Category: Seva
selfless service, sadhana, and its joy
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Unique birthday present from Russian children
A unique birthday card send to Amma from Amma’s Russian at St Petersburg
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Byse : a village with spiritual and cultural needs
Byse is a tiny village in the Malnad area of Karnataka, Amma has adopted this as one of Her 101 villages for development. I went there and participated in the yoga and meditation camp between the 27th and 29th of June. They were all earnest and open to learn anything new. Most of them were totally new to yoga and meditation. Some chanted Aum for the first time in their life. They showed much interest in prayer, manasa puja, yogasanas, japa and bhajans. All of them, including older generation women have flexible bodies as they work out in the fields.…
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Cleaning the river
The following experience is shared by an Amrita University exchange student, who is currently in Italy for her final year studies and participated in the Amala Bharatam Campaing (ABC) drive in Italy. It is for the first time that I had participated in a clean up drive in a foreign country. This was in Bergamo, Italy, last Sunday. Previously, I have been part of the ABC clean up drives conducted by the Amrita University and Amma’s followers in Kerala. For me, it always is like going on a picnic. A day spent with friends: shouting, roaming and cleaning! Always so…
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GetGrowing!
At a recent beach meditation satsang, Amma spoke on the factors contributing to cancer, emphasizing the need for a balanced lifestyle complete with daily exercise, moderation in diet, ample sunlight exposure, and regular medical check-ups. She discussed heredity and stress as possible determinants, as well as the increasing influence of contamination in our environment, including pesticides sprayed on crops, growth hormones in meat, and pollutants in water supplies. These contaminants may accumulate in the body, year after year, making the immune system weak and prone to disease. Amma advised Her children to do their own organic gardening in order to…
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Child’s Play
Today is Sunday. On Sunday children around the world usually like to enjoy their day off from school and relax…but not the children of Batwadi Sonar. As soon as the Japanese students showed up to do seva this morning, all the village kids were waiting for them. Most of the kids got to help a bit yesterday after school, but today they wanted to be there right from the start. The kids jumped right in and began carrying sacks of sand, running and laughing up the hill to their village. Those too little to carry a sack on their own…
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Brick Seva
For weeks now, we have been laying foundations and pouring the cement columns for house after house. It is critical work as the columns we build, firmly anchored and with extra reinforcement, will make an “Amma House” one of the safest in the valley. Today we started brickwork and it put everyone in a great mood to see our first house take shape. Our local workers have much experience laying brick and are fast and efficient. We all chipped in for “brick seva”, including Shanti Devi and her son, the family who will receive this first house. – Scotti
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Our “Ashram” Life
Our “Ashram” is on the main road, north of Chandripuri and directly below the hillside village of Batwadi Sonar where we are building houses. We live in two buildings about 1 km. apart which we have dubbed Ashram A and B. “Ashram A” is four small rooms on the lower level of a building that came within a meter of having it’s foundation undercut and falling into the river. We have two sleeping rooms plus small kitchen and bath. A gas geezer (water heater) was brought fromDelhi for bathing. “Ashram B” is a single sleeping room at Hotel Monika, one…
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A visit to the villages in the valley in Kedernath
My guide to this valley has been Sudheer. Our task, to find the 34 villages adopted by Amma, meet or at least get name and mobile, of the village mayors (pratans), school officials, and especially kindergarten (anganwadi) teachers. That is not as easy as it may sound. Most villages are reached by steep, winding foot paths to the furthest places possible up or down from a road. The damage on the hillsides is less visible than in the valley, but very wide spread. As we climb, people stop us to show houses cracked as the earth settled weeks after…
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The future home
To prepare for the MLA’s visit and the assembly of the villagers, Br. Premamrita was up most of the night building a scale model of the house to display. It was done with such care and love. The scale model was a big hit, with many seeing for the first time what their future home would be like. Some women had tears in their eyes as they looked through the windows. This would be their future home. The men, who observe our progress at the site each day, discussed every detail. – Scotti