Well, actually, Devi Bhava is really Tuesday. But from the size of the crowd that had come to see Amma on the first program day, it certainly felt like it was. <\/p>\n
It’s not surprising given that the program was on a Sunday which happened to be the 4th of July. The combination made for two of the biggest fireworks show in the area. Many people made a day of it – come for the Internal fireworks – ignited by Amma’s embrace – then head down the block to the Hudson River and watch an external firework show.<\/p>\n
Two hours before the program’s scheduled start at 11am, people began arriving. And by the time Amma entered the hall at 11am sharp, the floor, as well as the balconies, were filled. <\/p>\n
Amma gave darshan from 11am until 11:30pm that evening. A full 12-1\/2 hours. <\/p>\n
Around 9:30pm, even while inside the hall, one could hear the explosions coming from the fireworks just a few long city blocks away. Those who stepped outside could actually see the colorful displays in the distance.<\/p>\n
Once the fireworks were over, millions of people started to head home. 34th street – just outside the hall – was a sea of bodies heading to Penn Station, the main transpiration hub in New York City. A few devotees stepped outside just to watch the spectacle.<\/p>\n
The nice thing is that, while no more tokens were being handed out, many of these passers-by happened to notice Amma’s picture which was on two marquee displays along the street. Many stopped to inquire about the next program. So who knows – maybe they’ll come back….<\/p>\n
– Sri Pati<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, actually, Devi Bhava is really Tuesday. But from the size of the crowd that had come to see Amma on the first program day, it certainly felt like it was. It’s not surprising given that the program was on a Sunday which happened to be the 4th of July. The combination made for two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[395],"class_list":["post-3044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-with-amma","tag-new-york"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}