Amrithapuri News Jan 3 (fwd from Amritanand)

[Guest guest]

Dear Ones in Amma,

 

I’m writing from the Amrita Institute of Computer

Technology across the backwaters from the ashram in

Vallikkavu. Among other things it is a great excuse

to be in air con for an hour!

 

The weather is a good place to start: In the 10 days

we’ve been here, it mostly has been in the upper 80’s

Fahrenheit and very very humid – more so than during

my past two trips to Kerala. Also the mosquitoes are

much worse this year. One person who has lived at the

Amritapuri ashram for 10 years said this is the worst

the mosquitoes have ever been. Been a fair skinned

Westerner of Irish/Scottish descent, the mosquitoes

love me – they’ve left me with several “love bitesâ€.

This was getting very uncomfortable so one night I

prayed to Amma during the bhajans to give me a break

from the heat and the critters. The next day

(yesterday), it had cooled down considerably, there

was a distinct breeze, and I haven’t had any bites for

a couple of days now. One friend of mine found a huge

spider in her room the other day and someone else

awoke with a cockroach in his nose. We are very close

to nature at times here!

 

I had also been feeling hurt that a fairly close

friend of mine who is a Western devotee had (I felt)

been avoiding me the whole time I’ve been here and I

prayed to Amma about that. Last night at dinner this

woman came up to me and said “It’s so good to see you

– I love you very much.!†How is that for a direct

answer from the Divine Goddess? It seems my friend

had been over-enthusiastic about her sevas here and

felt she had been doing too much. That’s why she was

always preoccupied when she had passed me on the

ashram grounds.

 

Living here is like living in a emotional and

spiritual laboratory! This is where we come to work

out our fears, anger, frustrations, anxieties – Mother

Kali cooks us here. She cooked me literally the other

night when I attended a Kali puja that I arranged at

the temple. It was held in the old darshan hut (the

Kalari). The pujari invited those of us getting pujas

done into the inner sanctum where there hung the same

large photo of Amma in Devi Bhava that is perched on

her chair at San Ramon on Saturday nights! There was

also a photo of Mother when she was about 25 years

younger, in samadhi. Malas were draped over the

pictures. It was a really humid evening, and the puja

was about an hour in length. I surrendered to the

puja fire and to my sweat glands. I was totally

soaked at the end of the puja, but felt purified by

Mata Kali. At the same time I had my puja done,

others were going on at the same time – to

Shiva/Shakti, to Ganapathy, to Mother Lakshmi. There

are pujas held every night and morning.

 

It seems that so many days have gone by since I had a

chance to e-mail. Time is different here than back in

the US. At the ashram your timetable revolves around

meal times and darshan days, and evenings revolve

around the hour and a quarter of bhajans in the new

auditorium. We are blessed to have Swamiji

Amritaswarupananda with us and so the bhajans have

been especially sweet. Some that have been played

recently have been “Devi Saranamâ€, “Choti Choti

Gaiya,†“Jai Jai Jai Durga Maharani,†“Vrajavana Kunja

Vihariâ€, others I am less familiar with.

 

This week Swamiji started something new: He is giving

a satsang every evening in the old temple itself –

half of the time in Malayalam (like last night) and

half the evenings in English. He gave his first talk

on New Year’s evening. He said that New Year’s is a

recognition of a journey – perhaps a journey backwards

to our source (Amma). During the satsang he talked

about the reluctance on the part of the Westerners

earlier in the day to respond when Mother asked them

10 or 15 times to give their reaction to a question

that had been posed during the Tuesday Q and A session

in the temple. He asked us to question ourselves as

to why no one had been willing to talk up. Perhaps it

was embarrassment, fear, nervousness,

self-consciousness – all manifestations of ego. He

said one reason Mother is so attractive to everyone is

that she is ego-less. He shared that he had had a

time of particular difficulty in recent years and

through it all he asked Devi for more bhakti

(devotion), prema (love), shakti (supreme energy) and

visvas (I’m forgetting what that means). This was his

only prayer for an entire year and it transformed him.

