Fwd: Amritavani # 165 ~ English ~ the eVoice of Amma

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Ôm

Amriteswaryai Namah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

eVoice:-

nº 165

Mata

Amritanandamayi Math,

Amritapuri, India

1st February 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this Amritavani

Ø- Around Amma: Worshipping Man & Nature in

Ettimadai

Ø- Around Amma: Amma Is a Pearl Among Humans

Ø- Around Amma: This Government Needs Your Blessings

Ø- Mothersite: Amritapuri Updates

Ø- Mahayatra - Itinerary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around Amma

Worshipping Man & Nature in Ettimadai

 

 

 

 

Bharata Yatra 2007: 24 January 2007 —

Amrita University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu

The sun had yet to rise when Amma reached the

Coimbatore campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Located just outside a

forest reserve at the base of the Nilgiri Hills, the 400-acre campus is

one of the most breath-taking in India.

 

 

Amma had come at the request of devotees

in order to bless the university's new outdoor Olympic-sized swimming

pool. It didn't seem to matter to Amma that she had literally just

finished three full days of darshan in Kovai, a town about 16 kilometres

from the campus.

 

 

 

When Amma reached the water, the sky was still

dark, and Amma was cast only in the soft glow of the pool lights. Amma

knelt down and gathered some of the water in her cupped hands. It was a

moment of silent worship—one who could truly see the divinity

pervading the elements communing with them. Amma released the water back

into the pool, and then slowly began performing pradakshina

[reverent circumambulation] of the vast body of water.

When Amma finished blessing the pool, she was

taken across campus to see some of the university's dairy cows. At one

point, Amma entered pen housing about 10 calves. In fact, when Amma walked

in the calves scattered, but Amma quickly grabbed one black-and-white calf

by the rope around its neck and pulled it to her. As Amma stroked the

calf's back, it quickly calmed down and clearly began relishing the

affection being showered upon it. Amma gave the young cow a strong embrace

and began repeatedly planting kisses all over its head. Then, with Amma's

mouth just inches from the calf's, the calf stuck out its tongue and

lapped at Amma's face.

It was a lucky day for animals. The next creature

to have Amma's darshan was a tiny frog, which leapt onto the leg of one of

Amma's brahmacharis. He handed it to Amma, who kept it in her cupped hands

like a small treasure. After a short time Amma said, " Oh, its family

must be missing him. I should set him free, " and released it.

Amma then went to a small room the university has

set up for her in a wooded area on campus. There, she called for the rest

of the devotees and disciples accompanying her on her Bharata Yatra. When

they arrived, Amma personally served each of them a plate of food. Was

Amma's attitude that of a mother, a guru or a devotee? With one like Amma,

for whom the line between Creator and creation has been permanently

blurred, it is hard to tell. Once when asked by a journalist whether a

large group of devotees surrounding her were worshipping her, Amma

responded, " No, it is the other way around. It is I who am a

worshipping them. "

In India's scriptures, five forms of worship are

specified for man to regularly perform. The final two being Nru

Yajña [worship of man] and Bhu Yajña

[worship of nature]. Man is to perform these yajñas in order to

purify his mind, so as to one day actually be able to see man and animals

as God. How inspiring to watch one perform them who has already realized

that supreme reality.

—Kannadi

click here for photos of Amma's vist to Amrita University

campus, Ettimadai

 

 

 

 

 

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Around Amma

Amma

Is a Pearl Among Humans

 

 

 

 

Karunanidhi: " Amma Is a

Pearl Among Humans "

Bharata Yatra 2007: 31 January 2007 —

Nagapattanam, Tamil Nadu

 

 

" The Tamil Nadu Government and its

people are extremely happy at the way in which the Mata Amritanandamayi

Math has gone about in wiping the tears from the eyes of those fishermen

who lost their houses and belongings and even their families in the

tsunami disaster of 2004, " said Dr. M. Karunanidhi, the Honourable

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu at the beginning of Amma's program in

Nagapattinam.

 

 

 

This was the third time that Amma had visited the

tsunami-ravaged area—the first being in February of 2005, just two

months after the disaster, and the second in December of that same year.

In that time, the Math has completed 1,489 houses in the district.

Before Amma's program, Karunanidhi visited one of the

villages reconstructed by the Ashram. Mentioning this fact in his speech,

the CM said, " The houses are so good that even I felt like asking for

one for myself. The houses are so well-built and so planned that they have

become a boon to the beneficiaries. "

Karunanidhi praised Amma's wisdom, love, compassion

and selfless service. " Amma, I understand, was born in a fishing

village called Parayakadavu by the seaside in Kerala. What does the ocean

wash up on its beaches? Pearls. Amma is a pearl among humans: the Pearl of

Wisdom, the Pearl of Compassion, the Pearl of Selfless Service and the

Pearl of Love. "

Karunanidhi then helped the Ashram distribute house

keys to 10 recipients of the Ashram's tsunami-rehabilitation program, as

well as pensions and sewing machines to various impoverished people. The

house keys were symbolic of 420 houses the Ashram has recently completed

in Keezhe Pattinacherry. The pensions were representative of the Ashram

extending its Amrita Nidhi Pension program by 100 people in the area. And

the sewing machines stood for 100 such machines the Ashram has given away

in order to help poor women expand their financial horizons.

