They call Her Amma and She desrves a post to Herself. I had heard of this lady who hugs people, alot of people, (apparently 26 million worldwide at the last count) and makes things manifest, cures people of illnesses and all that kinda jazz all by hugging and Her Ashram was not far from from Varkala so me and my mate Tracey decided to go on a day trip and pop in for a hug.
When I say Ashram I mean a villiage, this place is home to two thousand people full time and up to ten thousand when Amma is home. She calles Her hugging marathons Darshan and the day I was there she hugged for 18 hours without a break for food or water or wee wee's and apparently this is normal (She has gone for over 24 hours in the past). I wasn't sure what to expect and I didn't really think about it I was being a bit flippant really. When you enter Her temple you can just see a continuously moving crowd on the stage, you can't see Her at all. You get given your ticket and told to que and as we went toward the stage to wait our turn you can just feel this awsome energy, all of a sudden I was nervous and excited and gloriously happy that I was there, looking back it felt a bit like being high on love. As you near the front of the que you can see a crowd of devotees around Her making one massaging Her back while She hugs, another pushing sweets into Her hand that She gives to everyone as pressad (a bit like when you get bread at church) another behind that one wrapping these little sweets, and just loads of people who want to sit and be near Her, its a mental hive of activity. When you get to the front of the que someone pushes you down on your knees and shuffles you in towards Amma and it seems that there are about 5 people all putting your hands/head/feet in the right place, then she grabs your head and pulls it into her bosom, really tight (like your mother would if she thought she had lost you forever and then found you again) She wispers "my darling, my darling, my darling, my darling" into your ear, pushes a sweet in your hand and then someone pulls you out the other side. When I was there I really felt unconditional love from Her, I just wanted to cry my heart out about all the things that I have been keeping in over the years. When I came out of "the bosom" I was teary eyed and a little dissorientated, I was amazed that someone that I didn't know could give me so much genuine love and in just a few seconds. I am not the kind of person to worship a person or deity but Amma is amazing, She sees it as Her work to spread wholehearted and unconditional love throughout the world, She really does love everyone and after meeting her you don't doubt it for a second. Just thinking about it makes me emotional, I intend to go back and stay with her at some point next year maybe for a month or so, everyone who lived there just seemed so happy and content. If anyone wants a hug She is going to the uk in the Autumn to do Darshan for anyone who wants it, if you want a hug check out Her uk website www.amma.org.uk I think or something like that. Dates are not confirmed yet but she will definately be there before the year is out. I highly recommend getting yourself there, its not every day you get to meet a living saint!
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Beach Life
So its been a wee while since my last post, well loads has happened and also not much at all. I returned to the ashram for another 10 day session, Fran and Eiry arrived which was weird but good to see them. I tried a day of silence which was not completely successful but I had the girls teasing me and trying to get me to talk and for the most part I resisted but towards the end of the day a couple of sentences slipped out on the whole it was a really interesting day and I would love to do it again, I recommend that you try this one at home.
I left the Ashram feeling fit and healthy and ready for some chilling out on the beach, but I took that a bit too far..... It started well, some cooking lessons and a bit of sunbathing and then it all went a bit Pete tong. I was intending to go to a temple festival with the promise of fifty elaborately decorated elephants and then I met a hairy man who invited ne to go with him and his mates so I promptly ditched my friends and sat in a bar with Nathan (hairy man) waiting for the rest of the gang. To cut a long story short we never made it to the elephants which we later heard were amazing and instead spent the evening drinking cocktails made from cheap spirits I got horribly drunk and didn't even manage to pull the hairy man. The next morning I had the hangover from hell and had to go to the second day of my cooking class which was a very difficult day. This seemed to be the begginning of the end, I didn't drink after that but I did start getting a bit stoned, I had a great stoner friend who I was at the ashram with and slowly but surely the yoga got put to one side while we embraced the weed smoking and beach lazing lifestyle. I was ill for a couple of weeks (e-coli urine infection) which was incredibly painfull and I was unable to leave my balcony for a couple of days which was how it started, Steve came and sat with me and got me stoned to cheer me up, and when I got better I just carried on. I ended up spending five weeks there, I had a room with a beautiful veiw right on the cliff top overlooking the beach, amazing sunsets every night and some of the scariest and most amazing electrical storms I have ever seen, literally watching lightening flash across the sky and into the sea with thunder that was so loud it actually seemed to make the ground rumble and set off my landlords car alarm one night. I always felt scared for the fishermen in their little boats with no protection from the elements at all and literally surrounded by lightening.
