WELCOME TO THE APRIL EDITION 2014
CONTENTS in this edition
1.Divine Amma’s message
2. Ashram development in
photographs: seva days,
hall, ablution blocks,
accommodation cabins,
pond extension, etc
3. Children’s page
4. Healthy recipes –
‘Cooking from the Heart’
5. Dr.Andrew Lohrey’s
Amma Experience
6. Financial contributions
7. Ashram Wish List
“May the tree of our life be firmly rooted in the soil of Love.
May good deeds be the fruits on that tree,
May words of kindness form its flowers and may peace be its fruits.
Let us grow and unfold as one family united in Love.”
Amma
D I V I N E A M M A’ S M E S S A G E
“Anyone - woman or man - who has the courage to
overcome the limitations of the mind can attain the state of
universal motherhood. The love of awakened motherhood
i s a l o v e a n d c o m p a s s i o n f e l t n o t o n l y t o w a r d s o n e ’s o w n
children, but towards all people, animals and plants, rocks
and rivers -- a love extended to all of nature, all beings.
Indeed, to a woman in whom the state of true motherhood
has awakened, all creatures are her children. This love, this
motherhood, is Divine Love -- and that is God” …………
Amma
ASHRAM DEVELOPMENT February/March 2014
THE HALL
The outside wall has been rendered and the inside of the Hall is
painted. The light fittings and ceiling fans are being installed. The
beautiful large floor tiles are soon to be laid, and then the carpet.
T h e a l t a r, c u r t a i n s a n d d e c o r a t i o n s s o o n t o b e p u t i n p l a c e .
This wood circle cleverly made is one of five prepared for water tanks
to be installed as rain water from the roofs is one more way of the
eco friendly aspects the Ashram is developing for future sustainability
along with the worm farm and hopeful future use of the bore.
SEVA DAYS
As the Ashram is taking form everyone is inspired to come and assist and many folk arrive
ready to weed, construct, sweep, cook, clean and plan
With the PCG - Planning construction group, the AC - Ashram committee and the garden
committee the jobs are spread out over a number of helpers.
Usually the PCG meet once a fortnight to go over the building and financial developments
as the problems arise. The Ashram committee meet monthly to discuss the daily running of
the Ashram, the programs etc. The Garden committee decides where plants will be placed,
pathways constructed and many other aspects of the garden.
Mani Kalimuthu is the Ashram manager and is involved in maintaining peace and harmony
over all. He is also very involved in seva, selfless service and spends many hours after a
normal days work on Ashram activities.
Heavy loads, dust and 40 degree heat are just part of a
days seva working together for Amma’s Ashram.
The ground is rock hard due to lack of rain and watering the plants is essential to keep them alive
during the summer heat-wave.
The children are happy together telling jokes and playing while their parents are happy working.
The kitchen is churning out delicious meals and snacks to keep everyone’s spirits up.
ABLUTION BLOCKS AND ACCOMMODATION CABINS
The tiling in toilets, showers, laundry and bathrooms almost completed
And the painting is almost finished as well.
Here we see Francis finishing tiling a cabin bathroom floor. And Annie exultantly
performing the king pigeon yoga pose amongst the dust and the paint as she takes a
break from painting cabins walls. The little visitor is Spot the 4-legged devotee who is
enjoying the whole experience of togetherness and wondering about the huge bird that
has landed on the floor.
THE HEALTH OF POND cum LAKE
With the expertise of Karri who is studying environmental engineering at Melbourne
University specializing in Hydrology. She is working on bringing the water and its
environment to a healthy outcome of biodiversity.
James and the trusty little red tractor are extending and excavating the size of the pond
and it will eventually be a beautiful lake with lotus blooms and plenty of water birds and
frogs
Remember: A camel is a horse designed by a committee!
This is a reminder that absolutely every detail during the process of the Ashram
development is thrashed out by one committee or another. We eventually reach a
consensus. Hopefully we do better than the horse committee! With Amma’s Grace all will
gradually manifest from the blueprint.
