4-5 January, Pune, Maharashtra – Bharata Yatra 2013
The first stop on on Amma’s 2013 Bharata Yatra tour was in Pune. The ashram tour caravan consisting of 10 buses, several lorries carrying the sound system, kitchen, bookstore, and other support vehicles left Amritapuri early morning on January 2nd and travelled through Kerala, Karnataka and more than 1500km later, arrived in Pune, Maharashtra early in the morning January 4th.
That evening Amma began the tour with an evening program. Amrita University’s E-learning Platform A-VIEW (Amrita Virtual Interactive E-Learning World) was launched for schools in Maharashtra. Speaking on the occassion eminent computer scientist Padmashree Dr. Vijay Bhatkar said “A-VIEW is a modern tool for reaching out to the entire world. Saint Jnaneshwara (13th century Maharashtra saint and poet) said that ‘the whole world is my family’. Amma is practically putting these teachings into practice. Along with academic courses, A-VIEW can be used to spread value-based education; it can incorporate Amma’s vision for Clean India, Green India and Yoga education.”‘
While Amma gave darshan, students from Alindi presented Hari Panth singing and moving in rhythmic steps playing cymbals. They sang Abhang, the poems of Maharashtra saint, Tukaram.
During the evening program Vidyamritam scholarships were handed out to 50 local students and the Amrita Nidhi pension scheme was extended to 50 local women.
Amma delighted the local people by leading many bhajans in Hindi and Marathi and guiding everyone through the Manasa Puja in Hindi.
