Om Namah Sivaya
Blessed Yogis,
Please excuse the long delay in writing. I chose not to take my laptop with me to India, consequently did not spend too much time on the internet.
I was extremely fortunate in that Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi, better known as the Hugging Saint, did not tour India this year. So she was at the ashram when I arrived on March 6th. Amritapuri, her ashram, is at Valikavu, about 3 hours drive north from Trivandrum airport,Kerala. God's Own Country is a narrow strip of lush green land on the south western part of India. The ashram is on a peninsula with the Arabian sea on the west side and the backwaters on the other. The land is very green with coconut trees, banana trees, tropical plants, lots of eagles, white and black cranes, plenty of crows and pigeons!
For a more scenic journey, the ashram can be reached by boat on the backwaters.
I stayed high up on the 14th floor of an old building, where you get great views and plenty of sea breeze. Since Amma was there, instead of travelling around India, I chose to stay at the ashram. I was in Amma's prescence for 4 weeks till April 2nd,when she departed for her far eastern, australian tour.
The ashram was very busy when I arrived with ashram residents, regular followers and also plenty of tourists. The ashram is beautiful and a very special place. None of the programmes are mandatory. The regular schedule starts at 5am with chanting of Sanskrit mantras for Amma and the Divine Mother-Lalita Sahranama, Mahisasura Mardini Stotram, this finishes around 6.30am when they serve chai. The women chant in the Kali Temple and the men chant in the main Hall.
Amma has now requested the ashramites and residents or inmates as they are called to also chant again at 10am. They chant the 300 names of the Divine Mother and bhajans in the evening followed by arati(waving of the light, closing ceremony).
When Amma is present in the ashram, she holds Pubic Darshan on wed, thurs, sat and sundays. The locals come for Amma's Blessing which she gives in the form of a Hug. She starts from around 11am and often continues until late, around 11ish-towards the end of her stay she was finishing regularly after 2am! One evening, straight after finishing this at 2.15, she then officiated the funeral of a resident who had died. I'm told after her public programme, she then reads her devotees letters. I doubt she sleeps. One night I was lucky to be present in the hall, when Amma passed by with only a few attendants to record bhajans during the night when the rest of the ashram was fast asleep.
Mondays and fridays, Amma holds a seaside meditation which is really special and more intimate. Amma sits facing the sea and we are all huddled around her. After meditation, she asks us to answer a question. After some of us share our thoughts, she also comments and then wraps up the session with a bhajan.
We were all thrilled one time when it was clearly going to rain right at the start and Amma asked us if we wanted to stay or move into the Hall-we all said stay. Amma loves the rain. It was hilarious how her attendants kept trying to hold up umbrellas over her, and she kept brushing them away. Her dog, Tumban funnily wanted to stay dry so she wrapped her shawl over him. After repeated attempts by her attendants to shelter her from the rain, she nudged forward and got up, started dancing and singing a bhajan. It was one of those very special moments. We loved it. When she sat down, she said, no Q & A, jokes instead. She told us a joke which was hilarious, then she asked us to tell jokes. She said it made her happy to see her children laugh.
Straight from this, she gives Blessings, Darshan to those who have just arrived or leaving, then to the main hall for bhajans which are awesome. Its amazing hearing Amma sing, and the lyrics are so beautiful. Amma was singing a new bhajan pleading with Mother Nature to be kind to us, and to forgive us for our mistakes. Amma is very much aware that we have unbalanced the earth, Mother Nature is agitated, consequently more earthquakes and other natural disasters are happening. If we pray, focus our energies on positive action, positive thinking, learn to live in harmony with nature, we can reduce the severity of disasters.
On tuesdays, there is meditation with Amma in the Kali Temple, Q & A session, then we all receive blessed lunch from Amma. We chant the 15th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita before eating together in the Temple.
During public darshan days, we have a lot of opportunity to be close to Amma, sitting, meditating in her presence and also serving around her, giving prasad and other duties. It is intense and overwhelming at times, it is also very sweet, moving and a joyous experience. I crammed in as much as possible.
During our stay at the ashram, visitors are encouraged to do some selfless service, seva, also known as Karma Yoga. I worked in Amma's press section cutting/preparing the covers for publications. The ashram is a hive of industry. They make their own soap, incense, ayurvedic medicines and oils, grow Tulasi Herb, make their own delicious ice creams and chocolate. There is a juice bar where you can get fresh juices and fruit daily. The ashram food is rice, sambar, veg dish and buttermilk, sometimes dosa and idly, occasionally upuma and chappatis. This is included in the cost of your stay, only 250 rupees/night, about £3. The food is delicious, spicy but not too hot. When you want a change, there is a western canteen serving scrumptious cakes and deserts including vegan and gluten free, and cafe style meals such as omelettes, grilled cheese sandwich, pasta, pizza with homemade pesto and tomato sauce. Out of her compassion for her non vegetarian children, Amma has allowed the canteen to serve eggs. Eggs are not part of a vegetarian diet in India and is unorthodox to be offered in an ashram. The indian canteen serves the best masala dosas, ghee dosa, a variety of other staples and snacks. Everyone raves about the deep fried banana desert. This is not an ashram where you could hope to lose weight. The food is too good, is abundant and very cheap. Its Mother's way of nourishing her children. You can also buy fresh young coconut to drink and eat for 20r.
