Category: Festivals

  • Leaving Jaipur with flying colours

    15 March, Jaipur, Rajasthan –Bharata Yatra 2006 Initially we thought we were going to leave Jaipur before sunrise, but then word came that we would not be leaving until after noon. With the tour’s rigorous schedule, I was happy to be able to sleep in. However, myself and others were concerned that we were setting…

  • Painting minds with the colour of love: Amma celebrates Holi

    Painting minds with the colour of love: Amma celebrates Holi

    15 March, 2006 – Jaipur, Rajasthan, and the Rajasthan–Haryana border on NH7 Holi is mainly a North Indian tradition. As such, in Amma’s youth she never threw about the celebratory powdered paints as people do in places like Mumbai, Jaipur and Delhi. And even though Amma has been in the North during Holi almost every year…

  • “Imagine the sun rising in your heart”: 2006 begins in celebration

    “Imagine the sun rising in your heart”: 2006 begins in celebration

    Midnight, 1 January 2006 —Amritapuri When the clock struck midnight, Amma had been giving darshan for more than 13 hours. The New Year’s Eve dances and other cultural performances had taken place at Amma’s side. Darshan finished almost exactly with the beginning of 2006. The thousands of devotees  from all over the world who had…

  • Christmas in Amritapuri

    Christmas in Amritapuri

    25 December 2005 — Amritapuri Never is Amritapuri filled with more of Amma’s devotees from the West than during Christmas. Each year people from America, Europe, Australia and other parts of the Western world come all the way across the globe to spend their winter holidays with Amma. Many of them only get 10 days…

  • Amma’s Vidyaarambham, initiation into alphabets

    Amma’s Vidyaarambham, initiation into alphabets

    10 October 2005, Amritapuri [Just before Amma left for Europe, a reporter from Matrubhumi, a leading Malayalam daily, asked Amma about Her vidyaarambham [initiation into learning], i.e. when and how Amma was initiated into learning.] “My vidyaarambham (news) took place 48 years ago. I was four then. Every navaratri, we used to place the items…

  • Birthday celebration in Sri Lanka

    AMMA’s Birthday was celebrated on 27-9-05 with simple ceremonies in Colombo and in Kalutara (in western Province of Sri Lanka), where the Ashram is building houses to resettle the families displaced by the tsunami. This was the first time Amma’s birthday was being celebrated in Sri Lanka.

  • Narayana Kurup received Amrita Keerti award

    On 27th September, the birthday of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Sri. P. Narayana Kurup was awarded the Amrita Keerti Puraskar for his meritorious contributions to spiritual and philosophical literature. Kurup is an award-winning poet and literary critic and is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Ollur Award. His Excellency the Governor of Kerala, Sri. R.L.…

  • As the clock struck midnight

    As the clock struck midnight

    27 September 2005 — Amritapuri Many people stay up late the night before their birthday so they can be awake when the clock strikes midnight. Amma also got the celebration started just past the midnight hour, but of course not for her, but for her children. Just before the clock struck 12, Amma descended from…

  • Confront trying times with Love

    Confront trying times with Love

    Amma’s birthday celebrations 27 September 2005 — Amritapuri Some 200,000 people descended on Amritapuri for Amma’s birthday this year. The seemingly gigantic bhajan hall was deemed too small a venue, and a special pandal was therefore erected behind the hall, with a capacity to seat nearly 50,000 people. But in the early hours of the…

  • In difficult times, kindle the strength of love

    In difficult times, kindle the strength of love

    Excerpts from Amma’s satsang on the occasion of her 52nd Birthday 27 September 2005 — Amritapuri “Amma is very happy to see so many of her children gathered together here today. Children who have the attitude of service are the pride of their mother and the beauty of society. In Amma’s world, there is no…