Memories of Amma’s first USA Yatra 1987 – part 5 It is hard to imagine those days when there was no computer, no cell phone, no internet . But all the planning for the first tour took place without that. The small typewriter which had been given to me was my way to contact people, […]

Memories of Amma’s first USA Yatra 1987 – part 4 December 1986 The ticket I had traveled on during the summer of ’86 was a dream ticket. At first a simple round trip to San Francisco was my plan, but as it turned out the travel agent in Kochi advised me that there was a […]

Memories of Amma’s first USA Yatra 1987 – part 3 The task which would absorb my attention for nearly three months was applying for all the passports, procuring the US & French visas, and getting the plane tickets for Amma and the nine others who would go on tour. The passports would be easy, but […]

Memories of Amma’s first USA Yatra 1987 – part 2 The front porch of the Kalari* was where Amma was sitting that day in August of 1986 when I arrived back**. Some of the residents had also joined Amma there and were curious to know how my time had been spent. What was happening? When […]

Memories of Amma’s first USA Yatra 1987 – First part (Gretchen Kusuma is recollecting how Amma’s first world tour happened in 1987 on this 25th year of Amma’s visit to USA) 25 May 2011, writing from the Denver airport…. We were about twenty renunuciates living with Amma at the Idammanel family compound in April of 1986 […]

I spent most of Friday, April 15th, in collecting all the needed items for the disaster relief work. We bought food, work gloves, and masks to protect against infection and potential radiation. We also had to buy a cheap tent and took a few thin sleeping bags from the Tokyo ashram, as that was all […]

For more than 10 years, the Japanese student volunteer organization IVUSA has been sending groups of students to India to participate in Embracing the World’s housing projects for the homeless and for disaster refugees. These students participated in projects to build homes for tsunami refugees in both Kerala and Tamil Nadu after the 2004 Indian […]

A bright morning here in Amritapuri:  the new miniature indigenous cows that the ashram got recently from the Kerala Agriculture University were moved to their new separate cowshed close to Amma’s room… Very cute animals, especially their rabbit-style ears continuously moving to capture the various sounds around them! They are from two endangered breeds of […]

14 March 2011 Embracing the World has sent its first group of local volunteers from our Japan Center to Sendai—the major city nearest the epicenter of the earthquake, and hit hard by both the quake (Japan’s worst-ever) and the subsequent tsunami. At Amma’s request, the ETW representatives went to Sendai in order to study the […]