Love and hugs from Amma
Trip Start
Nov 04, 2007
1
32
62
Trip End
May 03, 2008
Amritapuri,
India
Sunday, February 3, 2008
We had to get up early to get away from Varkala. From the nearby town of Kollam there is a daily boat that travels up the backwaters to Allepey. To get to Kollam in time for the boat we had to get an auto to Varkala train station, a train to Kollam, then another auto to the pier. On leaving the guesthouse, I literally had a tug-of-war with the porter who seemed adamant that he would carry my bag to the road, from where we would hail an auto. I knew that he would want paying to carry my bag the 20 metre distance, and would much rather have carried it myself. After telling him at least a dozen times that I would carry it myself, and once he had my bag on his back I was physically tugging at my bag to stop him walking off, but to no avail. As predicted when he set my bag down on the ground next to the auto he asked for payment, so I pointed out that I made it quite clear that I was happy to carry it myself, so could only assume his insistance was an act of goodwill
Our room in Amritapuri
.We got the the boat in good time, and picked up some take-away idlies for breakfast. We've mentioned idly before on this blog, so it might be an idea for me to explain what they are as we had certainly never seen them before coming to India. An idly is a small 'cake' made of some sort of cereal grain that is very similar to couscous (I thought they were rice? - Ros) . It's a really common food in India and makes a nice breakfast or snack, served with various chutneys, usually coconut, and sambar.
They boat journey from Kollam to Allepy takes about 8 hours in total. But one option is to break the trip half-way by stopping off and staying at an ashram. The particular ashram is at Amritapuri. It was started by a woman called Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, who is now better known as Amma, meaning mother. Now this might sound similar to The Mother of Auroville described in our Pondicherry blog entry, but we're pleased to report this was completely different to Auroville.
We'd read a little about Amritapuri before we arrived. Amma is a well known and highly regarded figure for both her spirituality and her charitable work. She is particularly well known because of the blessings she gives, called darshan, in which she hugs people (more on that later)
Sunset from the beach at Amritapuri
. After our Auroville experience we were a little sceptical, but we wanted to see this place and find out more about it. We stepped off the boat to find Amritapuri a busy, bustling community, with lots of people wandering about, many of them wearing white robes, which was a little un-nerving. We went to the international office where we checked in, read and agreed to the many rules and went to find our room, which was in a huge pink tower block, not unlike an inner-city housing estate you may find in Britain. The accommodation had been described as simple but clean, which was certainly true. The beds were metal bunks (although fortunately we weren't sharing the room with anyone else), but there were no matresses. So we laid out all our sheets and our sleeping bags to soften the bed as much as possible, although it didn't make much difference. The room resembled a prison cell - dark, concrete and cobwebbed and the bathroom was terrifying, with brown water in the loo and an antiquated shower from which barely a dribble of water dripped.Amma is a very busy woman indeed. She spends 8 months of the year travelling around the world doing her spiritual/charitable work. So we were fortunate to arrive in Amritapuri a day after she had, and on a day that she was giving darshan.
Ros:
We had been warned that many people queue for hours to receive darshan, but we thought that we'd give it a go
People meditating on the beach at Amritapuri
. So we managed to find our way to the massive hall and collect an 'international darshan token' which allowed us to join the queue. And so we waited.
And waited.
The hall was pretty packed - row upon row of plastic chairs filled with Indians waiting for their turn. The focal point was the stage, which in rather a school-hall style (although this hall was much bigger) was framed by stairs and had big posters of Amma either side. You couldn't see what was going on from the main hall as there were so many people on the stage - a gradual procession of people moved across the front, clearly all watching something in the centre.
And we waited a bit longer.
All the while there was loud music blaring out of speakers either side of the stage - we think they were 'bhajan' songs that people kept referring to, but were underpinned by a fairly fast tempo that every now and then people would start clapping or dancing to.
And we sat there...waiting...
We'd been told that 1000 foreigners stay at the Ashram at any one time - many as permanent or long-term residents. Most of the white people appeared to be dressed in white robes and floated around the hall looking purposeful, serene and very much Part Of The Club
Secret shot of the Ashram
. Some had angelic looking cherubby babies in slings. After an hour and a half we got as far as the stage, from where we could actually see Amma. The stage area was completely packed, and it was quite clear that we'd have several more hours to wait if we wanted to receive our hug. So as there was an introductory talk and tour at 5pm that we thought we should go to if we had any hope of understanding the Ashram at all, we contented ourselves with spending just a little while observing the activity on the stage.
Amma was seated in the centre of the stage on a chair, and there was a steady procession of people winding themselves around the periphery towards her to receive the hug. When it got to their turn they had to kneel, then they were briefly hugged and handed a sweet before standing and moving away - or, if they took too long - being hauled onto their feet and out of the way by some of the men in white standing nearby. Behind Amma were seated a lot of white-robed people all gazing at her in adoration - we later discovered that you are able to ask to spend a short time meditating in Amma's presence on the stage. There were also white people taking it in turns to pass Amma the sweets to give to those who'd received the darshan.
It was all very wierd
Roz trying to get comfortable
. So, having got this introduction to to ashram and being rather in mind that we'd landed ourselves in the middle of a very scary cult, we went to join the tour.
Which turned out to be actually very good and turned our opinion slightly more in favour of the ashram and its work. The cult of Amma seems to act as a focal point to rally volunteers and donations for a huge variety of charitable work. The amount of money raised by the charity is staggering by most Western standards - let alone Indian! They were heavily involved with the reconstruction work after the Tsunami, they run hospitals, schools, orphanages, universities, housing projects and even manage to run projects abroad, including helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Amma spends her time spreading a message that everyone should love each other, irrespective of religion, race or gender, and by doing so, she seems to attract a huge amount of support - both in manpower and donations. Apparently pretty much all the manpower the charity needs for its projects is provided by volunteers - many of whom are from abroad. Certainly the people we spoke to were all in awe of her and treated her like a living saint, telling her lifestory as one would a religious parable (replete with an eagle and a cow that fed her when she was meditating in the wilderness...)
Bridge at Amritapuri
.So we were quite impressed. Still thought that the whole place was terrifying and, after being told off for various misdemeanours (shoes on/off in the wrong places, eating in the wrong places, sitting in the wrong places) and being in need of some personal space (the international community in the ashram is lovely, but very hippydippy and always asking you if you're ok...asking you to help with something...and being very happy and smily...which shouldn't really be a problem I suppose...) we ran away the next day. But if such a cult of an individual manages to achieve great things then we didn't feel we could condemn it just because it's the scariest thing we'd come across since the spider in Sihanoukville.
For more information on Amritapuri, go to: http://www.amritapuri.org/
