News
Tour & Humanitarian work

Amma is now on her North Indian Tour. The crowds are phenomenal in each stop. While every tour staff is awed at the magnitude of the crowd, Amma beams happily that she can serve more and more of her children with her comforting hugs and humanitarian outreach. For example, in a town called Karwar 300,000 people came to the program!

In almost every stop Amma gave out certificates of enrolment to 1000 new beneficiaries of the life-time pension scheme of the M.A.Math

In Kannur, Bangalore, Karwar, Nagpur, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Surat, Amdavad, Jaipur and Delhi beneficiaries were added to the life-time pension scheme of the M.A.Math

Among the beneficiaries most of them were widows, handicapped and aged people.

Tour of compassion and giving - see pictures here

This is service, this is the spirit!: For the seventh time since 1998, members of Japan's International Volunteer University Student Association (IVUSA) are participating in the Amrita Kuteeram house-building project . This year more than 80 such students have traveled to Nagapattinam to help build tsunami-relief housing in the villages of Pandagasalai, Akkarapettai and Mele Pattinacherry.

While all of the volunteers were laudable, there is one that we cannot help gazing and pondering over.

Due to birth complications, 22-year-old Taka Aki was afflicted with a severe case of cerebral paralysis. Intellectually he is just like any other university student, but he has very limited control over his muscles and is thus constrained to a wheelchair and has difficulty even speaking.

Taka Aki has longed to participate in Amrita Kuteeram since first meeting Amma in Tokyo in 2003. He has come to see Amma in Tokyo every year since and has been active with IVUSA throughout the year.

This year Taka Aki with great determination and with the support of his comrades, made it to the Tsunami-relief project site in Nagapattinam in Southern India.

Taka Aki was challenged by the extreme hot weather conditions and his wheel-chair that had a flat-tyre, maybe due to the rough terrain. He simply sat in the shade, watching everyone else and longing for an opportunity to serve.

The next day someone suggested that maybe he could paint. He was thrilled by the idea and immediately agreed to try. Soon, a few people carried him onto a scaffolding, taped a paintbrush in his hand (he is unable to grip things), and he was ready to go. Someone guided his hand into the paint bucket and then, with great effort, he moved the brush back and forth along the wall. Paint was flying everywhere, spraying anyone within range, but no one seemed to mind or even moved out of the way. The scene was too inspiring to leave. A small crowd began to gather, and tears came to many people's eyes. One of the site supervisors was visibly touched and, with his hands over his heart, said, ‘This is real service.’

Taka Aki spent the next several hours painting. Every so often the scaffolding would be shifted so that he could reach another section, and different people took turns supporting him on the scaffolding and helping him to dip his brush. Throughout the day the other students continually shouted encouragement, some joking with love that he had painted himself as much as the house.

By the time the sun began to set, the house had been transformed from the lifeless gray of cement to the inspiring pink of the horizon.

Amma.org sincerely thanks Amritapuri.org for these wonderful updates from India

Amma's Summer Tour to N.America
Dates and Venues

Amma in N.North America: Please check here for Tour dates and Venues.

Gems to Treasure
Golden words of Mother Teresa

There is only one God and He is God to all;
therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God.
I’ve always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu,
a Muslim become a better Muslim,
a Catholic become a better Catholic.
We believe our work should be our example to people.

We have among us 475 souls - 30 families are Catholics and the rest are all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs—all different religions. But they all come to our prayers."

Editors's comment: In today's world, where there is so much rivalry among the believers of different religions, these great souls showed us the Truth that all religions are one and the same through the great example of their own lives. Each religion may have a different path, but its destination is one and the same.

Experience with Amma
The Lost Son Found - By Swami Amritaswarupananda

With the help of airport workers, the local devotees elaborately searched all over the airport. The airport paging system announced Jaggu's name several times. There was absolutely no response, and there was no sign of Jaggu anywhere.

Read more

Excerpted from his book " From Amma's Heart"

Satsang of the Month
Congratulations to the Bay area satsang for their great contribution to society!

Bay area satsang group: After the onslaught of the recent Katrina and Tsunami disasters, the Bay area satsangs under the guidance of the M.A.Center in San Ramon is creating a disaster-preparedness plan.

We are happy to especially honor Nathalie delaRoziere who went out of her way to share her knowledge on disaster preparendess to the local community members, Franci Collins who contributed a lot with her many years of experience in emergency preparedness working with Red Cross and Karunamba Loscocco who worked as hard to put this document together.

A unique aspect of this plan is it's recommendations that will help us keep our spirit up during difficult times. By practising prayer and meditation we will be able to remain calm and think more clearly when we are stressed.

1) Sixteen week emergency preparedness plan- This 16 Week Preparation Program is intended to help everyone prepare as a “family” for emergencies before they happen. We are preparing for inevitable change while we also offer our prayers and energy to mitigate the disruption.

Other projects by the Bay area community:-

2) Workshop exploring Water Conservation (March 11, 2006 from 2:00-4:30pm at M.A.Center, San Ramon, CA) - This workshop will cover topics like - Uncover hidden water uses, make a personal water meter, find out how much water goes into making a gallon of milk and expand your relationship with the water around you.

3) Earthquake Workshop (March 25, 3:00-4:30pm, M.A.Center, San Ramon, CA) - Dr. Iyer, a proficient seismologist will conduct this workshop. He will talk about Earthquakes in detail, its predictions and mitigation. There will be a question and answer session as a part of the workshop.

The Bayarea satsang group actively supports the M.A.Center, San Ramon, CA by volunteering in many areas like the garden, kitchen, store, technical maintenance, bake sale, Meditation courses etc. The M.A.Center is established as Amma says, for the welfare of the community and the volunteers support this cause in a big way.

We once again thank the M.A.Center volunteers for their selfless-service and we hope that the community continues to benefit from their wonderful service for a long, long time.

Events & Satsangs
Events and satsangs across North America.

Katrina Walkathon by the Bailey Colorado Satsang

The Bailey Colorado Satsang, with the help of the Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs Satsangs, is planning a “Katrina Remembrance 5K Walk/Run” fundraiser to take place on Sunday, August 27, 2006 at City Park in Denver.

Net proceeds will go to support Amma’s relief efforts for the survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In addition to a 5K run, a one mile walking meditation route is being planned. The event is open to the public, for experienced runners as well as families. All those who are interested in the greater Denver area are urged to help promote and support this wonderful event. Many volunteers will be needed to help make this a huge success.

If you would like more info or are interested in volunteering in any capacity, please contact Holly (hyellen@earthlink.net). If you feel inspired by this idea for a fundraiser in your city, the Bailey satsang can help you with guidelines to get started.

Retreats in the Bay area

The M.A.Center in San Ramon, CA with the help of its volunteers organize retreats and workshops from time to time for the benefit of the community. A number of people use these retreats and workshops as a nice break from their busy routines. For this spring, we have two such events coming up:

Spring Silent Retreat in M.A.Center, San Ramon, CA on April 16th between 8:00 am to 5:30 pm. Online Registration will be available by March 25. For details

Hatha Yoga workshop in San Ramon, CA on April 30th. Online Registration will be available by March 25. For details

We warmly welcome the Bellingham and the Tacoma satsangs in Washington State.

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