After the public function, Amma gave satsang, led

everyone in the singing of bhajans, and guiding everything through a

meditation and manasa puja.

Amma then gave darshan throughout the night—the

majority of those coming for her embrace so that once again have a roof

over their head only due to Amma's grace.

—Tulasi

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Around Amma

This

Government Needs Your Blessings

 

 

" This Government Needs Your

Blessings, "

Says DMK Health Minister

Bharata Yatra 2007: 2 February 2007 — Madurai, Tamil

Nadu

 

 

Currently, the Tamil Nadu Government is headed by

the DMK, a party known for being anti-religion in general and

anti-Hinduism in specific. The party's current leader, Chief Minister M.

Karunanidhi, once even said that party members wearing the tilak

mark on their foreheads were insulting the DMK's founding father. As such,

the fact that Karunanidhi participated in Amma's program in Nagapattinam

on the 31st has created quite a stir amongst India's political pundits.

During that program, the CM even referred to Amma as " a pearl among

human beings, " praising her wisdom, love, compassion and selfless

service.

 

 

Tonight at Medical College Grounds in Madurai, DMK

party-member Sri. K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran, the Honourable Minister for

Health & Hygiene of Tamil Nadu, went even further in lauding Amma.

" Amma is not cheating anyone in the name of God, " he said.

" Our party's founding father told people to ‘See God in the

smile of poor.' Today, we see Amma distributing all the money her Ashram

receives to the poor, and she becomes happy seeing the joy of poor. Maybe

that is why all of us see her as another form of God. Our religion says

‘Anbe Shivam' [Love is God]. Today we can say

‘Anbe Amma' [Love is Amma]. Such is the extent of the good

she is doing to the society. "

The Health Minister continued, " Amma was not born in

a fortunate, progressive community. We all know that she has treaded a

difficult path and, looking at the amount of service she is doing to the

society, we see her as God. "

" Karunanidhi has never spoken badly about spiritual

people, " he said. " But when spiritual people were doing wrong

things in the name of God, he pointed it out. Karunanidhi is the leader of

the party and the leader of the state. So it was his duty to point out

such faults. Amma spends all the money for giving medical help,

educational support and for the programs like pension one that we have

started here today. Amma is doing the work that God has to do. "

He then went on to speak specifically about the Ashram's

tsunami rehabilitation work: " When the tsunami came, religious people

just prayed, ‘Oh, God, please save us!' and then walked away. But

Amma didn't stop with prayer. She spent as much as 200 crores to help

tsunami victims wiping their tears. This shows us how expansive Amma's

heart is. "

Saying that Amma was " ruling the hearts of Tamil Nadu

with her love, " Ramachandran requested Amma to extend the Ashram's

humanitarian works in the state and added that Karunanidhi and the Tamil

Nadu Government would support the Ashram in all such endeavours. He

specifically asked for the Ashram's help in terms of education and

healthcare.

" This land will never forget your help. This land

needs your blessing. This government needs your blessing. These people

need your blessing, " he said.

On behalf of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Ramachandran

then inaugurated the Amrita Nidhi pension program in Madurai, handing out

certificates of enrolment and checks to 10 widows and handicapped people.

These were representative of 100 such new beneficiaries in the Madurai

area. Sewing machines were also given to impoverished women by the Mayor

of Madurai, Smt. Tenmozhi.

—Kannadi

 

 

 

 

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Mothersite

 

 

Amritapuri.org

Updates

 

 

 

 

A Karnatic

Soundtrack for Amma's Darshan: A report from Chennnai

Divinity in Flesh

& Blood: Amma in Chennai

The Time God Came to Visit: Sthala Puranas, the local

Legends of Bharat

Amma in Trichy:

programme report

Amma's visit to Trichy: 15 photos

Worshipping Man

& Nature in Ettimadai

Ethai Amman in

Kovai:

" This is a moment our community will never

forget. "

Photos

from Coimbatore Brahmasthanam (42 )

Videos from Coimbatore

 

IAM Technique

Transforming Incarcerated Juveniles

Visit the Yatra Blog

for personal stories, incidents, experinces of travelling with Amma

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mahayatra

Itinerary of Amma

 

 

Madurai Brahmasthanam Festival

Feb. 4 Sunday

MAM, Tiruparakundram Road, Pasumalai, Madurai.

Ramanathapuram Public Program

6.00 p.m. Feb. 6 Tuesday

Raja Higher Secondary School Grounds, Madurai Road,

Ramanathapuram.

Kanyakumari Public Program

6.30 p.m. Feb. 8 Thursday

Near Pazha Thottam & Seva Bharathi Office, Pazha

Thottam, Kanyakumari

Trivandrum (Tiruvananthapuram) Public

Program

6.30 p.m. Feb. 10 Saturday

Shankumukham Grounds, Near Trivandrum Airport,

Trivandrum

For details of all other programmes, please visit Mahayatra

 

 

 

 

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Ôm Namah

Shivaya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

eDharma

Mothersite

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