Category: WithAmma
travelling with amma
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How Does She Do It?
On Monday, October 5th, in Spain, at 9 pm Amma meditated, joked, advised, gave some hundreds of people Prasad dinner and danced the Baduga dance to the delight of all. This was a very rare treat for the Spanish devotees and they relished every moment of it. Amma will continue to do this across Europe as often as she can and will resume the same once back at Amritapuri a couple months from now. One can’t help but be amazed by the way Amma can touch and inspire the people of every continent, every culture, race and nationality. How does…
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Little Lalita’s determination
Sitting near Amma saw another amazing baby interaction. New York Abeda comes to sit for meditation on stage during Amma’s darshan holding her one and a half year old baby Lalita.Lalita, however, has other plans… no sitting quietly for her. She wants one thing and one thing only – to get to Amma. It doesn’t matter to her that she can’t walk yet. She crawls, holds, falls over all of us until she makes her way up to Amma chair. Lalita talks to Amma, she calls Amma’s name (Abeda said: I could not make out ‘Amma’ in her baby talk…)…
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Mere Guruvadi Vani at Hof Herrenberg
Amma graciously consented to inaugurate the new hall at her German ashram, Hof Herrenberg. The hall was a converted training ring for horses and part of the floor remains dirt for the horses to continue to use. But a wooden balcony and temporary flooring for the dirt ring will make a venue for 2000 people and Amma’s programs can be held here in the future. Despite the fact that there was not even 24 hours between the last Devi Bhava of the Europe tour and Amma’s flight to immediately begin her program at her San Ramon, USA program, Amma wanted…
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Om Bhedanashinayai Namaha
Milano Devi Bhava lasted until 10:15 a.m. and the buses left by noon for the long journey to Berlin. We passed through the snowy Alps, but the love we experienced in Italy kept us warm! The landscape was breathtaking. Mist hovered over the peaks and hid in the valleys. Waterfalls plunged hundreds of feet down steep mountain slopes. Stone barns with grey slate roofs sheltered large sheep and horses. Small towns with onion domed church steeples perched on the hillsides. Deep green conifers covered the mountainsides. There were also yellow trees that we first thought were deciduous species showing their…
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Om Nirbhedayai Namah
Salutations to the One who is beyond differences. Salutations to the One who removes the sense of difference in others. Amma always tells us that she sees nothing in creation as different from herself. We can see that this is true by her every word and action. But amazingly, in this time when humans seems ever more selfish and ever more caught up in religious and political differences, we can see that those who come into contact with Amma are themselves able to overcome that sense of I and mine, my country and your country, my religion and your religion. …
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Ready to serve in the Netherlands
An interesting cross-section of people visit the Amrita University table to find out about Amma’s university, or see about teaching, attending or interning. In the Netherlands, we spoke to some people who told us particularly moving stories. One woman began telling us about poverty in Holland. We were surprised as we had thought people in Holland were quite well off. However, she told us that there are 3 million people living in poverty there. It’s not so obvious as one doesn’t see homeless people on the street, as everyone has a roof over their heads. According to our informant, the…
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Twice in one day!
Toulon is now the biggest program on the tour, with overflow crowds filling the stadium and more waiting outside to get in. They are orderly and disciplined, making crowd control easy. They are also a lighthearted dancing crowd who will be joyously dancing one minute and seriously meditating the next. The organization to produce this program is daunting and over 900 volunteers were on hand for hall set up, crowd control and security, darshan assisting, pot washing, veggie chopping, cooking and serving, cleaning, flower preparation and more. And their job was not over at the end of the huge Devi…
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If it weren’t for Amma, I wouldn’t be here
Called the most glamorous city in the world, and famous for its sophisticated culture, residents of Paris lined up for hours to receive a quick hug from a spiritual teacher from a far away country, born in an obscure fishing village. Although many were coming for the first time, Amma didn’t seem to be unknown to them, perhaps due to the wide publicity she has gotten in France, such as the film Darshan and the publicity from her 3 ashrams in France. (The largest ashram is located in view of Chartres, one hour outside of Paris.) Information on the work…
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Swiss Cheese in Switzerland
Food is often mentioned in reports from the Europe tour and it’s unavoidable as there is so much excellent organic food, and sharing food is so much a part of the social life and culture of Europeans. Despite eating well, Europeans are not overweight as a group and are seen biking, walking and running regularly. There is a culture of fitness and it reflects in both young and old. The tour staff is well nourished by the devotees who provide three meals a day to keep them going during the long program days. On this tour we have been treated…