These past few months, there have been more than few moments when I\u2019ve had to literally stop in my tracks and look out in awe at the tens of thousands of people who come to see Amma during her programmes both in Amritapuri and on tour in India.\u00a0 It must be more than just the Indian tradition of going to see a saint that brings them to see Amma.\u00a0 It’s more than just the curiosity seekers.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s more than the universal, unconditional love that Amma transmits when she hugs.\u00a0 It’s even more than the hope and inspiration that Amma gives to people who come to her with their problems, sorrows, and woes.<\/p>\n
I began to realize that, of the tens of thousands in a typical public program, most likely each one of them is part of a family or knows of a family whose lives and livelihoods have been directly affected not only by Amma’s hug, but by Her Love and Compassion expressed through her charitable activities.<\/p>\n
Countless times, I’ve watched Amma distribute pensions, financial stipends, sewing machines, and keys to new homes on her Tours.\u00a0\u00a0 During the ceremonies, generally 10 people from each group come on stage and receive the aid directly from Amma.\u00a0 But those on stage are only representatives of much larger groups that have been selected to receive such benefits at that time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And it doesn\u2019t stop there\u2026<\/p>\n
There are the beneficiaries of 6200 Tsunami homes.\u00a0 The recipients of over tens of thousands of homes built for the poor over the past 20 some-odd years.\u00a0 The thousands of children across India who are attending one of Amma\u2019s 50 schools.\u00a0 The University students at four campuses across India.\u00a0\u00a0 The graduates.\u00a0 The teachers and staff.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Those who have benefited from treatments at AIMS hospital.\u00a0\u00a0 The hundreds if not thousands of women in Self Help Groups that are being nurtured by the Ashram.\u00a0 And of course there are their families\u2026.<\/p>\n
Add to that the 100,000 children who will be receiving education stipends to help relieve the financial burdens felt by their families whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and where debt and despair has led to a disturbing number of farmer suicides.<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s not just individuals and their immediate families.\u00a0 Amma has showered her Love and Compassion on entire communities.\u00a0 In Gujarat, where Amma rebuilt three entire villages after the earthquake in 2001.\u00a0 In Nagapattinam, where Amma has constructed at least four villages of over 300 homes each, for Tsunami victims.<\/p>\n
Trying to calculate just how many people are being directly affected by Amma\u2019s charitable activities – the thought is overwhelming.\u00a0 It\u2019s well into the millions for sure.\u00a0 One just has to look out at the multitudes who come to see Amma each year.<\/p>\n
And then there are those who serve \u2013 who are Amma\u2019s hands – doing the work behind the scenes to bring these charitable activities to fruition.\u00a0 Indeed, as Amma says, \u2019My children are my wealth.\u2019<\/p>\n
When we get a hug from Amma, she reaches in and heals our wounds, awakens our inner light, pointing us in the direction to greater potential and spiritual growth.\u00a0\u00a0 We move forward, doing Seva (selfless service) in Her Name \u2013 here in the Ashram, and abroad in our communities and homes, hopefully surrendering the fruits of our actions at Her Feet.\u00a0\u00a0 Amma takes all that and transforms it million fold \u2013 and casts it out upon the poor, downtrodden, the sick, the needy, the seekers.\u00a0\u00a0 And we all come together in Her Grace and Light.<\/p>\n
This is why busloads and trainloads of people come from all over whenever Amma comes to a city or village.\u00a0 This is why Amma is revered around the world.\u00a0 This is why we love Amma so much.<\/p>\n
So next time I look out at the crowd and see tens of thousands of people beaming at Amma, I\u2019ll understand better.<\/p>\n
– Sri Pati<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These past few months, there have been more than few moments when I\u2019ve had to literally stop in my tracks and look out in awe at the tens of thousands of people who come to see Amma during her programmes both in Amritapuri and on tour in India.\u00a0 It must be more than just 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":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"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\/649","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=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}