Category: AshramDiary
life at the Amritapuri ashram
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Bhaktavatsale Devi
As a result to requests I post the lyrics to Bhaktavatsale Devi here. They are of course very approximate. Writing Malayalam with roman letters and without proper transliteration codes is only indicative of the correct pronunciation. Anyhow as Amma says, if the child does not know how to intone “mother” correctly, it does not mean
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Amrita TV is back
After being absent from the bhajan hall for sometime, Amrita TV was again present tonight filming the bhajans. Lights, cameras, and all sorts of equipment were aimed at the stage bathing Amma in light. I thought to myself that is their anything Amma will not put up with for the happiness of Her children? So
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Morning Meditation
Recently, Amma requested that Her Western devotees meditate together by the sea from 6:30-7:30am and 5-6pm daily. After morning Archana and Chai, a number of Westerners can be seen making their way to the seaside. We take a path that goes through some of the neighboring village, and along the way are local vendors selling
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Rain in Amritapuri
Though the rainy season has supposedly passed, here in Amritapuri, it seems to have never ended. When I first arrived on August 14th, it rained every night for a week. Long, steady downpours that leave ankle deep puddles all over the Ashram. After that week of downpours, there seemed to be a break. But then
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Amma the Unpredictable
Today as Amma was coming for bhajans, She took a detour to the east-side of the bhajan hall where the Indian Shop and the two story building adjacent to it have been recently demolished to make more space for Amma’s upcoming birthday crowds. “Demolished!”, some people who have not yet heard about it might exclaim.
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Another try
Arriving for the first time at Amma’s Ashram in India after 35 hours with hardly any sleep, two delayed flights, and a two-hour dirve on Indian roads was quite a shock. When somebody asked me for my first impressions I mostly answered: “Crowded, plain, and even though I have my Mom with me, I feel
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What can I say?
Om Namah Sivayah, I am spending a few weeks here in Amma’s Ashram. I’m asking myself: “What can I say?” I feel it impossible to put into words anything that happens in this ‘magic’ place on the planet. There’s not even a second of wasting time. Amma takes care of each one’s precise necessities at
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Amma came early
I was sitting outside my room above the bhajan hall when I saw some white saris moving at the speed of light towards the stage which usually of course means that Amma is coming or going somewhere. My sisters, the brahmacharinis have a sixth sense of some sort, I feel. Amma was arriving for bhajans
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Two Prayers
I’m a left liberal academic from the USA who never dreamed I would ever be at a school where the day starts with the chanting of prayers, an act that is at the source of intense American political and cultural tension. At Amma’s University, however, the 8:30 AM prayers come from the heart of Sanatana