Category: General
not this nor that
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Drought hit Maisai tribes
We met with three ecologists from the Natural Museum of Kenya on the Amrita Children’s home Site. They surveyed the 11 acre plot and gave a lot of recommendations for the property. At one point we spoke to them about the neighboring Maisai Tribe that is suffering from the drought. One of the project officers said that a program to address the problem of drought with these semi nomadic cow keepers has been experimented with. They teach the tribes how to irrigate smaller plots of grass and then rotate the grazing based on their rotation of irrigating the grass plots. …
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Sannyas for the trees
I was in Sapporo, near the Russian side of Japan. During winter the temperature goes below zero. There was a programme on the Mountain side of Sapporo. Within few days everything will be covered by snow. The snow wipes out the colours and shapes. Everything becomes white. Everything gets a round shape because of the snow fall. Trees, houses, and cars are all getting round shape. Trees get Sanyasa before winter comes. Orange coloured leaves makes the trees extremely beautiful. When the desires disappear, our life also become beautiful. Then all the leaves falls like sanyasi looses his attachments. When…
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Govinda
Little Govinda, less than 2 years old, son of Ramanand and Mahita from Amritapuri, like Sri Krishna enjoying to be a cowherd in Switzerland.
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Amma is a tree; we the flowers
Interview with Ms. Shruti Menon “Selfless service, truthfulness, peace and grace – all combined together is ‘Amma’, according to me. I came to know of Amma after joining Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for my BSc course. I was very greatly inspired by Amma’s words of wisdom which motivated me to join as a volunteer for doing service on the occasion of Amma’s Birthday celebrations. As Amma says, ‘An individual’s life is complete only when he/she serves the needy and shares love and affection with all’ – This aspect motivated me to join as a volunteer to manage Vidyamritam kids. I’m enjoying…
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Medical camp at Hyderabad
Amma says , ‘we are not individual islands but a “shrinkhala”,which means we are a chain linked to one another where we all need help and must strive to help each other”. The devotees of Hyderabad had the opportunity to participate in seva for the poor at Gudimalkapur, Hyderabad. The residents, almost all of them rag pickers live in abject poverty in that area. The colony is with poor sanitary conditions. One has to keep their nose covered & bodies tightened before entering the area. Open sewers & great piles of garbage greet you everywhere. The youth wing of the…
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Serving the poor, serving God
Recently I had been to Madurai to give a class to 6th grade students in a well-known school there. The orientation camp was at our branch ashram in Madurai. The heat was excruciating and for a person who comes from outside the state, it is really difficult to adjust to this weather. All the same, it is a mystical place. I was there for 3 days. It was a Sunday evening, and I was walking on the terrace. That day there was an auspicious pooja at 5pm in the brahmasthanam temple. The temple was about to be opened. At that…
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Learning from children
If someone asks me what’s your experience with children, having gone to many schools and interacting with them, I will reply, “ They are so sweet, always living in the present, bubbling with energy, spontaneous, not at all calculative, and of course innocent. And because of all that, one just loves to be with them.” I remember a boy from 2nd class in one school. My association with him was for just about 45mins. I was telling some stories to the children in the class, and before I left the class I just gave a pat to this boy. And…