AUM AMRITESHWARIYAH NAMAH
Amma’s Bala Kendra at the Ashram:
The term ‘Bala Kendra’ generally means ‘children’s centre’. The Amrita Bala Kendra in
Australia came into being at the Ashram on Krishna Jayanthi’s birthday 2011. It was
inspired by Amma’s teachings and vision on the importance of children as the world’s
wealth.
The Amrita Bala Kendra at Ashram aims to foster among children:
• an understanding of spiritual values, traditions and principles, and
• how to bring these simple teachings into their daily lives through stories, music,
bhajans, arts and crafts, celebration of festivals and service projects.
Amma says:
"We should tell children while they are very young that there is a power known
as God who controls everything. If we teach a child to remember this divinity in
all circumstances of life, that child will be able to keep his or her inner poise in
every situation, whether it be victory or defeat."
The very first day of the children's programme began with the chanting of a Ganesh
Mantra, and we even had a 3 year-old child spontaneously chant Gayathri Mantra –
marking an auspicious start for the Balakendra ! Since then the children have been
gathering every fortnight to participate in story-telling, role-playing, making crafts
such as cards and book-marks, singing bhajans and short meditation sessions.
Many Children have also performed in several plays on special occasions such as the
birth and life of Sri Krishna, Amma’s Birthday, Diwali, Onam and Christmas
celebrations. They are enthusiastic learners and there are lots of fun and laughter in
the various activities.
In 2014, the theme of the Bala Kendra classes and activities is “SMILE”. Every class
involves thinking about how their thoughts and actions contribute to creating a Smile.
Children are starting the year by keeping a journal and sharing stories on how they
have made themselves and others smile.
Here are some of the Children’s responses to date to the question: Who have you
made happy and smile recently?
“I made Dinal happy because he was new and lonely at school by making sure he had
fun”
“I made my mum happy by cleaning the house by myself”
“last week I made Nandu and Abhishek happy by telling them some jokes, playing
pranks and watched TV with them”
“I made my friends happy by playing with them”.
The parents and teachers of the Australian Amrita Bala Kendra group sincerely hope
that the love and spiritual nourishment shared with the Children of today will help
them become inspirational leaders and strong citizens of the world, and help them
transcend all difficulties by guiding them in the application of Amma’s teachings.
Aum Shanti. By Nava Subramaniam
The children performing the tiger dance during the Onam festival at the Ashram. It is a
ferocious and very energetic dance that goes on for quite some time until the music finally
comes to an end. There is always lots of laughter and joy trying to work out who is behind
the mask. Maybe in this picture there could be an adult or two as well!
Mikhayala
(2-1/2years)
loves reading Amma’s book
Adhithi
(12 years)
drew this picture of Amma
COOKING FROM THE HEART
Delicious, Healthy Vegetarian Food
P E A A N D P O TAT O C U R R Y
1. Wash and soak 1 cup of dried green peas
2. Cook until tender approximately 30 minutes
3. Drain off excess water and use later to add to tomato puree
4. Wash 4 medium potatoes and cut into cubes
5. Cook in salted boiling water
6. A d d 1 t b s p t o m a t o p u r e e m i x e d w i t h t h e k e p t w a t e r m a k i n g a
smooth paste
7. Add 3 chopped tomatoes
8. Add 1 tsp garam masala
9. Cook until tomatoes are juicy for approximately 5 minutes
10. Add to the peas, adding salt to taste
11 . C o o k a l l t o g e t h e r f o r a f e w m i n u t e s b l e n d i n g a l l t h e f l a v o u r s
12. Serve with chapatti or rice
C H A PAT T I
Requirements: Cast iron griddle, rolling pin and rolling board
To C o o k :
1.M i x w a t e r , 1 c u p o f f l o u r a n d s a l t i n t o a s o f t d o u g h , a n d k n e e d
well for a few minutes
2. C o v e r w i t h a d a m p t e a t o w e l a n d r e s t t h e d o u g h f o r a b o u t h a l f
a n h o u r.
