On our way to Manantavadi, India

March 17, 2009

Aum Amriteshwaryai Namah,

We were scheduled to leave the Ashram at 5am but we were delayed until 10am due to the demise of one of the Brahmachari's who had brain cancer. He passed away at 3:45am and there was a funeral service for him just before we left the Ashram.

Finally, we got on the bus and on our way at 10am. The first stop for lunch was at one of the schools just outside of Kochin. Amma was so.....sweet with the children at the school. She sang with the children and then served us food. The food service was so chaotic. Everyone was passing their tiffins forward and the servers would put food it in and then Amma would pass it out, but there was no telling where your tiffin would end up. Some people didn't even have their name on their tiffin.

After eating (and I did NOT get my tiffin back so I ate off of one of the communal plates), I found my tiffin and got back on the bus (I am so glad I went with the comfort bus and baid an additional Rs. 3000.00 for that experience) on our way to Manantavadi - the first stop on this abbreviated quazi North Indian Tour.

There were no more stops along the way. At one point, we started singing bhajans on the bus which was a lot of fun. We arrived at the Program Site (Amrita Vidhyalayam school) at around 10pm.

Amma arrived shortly after all of us and there was a big procession for Her. The locals performed Aarti to Her and She climbed up the stairs to the 1st floor of the school and looked down on all the local devotees who were chanting "Amma Amma Taye". Amma started ripping flower petals off of the garlands that She was adorned with and throwing them down on the local devotees. It was like a mini ending of Devi Bhava - what a high!

We ate the slop that was offered to us and found our way to our rooms. I was being put up in a very primitive hotel about 10 min. walk away with a whole bunch of other "Western" men.

I slept deeply and returned to the Program Hall at about 9am on March 18, 2009 for Amma's first program. I was able to get a very close seat. I was literally under Her nose. The programs here are very different than in the West. I don't know if it's because it's a Brahmastanam Temple or just because it's India. Mother started the morning program with bhajans followed by Satsang (which was not translated) followed by Darshan. This usually went on until about 5pm and then She would return at about 7:30pm and do it all over again.

In between there were 5 Archanas (chanting of the 1000 Names of the Divine Mother) recited daily. This ritual is specific to the Brahmastanam Temple Festivals.

On Wednesday, March 18, 2009, after evening Satsang I was about to begin my face wiping seva when the Prashad table asked me to go up on stage and ask the runners to bring the prashad down as they did not have anything left on their table to sell to people as they went up for Darshan. As I tried to make my way through the crowd on the stage and navigate my way without stepping on anyone (no one would give way), my left knee cap dislocated and I fell to the ground on top of these brahmacharinis. The knee cap popped back into place and I conveyed the message to the runners, hung out on stage for a bit (while I took a lot of flack from the people sitting there saying that this was not a good time to squeeze my way in as there were dance performances going on and the dancers needed the space).

Sometimes, there is a lot of love that surrounds Amma and then other times, there are a lot of people with all their vasanas coming up. I just explained that I couldn't move due to what had happened and continue to sit there. I really hadn't had a lot of time around Amma or on stage so far so I didn't feel badly just sitting there when I needed to and when Amma obviously wanted me to as well.

Eventually, I was able to move and went off stage and sat near the face wiping crew. I was still able to serve in a very small way by rolling toilet paper for the face wipers.

For the most part, I was in my room after that, just resting my knee. Thank God for Maheshwaran who lent me his mat and dhotis for padding and created a bed for me that night in one of the rooms on-site that had space. I asked Jeremy to assist me in bringing all my luggage back from the hotel to the program site.

I did the Saturn Puja for myself on the last evening of this location.