The ship of Humanitarian Activities
Albuquerque, June 30th, 2006.
As Albuquerque celebrates its 300th anniversary as a city, we celebrate Amma's 20th visit to New Mexico. While Amma continues her summer tour through the US and other spiritually thirsty lands of the world, the massive ship of Amma's humanitarian activities continues its parallel journey without a halt too, serving and loving the world's needy. It is driven by the hundreds and thousands of volunteers who feel deeply inspired with every rising sun to contribute to alleviating poverty and suffering in society. Their actions are fuelled with and constantly guided by the inspiration drawn from their guide and Guru, Amma, whose actions speak for themselves. Here are excerpts from a short dialogue with Br. Shantamrita, who shares his insight and experience with the MA Math's Amrita Kuteeram (Housing project) program and the contribution of international volunteers.
In 1996, Amma inaugurated the Amrita Kuteeram project to build homes for the poor and the needy. Two years later, people from outside India showed their desire to join these efforts. Br. Shantamrita was assigned the task of coordinating with and arranging for these foreign volunteers to participate in free construction opportunities in various parts of India.
In the beginning there were lots of challenges. The housing sites were spread across large areas and transport over difficult terrain wasn't easy. Also, there was the language barrier. The volunteers, mainly students from Japan at the time, spoke only Japanese, and the only language known to the poor for whom houses were being built was Malayalam. Communication was virtually impossible. "But the beauty", says Br. Shantamrita, "was that verbal communication was not necessary. They communicated with their hearts. People from developed nations thousands of miles away had come to build houses for poor people in remote fishing villages in the country. The poor villagers themselves participated in these efforts and smilingly served those who had come to serve them". There prevailed an atmosphere of mutual inspiration. The poor villagers had nothing but love in their hearts for these people from foreign nations who had traveled afar, and the villagers were doing everything they could to serve the basic needs of the volunteers.
"There was an old widow, 75 years old", continued Br. Shantamrita, "who had literally nothing. Her house was in bad shape. If a wind blew, it would have collapsed. She was so moved when she first saw these foreign volunteers, that she went to her next door neighbor to borrow sugar and coffee powder. The volunteers were themselves moved to see her going around houses in the neighborhood borrowing all these things, just to make them something to drink. The hearts at the construction site were opening up; they were inspiring each other. One can never forget the teary farewell when the group left at the end of the project."
Br. Shantamrita continued, "In March, I was at Nagapattinam which was the hardest of all Tsunami-hit places. Hundreds of houses were being built in this district alone. Now these are almost all finished and done. Construction is happening at an unbelievably fast pace". He goes on, "Of the 6200 houses pledged to be constructed for the Tsunami, more than 3000 are complete as of May 2006".
Reflects Br. Shantamrita, "This whole project has become a machine for building good karma. That's my feeling. For example, people do some seva here in the USA, such as children making a flower garland. They get good karma for offering their selfless service, and so do the people who give an offering to buy the garland. The Ashram then takes that money and makes use of it in service of the people who truly need it. Volunteers join in the work in India along with Ashram residents, and get good karma doing all the work as a form of Karma Yoga. And the people in need also benefit. In the end, everyone who gets involved benefits physically and karmically. So there are at least four levels of benefit here. Amma says that this kind of selfless service is true Karma Yoga because it is done with a heart filled with love. When done with a sincere attitude, these actions become an offering at the feet of the Lord". He adds, "You see that people are genuinely touched. It changes their life to do something for a needy person without any expectation".
Br. Shantamrita says, "Since Amma is already engaged in such vast projects, it opens up all kinds of opportunities for people to get involved, to just join in, whereas it would have been very difficult for them to start off such projects on their own". And of course, how true these words ring! It gives those with proclivities for selfless service a free ticket aboard the ship of Amma's humanitarian activities, as it travels around the world picking up more and more travelers each day. May this journey never end.
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