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Spiritual Tourism II- Heavens on Earth
By admin | June 26, 2008
Amongst the Fourfold Yoga, Union via Love is considered the noblest. More
Grace and protection accrue from Union via Love. It is said that He favours
Love to Wisdom, hiding His secrets even from Wisdom !
The Seers are known in India as Yogis & Yoginis. They are people who are
intoxicated with the bliss of the Divine, who embrace none but Him ! Of such
a One is the Mother of Immortal Bliss, Amritanandamayi Devi, popularly known
as Amma.
Her Ashram is located in Amritapuri in Vallickavu, a small fishing village
near Quilon (Kollam), South Kerala. At the site of the birthplace of this
noble lady is the Ashram located and it houses more than 2500 disciples &
householders as full time residents. She hugs all in a motherly embrace and
lakhs of people from all over the glove come to experience her Love.
Says the Mother Goddess in Scripture
I am She, let there not be any doubt
Seeing such Yoginis is like seeing
Me
Such a One’s Darshan is like
worshipping Me thousandfold
Mother becomes sanctified & Earth
become divine !
Her principal teaching is not so much verbal, but the experience of being
with her. Those who see her have said that she has a special earthy aura a
sense of peace about her, a special healing touch. She gives darshan on
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. She is mother to all, she welcomes
everybody with a radiant smile, talks to all, consoles and blesses all and
give them a divine motherly hug. She embraces more than 15000 devotees in
one night. On Sundays, she dresses in a spectacular costume & a crown and
enters into mystic trances, assuming the form of Mother Divine. This special
Darshan lasts the whole night past sunrise to next morn. Her devotees
believe that she is the incarnation of the Fourth Aspect of the Divine
Consciousness Force, of Time Personified ( Kali ) and many worship her
picture or small Ammachi dolls.
Tuesdays and Fridays are set aside for ashram residents when Amma comes to
the temple to give them ‘Satsang’.
At the Ashram, the daily routine starts at early morn at around Five with
the recital of Lalitha Sahasranamam, accompanied by the Tabla & harmonium
followed by Vedic classes, Meditation, devotional songs till eve, with
breaks in between. She leads the followers in Meditation, instrusting them
in their Yogic practice and imparting Divine Wisdom. She leads the Bhajans
( devotional songs ) in the evenings with inspired passion and abandon,
flinging her arms in the air as she cries out rapturously the names of the
various Deities of the Vedic pantheon. Devotees, surcharged by the divine
atmosphere and the presence of a Yogini, gets into the devotional mood,
which they find blissful to the core. There are also classes in Yoga,
Sanskrit, Vedanta and Meditation.
Amma is generally out of the country from mid May until mid August as well
as from early November until early December.
The ashram, now the headquarters of Amma’s world wide mission, runs a number
of charitable, medical and educational programs, including an orphanage, a
free housing program for poor widows, and a hostel for tribal children, a
hospice for cancer patients, a five hundred bed hospital, an ayurvedic
clinic, a computer technology institute and a technical school at the
premises as well as ashrams or centres throughout India and abroad. Through
its branch ashrams, the math conducts regular medical camps, programmes for
feeding the poor, distributes pensions to impoverished women, and builds
free homes for the poor. The branches also assist in the collection and
distribution of free clothes and school books, and some arrange scholarships
for deserving children who would otherwise not be able to attend school. The
math has centres in 28 countries including USA, UK, UAE, Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, Japan etc.
Accommodation and food
The ashram physically consist of one six storey apartment building, one
seven storey apartment complex and a number of small residential buildings.
It can accommodate up to five hundred people at any one time. There are
basic dormitories designed to sleep about twelve people in a room and some
semi private rooms with attached bath for married couple ( families with
children have priority). Thin mattresses, pillows are available for rent but
you must provide your own bedding and mosquito net. Indian visitors can book
their accommodation by sending an email addressed to e-mail and foreign
visitors to e-mail1 , at least 10 days ahead of their trip.
A small library is available for reading and study. Snacks, books, pictures,
clothing, soaps and other items are available for purchase at a small store.
You can make phone calls from the clock room and there is internet facility.
There is a bank where you can exchange foreign currency and wire money, at
the premises.
Accommodation includes Indian-style vegetarian meals- rice and vegetables.
Non-spicy, Western-style food is available for an additional cost. Filtered
and boiled water is available.
How to get there:
Amma’s Ashram is located in the tiny village of Vallickavu, Kollam district
in south Kerala between the backwater canal and the Arabian sea. From
Vallickavu one could take a boat across the backwaters to Amrithapuri.
Alternatively you could take the slightly longer beach road from
Karunagapally (10 km south) and cross the backwaters through a bridge which
brings you directly to the ashram. Kollam, the nearest city is around 35km
from the ashram.
Air: The nearest Airports are Kochi (140 km north) and Thiruvananthapuram
(the capital of Kerala 110km south) of the ashram.
Rail & Road:
The nearest railway and bus stations are at Kayamkulam (12km north) and
Karunagapally (10km south) from where you can take a local bus, taxi or Auto
rickshaw to Vallickavu village, from where you could take a boat across or
straight to the Amrithapuri Asram through the beach road from Karunagapally.
http://www.amrithapuri.org
http://www.ammachi.org
Topics: Spiritual Tourism |
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