After a week or so of procrastinating about it I managed to sort my shit out and leave, I shed a few tears in the rickshaw as I left for the station as much for leaving Steve as for leaving Varkala. Steve had been like a brother/best mate and had completely loked after me when I was ill and taken me on little adventures to surrounding beaches and temples on his little moped, we had a great time together and I am missing him already.
I am now on another beach called Gokarna which apparently has some desserted beaches nearby which are supposed to be amazing but I am yet to explore. I am staying in a little house at the far end of the beach next to a temple which is lovely to hear the bells ringing and the incense burning for puja (prayer time) twice a day. It is off season so there is no one else in my guest house so it gloriously peaceful, I could easily stay here another month but I fly to Thailand in a week so thats not an option.
For those of you who haven't heard I am not coming home for the summer, I have decided to stay for as long as I can which maybe one year or maybe two, who knows. I'd be a fool not to make the most of this opportunity, I think I am going back to Varkala for next season and I will rent a house for a few months and work a bit. I intend to get somewhere with a couple of bedrooms so if anyone wants to come visit please feel free.
Ciao for now xxx
I left the Ashram feeling fit and healthy and ready for some chilling out on the beach, but I took that a bit too far..... It started well, some cooking lessons and a bit of sunbathing and then it all went a bit Pete tong. I was intending to go to a temple festival with the promise of fifty elaborately decorated elephants and then I met a hairy man who invited ne to go with him and his mates so I promptly ditched my friends and sat in a bar with Nathan (hairy man) waiting for the rest of the gang. To cut a long story short we never made it to the elephants which we later heard were amazing and instead spent the evening drinking cocktails made from cheap spirits I got horribly drunk and didn't even manage to pull the hairy man. The next morning I had the hangover from hell and had to go to the second day of my cooking class which was a very difficult day. This seemed to be the begginning of the end, I didn't drink after that but I did start getting a bit stoned, I had a great stoner friend who I was at the ashram with and slowly but surely the yoga got put to one side while we embraced the weed smoking and beach lazing lifestyle. I was ill for a couple of weeks (e-coli urine infection) which was incredibly painfull and I was unable to leave my balcony for a couple of days which was how it started, Steve came and sat with me and got me stoned to cheer me up, and when I got better I just carried on. I ended up spending five weeks there, I had a room with a beautiful veiw right on the cliff top overlooking the beach, amazing sunsets every night and some of the scariest and most amazing electrical storms I have ever seen, literally watching lightening flash across the sky and into the sea with thunder that was so loud it actually seemed to make the ground rumble and set off my landlords car alarm one night. I always felt scared for the fishermen in their little boats with no protection from the elements at all and literally surrounded by lightening.
After a week or so of procrastinating about it I managed to sort my shit out and leave, I shed a few tears in the rickshaw as I left for the station as much for leaving Steve as for leaving Varkala. Steve had been like a brother/best mate and had completely loked after me when I was ill and taken me on little adventures to surrounding beaches and temples on his little moped, we had a great time together and I am missing him already.
I am now on another beach called Gokarna which apparently has some desserted beaches nearby which are supposed to be amazing but I am yet to explore. I am staying in a little house at the far end of the beach next to a temple which is lovely to hear the bells ringing and the incense burning for puja (prayer time) twice a day. It is off season so there is no one else in my guest house so it gloriously peaceful, I could easily stay here another month but I fly to Thailand in a week so thats not an option.
For those of you who haven't heard I am not coming home for the summer, I have decided to stay for as long as I can which maybe one year or maybe two, who knows. I'd be a fool not to make the most of this opportunity, I think I am going back to Varkala for next season and I will rent a house for a few months and work a bit. I intend to get somewhere with a couple of bedrooms so if anyone wants to come visit please feel free.
Ciao for now xxx
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