Category: AshramDiary
life at the Amritapuri ashram
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Amma & elephants
6 Sep 2008, Amritapuri Amma has been feeding both elephants in front of her house last Mon, Tue and Friday after Bhajans. Such a sight.. how they stand in front of the hut, and all the trees there. I watched from above, front of my room, how Amma interacted with them. So beautiful. They both behave so well now. When Amma comes they bow and trumpet Om namah Shivaya in unison, and also when she leaves. A touching scene of how Amma is the manifestation of the shakti of nature herself. She is in full swing feeding them, caressing them…
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Blessed Ram and Lakshmi
It was evening on Tuesday (02/09/2008) when Amma fed Ram and Lakshmi, the blessed elephants of the ashram. As the naughty Ram gets the first chance to be served by Amma, he feels joyous and doesn’t let the food slip from Amma’s hands. When Amma playfully rotates the sweets in Her hands, we can feel how equally Ram is playful in moving his trunk around Amma’s hands to get his share. The bodily movements of Ram show how blissful he is as Amma is with him. The elephant Lakshmi wriggles her body much around as Amma feeds her food. The…
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multi-tasking amma
4 sep 2005, amritapuri now, even during weekdays, the day’s darshan goes well past 10 p.m. while amma is giving darshan, swamis and others will continue singing in turns through out the darshan time. today it was different. swamiji was singing bhajans below the stage; amma was on the stage and giving darshan. i was on my computer working on the updates. suddenly i heard amma’s voice. ‘what? she is singing? darshan is not yet over. how can it be?’ i ran to the stage. yes amma is singing ‘chedulethi vedukolera….’ a telugu bhajan. amma’s voice was something special. it…
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the way to connect to god
there was a 3- or 4-year old boy who has been coming with amma to the stage for bhajans for the past few days. amma gave him her own mic and asked him to sing. he sang — jaya jaya natha gajanana. only a few lines. everyone clapped. then came the surpprise… ‘ premaswarupikalum, atma swarupikalum ayirikkunna ellavarkkum namaskaram’ the same words with which amma starts her satsang. ‘ my humble prostrations to all who are the embodiments of pure love and the supreme self” amma herself was surprised. then he started to conduct his very own mic test—“1, 2,…
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right understanding
this happened last week. he opened the door and came in to the computer room to say good bye. who is he? he is the one who got the name from amma the last night. this 8-year-old had no name? yes he had. but he felt that his name was one belonging to girls, not to boys. so he asked amma for one. amma gave him the name ‘advait’. i knew him for at least 3 years. to tease him, i asked him what is the meaning of his name? without missing a beat he said ‘ amma and me…
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Improvisations
Tonight again the same little boy climbed up on Amma’s peetham and after Amma had taken her seat she handed him the microphone and off he went with his improvisations. This time he also did an impersonation of me announcing the bhajans with the result that Amma turned around laughing at me with an amused look on her face. After that the boy started singing Meri Jhoppidi to which Amma joined in with the “hoy!” part until soon the whole crowd was participating. The boy sometimes diverted into total improvisation as far as the lyrics go and came up with…
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Touch of Ecstasy
There is a little Indian boy here at the moment who has the honor of launching the bhajans as he gets up on the peetham with Amma , takes the microphone and starts innocently and without any self consciousness chanting his mixture of mantras, bhajans and complete nonsense. It is quite interesting to watch him and see what he comes up with. Amma, Swamiji and everyone were really entertained and amused by him. Quite a little character I have to say. The songs tonight were: Narayana Hari Anathanakkarute Devi Bhagavati Shantipurne He Kripamayi Ambe Anbin Vativam Amma Om Namah Shivaya…
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Finally My Dream Came True
30 Aug 2008 Finally My Dream Came True Something that I envisage ever since I met Amma happened this time. My dream of visiting Amma’s Ashram came true on 17th August 2008. The moment I reached the ashram, I felt like ‘I am back home’, back to my Mother’s home. It was great feeling of having to see Amma everyday. We had 4 splendid darshans of Amma. Though it was a short visit, my wife and I had great time. We will always cherish the precious moments of our first visit to ashram in our lives. We would also like…
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It can only mean one thing…
31 Aug 2008 Early in the morning when no one is around, I like to walk down the stairs in the E Block to get to archana, and several times I have seen a strange and wonderful thing happening. I pass the two elevators in the E Block parked on the ninth floor, just over halfway to the top. First one of them opens its doors; then the other; sometimes both are open at the same time; and periodically one lift goes up or down a floor, opens its doors and then slowly returns to the ninth floor. It can…