Category: General
not this nor that
-
Khol darwaza: bhajan lyrics & meaning
Khol darwaza sheranwaliye ni maharaniye ni de darshan jwala karde pagat pukar japan tere naam di mala khol darwaza sheranwaliye …. Open the door, thou the rider of Lions! the Empress! – give thou darshan Oh Jwala! (Jwala ji is one of the Shakti Peethas in North India) We devotees are calling thee, and doing the japa of thy name Open the door, thou the rider of Lions! … Dware tere ni maiyya sangta hein aaiyan ni ambe…sangta hein aaiyan tere pahadan diya chadke chadaiyan ni ambe…chadke chadaiyan petan leaaye tere dwar ma de deedar ma, mei auganhari dar tere…
-
Children have so much to teach
There is much to learn from virtually everything – from the sunrise, from the blue skies, from the air around us, from the birds and insects,…. from everything. They can teach us so many things – about the nature of the world, about living in harmony, about life and death and so many other things. Children can also teach you something. It is a very valuable thing that they can teach, something that the world needs desperately in these times and like the rest of nature which teaches just by being what they are – children too teach just by…
-
Cyclone Aila: Food distribution
One of the things that took us all by surprise often was the number of people who came to eat. Initially we started seating everybody and serving them but soon found out that this would be a fatal experience. Firstly the number of people who came to eat was a sizeable one and the people to serve them.. very few. After cooking the food in that heat and with that soggy wood, and again coming out and serving the food; carrying these huge vessels from one end to the other was a great challenge. And then getting these huge vessels…
-
The Recycle Fashion Show
12 June 2009 — San Ramon A gown made of old fruit and vegetable sacks… a pair of pants fashioned from rice bags… a wedding dress stitched from used shrink wrap… These were just some of the “new fashions” modeled at the Recycle Fashion Show put on during darshan one afternoon in Amma’s San Ramon ashram. In order to help create awareness regarding the importance of recycling, devotees in San Ramon put on a fashion show in which all the clothing was fashioned from potential trash. Other original clothing included a cocktail dress made of plastic cut from household cleaning…
-
food and medicine for Naginabad
Bengal Cyclone relief 2009 Naginabad Village, 1st June 2009 A member of the local Panchayat showed me around the island which was surrounded by rivers and backwaters on either side. He pointed out the huge breach in the embankment in one place through which the major quantity of salt waters had entered the villages, inundated the fields with salt water, washed away roads, cattle, stocks, grains, etc and also demolished houses. A statement often heard was that it was a blessing that the flooding of the villages took place in the day time. Had this calamity happened at night there…
-
If you get a day free
If you get a day free for yourself what would you do? This is what I would do: Since I am based in the West Coast (of the US) I may go and see the Space Needle in Seattle or the man-made wonder San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge or I may spend the day driving up and down the scenic Highway 1 the coastal highway of California or may spend half a day at Monterey Bay Aquarium and the second half at Santa Cruz. Or I may just hang out with friends. Or I may just stay home and catch…
-
Lalita Sahasranam Formula
When I met Amma in September 1996 I did not have any income for two years! I never told Amma about my problem, just came to receive Her blessings. And my problem of income was solved as I chanted Lalita daily. Somewhere in 2003 I wrote in an article published in Matruvani about Amma’s formula of daily chanting Sri Lalita Sahasranama (1000 names of Devi) with devotion and faith. Amma’s famous quotation on this is printed on the back cover of Lalita Sahasranama book. “Whoever chants Lalita Sahasranama daily with faith and devotion, Devi takes care of all his/her material…
-
Kozhukkatta lessons
This happened a couple of years ago. I was just out of college, working in Pune then, and staying with a friend. One Sunday, I woke up quite early and sipping my morning tea was lazily surfing the web. My browser homepage was set to amritapuri.org and the “Thought for the moment” was something to the effect of “Even to lift a finger, one needs God’s grace”. “So I see”, I thought carelessly and went on.. Being a Sunday, I thought I’d prepare some kaara kozhukkataa ( savoury steamed rice balls had as a breakfast / snack in Tamil Nadu…
-
Amma s Tree
A few months ago my wife and visited our favorite nature area in Danmark. We noticed state workers cutting many trees with a chain saw. The trees which were getting cut had red paint marks on them, the noise and smoke from the metal chain actions was terrible! We went away feeling worried and returned a few weeks later and experienced horror and pain, when many wonderful trees that give cherries and black berries every summer were cut down! As we surveyed the damage we noticed that there were still a number of trees yet to be cut! Anger arose…