Amma, Mata Amritanandamayi Devi
14 February — Dhareshwar Beach, 80 km south of Karwar, Karnataka –Bharata Yatra 2006 From Mangalore to Karwar, it’s a straight shot. Both towns are on the Arabian Sea. Just get on NH 17 and head north. At a distance of 270 kilometres, with a decent road, it’s one of the shortest trips of the […]
14 February 2006 — Dhareshwar Beach, Karnataka From the limited perspective of man, the actions of an Enlightened One are both unpredictable and unfathomable. One minute they may seem to follow logic. The next, they may behave as if mad. Sometimes they seem to act out of habit, and then out of the blue they […]
8 February —Kannur, Kerala –Bharata Yatra 2006 Darshan in Kannur did not finish until 9:00 the next morning—from start to finish Amma had been onstage for 15 hours continuously. But there was no time for rest. Bangalore, the next stop on the tour, lay 400 kilometres to the north. Given that in order to get […]
7 February, 2006 – Kannur, Kerala Although Kannur means “Land of Kanna*,” the northern Kerala district regularly makes headlines for being the home to politically motivated violence, even brutal public killings. The majority of the district supports pro-Communist parties, which in general are anti-religion and, even more so, anti-“God-man.” In the past, it has even […]
3 February 2006 — Amritapuri The packing began in earnest only the day before departure–and most of that was done at night. Nine buses named after the Divine Mother–Kali, Durga, Lakshmi, Sree, Mata, Amba, Amrita, Vani and Devi–all had to be loaded. The full night, brahmacharis and devotees climbed up and down the bus ladders, […]
8 – 10 January, Kozhikode, Kerala — Bharata Yatra 2006 They begin queuing up the day before Amma is to give darshan, and they spend the whole night there, entire families sleeping on the hard ground under the open sky. Most of them have been waiting all year for these three days—Amma’s annual visit to […]
6 January, 2006 – Kottakkal, Malappuram, Kerala By noon, the chairs were full, by 5:00, the grounds were full and by 7:00 the roads were all blocked. How many people came to see Amma in Kottakkal? When the crowds are this big, it is hard to say: 80,000? 90,000? 100,000? The only way you can really […]