He suggested that we fall asleep that night picturing

ourselves as children looking up into the loving face

of Amma with true devotion. As always, I was

impressed by his humility in sharing his inner “stuffâ€

with us.

 

Devi Bhava was Sunday the 30th. Approximately

8-10,000 people received darshan, which finished up at

7:15 a.m.. Amma wore a gold and yellow sari. I was

lucky to share about 3 hours with her on the stage.

Here they give the westerners an exact time to arrive

so that they fit 10 of them into the Indian darshan

lines. Due to some unforeseen circumstances I was

about 10minutes late for my allotted slot. So they

made me wait another hour until the next 10 westerners

were fit into the queue. Then there was the time I

was in line close to Amma, and more time when she

asked me to sit close. Mother is very good to me.

 

Other Impressions: There are fewer Westerners here

this year. Some people I know from the U.S. are here

for the first time. Their reactions are mixed, but

many are having first timers doubts, fears and health

issues (coughs, colds, prickly heat, digestive track

issues). I got a cough from dust on the bus back from

Calicut, and I have suffered with the mosquitoes, but

other than that I have been healthy. There are many

body and mind practitioners here –massage therapists,

reflexologists, the pancha karma clinic, jyotish

astrologers, tai chi teachers, even an expert in the

Enneagram who held an hour’s seminar on that! As I

said earlier, Amritapuri has been a place for me where

I have healed on the spiritual and physical level.

 

For myself, I feel like I have passed an initial

period of readjustment and feel very lucky to be here

so close to Amma, somehow it all feels like positive

work to get closer to our ultimate goal. It seems

easier to progress when we are stripped of some of our

normal comforts and references.

 

I am very impressed by the level of spirituality and

the amount of seva I see going on at the Amritapuri

ashram by Amma’s western children. What an example to

live up to. And yet, at meal times you tend to hear

some humbling stories by old timers and newcomers

alike about challenges and vasanas.

 

Saturday I am taking a tour of the orphanage a few

hours away. Sunday is Devi Bhava and I leave

Amritapuri on the 10th to go on to Calcutta and the

Dakshineswar Temple before traveling back to the East

Coast for a family visit.

 

Will e-mail again.

 

At Amma’s Feet,

 

Amritanand

[Guest guest]

I savored every word. Thank you so much for sharing your days with us.

 

Triveni

[Guest guest]

> and someone else awoke with a cockroach in his nose.

 

O godd !!! I laughed for an hour after visualising this .. I really

enjoyed your humorous sharing about the happenings at amritapuri .. For

me this is really an e-satsang .. keep on posting dear ..

 

with luv & laughter

Your Brother

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Dear ones,

I want to clarify that I am only forwarding these emails. My friend,

Amritanand, is sending them to me and asking me to post them on the lists.

He's a member but is not currently signed up while he is away. I'm sure he

will b happy to read your responses when he returns.

OAN, Amalia

[Guest guest]

--- adarl52357 wrote:

>

> Dear Ones in Amma,

>

[maha snip]

>>

> Saturday I am taking a tour of the orphanage a few

> hours away. Sunday is Devi Bhava and I leave

> Amritapuri on the 10th to go on to Calcutta and the

> Dakshineswar Temple before traveling back to the

> East

>

 

Are you going to take the train from Amritapuri to

Calcutta?? That would be one helluva long-haul rail

journey --and a trip I would love to take!!

Besides the Dakshineshwar temple, Calcutta is a rail

fan's delight. Calcutta has India's only streetcar

(tram) and subway lines.

 

Thank you for sharing your experiences in Amritapuri.

I've enjoyed reading your essay so much. There's

something weird about the computer keyboard down

there. When you type an apostrophe ', it comes out

’

 

Jai Ma!

 

Keval

 

 

 

Send your FREE holiday greetings online!

http://greetings.

[Guest guest]

Om Amriteshwariye Namah

 

That was really nice expereince you shared with us - i wish i was

there too but facts of life ---- amma!

