Christmas Eve in Amritapuri

This will be the second of three posts about Christmas Eve in Amritapuri. In the first one I told readers a bit about the story line and shared a video clip from one of the early practices. (To read that post click here.)

It has seemed to me as if there have been fewer people at the ashram than is usual for a holiday season. That changed dramatically on Christmas Eve. Not only was there a big influx of Indian and Western visitors, but that morning was  the beginning of the AYUDH National Leadership Summit. Six hundred youth from 15 to 35 years-of-age participated in that event.

This photo taken during the Christmas Eve program will give you a sense of the size of the crowd. There were additional seats set up in areas that are not visible in this picture.

Amma gave darshan (hugs) until 11:00 pm. The cast set up the stage for the play at the same time, meaning they were putting up equipment and sets all around her.

By 11:30 pm, Amma was sitting in the hall with us and the play began.

Notes:  1) There is a post on Amma’s Facebook Page that shares a detailed description of the play’s story-line.  2) You can click on the gallery below to enlarge the photos.

The play was wonderful, moving the audience to tears, laughter and repeated applause.

After the play we listened to Amma’s Christmas message. I will share the content of that speech if it is posted online later. After the Christmas message was finished, Amma sang Only Love is our Guiding Light and Jai Mata Di Jaykar Bulavo and then blessed the Christmas cake. Soon everyone had a sweet to end the night.

The program finished sometime between 2:00 and 2:30 am. What a beautiful evening it had been.

Notes: 1) The photos on this post come from Amma’s Facebook page and Amritapuri.org  2) I expect to publish the third post about the play later in the week.

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Amritapuri Tulasi Garden

The Tulasi Garden is the first garden I ever visited in Amritapuri. I probably saw it for the first time a decade or more ago. It has changed so much over the years. They have added land and there are so many different kinds of plants there now. Most of the plants are edible.

I really enjoyed my visit to the Tulasi garden last week. These first photos are of the nursery and some newly planted seedlings. (Click on any of the galleries to enlarge the photos.)

The garden had a banana palm that was at least thirty feet tall. It was twice the size of any I have seen in the past. I also saw several sprouts, the beginning of new banana palms. These photos show various views of banana palms.

I thought this scene of a coconut palm tree was beautiful.

These are old and new papaya trees. The short ones surround the tall one.

There was a wild orchid in the garden.

This is a photo of some of the rudraksha trees…

The seeds that are inside the fruit of a rudraksha tree are sacred. They are often used in making malas. I took these photos of the fruit of rudraksha trees, and the seeds that are inside of them, a few years ago. The second photo was taken at a work station where ashram residents were separating the seeds from the fruit.

Below are photos of other plants I saw in the garden.

And last but not least, I saw this unusual but beautiful tree as I walked back to the main part of the ashram.

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Amritapuri Christmas Play 2017

The Christmas play was last night and it was as wonderful as I expected it to be. Every year I think the musicals can’t get any better, and then they do.

The title of this year’s musical was Walking Beside Us. It was the nativity story as told by a young child living at the Rosenberg School for Girls. It will be a while before I will have access to the photos from the play but I will share a video clip of part of a scene from one of the very early practices now. I think it will give you a sense of what the play was like.

The child who was telling the story of Jesus’ birth decided that one of the wise men was from Africa. In this video clip the woman who plays that wise man (in the play she is a man) is dancing with many types of animals. You will also see her teaching the animals how to do African dance.

I look forward to sharing photos from the play itself so that you can see what the costumes looked like when they were finished.

It is either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day where all of you live, so I will end this post by saying “Merry Christmas!”

More Photos of the School of Biotechnology Grounds

I was unsuccessful in locating the photos I took of the School of Biotechnology grounds a few years ago. All I can do is tell you that when I saw it last week, I was astounded by how much some of the shrubs have grown since I saw it back then. The land was beautiful at that time, and it is even more beautiful now. (Click on the gallery to enlarge the photos.)

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

An Uninvited Guest

On Wednesday, I wrote about seeing a monkey in a tree eating cereal (Early Morning Fun). He had probably found the cereal in a nearby garbage bin. During lunch, the monkey was in the rafters of the dining hall. He had stolen a towel from someone and was creating quite a sensation carrying it along the outside rails.

Then yesterday (Friday), I attended the afternoon play practice. The cast had divided into two rooms to learn the finale dance. The children were in one room and the adults were in another. All of a sudden the children ran en masse from their room into the adult room, screaming. Their screams were more excited than frightened. The monkey had shown up in their room and they had run away from it.

When the combined practice began in the main room, the monkey decided to visit. Chaitanya did a valiant effort trying to maintain order. She told everyone that the monkey wanted to see the play, so they should let him do that.

He sat high up in the rafters and watched quietly for awhile…

and then began to wander.

Soon, he came down to our level. First, he tried to carry away an electrical box; and then took the loose end of an electrical cord and started scratching himself with it. The cast only were able to use the room for a short time more but it was nearly impossible to keep order when a creature was in the room that would likely steal anything that was left unattended. Besides it was fun and exciting to watch the monkey.

Some of the cast are animals in the play. Eventually, they roared their animal roars at the monkey and he ran away. Luckily there was still enough time left for them to finish learning the finale dance. I imagine it will be a memorable practice for many.

To read the previous Amritapuri posts in this series click here.

“Karuna, Go with the Flow”

Devotees in the Pacific Northwest decided to celebrate Amma’s birthday this year by planting trees. Our goal was to plant 64 trees over a 7 week period but we far exceeded that number. More than 100 people participated in the project and our final count was 309 trees!

