The third annual AYUDH US Youth Exchange, “Give Peace a Chance,” took place from December 26 to 29, 2009 at the M.A. Center in San Ramon, CA. Led by Br. Dayamrita Chaitanya, the exchange included a multitude of spiritual, cultural, and service activities for over 65 attendees. Besides daily yoga and meditation, one of the retreat’s highlights was preparing and serving breakfast and lunch for the soup kitchen at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. The Church was featured for its hospitality in the 2007 movie “The Pursuit of Happyness.” Each meal served over 1,000 needy individuals. AYUDH’s positive attitudes and spirit of channeling Amma’s message of love and service was evident. “Helping at the soup kitchen made me realize how much attention and awareness is needed in doing seva. It was nice to see how we could serve Amma through different ways,” said Lizzie Corley from New York.

Given the youth pledge to support Amma’s Green Year through ‘Growin‘ One Seed at a Time, AYUDH members learned about the benefits of organic farming and the potential harm of using pesticides with an inspiring activity led by Kalesh, an expert in the field. Members planted fava beans and built a compost structure in AYUDH’s organic garden.

Another feature of the retreat included a scriptural class on the 12th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Bhakti Yoga, and a bhajan class, both led by Br. Ramanand. He taught the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram in a unique and lively tune. AYUDH also learned the retreat’s theme song, from Sharani Eastman and Swarna Iyer. “Give Peace a Chance” was written and tuned by AYUDH Europe.

AYUDH members watched clips of Embracing the World’s humanitarian initiatives, pledging to support ETW activities in creative ways. Anu Iyer gave a touching account of her experience meeting children in Amma’s care home in Kenya. Local AYUDH member Shivesh Rameshbabu later shared, “This taught me about some of the problems in India and around the world. It made me want to help and think harder about ways to help. I may not even have to go out of my way to do this!” Ideas included eyeglass donation drives, holding benefit concerts, and using the Internet as a venue to both publicize and fundraise for ETW initiatives.

Each day, AYUDH members led the nightly bhajans and arati.

To conclude the exchange, all were treated to an interactive and inspirational class via webcam with Swami Amritaswarupananda, in which he gave valuable advice about rising to the challenge of being Amma’s youth. Following an enjoyable outing to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, AYUDH USA members returned home, enthused and energized to give peace a chance in 2010.

AYUDH’s first international Green Initiative “Growin – One Seed at a Time” was launched during Amma’s Tour in Europe and USA this fall. The project aims at encouraging young people to grow their own vegetables.
Since many years Amma has been emphasizing how important it is to cultivate one’s own food. This has several reasons: Many of the food items, which are bought in the supermarket are harming our health due to their chemical ingredients. But not only our bodies but also the environment is suffering from the industrialization and globalization of agriculture. The shipping of food around the globe contributes significantly to pollution and global warming. Genetically modified plants are destroying the biodiversity of nature. Through his manipulation of nature man has taken upon himself a role, which he is not able to live up to. Shortage of food, natural disasters and diseases are the consequence.

Amma says that the “biggest threat for mankind today is not a third world war but the loss of the harmony and the widening separation between man and nature.”

With Growin AYUDH is taking a first step, it is sawing the seeds for a change. Be it on balconies, window shelves or in the garden – any location can be used to cultivate a few veggies. From South India to California, from Sydney to Vienna groups have been formed to translate Amma’s dream into reality.
Growin provides the necessary know-how for this.
An online-platform offers planting instructions for download, video clips give step-by-step instructions on how to e.g. grow potatoes in old tires or set up a worm-compost.
In addition to the online platform there will be training-weekends in many countries, run by professional gardeners. More than one thousand organic seeds packets had been sold during Amma’s European Tour to promote the project.

When AYUDH members brought some homegrown vegetables to Amma during her programmes in Munich, Germany and San Ramon, California, she lovingly blessed the food and even took a hearty bite from a carrot. With Amma’s thumbs up the AYUDH groups are now getting ready to plough, plant and harvest.

