Category: AshramDiary
life at the Amritapuri ashram
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The Divine Caravan
27 July 2008 The clock was at quarter past eight and my heart started pounding faster than usual. The clouds gathered above Kerala’s capital – Trivandrum and started raining. The mind was silently repeating the childhood prayer ‘rain rain go away’ and as though an answer to the innocent prayer the rain stopped! As the clock continued ticking, the crowd started swelling tremendously outside the airport. The airport premises were rhythmically echoing the bhajans. In groups, devotees were singing Amma’s bhajans. Some were holding placards and welcome banners while others were displaying signs and flags as an outer expression of…
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the bell will ring 3 times
26 jul 2008 amma is coming tomorrow. since one week people were coming to the ashram – either they have been on tour with amma, or working in other centers, or coming to see amma from their homes. when people see each other, they exchange hugs, warm words, asking about their travel, sadhana for the last two months, and a smile from the heart. they depart to their room or to their pre assigned seva. its interesting many children from foreign countries are here already. one particular boy 6-7 years old had made friendship with most of the brahmacharis even…
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Blessed are we
18 Jul 2008, Amritapuri Today the ashram celebrated Guru Purnima with various programs starting from the morning. At 8 am, Swami Turiyamritananda Puri performed the puja to Amma’s padukas, with the ashram residents chanting Vedic mantras and Amma’s 108 names. Each resident lined up to bow to Amma’s padukas and to offer some flowers, and then received the prasad of unniappas, payasam, and some other sweet. After a talk by Swami Jnanamritananda Puri, Amma’s father, Suguna Acchan, as he is called, gave a wonderful talk. He talked about his experiences with Amma from her childhood. He said that when Damayanti…
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The Future
11 Jul 2008, Amritapuri For the past few days it has been almost like Amma is in Amritapuri. There are people all over the place – a couple of boys from Bihar asking for directions to get to the accomodation office, you turn around and there is a family from the Gulf loaded with a new mattress and shining new buckets and many packets in their hands, and there, you find innumerable families from Andhra Pradesh,…. Ah ha! It is admission time! A whole new batch of students, their parents, relatives, relatives’ relatives, all have descended on Amritapuri. Some have…
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Kids Camp
16 May 2008, Amritapuri The kids camp here in Amritapuri has started in full force. Thousands of kids from all the over the state descended upon the ashram yesterday. The whole place is turned upside down with laughter and goodhearted mischief. The good thing about it is that although Amma is really busy receiving all the inmates in her room for a private darshan and yearly counseling, she found time to come for bhajans yesterday. And what kind of bhajans were they! The whole hall was vibrant with energy. The kids really love Amma’s bhajans and Amma addresses them every…
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Back To Life
Amritapuri Comes Back To Life Amma finally returned from Australia after a long wait. The faces of the ashramites had been turning slightly sad as life in Amritapuri is just not the same without her. There hadn’t even been any webcasts from the last Devi Bhavas, so the contrast was even more evident when Amma lit the hearts and faces of everyone again. Don’t get me wrong, the time in the ashram when Amma is not here is well spent in seva, scriptural study and meditation, but the truth is, one can do these anywhere at any given time, whereas…
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The Mother of Fish
Meenamba, the Mother of fish Her name is Meenamba which means ‘Mother of fish‘. She is an Amritapuri resident from the West. I saw Meenamba in the breakfast line the other day, and greeted her with a casual “Good morning! How are you?” She looked back, as her face lit up, and answered: “It’s amazing that you asked me this, right now. Something incredible happened to me earlier this morning! It is really unbelievable!” We took our food and I stood with her for a few minutes as she was sharing with great excitement the amazing event that she had…
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night queen
7 apr 2008, amritapuri the queen has appeared near the ashram kitchen in the middle of the night. she was wearing white and spreading an aroma around. slowly people smelled, heard.. came to visit her. she is not one, but two. epiphyllum oxypetalum is her official name. yes, two white flowers have bloomed by the ashram kitchen. the leaf is hanging down from the sunshade. the flower has come out through the side of a leaf. the green leaves and the white flowers are fresh and clean after the evening rain. i tell you she is simply beautiful. nishagandhi, the…
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they are all singing
4 apr 2008, amritapuri they were singing all along.. i mean the cuckoos…. when we left amritapuri, they were singing. do remember, last year i told you about the cuckoos of the ashram? (read here) they were singing all along the tour- bhatara yatra. i heard them singing in coimbatore, pondicherry, tirunelveli, kannur, mangalore, bangalore, hyderabad, washim, pune, amdavad, jaipur, delhi, varanasi, kolkata, bhuvaneshwar. i tought at least in places like bangalore, washim, amdavad where the climate is so different from kerala they will not be there. but they were. on the road to amadavad to jaipur actually the cuckoos…