Amma's ashram...and the backwaters of Kerala.

...and the backwaters of Kerala.

February 2nd, 5:31pm...I am laying down on my bed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, finally catching up a bit with my blog.

When landing in Mumbai after spending the holidays in Morocco with my family, the plan was simple: meet up with Angelina, go check out the tea plantations, ruins and boulders hills, and the backwaters of south India, and then go with the flow and see where it takes us.

My only longer term plan was that for my 34th birthday, I wanted to be taking my 2nd course in Rajasthan, or in Pokara. So I had from January 10th to march 1st to travel around.

Since both Angelina and I really wanted to see Bangladesh, and since both our India visas were to end the first week of march, it made sense to try and squeeze Bangladesh in February and take advantage of it to renew our visas.

So, our last stop in south India would be the famous backwaters...

After reading the forums, we decided on Alleppey as our destination. Very touristy, yes, but the most central and recommended location.

Arriving by boat from Kottayam into the little town of Alleppey was just gorgeous, a little channel of water filled with water lilies and lotuses forming like a carpet floating above the water, and covered by gigantic ancient trees. Spectacular!

Aside from the channel of water itself, the town is nothing special. The usual noisy and dusty traffic with rickshaws, cars and people overcrowding the partially paved roads.

We quickly found a place and headed to the ocean beach on the other side of town. 20 minutes of bus later we arrive at this gigantic and plain broad sandy beach. Not a tree nor anything else to hide from the sun. Only sand...and garbage EVERYWHERE!!! Scandalous. And the worst part, not a single trash can around. (On the way back, I was unable to find a single trash can neither at the beach, nor in the bus, nor in the town. I had to wait to get to the guest house to through my plastic bottle!!!)

Though she we arrived the beach was pretty empty, soon after, and just as the sun was setting, it suddenly filled up so quickly, that it felt almost over crowded. Very strange.

Since we were unsuccessful in booking a canoeing trip for the next day, we packed up and decided to be as curious as can be and headed out the next morning to an ashram further south. The ashram of the renown Hugging Mother, in Amrita.

Hmm...I think the unplanned 5 days we spent in this ashram will leave me thinking and reflecting on this experience for many many years.

When arriving by bus in this tiny "village/bus stop" on the sea side, and after walking in a tiny little alley, we got to the front gate of the ashram, we were both speechless by how inspiring and surreal the place seemed like.

Thousands of people from all over the world walking around, dressed in white cotton clothes for the most part, and looking so peaceful and relax. Beautiful temples. Delicious cafeterias. More than decent room on the 7th floor of one of the three or four 15 floor buildings of the ashram. A swimming pool. A beach. Yoga. Meditation. Chants. Thousands of people lining up to receive a hug from Amma, meditation on the beach at sunrise and sunset...

Almost like how heaven is portrayed in many movies or cartoons.

So you can only imagine how we felt when we arrived.

And plus, we were showed a video about all the charity work that Amma, the guru, was involved with, which made us even happier as to the potential for us to get involved and learn and help during our stay.

Hmmm...given both our experience in traveling and spirituality, it didn't take Angelina and I long to discover the other side of the coin.

If all the foreigners seemed to be on their own little clouds the locals were all so not welcoming and actually quite cold.

It was shocking to observe how devoted and passionate people around us were about Amma, and how they put her on such a high pedestal.

The atmosphere didn't feel healthy at all.

And the more we read the literature available onsite and the worse it got.

Some literature publicly displayed in big all over the place even said something like: "You don't need life nor death, you don't need suffering nor happiness, you don't need love nor hatred, you don't need family nor friend. All you need is Amma's love." Or "Serving Amma is serving God." Yet, you could also read "We are all equal, and all one. God is in each one of us. The world should be about oneness."

Ufffff!!!! It was actually kind of scary at the beginning to be there and realize all this cult like blinded behavior that was going on. But then it just made us laugh.

Everyone is different. Some people are stronger and others are weaker. We each need different things to help us go through the ups and downs of life. For myself, I have learned that self confidence is key. Others need God. And that's OK. I have now accepted this fact. I only wish those people would rather take full control of their life rather than putting it into the hands of someone else.

3,000 people are permanently residing in this ashram, of which about half are foreigners!

Amma, through her NGO Embracing The World, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to India and to other developing countries to help with causes such as natural catastrophes, education, women empowerment, health, hygiene..., and environmental awareness and development. And guess what? As soon as you walk out then gates of the ashram, all you see on the beach, on the paths, and in the village, garbage, plastic, cans, paper...all over...and guess what else? Not a single trash can!!!!!!!

The worst part is that the ashram is publicly proudly promoting its huge recycling and compost centers...and yet, it has done absolutely nothing to provide help or education to it village about environmental protection. Absolutely shameful!

And when we asked "why?" The response we got from the person in charge of the recycling center was "it's all about politics. The villagers and the district government do not approve of the ashram's presence in the village nor about its work, so Amma is playing the political game of patience and lobbying". Which, when you read the literature of the ashram, you realize it is just a another lie, as apparently Amma is a close friend of the national and the district governments and is continuously rewarded and praised by the government for her good work. Very strangely suspicious I say.

Angelina and I decided to go outside the gates and pick up all the liter on the beach and near the fishermen's area one morning. When we wanted to repeat this and get people to join is the next day

Oh, and another frustrating and suspicious thing was that of all the numerous organizations and initiatives that Amma is chairing and involved with, absolutely no one in the ashram was able to give us a piece of information. Even worse, no one seemed even aware of these organizations or initiatives.

The feeling we got is that people just land in this ashram. Drop their bags. Close their eyes and ears to anything else that's happening outside of their sight and daily life within the ashram...and they blindly devote themselves to loving and serving Amma.

The funny part is that one of the ashram rule is to serve at least an hour per day. Whether helping clean the room, cook, composting, sorting at the recycling center, guide new comers...but at least one hour per day of selfless service. But here is the catch: since you are only serving to help the ashram sustain, you are actually doing nothing at all for people outside the ashram, and only contributing to making the ashram good, clean and functional place to leave...for others but also for you. So not really selfless actually...and even worse...that way Amma does not have to spend a dime on the maintenance of the place. Perhaps only on water and electricity...but that she compensates with the $5 she charges per person per day for accommodation and basic food.

So great business model Amma.

I don't know enough about the whole business of this ashram and the other things Amma is involved with, but it does seem like another one of those sect scams. To be further researched...

One thing that got me thinking though, is to understand what the purpose of an ashram is supposed to be. Not having been to any other ashram before, I don't have much of a comparison base.

Is the purpose to totally disconnect with the reality of the world, and live in a surreal spiritual environment until you manage to find your balance and inner peace and strength? Is the purpose to spend your time focusing on yourself and facing and solving your personal life issues? If the purpose of an ashram is aiming in that direction, then the center of attention that should be promoted all over is YOU, and not Amma, no?

But if the purpose of an ashram is to learn to live in the community totally secluded from the reality of the world, without much awareness of the actual context of the culture and the location is ashram in on, all the while joining a whole new minority religion of which you can only see the benefits because of the seclusion of the ashram, then I guess this ashram is doing it all right.

Although, one open and strong minded person could also very well decide to spend some amount of time in this ashram in order to take full advantage of the facilities while successfully blocking out all the sect like processes and behaviors. In that case, the place would be like as mini very affordable resort to resource yourself and meet new people.

I guess I now really want to see more ashrams in order to better understand.