Category: AshramDiary
life at the Amritapuri ashram
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Very early in the morning
Now a days, the naked banyan tree by the kayal has special bloom all over its body. See the picture. They are not its regular foliage but, but… birds! Birds that roost every night. The black birds and the white birds. Soon after archana, when the ether is still gray, go to the juice stall area and look up. The early white birds are stretching and beating wings even on the perch. At one point `phew!’ these egrets take to wings and go in an unmistakable direction. The black cormorants are early to bed but late to rise. The sun…
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Deck the Halls
Tonight is Christmas Eve and Amritapuri is filled with sights and sounds reflective of this Holiday Season. If you happened to be in the hall this afternoon, one could hear joyous songs coming from the stage, where devotees from all over the globe were practicing for this evening’s annual Xmas play. Or if you were in the canteen, you would see dozens of sevites putting the finishing touches on the Xmas cake that Amma will distribute tonight (Xmas Eve). The base of Amma’s home is beautifully decorated with a small Xmas tree filled with festive ornaments, including a small Nativity…
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Variety for Unity
Recently Amma gave a call in China to recognise and honour variety, instead of speaking of oneness vaguely. That is the way to harmonious living. Amma referred to the fact of how different nationalities, citizenship, colour, creed, languages, culture, age groups, etc are living in one home called Amritapuri for about 4 decades now. And now one can see innumerable instances of Amma, the propounder of One Truth, honouring the variety. ‘Take a single grain of rice from the cooking pot; it will tell if all the rice in the pot is cooked,’ says a proverb. Take any example from…
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Next bout of Grace
This Amma season in Amritapuri was much more than what i wrote last time. Last Tuesday, from the memorable quick darshan, in which Amma didn’t miss to see each one in the eye and whisper our exclusive love code word in our ears, up to the Prasad distribution was one flow of the grace. Next bout of Grace was when Amma came down for evening bhajans. Amma sang songs in many languages of the country, reaching and touching many many hearts. Meantime all over the ashram two questions were heard floating about: At what time is Amma leaving? Is Amma…
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Her Divinity
Amritapuri – Tuesday, 2 October 2012 Recently i heard a devotee from Delhi saying, “Amma should show Her divinity, She should manifest Her Divine Form… Like Krishna for Arjuna…! Why is She making us wait…? O, i can’t wait anymore…” Next morning is her flight to Europe! Amma is humblest of the humble, yet Her divinity shines through it all. Her humility itself is an express manifestation, so to speak, of Her Divinity. The Vishwarupa that Krishna showed Arjuna is of a different kind. We are nowhere near Arjuna. Moreover, Amma manifests Her Universality not in a dramatic form where…
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How She Celebrated Her Birthday!
On the morning of Amma’s 59th Birthday tens of thousands of people surged into the great hall that was constructed for the occasion on the Amrita University grounds across from Amritapuri. This outdoor venue consisted of an enormous tin roof the size of two big football fields. Flowers of all colors adorned the length of the hall, and the stage was shining bright with decor and live flowers. Despite the colossal size of the hall there was barely an inch to move. Rivers of humans flowed this way and that way and thousands of plastic chairs were side by side…
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birds on an evening
13th Sept, 2012 Last evening it was just a ‘less than an hour walk’ in the area behind the stage where Amma was giving darshan. How many kinds of birds did we get to see around us? More than a dozen in all! Our walk began from the bird hospital behind the western canteen. There we saw a wounded coucal, a tree pie, a crow, a pigeon being treated there; there were also a lost and found baby- cormorant and a few baby-herons. Then we began to walk to see ‘free birds’. First we spotted a barbet on a bird…
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Amma’s Special Children: Tumban and Bhakti
Saint poets of my language, Kannada, use a certain metaphor with a philosophical import: “The mango tree and the koel – how are they related? The gooseberry from the mountain and the salt from the sea water –how are they related?” i am often reminded of these lines when i see Bhakti and Tumban, the ashram dogs: they are alike in many respects. The black brown dogs are from the same species. Tumban is a wee bigger and has an addition of white colour in the face. But the two respectable members of the ashram were stray dogs in their…
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This is how it should be
Even as the Ramayana month, or Karkataka masa, of the proverbial heavy rains, ended with scanty irregular showers, Onam set in, bringing in joy. It reminds one of Shelley’s famous line, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” Here is all color. Amma is right now residing in the heart center of the world, Amritapuri. Some years ago when Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham students created large pookkalams infront of Amma’s doorstep, Amma was delighted to see nature’s beauty laid by those whose hearts had come together as one. Furthermore, Amma showed them, through pookkalam design, the meaning and relevance of…