3. F r o m 6 - 8 r o u n d b a l l s f r o m t h e d o u g h
4. R o l l o u t t h e s m a l l b a l l s i n t o t h i n f l a t p a n c a k e s w i t h a r o l l i n g p i n ,
sprinkling a little dry flour onto the rolling board
5. P u t t h i s o n t o t h e h o t g r i d d l e o r p a n . W h e n b r o w n s p o t s a p p e a r ,
t u r n t h e c h a p a t t i o v e r a n d l e t i t c o o k c o m p l e t e l y. T u r n o n c e
more so first side is completely cooked
Wrap in foil to keep warm and serve with curries, salads, etc
The booklet ‘Cooking from the Heart’ is available from the Ashram
as a fundraiser towards the Ashram building
project.
Delicious vegetarian/vegan dishes created
by the cooking team. Cost for booklet is $5.
Copies can be purchased from the Ashram
direct or email
[email protected] to place an
o r d e r.
C o o k i n g Te a m .
Each Satsang, Puja, Homa, and celebration held at the Ashram the
food is donated and catered for by Amma’s Children. The food is
always remembered, remarked upon and enthusiastically enjoyed
by everyone who comes to the Ashram.
E a c h Q u e e n ’ s B i r t h d a y a n d M e l b o u r n e C u p w e e k e n d , Yo g a f e s t
h o s t e d b y D a n c e o f L i f e Yo g a S t u d i o m o u n t s t h i s m a j o r f u n d r a i s i n g
event with all proceeds to the Ashram building fund. The special
t e a m t h a t c o o k f o r Yo g a f e s t s a r e p i c t u r e d b e l o w .
T h e Yo g a f e s t b r i n g s t o g e t h e r 1 0 0 ’ s o f i n t e r e s t e d y o g i s f r o m a r o u n d
Melbourne to Somers the quaint seaside village for the 3-day
event. The cooking team is on deck from start to finish and the
food is memorable as it is cooked with love and mantra.
A blessed combination of yoga for body and mind, and food for
heart and soul.
Back row: Mani, Dave, Anil
Front row: Kavitha, Jayashree, Sindhu
Future plans for a fully operating Ashram kitchen where food can be cooked and served to
the public and catering for events that will be held in the new Hall. Amma stated once that
‘ Thousands will come to the Ashram’ and that we can ‘rent the beautiful premises for
weddings and other special events.’
The cooking team is hopeful that the kitchen can become a reality sooner than later as
they all say with smiles on their faces, “It is a privilege to be able to serve”
Falmouth Beach (after seeing Amma): by Dr. Andrew Lohrey. Tasmania
In 1867 the English poet Matthew Arnold published what was to become a famous poem about the crisis of religious faith in Victorian England. What follows is an excerpt from that poem and a response to it The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-­wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
The sky is dark; it is evening, I am sitting on the orange rocks. The tide is running in through the bar-way from
the restless Tasman Sea. No one else is on the white sand of the beach that stretches north into the distance,
but I am not alone. I am embraced by the landscape and the sky. Held in heaven for a moment.
I have sat on these orange rocks hundreds, perhaps thousands of times since I was a child so why now has
heaven arisen at this moment, in this place? I watch the sea and the waves that splash on the rocks around
me. The sea has become the sigh of bliss that befriends the rocks and sand. Here there are no naked shingles
of the world, no Dover Beach, no Matthew Arnold. Rather, Plato’s phrase, ‘moving images of eternity’ comes to
mind. This is a metaphor for life. The sea and the sky around me move; they move within what Plato called
eternity.
This evening eternity is here without a note of sadness. I apprehend the whole along with my perceptions of sea,
landscape and sky. This evening the eternal and the transient seem in accord; this harmony gives me the double
metaphoric meaning that plays like a song. This moment of heaven is both seen by my senses and
apprehended by my understanding. Is this harmony an epiphany? I am not sure but I wish it would last. Ah,
there’s the rub! To cling to heaven is a sure way to lose it. By grasping at the eternal we seem to create the
transient.
I think of Plato’s eternity as love, as divine love. Jesus said that God was love, but he also said that the Kingdom
of heaven was within. This evening heaven is within as well as without. With this harmony of in and out there is
no split between the ordinary and the cosmic, just a blissful sense of connection and embrace. In the past love
has come to me in small packages, usually through the agency of someone and as a sexual exchange or just
feelings of connection and love. These are packages of human love and they are different from divine love,
which is the nature of this wrap-around eternity. While these two loves are different they overlap like concentric
circles so that the love we feel for another always has a divine essence that is given shape by our human desires
and our human understanding. Love for another is a double love that is both divine yet human.
