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Volunteering has made me a different person
I started volunteering at Embracing the World’s Children’s Home near Nairobi in 2010 as a reluctant and shy volunteer. My parents would have to practically force me to go to the home. I think this was because I wasn’t quite comfortable with the community around me, as I had never interacted or talked with them. However, after continued visits for an year or so, I adjusted quite well and started enjoying going to the home. By 2012, I was quite active in participating in the activities of the home. I became regular and consistent in my visits, and started quarterly…
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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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Tumban in Bhajan sessions
Tumban is old now; so he is under care of one or the other ashram resident. He must be behaving like some adamant old people who want to eat just the thing prohibited. So his mouth is in a tiny basket. Like the ignorant young ones of cows have. He is brought to Amma’s door just as the evening bhajans near. Seeing him like that I was wondering how he would sing with his mouth shut in a basket. As Amma came down Her steps the first thing She asked for was the removal of that cover thus restoring him…
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Safe in Thy hands
O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What is sorrow?” O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What is unrest?” O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What are ‘hell’ and ‘hellish fire’?” O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What are ‘delusion’ and ‘fear’?” O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What are ‘disease’ and ‘worry’?” O! Amma, now I’m safe in Thy hands, I now know not, “What are ‘war’ and ‘enemy’?” O!…
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Tangled Apron Strings in New Mexico
Producing Amma’s New Mexico program requires thousands of hours of seva in many departments. This year I was once again doing the kitchen laundry. This requires loading several bags of damp aprons, rags, and chef’s coats used by the kitchen staff while preparing and serving meals, and driving to the nearest local laundromat. Fortunately, in the USA, there are many convenient and large laundromats . However, all the nearest ones had already been commandeered by the people washing 35 loads of staff laundry. So I drove to the far end of the town of Espanola, one of the earliest Spanish…
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Best Singer: Magpie Robin!
If you ask me which bird I like the most, I have no answer. But I can definitely say that magpie robins are the best singing birds in all of India I have known from Himalayas to Kerala. They are ‘voracious’ singers. Almost year around, every morning and evening their routine is to sit on a prominent perch and sing with enthusiasm. Every day it’s a different line, a different tune! But, in one sitting the bird repeats over and over again the same long tune. It has a voice of considerably high frequency… Neither is the bird bored of…
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Sunrise at the Santa Fe Ashram
At five in the morning, a small group armed with flashlights to light her way, waited to greet Amma at her ashram in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Amma hadn’t been here for many years. The programs had outgrown the tent on the land and had moved to urban hotels. For the last years the programs had been held in a city over an hour away to the south and west and Amma had not been able to come here. This year she would be able to spend the night at the Schmidt’s residence, adjacent to the Santa Fe ashram and…
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Thy Lotus Feet
O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be a soft bed for Thy Lotus Feet to rest. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be a fragrant flower at Thy Lotus Feet. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be the anklets to adore Thy Blessed Ankles. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be the sandals to protect Thy Softest Heels. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be the sandal paste to sooth Thy Lotus Feet. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be the fragrant water to wash Thy Lotus Feet. O! Amma, O! Mother, May I be the sandals to protect Thy…
