

MotherPage Social Service Free Houses First Houses

The Team that Builds

Br. Premamrita Chaitanya, the co-ordinator of the Amritakuteeram housing project, organised the first phase throughout the fourteen districts of Kerala. Every district organiser received a list of likely applicants, which often ran into thousands.

It took several months for Premamrita and his team of brahmacharis to go through all the applications in order to decide the urgency of each applicant's needs. Then these needs had to be verified in person. Beginning in the autumn of 1996, scores of brahmacharis visited the villages throughout Kerala to interview the prospective recipients.

Br.Tapasyamrita Chaitanya went to Idukki District in 1996. He says, "The poorest people live in isolated hilly pockets and only the local people know how to find them. There are no proper roads, only hilly tracts and isolated paths, which sometimes can only be reached by foot. We visited them, travelling by jeep, or on a motorbike that was provided by the local devotees, and then usually walking the last part of the way.”

Many of the brahmacharis were young, newly initiated monks in yellow robes and this was their first venture in social work. Amma's aim was to teach them a lesson in the deeper meaning of service. The brahmacharis were deeply affected by the plight of the people they served. Most of them had no proper food. They lived in pitiable conditions, slept under saris (traditional clothing of women in India - a single, long piece of cloth), or in plastic tents. Amma says, "Compassion for the poor and needy is our primary duty to God." Seeing is learning, and the brahmacharis were receiving many lessons in selfless work and compassion. What they had learned in the ashram was put into practice in this project. Compassion welled in their hearts, becoming the driving force sustaining them through endless hours of arduous work. Seeing the sincerity and selflessness of the brahmacharis and understanding their motivation, the attitudes of even the most hardened recipients softened. The lessons of selfless service were being gradually imbibed on both the part of the brahmacharis and the recipients. Amma's teachings took on a new reality.

Br. Jayashankar explains how the young brahmacharis tackled the task of building homes with no previous experience: "Only one of us in the building team had built houses before, so at first we all worked together to get an idea of how to go about things. We learnt as we went along. The ashram life had given us self-discipline and the necessary strength. It took about four weeks for the first house to be finished. Then we sped up and were able to build three a week. The pace became very fast, and we split ourselves into two groups. We finished 250 houses in 4 months."

But the brahmacharis weren't alone in their work. Br. Jayashankar continues: "The local people didn't have faith in Amma. But the devotees there were very enthusiastic. They were mostly local ladies. Imagine 30-40 women labouring hard to lay bricks! They wanted to prove sceptics wrong. Their actions seemed to proclaim 'This is our Amma. This is what She does.' Many elderly women also wanted to help, so we asked them to come and chop vegetables and make kanji (rice gruel), and serve the people who were working.

Some schoolteachers and bank officials who were devotees also took time off from work to help. The villagers knew who they were and began to wonder, 'Why have they come here to lay bricks for that poor woman? What is happening here?'"

Br. Dhyanamrita Chaitanya was the co-ordinator for the Thrissur District. "When I first visited the people and saw how terribly poor, lonely and helpless they were, I felt deep compassion. There was no one there to look after them. Till then I had never seen much pain and suffering with my eyes. What Amma had always told me became stark reality before my eyes, as I witnessed their terrible pain and agony. When you go out there, that knowledge becomes your own. It's real education. Your heart begins to blossom. You feel great compassion and pity for these people. After hearing some of their stories, I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't believe that people had been living in such terrible conditions in these places. But Amma knew. She has chosen them and now they too feel Her love."