 

Someone sent me email from Amritapuri and I'll share it with you:

 

===========

Soap box

 

 

The Soap Box

 

Some five years ago an indian devotee living in the west decided to

come and be a Bramachari in Amma's Ashram in Amritapuri.

 

When he moved in, he brought along a few on the western toys like a

tape recorder, camara etc. Over the years living in the Ashram,

things started disappearing one by one. Someone borrowed the camera

and it did not return, similiarly someone wanted to record some music

cassettes and the tapecorder did not come back.

 

Finally he was left with only a beautiful soap box from his western

possesions, which he used to keep his bathing soap.

 

Next time when he went for Amma's Darshan, which is generally before

or after a long tour, Amma looked at him and said that She does not

have a soap box to keep Her soap, and asked him if he has any to

spare.?????

 

in Amma

 

***

 

 

============================

:ekanath

 

Ammachi, adarl52357@a... wrote:

>

> Dear Ones in Amma,

>

> I’m writing from the Amrita Institute of Computer

> Technology across the backwaters from the ashram in

> Vallikkavu. Among other things it is a great excuse

> to be in air con for an hour!

>

> The weather is a good place to start: In the 10 days

> we’ve been here, it mostly has been in the upper 80’s

> Fahrenheit and very very humid â€" more so than during

> my past two trips to Kerala. Also the mosquitoes are

> much worse this year. One person who has lived at the

> Amritapuri ashram for 10 years said this is the worst

> the mosquitoes have ever been. Been a fair skinned

> Westerner of Irish/Scottish descent, the mosquitoes

> love me â€" they’ve left me with several “love bitesâ€.

> This was getting very uncomfortable so one night I

> prayed to Amma during the bhajans to give me a break

> from the heat and the critters. The next day

> (yesterday), it had cooled down considerably, there

> was a distinct breeze, and I haven’t had any bites for

> a couple of days now. One friend of mine found a huge

> spider in her room the other day and someone else

> awoke with a cockroach in his nose. We are very close

> to nature at times here!

>

> I had also been feeling hurt that a fairly close

> friend of mine who is a Western devotee had (I felt)

> been avoiding me the whole time I’ve been here and I

> prayed to Amma about that. Last night at dinner this

> woman came up to me and said “It’s so good to see you

> â€" I love you very much.!†How is that for a direct

> answer from the Divine Goddess? It seems my friend

> had been over-enthusiastic about her sevas here and

> felt she had been doing too much. That’s why she was

> always preoccupied when she had passed me on the

> ashram grounds.

>

> Living here is like living in a emotional and

> spiritual laboratory! This is where we come to work

> out our fears, anger, frustrations, anxieties â€" Mother

> Kali cooks us here. She cooked me literally the other

> night when I attended a Kali puja that I arranged at

> the temple. It was held in the old darshan hut (the

> Kalari). The pujari invited those of us getting pujas

> done into the inner sanctum where there hung the same

> large photo of Amma in Devi Bhava that is perched on

> her chair at San Ramon on Saturday nights! There was

> also a photo of Mother when she was about 25 years

> younger, in samadhi. Malas were draped over the

> pictures. It was a really humid evening, and the puja

> was about an hour in length. I surrendered to the

> puja fire and to my sweat glands. I was totally

> soaked at the end of the puja, but felt purified by

> Mata Kali. At the same time I had my puja done,

> others were going on at the same time â€" to

> Shiva/Shakti, to Ganapathy, to Mother Lakshmi. There

> are pujas held every night and morning.

>

> It seems that so many days have gone by since I had a

> chance to e-mail. Time is different here than back in

> the US. At the ashram your timetable revolves around

> meal times and darshan days, and evenings revolve

> around the hour and a quarter of bhajans in the new

> auditorium. We are blessed to have Swamiji

> Amritaswarupananda with us and so the bhajans have

> been especially sweet. Some that have been played

> recently have been “Devi Saranamâ€, “Choti Choti

> Gaiya,†“Jai Jai Jai Durga Maharani,†“Vrajavana Kunja

> Vihariâ€, others I am less familiar with.