The December issue of our PNW GreenFriends newsletter was devoted to sharing stories and photos from the tree planting. Since Amma did not come to North America this fall, some of us decided to create a booklet from the newsletter and give Amma a copy when we were in Amritapuri.

This week there were fourteen devotees in Amritapuri who had participated in the project either by planting trees or by helping with the organization. Tirtha, who came up with the idea of tree planting for Amma’s birthay, was one of those people. I was so glad she was here.

We planned to present Amma the booklet on Thursday December 21st.  Finding a time when all of us would be available was quite a feat. We settled on 8 p.m.

The first bump in the road came when darshan was changed from the big auditorium to the small temple. The temple stage is very tiny so there would be no way for us to all be in front of Amma at the same time. The second challenge occurred when Western devotees were asked to come for darshan starting at 2:00 p.m. There was no reasonable way to get all of our people together at that time but we did decide to move the presentation from 8 to 7 and trust that the darshan program wouldn’t end before then.

Tirtha and I needed to find everyone to let them know of the time change. Within five minutes of the decision, almost all of the people involved walked in front of me; I didn’t have to look for any of them. Tirtha found two of the Victoria devotees soon thereafter. There was only one more person to locate. I knew he was doing seva (volunteer work) until 6:30 but I didn’t know what kind of seva it was and I didn’t know what building he was living in. The offices were closed by then so I didn’t know what to do. He was someone who had a lot of desire to participate in this presentation, so I became increasingly frantic about finding him.

Lakshmi, a long time Amritapuri resident who also helps organize and run the darshan line, had agreed to translate for us once we reached Amma. When I saw her in front of the temple in my frantic state, she said, “Karuna, Go with the Flow.” I knew she was right and I also knew that my seeing almost all of the people in the first five minutes was a good example of the flow that happens when something is meant to be.

I believe that letting go is not permission to be passive and assume everything will work out without any effort on my part. I knew, though, that I had put in plenty of effort. Instead of continuing with my frantic search, I decided to go to my room and take a cold shower even though it was 6:45. After a quick shower, I looked at my email. In that moment, a new email arrived. It was from the devotee I had been looking for, saying he was heading to the temple. I was so glad I had decided to trust the flow and had taken the shower. That helped me cool off as well as calm down. And what a good example it was of the benefits of “Going with the Flow.”

By 7:15 everyone had arrived, and we joined the darshan line. It moved much faster than I had expected. Lakshmi had suggested that since we couldn’t come in front of Amma as a group, we should go one after another. I would hand her the booklet and then each person in the group that followed would say “I planted trees” to Amma. Lakshmi even told them how to say those words in Malayalam.

Before long, I was in front of Amma. She looked through the booklet and was clearly happy. Then I was in her arms, my favorite place to be! Afterwards, I sat in an area where I could see each member of our group receive their hug.

I loved how our presentation had turned out and also appreciated the reminder of the importance of “going with the flow.”

If you would like to read the GreenFriends newsletter that became Amma’s booklet click here.
To read the previous Amritapuri posts in this series click here.

Mystery Solved

I posted the other day about an unusual insect I saw in Saraswati Garden. At the time, I thought it was a butterfly or a moth but I couldn’t find a photo on the internet that was anything like it.

Today I went to the Tulasi Farm in Amritapuri and there was an area that had MANY of these insects. In watching them fly, I knew they weren’t either butterflies or moths. They moved so fast I couldn’t see them well, but I thought they might be dragon flies.

When I looked on the internet, I discovered there are 91 species of dragon flies in Kerala. I was able to find a photo of one that looked similar to what I had seen.

Wikimedia Commons

Amritapuri Gardens: School of Biotechnology

I took these photos when I was visiting the Amrita University School of Biotechnology. That part of the university is located in Vallikavu, the town across the backwaters from the ashram.

Can you find the bird?

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

Early Morning Fun

When I was watching a play practice yesterday afternoon, I glanced outside in time to glimpse a monkey jumping onto the roof of the building where the play practice was taking place. I had heard of monkey sighting but hadn’t seen one for years.

Right after Amma built the foot bridge that goes between the mainland and the ashram, a lot of monkeys visited the ashram. It was not uncommon to turn a corner and find a monkey sitting there; an exciting but jolting experience. I knew people who had a monkey walk into their room and take something. If the person tried to intervene, the monkey would bare its teeth, which was enough to make the owner have second thoughts.  Some years back, a monkey broke into a room where chocolate candy is produced and stole chocolate. I enjoyed having the opportunity to see just a small part of a monkey yesterday.

Then this morning, I was chatting with my friend Kripa near the recycling area where we bring and sort our trash.  At one point, the man standing near me started taking photographs. I looked up to see what he was looking at and saw a small monkey sitting in the tree eating a bag of cereal. The monkey had apparently taken taken the bag out of one of the garbage bins.

What a blessed way to start my day.

To read the previous posts in this series click here.

An Evening Surprise

Yesterday was the first day since I’ve been here that I didn’t take a nap. As I walked back to my room around 9:30 p.m. I noticed something on the wall ahead of me. I had no idea what it was so walked closer to it. In that moment, it flew off, drawn by a nearby light. I realized it was a gigantic moth. It must have had a four inch wing span, or at least that was what it seemed like in the short time I had to observe it. I walked away so I could look at it from a distance. In a minute or so, the moth flew back to the wall. I walked back to take a photo of it.

While I’m curious, I hope to never meet one of these again. I suppose this is one of those situations that I should learn to accept with equanimity but I’m not there!

To read the previous posts in this series click here.