On the first day of Amma’s Tokyo program in Tokyo (May 27th), the crowd was bigger than in the past. Amma sang ‘Bandalo Bandalo’ at the end of the first day program and she requested every one to do the patty cake. The Japanese people appear to be very quiet and humble. I have heard that they usually don’t express their joy or sorrow publicly in their culture. But when Amma started singing and clapping to the ‘Bandalo’ song, even the Japanese people could not hide or control their joy. They were laughing with great joy and some started crying with joy!

an Amma drawing by a Japanese child

In Japan, a newspaper article would usually appear about Amma’s visit after Amma leaves Japan. Amma’s contribution to the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011 drew a lot of attention in the press and this time, an article appeared in the Japanese newspaper ‘Osaka Nitiniti Sin Bun’.

in Japanese Newspaper Osaka Nitiniti Sin Bun

On the second day (May 28th), Amma danced for the ‘Ayar Kula Kolunthey’ bhajan at the end of the evening program. This is the first time the Japanese devotees witnessed Amma dancing. It was so beautiful and spontaneous that it completely took the shy and otherwise very genteel Japanese people by complete surprise. You could literally see their jaws drop and the excitement in the air. Amma clapped everybody’s hands as she was leaving the hall. When Amma’s palms Touched each of the devotees’ palms, I am sure it left unforgettable memories for them to cherish forever.

After the program, we felt an earthquake of 5.3 magnitude in Tokyo (no damages were reported). We were ‘not shaken’ by it since we were still in Divine Bliss by Amma’s Dance!

- Sudhakar

Happy Seva

A soft touch; melts stone hearted.
Suddenly rock wakes up into life,
breathes air that she had infused.
A disciple is sanctified by the fire,
she kindled in their hearth of hearts.

By chisel of compassion she shapes,
in tune, Chips away bits and pieces.

Suddenly she unveils her creation,
turning one into an idol of her ideals.
Sculpts a complete being strongly soft,
A divine sculpture in spiritual aesthetics!

by Satheesan Rangorath

That day Divine Mother, You came as a beam of light
You took me in Your arms and hugged me
“Daughter, Amma is always with you, seek within and not without” is what You told me,
I closed my eyes and saw Your resplendent form,
With both Your arms stretched out to me, you called me,
You put me on Your lap, showed me the way.

But now that I am seeking out to You Mother, I cannot find you
Everything is blurred inside; maya (illusion) is taking over
In this stone-filled path of life, a lonely wanderer walks alone
Waiting for Her mother to come and take her by the hand,
to guide her and take her to the Ultimate Destination.

“Amma, where are You, where are You?”
Oh Divine Mother, where did you go and hide yourself?
Day and night, this desperate soul cries out for Mother,
Please do not delay anymore, come and see Your child.

-Dhivya

Amma says: “Pick just one (any) quality/virtue and follow it with utmost faith and optimism; other qualities will automatically follow.”
How do you understand this?

Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).

After the bhajan ended Amma marched straight down the ramp with a determined look. It was FRY day. In front of her were set up 8 dosa grills and 3 large vats for frying French fries. Amma immediately started cutting, herself, the 10 kilos of potatoes before her. She cut the potatoes as if this were her profession, finishing it off in a matter of minutes, before throwing them into the boiling oil. Adding some salt water to the oil for the finishing touch Amma started off a magical night. As soon as her batch was finished the ashramites continued making the rest of the fries and dosas to feed the capacity crowd in the hall. An hour later everyone would have their food, but the story had begun weeks ago.

Some weeks back while helping to move bricks from a construction site{news}, in the wee hours of the night, Amma had mentioned that she wanted to give French fries to the residents. This set off countless rumors on how and when it would be done. Finally the day before Amma was to leave for her Japan – America Yatra, the ashram was in full action for the night’s festivities.

How to make enough fries to feed the whole ashram and its visitors and have them piping hot on their plate? It’s started before sun up that day with the washing of 100s of kilos of potatoes. Then continued with more than a 200 ashramites participating in chopping them small enough to be cooked fast. And then hours of pre-frying so as not to take forever to cook while Amma was serving. And then when the work was done, it could easily be seen that we had not made enough. And everything started again to make double what we had already made. The washing, the cutting, the lifting, the running, everything was nonstop action on this day. And no bad moods could be found. Everyone was in a joyous and festive mood. And when all was said and done, we had just enough to feed everyone. And everyone was satisfied.

And, to end the party, Amma sang Bandallo, and everyone cried out, Victory to the Mother!

