Amma's 65th Birthday

Amma’s Birthday is a celebration of giving. Amma’s life is nothing but an “offering” - a continuous act of giving to the world. Amma spent her Birthday by launching several charitable activities and a marathon embracing of thousands and thousands of people for 22.30 hours.

The 65th Birthday Celebrations of Amma were focused on helping Kerala recover from the recent monsoon floods. Both Amma’s annual birthday address, as well as several of the function’s charitable initiatives, were aimed at uplifting victims of the flood, which took the lives of nearly 500 people in August.

Amma gave a Satsang that stressed the lessons taught by the flood. Amma’s Satsang was immediately followed by Amma guiding the devotees in meditation, a prayer for world peace, and devotional music.

Amma took the occasion to acknowledge the compassion and selflessness of individuals who came forward to help the flood victims. Amma gave one 100,000 INR ( $1380 USD) each to 10 families of those who had died trying to rescue flood victims. She also presented certificates of commendation to the more than 400 volunteers who manned the Amrita Help Line—a 24-hour call-in centre set up at the Amritapuri Campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham that over five days fielded more than 25,000 calls, connecting more than 100,000 flood victims across the state with relief services.

“Several hundred students worked together for days on end to help rescue people trapped in life-threatening situations,” Amma said. “They were able to bring timely help to many people in many areas. What invoked their unified response was the love and compassion they felt towards those trapped by the floods. The selfless love they experienced made their actions extremely beautiful and successful, and an inspiration to everyone.”

Embracing the World (ETW) was not the only entity to acknowledge the selfless service rendered to flood victims. The 200,000-plus members of the 13,000 AmritaSREE Self Help Groups saved the money that they would have spent on travelling to Amritapuri for Amma’s birthday celebrations and instead donated that amount—one million INR—to Amma to help Embracing the World (ETW) in its continued flood relief-and-rehabilitation efforts.

ETW had also completed the construction of 900 toilets in Kollam District Kerala, taking its total of toilets constructed for the poor in the state to 12,000. Certificates of receipt were given to 200 representatives during the function.
Ten spiritual books published by MAM about Amma’s life and teachings were also released, as well as was the Malayalam version of Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new book, Exam Warriors, written to inspire students preparing for their exams and life. The book was released by Sri. Kummanam Rajasekharan,  Governor of Mizoram, who presented Amma with the first copy.

Amma was also garlanded by a number of dignitaries who came to offer Amma their birthday wishes.