Amrita Gita

Amrita Gita

by | Jun 12, 2024 | Swami Talks

I’m excited to share more with you about Amrita Gita, one of Amrita Virtual Academy’s most recent and valuable gemstones, amongst its online courses. This spiritual course dives deeply into Amma’s teachings, which are shared and made available through the poetic compilations of Swami Turiyamritananda Puri. 

Since Swami Turiyamritananda Puri had been the first disciple to be with Amma, and was with her since his teens, he heard many early conversations between Amma and her devotees. He realized the precious pearls of wisdom that emerged should be preserved and shared with the world. The result became a collection of poetic verses named, Amrita Dhara. 

Soon after, Swami Amritaswarupananda Puri, Amma’s most senior disciple, tuned the verses into a wondrous bhajan for Amma’s 32nd birthday. The bhajan was named Omkara Divya Porule and contains 32 verses. Since then, Swami Turiyamritananda Puri has offered a new collection of “Amrita Dhara” verses each year for Amma’s birthday, containing the same number of verses as Amma’s years on the planet, in her current form

The verses from the first Omkara Divya Porule are currently being reflected on by the Ashram residents and visitors through the “Amrita Dhara Yajna” satsangs (spiritual talks), currently occurring daily, during Amma’s evening programs in Amritapuri, India, which are also streamed online with an on-demand replay available soon after.

In Amrita Virtual Academy’s course, Amrita Gita, a number of Amma’s swamis share their thoughts on the different verses of Amrita Dhara / Omkara Divya Porule through offering satsangs and Q&A sessions. They also share wondrous stories from the early days with Amma. The course also provides the opportunity to view some vintage video footage, satsangs, and stories from the Amritapuri archives, so you, too, can indulge in feeling what it was like to be with Amma in the early days. 

That was what captured me, as I listened to the first satsang in the course by Swami Turiyamritananda Puri; I loved how he speaks of stories from the past, and how Amma talked in parables. I also appreciated how Swamiji felt the need and call to preserve Amma’s wisdom, and turn her words into poems, so that people could more easily digest the essence of her teachings. 

I felt awe for the wisdom he has, to be able to transform those words from Amma into a more easy-to-understand, yet elegant language. I also thought about what a great heart he must possess to feel the need to serve the world in this way. It made me feel grateful and in awe, wishing no one to miss out on this rare and precious, online spiritual course!

Several of the students in the course have also expressed what the online classes have meant to them so far, and how the course has inspired, transformed and uplifted them in their spiritual practices, as well as their daily life. Here are are some sharings from a couple of those voices: 

Karen LaVigne (USA) shares:

The Swamis’ explanations and insights are so beautiful that I’m often brought to tears. The one inspiration that stays with me always is to keep Amma’s image in my mind, so she becomes my eyes/vision, ears, speech, smell, taste and touch… all my senses. I wish I had the words to express my gratitude for this practice.

Thank you to Karen for sharing her beautiful experience. What an inspiration for all of us, to keep Amma in our minds, close to our heart at all times… and to finally reach that point where we are established in that final experience that Amma is—indeed the consciousness behind our senses and mind. 

Our next student, Madhurima, also feels the power of this online spiritual course, and explains how the teachings help her to slowly transform her thoughts…


Madhurima (Canada) shares: 

“This ‘course’ has been such a lovely addition to my daily sadhana. And, I’ve followed the recommendation that the verses be sung at the end of arcana each morning… And, I know Verse 1 by heart now… Thank you. It is all so good… and I know I am imbibing the ‘wisdom’, as well… little by little in my daily life I find myself ‘correcting a thought’ with something that I have learned from the verses or the satsangs…”

Each month, one Swami provides three 20-minute commentaries on the verses in addition to a one-hour live Q&A. The final live session of the Amrita Gita online course is currently scheduled to be a closing ceremony in October (see schedule); but, you can still join anytime, and participate at your own pace. The replay videos are normally uploaded within a week of the live classes to the Amrita Virtual Academy website and all of the satsang commentaries are on-demand.

Don’t miss out on this precious opportunity to dive more deeply into Amma’s teachings. Amrita Gita is part of the AVA Membership.
Become a member, and join Amrita Gita now! As a member, you get full access to 60+ online courses and retreats.

You can read more here:

Amrita Virtual Academy Membership.

Reflections in Gratitude

Reflections in Gratitude

by | May 6, 2021 | Swami Talks

A few years ago, Amma was talking about gratitude as a state of mind. She said that it is the ability to remember all the support we have received, with full humility. Then we will realize that we owe so much to thousands of people, animals, natural forces, worms and even invisible microbes! It would take lifetimes to pay back these debts, especially towards nature and above all, to God. So, we should try to maintain an attitude of thankfulness always.

But don’t think that it is for the benefit of others! Gratitude benefits us more than anyone else. Amma says, “The positivity and goodness that awakens within as a result of being grateful, in turn benefits society and the entire world.”

While we might find it challenging to be grateful to everything, always, at least we can try. 

For example, if you pick up a book, try to remember how you got that book. Did someone give it to you? Did a person help you find the book in a store? Who wrote it, and who edited it? Who taught the person who wrote it? Who printed and bound the book? Who produced the ink needed and who invented the machine that printed the letters? Where did the paper come from and who turned the wood into pulp, then finally paper? How many years did it take the tree to mature?

“Gratitude benefits us more than anyone else.”


When we think about it, for us to just read a book for a few minutes requires the blessings of so many people and factors that are totally out of our control. Shouldn’t we feel grateful to all those people, and to Mother Nature for enabling all of those steps to happen? Above all else, Mother Nature’s blessings determine the success of everything, as we are witnessing now. We can even bow down to a book before we read it.

The food we eat is another fantastic proof of our dependence on so many people and factors. Even if we cook our own meal, where did the ingredients come from? How were they prepared and who did all the work to make sure it reached our dinner table? Even if we grow our own vegetables, where did the seeds come from, and how did the soil become fertile? Even if we save seeds from our own garden and enrich our own soil, we ourselves cannot create a seed, nor can we orchestrate that actual process of soil enrichment.

All this shows the limits of our power and control. No matter how much effort we make, each step of the way the outcome is not guaranteed. Shouldn’t we feel gratitude when the desired outcome is achieved? Even more so, shouldn’t we be grateful to the mysterious power that converts the raw minerals in the ground into the finished product of a vegetable that we can eat?

Of course, the mycorrhizae and the worms improve the soil, and the bees take care of the pollination, but what power prompts them all to do so? It is you or me? What if they all went on strike one day and there were no more vegetables to eat? All life on Earth would cease to exist. Again, plenty of reasons to bow down to our food and give thanks.

When we reflect in this way, Amma says there is nothing for which we should not feel grateful. Even when we go to bed, we need a space to put our head down, a space for our body—not on a bed of nails but something soft—we need a degree of calm and quiet, and ultimately the blessings of sleep, itself. When 60 million people in the USA suffer from insomnia, can’t we just be thankful for a good night’s sleep? Before getting into bed, why not bow down to the bed, itself?

Let us try to remember all the things we can be grateful for during our daily life. However simple something may seem, let us not take it for granted. We can at least mentally bow down to each and everything we use and depend on. This practice will certainly help us experience the truth of Amma’s words—gratitude is a state of mind.

Swami Shantamritananda Puri and other disciples lead an online “Gratitude Retreat” for Amrita Virtual Academy: Click here to sign up: https://bit.ly/3f32Gtt