>

> This week Swamiji started something new: He is giving

> a satsang every evening in the old temple itself â€"

> half of the time in Malayalam (like last night) and

> half the evenings in English. He gave his first talk

> on New Year’s evening. He said that New Year’s is a

> recognition of a journey â€" perhaps a journey backwards

> to our source (Amma). During the satsang he talked

> about the reluctance on the part of the Westerners

> earlier in the day to respond when Mother asked them

> 10 or 15 times to give their reaction to a question

> that had been posed during the Tuesday Q and A session

> in the temple. He asked us to question ourselves as

> to why no one had been willing to talk up. Perhaps it

> was embarrassment, fear, nervousness,

> self-consciousness â€" all manifestations of ego. He

> said one reason Mother is so attractive to everyone is

> that she is ego-less. He shared that he had had a

> time of particular difficulty in recent years and

> through it all he asked Devi for more bhakti

> (devotion), prema (love), shakti (supreme energy) and

> visvas (I’m forgetting what that means). This was his

> only prayer for an entire year and it transformed him.

> He suggested that we fall asleep that night picturing

> ourselves as children looking up into the loving face

> of Amma with true devotion. As always, I was

> impressed by his humility in sharing his inner “stuffâ€

> with us.

>

> Devi Bhava was Sunday the 30th. Approximately

> 8-10,000 people received darshan, which finished up at

> 7:15 a.m.. Amma wore a gold and yellow sari. I was

> lucky to share about 3 hours with her on the stage.

> Here they give the westerners an exact time to arrive

> so that they fit 10 of them into the Indian darshan

> lines. Due to some unforeseen circumstances I was

> about 10minutes late for my allotted slot. So they

> made me wait another hour until the next 10 westerners

> were fit into the queue. Then there was the time I

> was in line close to Amma, and more time when she

> asked me to sit close. Mother is very good to me.

>

> Other Impressions: There are fewer Westerners here

> this year. Some people I know from the U.S. are here

> for the first time. Their reactions are mixed, but

> many are having first timers doubts, fears and health

> issues (coughs, colds, prickly heat, digestive track

> issues). I got a cough from dust on the bus back from

> Calicut, and I have suffered with the mosquitoes, but

> other than that I have been healthy. There are many

> body and mind practitioners here â€"massage therapists,

> reflexologists, the pancha karma clinic, jyotish

> astrologers, tai chi teachers, even an expert in the

> Enneagram who held an hour’s seminar on that! As I

> said earlier, Amritapuri has been a place for me where

> I have healed on the spiritual and physical level.

>

> For myself, I feel like I have passed an initial

> period of readjustment and feel very lucky to be here

> so close to Amma, somehow it all feels like positive

> work to get closer to our ultimate goal. It seems

> easier to progress when we are stripped of some of our

> normal comforts and references.

>

> I am very impressed by the level of spirituality and

> the amount of seva I see going on at the Amritapuri

> ashram by Amma’s western children. What an example to

> live up to. And yet, at meal times you tend to hear

> some humbling stories by old timers and newcomers

> alike about challenges and vasanas.

>

> Saturday I am taking a tour of the orphanage a few

> hours away. Sunday is Devi Bhava and I leave

> Amritapuri on the 10th to go on to Calcutta and the

> Dakshineswar Temple before traveling back to the East

> Coast for a family visit.

>

> Will e-mail again.

>

> At Amma’s Feet,

>

> Amritanand

[Guest guest]

Amritanand -

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences in Amritapuri! I very much

enjoyed reading and imagining what it is like. I hope to go there someday, as

many of us do!

Blessings,

Achintya

----- OriginalMessage -----

adarl52357

amma-l ; Ammachi

Wednesday, January 02, 2002 11:35 PM

Amrithapuri News Jan 3 (fwd from Amritanand)