Life at the ashram - Jan 07

3.00 am - Amma finishes giving her darshan ceremony after sitting on stage hugging and speaking to thousands of people since 10am the previous day without a toilet break, fag break or food. There is a big closing song and prayer as the Bhajans finish and as my room is directly behind where all this takes place I finally get a moments peace.

4.30 am - Archana (chanting) begins and is broadcast on a loudspeaker directly behind my room. The chants are loud but I'm lulled into a kind of semi-state of consciousness and look around my dorm room to see everyone else sleeping soundly.

5.30am - My alarm goes off.

6 am - I begin my Seva. Each inhabitant of this huge ashram on the edge of the Keralan backwaters and the sea - an ominous group of tower blocks rising from the palm trees - is encouraged to do some kind of selfless service. This involves anything from washing up to painting the temple or helping with the laundry. I have to stack the chairs in the canteen and sweep the floors with Sahadev (that's his spiritual name - he's from California) which takes approximately 2 hours.

8 am - Yoga practice

10am - Breakfast in the Western Canteen. There is free Indian food available for breakfast, lunch and dinner but the western canteen is run by some devotees of Amma's who happen to bake some of the best cakes, cookies and pancakes I've ever had.

11am - Satsang in the temple. Amma is worshipped because of her deemed enlightenment and closeness to God and she gives a spiritual talk, preceded by meditation in the temple. The talk covers topics like the place of women in society and male and female emotional repsonsibility. I left early.

1am - Lunchtime.

5 pm - Meditation on the beach while the sun sets.

6.30pm - Bhajans. Amma leads some spiritual songs while hundreds of people sit and watch her/meditate and look on in awe.

8pm - Dinner.

9.30 - Bedtime.

I must say it's an absolutely fascinating place to spend some time, and I went up for the hug a couple of nights ago. You could definitely feel some amazing energy and the next day I felt very positive and made some important decisions that I'd been hesitating about for a while. There are many people staying here from all over the world, many of whom seem a little unbalanced and lost, but there are also a lot of very clear-minded, intelligent individuals who treat Amma as their spiritual guru. It's been great to have a daily purpose again after months of travelling around just consuming and looking at others working, and I've found this strange place a wonderful place to focus and get my energy back after a manic couple of weeks.

http://www.amritapuri.org/

check it out for yourselves...

love

Guy (no spiritual name yet...)