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This is My Rest
19 May 2011, Amritapuri It is that time of the year… when Amma gives room darshan. Before taking off on Her world tour, Amma meets all the ashramites from Amritapuri and all branch ashrams, individually in her room. As one family finishes, she rings a bell and another walks in … one after another… Today was my room darshan. Accompanying my aged father and mother in law, we went in and sat near Amma . She gave us all darshan, strained to feed us prasad with her own hands, enquired about our welfare, about our health etc. At which point…
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Q178: Knowledge and Heart?
Question 178: Amma says: “It’s not enough to get spiritual knowledge with the mind. It has to be brought into the heart. Only then can we truly absorb it”. How do you understand this? Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
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The Dew Drop
A dew drop from heaven, just sits on a lotus-petal. Roseate hue refracts through. Day light slowly seeps into mist. As dawn gets lively; world wakes up, macro n’ microcosms reflects, on this heavenly droplet. The day comes alive all around. She just witnesses every action. Entire cosmic dream rolls on in a bubble, before her compassionate eyes, making her self a mirror of images. We smear our sweat and dirt, allover her spotless white. making her a sewerage of our sins, often forced her to sweep our world. Yet she sparkles as pure n’ fresh, ready to embrace ever…
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Does this Love have no limits?
The story about the crow who put stones into the pot half filled with water, till the level of water rose enough for it to drink. These are Amma’s satsangs – who likens the story of the water and the crow to that ‘something’ that is already in you but needs effort – the stones – to be experienced. Who narrates stories from her childhood in such a fashion that the highest vedantic truths seem to shine so clearly out of homilies, you wonder how you missed them. Looking at the small child sitting at her side, Amma just turning…
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Q177: God and Nature?
Question 177: Amma says: “A true lover of God is also a lover of Nature, because God and Nature are not two.” How do you explain/understand this? Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).
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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 midnight, an earthquake of magnitude 6.0 suddenly hit. It felt as if the earth was pushing me straight up. It seemed like it lasted forever. I’ve experienced earthquakes before, but they have always been sort of a rolling sensation. This time, the earth was pitching…
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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 gathered there. After getting in touch with our local contact, we were taken to our assigned house. The work was similar to that in Kawakita—sweeping dirt from house and removing furniture. The flooring also had to be ripped out, and the sludge gathered underneath the…
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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 sore throats due to sleeping in the chill coastal air. When we left, our car was fully loaded. Every single house on the coast in Minami-Sanriku had been washed away. In fact, it was hard to believe that a village had once been there. It…
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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 up about nine more tents to sleep in. If we really pack ourselves in—like sardines in a can—we we able to fit five or six of us in a tent. But there was no room to even roll over! The first thing we did was…
