Category: Seva
selfless service, sadhana, and its joy
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Comparing God to the Mahatma- Sabarimala
I just got back from an ecstatic trip to Sabarimala. As you know, under Amma’s instructions most of the ashramites, several hundreds of students, overall around 4000 volunteers have spent the last 3 days in cleaning up Sabarimala- one of India’s most sacred and most visited pilgrimage spots. As usual, whenever I undertake anything that
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When 3 in Glee
26 Sep 2011, Amritapuri It’s hard to find people who think and feel for their fellow beings. Their sense of pride limits themselves in many ways. For instance, no one would care to direct people to dustbins as they feel that it’s a shame for them and it’s not their responsibility. I was astonished to
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When the earth was pitching up and down
7 April 2011 It was the night of the seventh of April, and I had just fallen asleep in our tent. We were camping along with hundreds of other volunteers on the lawn of a local university, which had been transformed into the headquarters for the relief efforts in Ishinomaki. Half an hour before
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By putting myself in their shoes, I shared my heart
6 April 2011 On the third day, we were asked to aid Otschi-Cho, in the prefecture of Iwate. An IVUSA staff member who is very experienced in disaster relief joined me and two other students. Just like Minami-Sanriku, Otsuchi-Cho seemed to have vanished. When we arrived at Otsuchi-Cho Town Assembly Hall, there were many volunteers
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A heartwarming impression
5 April, 2011 On the second day, the IVUSA representative, a staff member, two students and I paid a visit to a town called Minami-Sanriku. There, we picked up various required supplies, like soap, shampoo and toothbrushes. We also took 20 cases of vegetable juice and cough drops, as many of the volunteers had developed
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Put yourself aside and think about others
On the fourth of April, we had returned to Ishinomaki. There were 51 volunteers this time—28 IVUSA (International Volunteer Student Association) members and 20 students from Kokushikan University Sports Medicine Department. After we arrived, we set up a large tent to use as our head office and one for cooking. Next to them, we set
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Into the land of destruction
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