Category: WithAmma
travelling with amma
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People’s Program at the People’s Palace
Amma’s London program was held at the Alexandra Palace. High above the city, on a landscaped hill, the Palace is one of the most unique venues on the Europe tour. First opened as “The People’s Palace” in 1873, Alexandra Palace provided the Victorians with a beautiful event centre for entertainment, education and recreation. For Amma’s program, devotees entered through the elegant palm court and traversed a long mirrored corridor to enter the Great Hall. The hall features a giant circular stained glass rose window on the east end and a huge organ on the west end. Amma faced the window…
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Looking at Creation
It is early autumn in Europe. The forests and grass are green with a few yellow and red accents. Gardens are still producing pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, greens and peppers. A few roses bloom along with the autumn mums, zinnias, and cosmos. As we drove from Zurich to Munich, snow covered the mountains and white mist moved between sky, mountains and lakes. Amma had reminded us in a Zurich satsang that nature is the visible form of God. This transcendent landscape certainly lifted our minds to the Infinite. We hoped that Amma might be gazing through her camper window and also…
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Ave Me Maiya
25 Sep 2013 The evening program was held in the huge program hall built on the Engineering Campus in Amritapuri. There were thousands of people in and around the program venue. The evening program started with Amma’s bhajans. Amma rocked the program hall with Her powerful & inspiring bhajans through the excellent sound system. The mood of Amma’s children was reflected in the lyrics of one of the bhajans that Amma sang today. The meaning of the “Ave Me Maiya” goes like: “Mother, we your little children have come under your shelter. Please take this boat across – don’t abandon…
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Vyasa met Amma in 1982 – II
Vyasa (USA) visited Amma in Amritapuri in 1982. This is part 2 of Vyasa’s interview by Priyan. (Read part 1) Q: “What are some special moments with Amma that you remember from these days?” A: “Well, Amma was literally with us all the time. She ate with us, fed us, meditated with us, sang bhajans with us. I fell sick once and she came to check on me in my hut regularly, showing caring, concern and at the same time She made me feel that after all, the sickness of the body was not that important! Bhajans took place right outside…
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Vyasa met Amma in 1982
Interview by Priyan Vyasa (Gregory Mc Farland, USA) has been a devotee of Amma for 31 years now! He is visiting Amritapuri for a month, to be with Amma for her 60th Birthday Celebrations. Even though since Her 1st world tour in 1987, he meets Amma every year when She visits the USA, it has now been 18 years since he came to Amritapuri… I fixed a meeting with him to ask him to share his memories from his earliest visits to Amma back in 1982 and 1983… “In 1979, I was living in Santa Fe (New Mexico), when a…
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From Sea to Shining Sea
Seattle on the west coast of the USA was the first program of the 2013 North American tour and Boston on the east coast was the final program. Amma’s tour group crossed the continent from east to west and north to south by bus. Amma and the group stopped between each city in a beautiful spot in Mother Nature or at one of her ashrams. It is said that the very breath of a Realized Soul purifies the atmosphere. How many times she sang and meditated in the open air, surely blessing and purifying the environment! The program in Boston…
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An Unexpected Bonus in New Mexico
As Amma approached New Mexico, four major infernos were burning out of control in the state, destroying thousands of acres of precious forest land. In neighbouring Colorado, the worst wildfire in the state’s history was raging through residential neighbourhoods, destroying hundreds of homes. The Southwest is in extreme drought, one of the driest places in the USA. As we drove to the program from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, we could see the billowing smoke from the fire in the Jemez Mountains. Across the wide expanse of the high desert, strong winds whipped up brown dust devils which spun through the…
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Come Quickly
Last night in ABQ, as it appeared that Devi Bhava was almost ending, and while helping to bring tour luggage outside where they were building the pallets, someone came out with a handful of tokens saying that Amma had called staff for darshan yet again. As far as this writer can recall, Amma has never called staff more than once in any given US city (if at all, on any given tour), so we were all surprised and a few of us asked again to confirm. When the answer came back ‘yes’, a multifaceted conflict arose: “I already had darshan…
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Standing at the Cutting Edge
Albuquerque – 2nd evening of retreat – 2013 America Yatra Sometimes one has to take a step back from the edge to look around at the surroundings and take in the experience and scenes before getting lost in absolute bliss. It took a lot of effort this evening, because Amma has been doing all she can this tour to take us over that edge and into that other realm. Tonight was the second night of the retreat in ABQ, and Amma, in her infinite ways of surprising us, sang yet again for the third straight night, ending this evening by…