham61 and ending with the culminating day of Navaratri, Vijayadasami. Amma showed us how to celebrate and observe spiritual festivals for the maximum benefit. When Amma is in the ashram, already every day is a festival, but on festival days Amma goes all out to create an event that no one can forget. On Vijayadasami, she came and gave satsang, initiated into letters,…
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Unique birthday present from Russian children
A unique birthday card send to Amma from Amma’s Russian at St Petersburg
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Krishna Jayanthi albums on Facebook
Did you view the 3 special photo albums on our Amritapuri Facebook page covering the Krishna Jayanthi celebrations: Album 1 – Morning Cow Worship >> Album 2 – Afternoon Uriyadi games >> Album 3 – Night Krishna Bhajans >>
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Amritavidyalayam Karwar students visited Amritapuri
Few days ago, students from the Amritavidyalayam, Karwar school visited Amritapuri. They enjoyed getting Amma’s darshan, participated in seva and had the chance to attend satsangs. Their visit coincided on Tuesday, so they got their special lunch prasad from Amma’s hands. With care, she also called them to come sit close to her after the lunch prayers. Below we see them waiting for Amma to come out to the main hall, and attending an enriching class with Brahmachari Dhyanamrita Chaitanya:
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Harikatha performance
Today afternoon, during Amma’s darshan, Sri Preman of Kottayam presented the story of Amma’s life through a traditional Harikatha performance. He was assisted by musicians playing various musical instruments. The team showed an enthusiasm that pleased all the people present in the hall. Harikatha is a form of spiritual and cultural story-telling, which is a mixture of poetry, music and acting. It involves the narration of a story, intermingled with various songs relating to it.
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The real Sannyasi
Last week during darshan, I remained at Amma’s side for some time. It wasn’t long before a middle-aged woman came for darshan. She was from central Kerala. It was her first time meeting Amma. She told Amma that early this year her husband had been fishing around 3:00 a.m., casting his net from the boat, when he suddenly had a stroke and fell into the mud of the shallow waters. In tears, she explained that he had become stuck in the mud and drowned. She said she didn’t know what to do. Their eldest child, who was in his mid-twenties…
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Remover of obstacles
Under intermittent showers and sunshine, the Ganesh murti arrived in Amritapuri in the late afternoon of August 28th. The “Remover of Obstacles” was carried from the Ayurveda beach accompanied by enthusiastic singing and the majestic Lakshmi the elephant, wearing her festival regalia. The procession passed along the beach road of Amma’s natal village and the locals smiled and clapped along with the songs as the group passed by. The ice cream vendor rang his bell in time with the music and the drivers of vehicles stopped by the procession were seen jiving to the beat as well. After all, how…
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Tumban in Bhajan sessions
Tumban is old now; so he is under care of one or the other ashram resident. He must be behaving like some adamant old people who want to eat just the thing prohibited. So his mouth is in a tiny basket. Like the ignorant young ones of cows have. He is brought to Amma’s door just as the evening bhajans near. Seeing him like that I was wondering how he would sing with his mouth shut in a basket. As Amma came down Her steps the first thing She asked for was the removal of that cover thus restoring him…
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Best Singer: Magpie Robin!
If you ask me which bird I like the most, I have no answer. But I can definitely say that magpie robins are the best singing birds in all of India I have known from Himalayas to Kerala. They are ‘voracious’ singers. Almost year around, every morning and evening their routine is to sit on a prominent perch and sing with enthusiasm. Every day it’s a different line, a different tune! But, in one sitting the bird repeats over and over again the same long tune. It has a voice of considerably high frequency… Neither is the bird bored of…