Category: Seva
selfless service, sadhana, and its joy
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Everything must move up
Since so much land was lost along the riverside, the only place to build here is on the hillsides above. This valley is quite densely populated, with almost all suitable land taken for existing homes or farming. There is no possible place to efficiently build a tract of 50 homes. Our first house sits by itself among terraces growing rice and mustard seed. All building materials are dropped on the highway. Mules or Nepali porters show up to move sand, gravel, cement, brick, and steel bar up the steep hill on their backs. You can make 20 rupees carrying 35…
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Starting the rehabilitation work in UK
On 29 Dec I have left the relative comfort of Rishikesh to document the relief work of Mata Amritananda Math in the Kedar Valley of the Himalayas. The area was devastated by flooding in June of 2013 (All News). Amma immediately sent a medical van from Kerala and now is beginning construction of 500 houses in the region plus other long term support for education and vocational training. The hills here are not solid rock and in a good year, parts will slide from the hillsides into the river below. This year, the damage was massive. As we turned north…
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Love inspires, connects hearts in Milan
Last weekend, i came to witness an expression of Amma, albeit in action. Amma says “To be able to see our own Self in every living thing with both our eyes open – that is Self-realization. We must see ourselves in others, and love and serve them. That is when spiritual practice achieves perfection.” After the Europe tour with Amma, i had stayed back in Italy to do some University collaboration work. Sukhrita, the coordinator of Milan Satsang group invited me to witness a very interesting Saturday. She had picked me up and then explained that unlike all Saturdays where…
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It’s a Joy
The expresso and pastry bar is a popular spot at Amma’s European programs. In Munich, the lines never seemed to end as the crowd quaffed lattes, expressos and cappuccinos the whole day long. From 9 am onward, every time I passed by, I saw the same crew hard at work, hour after hour. One day I offered some commiseration about the thousands of cups of coffee and intense long hours. The blonde worker, sporting a white chef’s hat, looked at me uncomprehendingly, and said, “It’s a joy, we love doing it.” There were also non-stop waffle and crepe makers. Young…
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Empowering Women
I have always heard of Amma’s charitable and humanitarian work and respected her for all that She has done for the society. However, Amritavarsham 60 was provided me with an opportunity to meet people whose lives she has touched and changed. My first brush was with the volunteers of the AmritaSREE project, and the Women Emporwement (WE) activities of the U.N. registered NGO of Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Embracing the World (ETW). A quick snapshot to the activities of ETW gave me an idea of the extent to which Amma’s charitable projects have changed the lives of people around her. Started…
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Seva by Amrita Vidyalayam students
More people arrived today at Amritapuri. There were thousands of people moving around and the lines for lunch were long. To help make the lines move faster, Amrita Vidyalayam student volunteers helped by collecting the dirty dishes, washed them and distributed them to the people. This helped in conserving water too.
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Sand seva under the full moon
Just at the end of arati came the announcement that everyone was asked to join in doing seva across the backwater river over at the birthday program site after dinner. Within 30 minutes the first group began crossing over the Amrita Setu bridge over the river under the full moon. We couldn’t help remembering the old days when Amma herself came and helped with this kind of seva. Now she has too many other responsibilities and we have to be her feet and hands. It was an amazing scene that evening at the site. Hundreds of people were there: ashramites,…
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Amma’s special prasad
11 Feb 2013, ABC in Mangalore: During Her last visit Amma launched Amalabharatam project for Mangalore. Mangalore devotees and Amrita Vidyalayam school children have taken it to their heart as greatest Prasad and are earnestly pursuing it, on regular monthly basis. While on this extensive Indian tour Amma’s ashram children, mostly western children, have made a mark of the presence of Amma’s huge international programs –even the huge public programs in Bhubaneshwar and Vishakhapatnam- by leaving it spotlessly clean, with no litter at all. If local devotees clean up before the program, after Amma finishes the program,and all the while…
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In Love, there Is no effort
18 Feb 2012, Amritapuri Yesterday Amma suddenly came out of room, and started brick seva. Luckily I was near her room at that time, and saw people running for seva and went along to help with the bricks. Amma was carrying bricks, and we were all helping in carrying bricks from one point to another, where some construction was taking place. I called a couple of people and said “Amma is here, come fast for brick seva” and they all came running. {news} Amma went near the construction site on the grounds on the western side of the ashram. There…