{"id":5156,"date":"2013-01-05T15:24:17","date_gmt":"2013-01-05T09:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/?p=5156"},"modified":"2013-01-05T15:24:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-05T09:54:17","slug":"on-the-road-to-pune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/2013\/5156\/","title":{"rendered":"On the road to Pune"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a gap of two years, the buses and trucks were loaded with (in short) giant cooking pots, burners, thousands of steel dishes and cups, hundreds of chairs, the bookstore, everything needed for the canteen and juice bar, ABC and the tour group luggage.\u00a0 In the early hours of the morning of January 2nd<\/sup>, the nine buses, several trucks and cars, a medical van and most importantly, Amma in her white camper, roared out of Amritapuri as the bells rang the wakeup call for archana.\u00a0 We were heading for Pune, the first program site of Bharat Yatra, 2013.<\/p>\n

The tour group stopped for hot milk and breakfast at Amrita Vidyalayam, Thrissur, followed by a delicious lunch at Amma\u2019s flagship university in Coimbatore.\u00a0 The campus is impressive, with its stunning architecture, magnificent mountain setting, spotless campus and academic excellence.\u00a0 At the Bhavani River, the tour group and Amma and a few thousand flying insects had dinner.\u00a0 (Everything in nature seems attracted to Amma.)\u00a0 The sun set over the confluence of rivers as the evening arathi bells rang on the river ghat.\u00a0 Amma gave satsang and sang a number of Tamil bhajans to the delight of local people who had gathered near the group.\u00a0 However, it was the bhajan \u201cKodanakoti\u201d that left many in silence and tears.<\/p>\n

On to another of Amma\u2019s schools In Bangalore for a four hour \u201csleep\u201d stop, and once again as the sun rose we were on the road through the fertile fields of Karnataka.\u00a0\u00a0 The lunch stop with Amma was in the back of a rural police station surrounded by fields of cotton, wheat and cane.\u00a0 The small glade of trees didn\u2019t provide enough shade for the 600 plus group and Amma directed various rearrangements of bodies and finally had two canopies and a plastic tarp brought to ensure that everyone was in the shade.\u00a0 Amma would never sit in the shade while any of her children were in the sun.\u00a0 She shows us again and again that everyone counts and everyone should be happy and comfortable.<\/p>\n

Back in the buses, and by evening we were in Maharashtra, having made good time on the new highway.\u00a0 A large group welcomed Amma at the border and she gave darshan to them, of course.\u00a0 Once again we had a Prasad meal with Amma, along with devotee stories, and Marathi bhajans.\u00a0 After the last bhajan, Amma asked, \u201cOkay?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 She seemed to be asking us is she could go now; if we had had enough; if we were happy?\u00a0 Who but Amma has such exquisite concern for others?\u00a0 We were very okay, even though we arrived in Pune at 5:30am.\u00a0 The sun rose as we finished unloading the luggage and enjoying a tasty breakfast, lovingly prepared by the happy and excited local devotees.<\/p>\n

Sunrise is always special in Amma\u2019s sacred presence, her effulgence seeming to add something to the orb.\u00a0 But, as Amma says, the real sunrise is when our differentiating intellect is dissolved in the Supreme Consciousness.\u00a0 May we witness that sunrise in our hearts and always be a part of Amma\u2019s spiritual sunrise as it spreads over the earth.<\/p>\n

Rta<\/p>\n

Pune, Bharat Yatra 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a gap of two years, the buses and trucks were loaded with (in short) giant cooking pots, burners, thousands of steel dishes and cups, hundreds of chairs, the bookstore, everything needed for the canteen and juice bar, ABC and the tour group luggage.\u00a0 In the early hours of the morning of January 2nd, the […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-5156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-with-amma"],"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\/5156","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=5156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}