This evening my experience of eternity does not involve another person. The heaven of which I have become a
part is a sensation filled with love without an object. Love without an object is pretty weird and hard to describe.
For instance, I cannot say ‘I love her because she is beautiful’ because here there is no ‘she’, only the feeling of
beauty. Here there is intimacy without desire; communion without a crowd; love without an object; and truth
without logic. Here there is a sense of expansion so that the ‘I am’ of me has dissolved into communion with
landscape and sea.
All my life I have had an underlying readiness to defend myself, like some warrior on leave who never really
relaxes about the possible dangers that others can cause. Yet this evening, under this regime of benign
influences my instinctive guard has dropped away; the orange rocks support me like friends while the sea sings
to me as a lover and the darkening sky whispers the meaning of a thousand years of happy indifference. Under
the influence of this surplus of meaning my body has relaxed and my mind slowed into a delightful mesmerism.
Some time later my dog pulls me by his lead up the hill towards home and I walk out of that heavenly space. I
try to recapture the sensation as I walk but the more I try the quicker it seems to evaporate. In a moment I am
back to the world of objects and moving images without any sense of eternity. This is the three-fold, transient
and physical world of daily frustrations and well-oiled defense mechanisms. I become annoyed that I cannot
control the gates to heaven and have to wait upon the cosmic harmony to come and include me.
But why has the gate of heaven opened this evening? Perhaps it has something to do with returning from a
three-week tour with my spiritual Master, Amma, who was once described by Jane Goodall (when presenting
Amma with the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence) as ‘God’s love in human form.’ An excellent
description, I thought, for in those past three weeks my connection with Her had deepened to the degree that
now I sense Amma’s love within and behind most things I do.
Paradoxically, on this tour I began to see that Amma has a physical form. In the past I had difficulties perceiving
that She has a form. I think this was because I was overwhelmed by the harmonic radiance that emanated from
Her. Eclipsing my ability to perceive Her form was an apprehension of Her luminous presence, which has always
seemed so large, eternal and potent. But now on this last tour I have begun to see Amma’s physical form and
with this concrete perception I have let go of something and at last, paradoxically, seem able to come closer to
the hidden source of her Divine love. Sitting on the orange rocks this evening I felt I was within Her cosmic
embrace.
How to return to it?
Our Financial Status as of March 2014
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
O n e s u g g e s t i o n i s a c o n t r i b u t i o n o f $ 1 a d a y. L e s s t h a n
1/3rd of a cup of coffee a day!
This regular donation of $30 a month could help bring the Ashram debt down really
fast
To Donate simply click the file below:
h6p://www.ammaaustralia.org.au/apps/dona=on/dona=on.aspx
ThreeQuestions:
A man is granted three questions to God;
His first question is ‘God, how long is a million years?”
G o d r e p l i e s , ‘ To m e , i t ’ s a b o u t a s e c o n d ’
His second question is, ‘God, how much is a million dollars?’
G o d s a y s , ‘ To m e i t ’ s a b o u t a p e n n y ’
So the clever man asks his third question;
‘God may I have a penny?’
God says, ‘Can you wait a second?’
Ashram wish-list
ACCOMMODATION CABINS: If you have any of the items below in good working
order they will be appreciated.
To purchase any of the items on the current wish-list, prices are approximate only.
Bunnings has small white wardrobes @ $100 each
1 Bar fridge - @ $269
1 microwave oven @ $160
1 toaster @ $20
1 kettle @ $10
folding washing line @ $200
Bunnings sell 1M2 Carpet tiles @ $22.00 each. Each of the 8 cabins will need a total
12 tiles per cabin
Large Rocks/Boulders to place around the lake. $70 each
Water lilies for the lake. $23.95
AUM AMRITESWARYAI NAMAH
Please send your stories, thoughts, ideas and feedback
to enhance this quarterly magazine and help
support the on-going Ashram building fund
Email: [email protected]
NEXT edition of Amrta
Shala is July