‘Make India into a Garden’

24-25 February, Bengaluru, Karnataka –Bharata Yatra 2011

Amma was welcomed to Bengaluru, the capital of Karnataka, by several dignitaries– including the Chief Minister of Karnataka, B. S. Yeddyurappa, Justice P Sivaraj Patil and Justice Gururaj, Retired Supreme Court Justice of India, MN Venkitachalayya, as well as several major figures from the prominent IT industry based in Bengaluru.

Welcoming Amma to Bengaluru, Justice P Sivaraj Patil said, “I really feel that all those present here are truly blessed because we are alive at the same time as Mataji. For her, it appears to me, the entire humanity is her religion. There are two chariots for her mission, one is love and the other one is kindness. If these two things are there, everything falls into place. Amma should be available to us for a long time. I pray to God to take one day of the life of everyone and add it to the life of Amma so that she can serve for a longer time. We only live for ourselves, but those who live for others are really important. Some may say that we have not seen god. But there are people, like Amma, through whom we can see God.”

Amma introduced the Amala Bharatam Campaign on the first day, but in every one of her satsangs while in Bengaluru she continued to emphasize the importance of the project. Each time she also distributed handkerchiefs to the students and handed them out to all the youth who came for darshan.

Bengaluru is also known at the ‘Garden City’ so it seemed fitting that Amma added that “if each school takes up the responsibility to clean and maintain a 5km area around their school, and if all the students dedicate themselves to the campaign, and we will make India into a garden within one year.” This idea was met by thunderous applause by the large crowd.

During Amma’s darshan Amrita University students performed a drama about Dasaavatar, the 10 avatars of Lord Vishnu. The students of Amrita Vidyalayam also performed several dances for Amma during darshan.

To the delight of all the local devotees Amma sang several new bhajans in Kannada, the language of Karnataka as well leading the manasa puja in Kannada.

– Kannadi