- Sreejith

Amma says: “The predominant tendency of the ego is to seek as much attention as possible. The ego thrives on this.” How do you understand this?

Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).

I was watching the trees between the Ashram buildings and backwaters. The white birds had gone, and the black birds that go a little late had also gone. Not one in sight. I was staring at the coconut tree tops at my nose level.

I could hear at least half a dozen birds singing. Like in a mountain valley. A few kinds of tiny warbling birds warbling different notes like in a symphony; the parrot colored short tailed sparrow- like bird that sings during spring season only; the long tailed brindled big bird with gruff voice, and so on. Curiously, none of them was visible.

Soon i saw some white wings flapping here and there. On a closer look, a wonderful world revealed before my eyes. They were the herons, with nests in each and every coconut tree! Dozens and dozens of them!
Herons are grey-green in color, unattractive and unobtrusive when they are sitting; but when they fly, their big white wings open wide, and they become conspicuous.

Going close to the nearest tree i saw: they have pretty blue beaks with black tips: natural adaptation for the fishing birds. Their eggs also of the same sea blue hue. Also, these herons have a very gentle voice. Sometimes three tufts of hair show on the back of their necks.

Though the birds are quite big, their nests are small, just meant for their eggs, with space just enough for the brooding mother’s tummy! And it is a well known fact that birds build only to breed their young ones. Nature is their guide. A great lesson in economy and utility for humans to learn.
When herons sit inside of the coconut treetops, with their face and beaks jutting out, they look like one of the tree’s growths.

I zoomed out my sight. The herons were in a playful mood, flying from one frond only to perch on another. The space between the trees was all theirs alone.

Indeed their tribe was increasing in multiple proportions!

- Sandhya

Amma said: “While carrying responsibilities, never forget to smile.” How do you understand this?

Please make your answer brief and clear (maximum 5 or 6 lines).

One day, as we were returning from the field, we saw a man in the back waters use a long bamboo to try and free a five feet snake entangled in a fishing net. This happens often in the fishing village.

We kept watching the scene as the man kept pulling on the net and the snake trying to pull away. The more the snake tried, the more entangled it got and the net strangled its throat. The man got tired and gave up. The net and the snake floated away in the water.

We walked away in disappointment. I mentioned to our gopis and gopas that it was a ‘chera’ snake whose diet is mostly rats and that it was non-poisonous.

As soon as I said this, one of the gopis(a French woman) ran back to the backwater canal, took the same bamboo pole and pulled the fishing net to the shore. She grabbed the snake and tried to free it, but it was well entangled.

A boy came over and handed her a shaving blade. She started to cut the nylon thread around the snake’s mouth. At first, the snake struggled but, it soon realized that she was trying to help.
So the snake relaxed and lay limp.

By now, a crowd of 50 people had gathered. People were snapping pictures on their cell phones. Kids were yelling ‘Discovery channel’ on seeing the sight.

She kept cutting the nylon threads where they had tightly fused into the body. Slowly the snake realized that it was free. Then, it quietly slid out of the net and glided into the back waters.

Everyone clapped, and the man who had tried to free the snake in the first place came forward and thanked her.

We came back with our cows to the Ashram, happy with the turn of events. I silently thanked Amma that after all, the snake was non-poisonous. As I am no snake expert, I was not too sure about the snakes antecedents.

- Lakshman

Anyone who has ever travelled with Amma on any portion of her world tour knows that long distances are covered over relatively short periods of time, on the ‘days off’ between all night programs. More often than not, Amma travels with the rest of the tour group by road. For most people who make these long trips by road, often covering over 1000km in a day, the rides are both the highlight and lowlight for the tour. Lowlight because very few people look forward to getting on a bus for 16+ hours or so after being up all night and knowing they have to set up for the next program upon arrival. But no matter how grueling or unpleasant the ride, Amma makes these trips the highlights when she stops with the group and breaks the journey with a spontaneous picnic somewhere in nature.

For many years, Amma and the group had to fly from place to place in Australia because of the order of the cities Amma visited and the fact that the distances were simply too great to make the trip in one day. Two years ago on the last Australian tour, Amma expressed her desire to the organizers that they arrange the next tour in such a way Amma and the entire group could travel by road. So this year the tour was arranged accordingly and for the first time Amma is doing the Australian tour by road and everyone travelling was hoping there would be an opportunity to stop with Amma.

