6 October, 2001
While Amma would never take anything for Herself. She does make use of every opportunity to give to others in so many ways. This was even more evident on Her birthday.
As she gave a laddu to each of the sixty thousand devotees who came for Her darshan that day, these are some of the other ways in which She was taking this opportunity to serve the poor and needy.
On the Amma Birthday event, it has become a tradition to feed everyone who comes a delicious free meal. This year the meal consisted of rice, two kinds of curry, mango pickle, and as much payasam (rice pudding) as you could eat. 65,000 people were served free of charge.
This year, the event was also an Amrita Nidhi Pension Payment Day. Every three months thousands of impoverished women (mostly widows) come to Amritapuri to collect the monthly pensions they receive from M.A. M, while still others come to apply.
Currently the Amrita Nidhi project distributes more than 25,000 pensions to impoverished women throughout India, with a goal of reaching 50,000 women.
1,000 women were also given free saris (The nice clothing you can see many of the devotees wearing is often borrowed from a wealthier neighbor, as they want to look their best when seeing Amma).