The ashram has practically everything you need. There is a handy Ram's Bazaar where you can drop off unwanted stuff and pick up all sorts of handy things you might need for your stay, including second hand indian outfits. Amma's gift shop is well stocked with a lovely range of items from postcards, books, malas to shawls and bedspreads. Its really cheap to buy books, CDs and DVDs in India.
There's a doctor and hospital on site, and you can book ayurvedic treatments including panchakarma. The ashram has simple, basic accomodation which is shared up to 4 people in a small room with shared bathroom. If you are booked into panchakarma, you will be in a no fan room, higher up and share with only one other person. Panchakarma makes you more sensitive and you do feel the cold and wind, even in India. The wonderful thing about doing panchakarma at this ashram is that they chant the 1000 names of the Divine Mother while they treat you, and I really felt they were treating me like a Goddess. I did panchakarma on my previous visit in 2010.
When the ashram isn't packed out, you can reserve a single room at double the normal rate which is still really cheap.
Across the bridge, there is an Ayurvedic Hospital and College and Amma's Engineering College and Labs.
My own personal experience of being with Amma is that she is truly Divine. Its not humanly possible to do what she does, with her Love and Compassion and Sweetness, without being Godly. I feel that from her-its incredibly powerful. I was moved to tears on a couple of occasions which for me is extraordinary. She is giving herself to take care of us every moment of her day. I can't even begin to imagine the physical pain she must be in sitting all day and night without a break, listening to everybody's concerns, worries, reassuring and Blessing them. She blew us all a kiss on the last day when she was due to leave for the airport. She made maximum time for us.
I had a glimpse of what Amma does at the ashram. Beyond the ashram, she runs colleges, schools, orphanages, a medical college and hospital offering free treatment to the poor. She does an incredible amount of humanitarian work to provide homes for the poor, treatment for the sick, scholarships for children, pensions for widows, helping the poor to marry. Amma is empowering women and conducting campaigns to educate, teach people by example to recycle and respect nature. Amma's nuns and monks are amazing. They are so devoted and work hard. I had a great experience being around these inspiring people who come from all over the world.
If you are visiting the ashram I recommend going at least in part when Amma is there, but also when Amma is not there, the ashram is very peaceful and more quiet. I stayed on for 2 more weeks after Amma had left. I was able to take part in sanskrit classes learning to read the script. I spent more time in the small Kalari Temple which holds Homa(fire sacrifice) and puja rituals throughout the day. This temple is where Amma first began to receive everyone for darshan in the early days. It used to be the family cowshed. Amma's life story is extraordinary, she was born in this simple fishing village of kerala, she took on all the chores from a young age when her mother fell ill, and took care of her family from dawn till past midnight. Her family could not understand the strange behaviour of their daughter who would always be singing devotional songs and lose herself in ecstasy. Consequently they often beat her. Even then, she never thought about herself, she always felt compassion for the poor in her neighbourhood and did what she could to alleviate their suffering. She attained enlightenment whilst still a teenager.
Its rare to have the opportunity to be in the presence of such great souls-they don't come by that often. I intend to make time to be in Amma's presence regularly every year. I've included a few links to give you an idea of who Amma is, but you will only really know when you meet her yourself. This year she expects more disasters. We need to be grounded spiritually whilst performing our worldly duties. Amma travels all over the world for most of the year. If you are able to make the time from your duties, I highly recommend going for her Blessings.
Check www.amma.org and www.amritapuri.org for details.
Dates of her tours go up couple of months in advance. Amma will be back in Amritapuri now, then she leaves for Japan 3rd week of May. Public progamme in Seattle, West Coast America starts May 31st, she tours US and finishes up in Toronto 3rd week July, back to indian ashram till early October. Normally she then starts her european tour. Amma will be in London Oct 23, 24 and 25th.
I loved the venue. Amma's staff were welcoming and friendly. It was a small crowd compared to her tours in europe. I joined my first retreat with Amma here, and it was wonderful. The retreat programme started one evening with a short meditation with Amma, and she then welcomed all of us with darshan and a big hug. This went on until 5am! On leaving the hall, one of the devotees asked Amma to dance, she replied "tomorrow". She was giving love to all of us every moment. We lined up to touch her hand as she left the hall and followed her out to the lift. There was a yoga class at 6.30am and meditation at 7.30, but to be honest, I had to have at least a couple of hours sleep before getting up in time for breakfast and the Swami's talk at 9am. Amma came back into the hall around 10am after the talk. Nothing in the programme is mandatory but all the events and especially being with Amma is so inspiring and magical, I participated as much as possible. This includes doing a little bit of seva(selfless service). I helped with a bit of vegetable chopping and preparation. The team in the kitchen are so lovely, it was a pleasure to work with them. They work long hours throughout the day preparing delicious vegetarian meals for us. All the work on the tour is done by Amma's devotees, some by volunteer staff touring with Amma, and other duties by local devotees from her Seattle group.
Throughout the programmes, there were stalls offering delicious snacks, juices and beverages, lovingly prepared by Amma's devotees. The indian snack bar is popular with their masala dosa, puri, pakoras and chai, and the best american home made pizza. Then there's a snack bar offering a selection of freshly baked cookies and cakes, some gluten and vegan also. And not forgetting the healthy burritos and wraps. With Amma's programmes, you have to have a strong will not to over eat! All monies earned from sales go to Amma's numerous charitable humanitarian work.
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