On the first drive from Melbourne to Sydney Amma had wanted to stop, but the buses left late and were far behind and those of us who were involved with arranging all the logistics of making the stop happen, failed in doing so. Amma had stopped in a nice place and waited for hours for everyone until it became dark and started raining and there was too much distance left to cover before the next day’s program. So to the disappointment of the tour group, there was no stop with Amma on the first trip.

So for the next trip from Sydney to Brisbane everyone made their best effort to make sure all the details were ironed out before the drive. The route was planned carefully, everyone packed up the hall as fast as possible at the end of the program to be ready to leave right away, etc. But there was one small thing that was beyond our efforts. For the entire two days of programs in Sydney it rained heavily, almost nonstop. I had checked the weather forecast the night before the trip and it didn’t look good- 80% chance of thunderstorms all along our route. We also needed Mother Nature’s to play her part.

For the first 600km of the journey we drove along the coast with ominous dark clouds hovering above us…but it never started to rain. Finally we reached a spot of the coast with several good possibilities for a stop and a few of us went on a reconnaissance mission to find the ideal place for Amma to stop with the group. A beautiful, empty and secluded beach was decided upon and before the buses arrived, the food was prepared, sound system set up and all made ready for afternoon picnic. Soon after, the buses arrived and all came to sit with Amma on the sand. It was an amazing scene to see Amma sitting there a short distance from the waves with so few people around her. Even Mother Nature seemed to appreciate the scene and for the first time in the day the clouds began to part and the sun shined down. Just as Amma began to pass out plates of food to everyone a rainbow appeared over ocean.

Once all the humans received their prasad, a few seagulls came a landed a short distance from where the group was sitting. Amma instructed the person who prepared the food to make a plate for them as well. All looked on as he walked over and left a plate of pasta for them in the sand. Amma watched intently, smiling, as they also ate her prasad.

Amma then asked for someone to share some jokes or stories with a spiritual message.Then she wanted to go into the ocean. As she walked towards the waves, knelt down on the ground, reverently touched the earth, and started moving the sand around with her hands. She picked out tiny white shells, and made small mounds of sand. Then she stood up, and began walking into the waves. As she stepped in to the water, she became quite concerned about the children in the group. She asked all the moms in the group to hold onto their kids, and made sure everyone around her could swim.

As the water started breaking over her legs, Amma became very playful. Everyone hiked up his or her pant legs or skirts and stood knee-deep in the water with Amma, waiting for the next wave to rush forth. Each time a wave brushed over them, all screamed and laughed like a little kids with Amma. For several minutes Amma stood there, wave after wave soaking everyone, laughing and playing like kids. Each wave seemed to get bigger and bigger than the one before it as if the ocean couldn’t resist getting closer and closer to Amma.

After a few minutes, she turned stepped a few feet back from the waves and asked everyone to stand in a big circle and join her in singing Bandalo, clapping hands with the person next to them. Although Amma kept asking everyone to widen the circle so that everyone could see, people seemed to have a hard time following instructions. Like the waves a few minutes before, everyone wanted to be as close to Amma as possible.

After that bhajan, Amma turned once again to face the ocean, and started to sing “Shrishtiyum Niye.” Her mood changed from very playful and childlike to very deep and inward. As she sang, she stretched her arms out towards the ocean and up towards the sky and her eyes rolled back. When the song finished, everyone was still and silent. Even the waves seemed to have shrunk back and quieted their roar to hear Amma sing to them.

Then Amma sat down again at the waves’ edge meditated in silence. As the meditation continued, tears started to stream down from Amma’s closed eyes. After a long time, she opened her eyes, wiped away her tears, and bent forward to prostrate. She placed her head on the sand, and bowed fully to the ocean before she got up to leave.

Just as she walked back to the camper the sun began to set and for the first time in the day a few raindrops started to fall. There were still more than 400km left to drive till the group reached Brisbane and since Mother Nature had held back the rain all day, seemingly waiting for Amma to finish her picnic, she completely let loose the rest of the way. It then rained very heavily from the moment Amma left the beach until she arrived in Brisbane.

The stop definitely ended up being the highlight for all those travelling with Amma. Afterwards many of those that were there said it felt like a dream to be at the beach eating, singing and playing with Amma. It was such an amazing surreal experience that few could really express the bliss they felt afterwards. The scriptures tell us that we are living in Maya, in illusion, in a dream and we need to wake up and experience the bliss that is our true nature. For most of us there this may have been one of the rare moments that we were actually awake and experiencing reality as it should be, as it should always be.

-Gautam