-
Gitamritam – Learning by Doing
Most of us are familiar with the Bhagavad Gita as an insightful dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. Arjuna, the valiant and noble warrior faces immense conflict internally as he heads off to battle his Kaurava relatives. It is right then that Lord Krishna guides him, and shows him the purpose of his Dharma Yuddha while revealing to him the ultimate truth of life. However the depth and sheer complexity of the text have not made its teachings readily apparent to everyone. The Gitamritam camp intends to address this issue and a variety of other…
-
Amma knows what I need…
“I am not coming to meet Amma with any desire or expectations”. Selvan strongly believes that if there is something that he needs, Amma would identify it. A farmer from the town of Pudhukottai, he started coming for Amma’s birthday from last year. One of his relatives had spoken to him about Amma, and he was interested to meet Amma. He feels that “After Amma’s darshan I felt much more confident”. He says that one of the most beautiful things he saw about Amma was that she was impartial, no matter whoever comes; whether it be the rich or poor,…
-
You don’t have to be a PhD to inspire talented people
On the eve of Amritavarsham 63, the Amritapuri campus of Amrita University hosted a High Level Panel Discussion on Making Sustainability a Reality: from Policy to Successful Practice on September 25, 2016. Smt Sunita Sanghi, Advisor, NITI Ayog, New Delhi, who delivered the Special Address at the event had an informal chat on lunch, prior to the Panel Discussion. Smt Sanghi, a post graduate in Economics from the prestigious Delhi School of Economics, who got into the Indian Economic Service in mid-1980s, has been with NITI Ayog and its earlier avatar, Planning Commission. A day earlier, she said that she…
-
How Amma inspires – an Amma birthday trail 7560 km away
I am currently visiting Cortona, Milano and Pavia, three places in Italy for research collaborations and official meetings. After one of the meetings, I was invited to attend a “party” near Busto Arsizio. As I was picked up from the station and taken to the place, my host, Sukhrita explained how Amma’s Birthday was important for her. Sukhrita (Manuela Ceresola) is one of those Embracing the World volunteers in Italy among the many who do a lot of selfless service. As a group, they organize musical evenings, free food dinners, fundraisers for education and healthcare activities of Embracing The World.…
-
The Mathematician’s Numbers and Thy Grace
O! Immortal Mother, Salutations to Thee, Offering these poems, O! Knowledge Tree, Invoking Thy grace infinite an’ unconditional, To fulfill this dreamy existence, an’ be immortal. The modern man groping in dreary darkness, Whose senses an’ mind deluded, lo! Hopeless, Calls this illusory world, ‘real’, an’ enjoyable, Only to perish like a moth in fire, so miserable. Even so, the confounded modern mathematician, With no spiritual background searches th’ unreal, Thinking it to be real, a merely deluded human, In the jungle of numbers, calling them ‘real’. The polynomial equations whose roots are negative, Find their extremely intricate nature hidden…
-
We are here to kidnap Amma
Vaishnavi and Valsala are twin sisters. They are from Amrita Vidyalayam, Davengere (Karnataka). They came as part of a group from their school to visit Amritapuri and get Amma’s blessings. It was their first meeting with Amma. The meeting just blew them away… “There is so much energy, so much love, I feel like crying, I don’t know what’s happening” said Valsala. But it seems that just meeting Amma was not enough for these two bold sisters… They wanted to keep Amma with them! Therefore, they came up with a plan and unveiled it when they came back to Amma.…
-
i saw the goddess alive
well known carnatic classical violinists, mysore nagaraj and mysore manjunath, also known as the ‘mysore brothers’ came to meet amma and performed for her near the end of darshan. they were sitting by her side for some time and as darshan ended, amma decided to sing. she sang two songs, they then took out their instruments and started playing along with amma. after two songs amma asked them to play alone. they played the famous song “raghupati raghava raja ram” while amma sat clapping and enjoying the music, especially the sound of the violin. the whole crowd joined amma in…
-
Spreading Amma’s doctrine of helping the needy
In remote villages, providing proper healthcare services continues to remain a challenge in modern India. One reason India’s HDI (Human Development Index) is low is because of the absence of quality healthcare services in rural areas. India, after all, has the world’s largest number of people living in rural areas. In order to address this issue, the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences trained healthcare workers, who provide early diagnostic and preventive care in the villages. The health workers are often married women and sometimes they have not even attended college. But they are beginning to work confidently in Amma’s villages,…
-
Waiting in Santa Fe
All year long a large group of devotees meet every Saturday at the Amma Center of New Mexcio in Santa Fe. They meet at a structure built on Amma’s instructions on the site where she conducted a program for 18 years in a white tent in the pinon studded granite foothills above Santa Fe. Every Sunday morning a faithful group of devotees meet at the Santa Fe ashram to make 108 delicious burrito lunches to take to the homeless and hungry in downtown Santa Fe, who have no other meal supplied that day. Throughout the year , the satsang holds…