This initiative offers the opportunity to reestablish the connection with Mother Nature. Even if each youngster only contributes a little but – together it will be a big step into a better future.

Please visit www.ayudh.org/growin for more information or write to growin@ayudh.eu

A lot of motivated AYUDH-people helped collecting donations for the charitable organization Embracing the World (www.embracingtheworld.org) at the Rosenhofmarkt in Zurich, Switzerland on the first weekend of December. The warm waffels, spicy chai and Indian souvenirs delighted a lot of people. The purchase of one waffle raises enough money to feed one child in India for a whole moth!

It was a good experience and lots of fun with new faces joining the AYUDH group and a lot of warm hearts.

AYUDH in Delhi commenced with full zeal and zest on November 29, 2009, when a group of 15 youth had a healthy discussion with Swami Nijamrita Chaitanaya about the activities that can be undertaken by Ayudh in Delhi.
There were about 17 ideas, out of which two were decided to be carried out immediately.
The first one is teaching poor children who are coming to the ashram on a daily basis. There are approximately 30-35 children who visit M.A. Math to study. Apart from supporting them in their studies, it has been decided that some extracurricular activities should also be carried out like theatre, art and craft, bhajan classes, dance, etc. Many members have already started teaching and they are enjoying it. The AYUDH group in Mumbai has been carrying out a similar project, known as “Amma’s Angel” for several months now.
The second activity invites many individuals to join hands to fight hunger. The project title is “EK MUTHHI CHAWAL CAMPAIGN” (collecting one handful rice). In this activity, all that a person has to do is that whenever one starts to cook a meal, she or he just has to put aside one handful of rice every day. At the end of every month, the person can bring it to the M.A. Math where it will be distributed to the poor and needy. It can be done for any other food item also. As the first ones who are pledging to do this, the AYUDH members hope to inspire many more members of society to follow their example.
There is one more important activity that will be initiated in the month of January. As M.A. Math Delhi has a big farm AYUDH has decided to carry out the composting and organic farming there.

Give Peace a Chance

3rd US Youth Exchange
26 - 29 December 2009
M.A. Center San Ramon, California

Who: Youth ages 15 to 30yrs
What: 3rd Annual AYUDH Youth Exchange
Where: San Ramon, California
When: December 26th - 29th 2009
Why: Give Peace a Chance!

Peace in the outside world can only become a reality once we learn the art of internal peace. In a world that is troubled by war, global warming, economic downturns, poverty and social injustice, youth need to be driven by a vision of hope, unity and love in order to create a future of peace. This is the challenge of our generation, a challenge that we all have to face together - now!

Led by Swami Dayamrita, this US Youth Exchange is meant to bring together young people from all over the US.

This year’s Youth Exchange will feature Peace in Action Service Projects, AYUDH Embracing the World initiatives, GrowIn One Seed at a Time (international AYUDH Green Initiative), IAM, Scriptural Classes, Satsang (Inspirational Talk), AYUDH Jam, Bhajans (Devotional Music), Live Webcast with one of Amma’s senior disciples, Q & A, Exploration of AYUDH 2010 Projects, & fun times with youth your age!

If you would like to participate in this Youth Exchange please register online.

Retreat Fees:
$75 includes food, lodging, and all activities.

Please feel free to contacts us at (510) 537-9417 or email ayudh@amma.org.

Retreat Registration:
Easy and quick online registration

Youth from all parts of Europe are welcome. It’s gonna be fun!!!

You can find links to the detailed program and the registration form at the bottom. If you have any questions please contact

+49 30 7960278 or +49 15204648311

or write an email to cosammor@web.de or madhuri@gmx.net

Downloads:
AYUDH goes Berlin program
Registration form

Ayudh Kenya participated in the 350 movement on Saturday 24th October 2009. This day marked a milestone towards fighting against climate change as people from all over the world united with a common goal to be heard and try and save the planet. (http://www.350.org)
AYUDH’s contribution to the 350 movement was through organizing a tree planting event at the Amrita Children’s home located at Athi River in Nairobi.

A total of 50 youth took part in the event and managed to plant 50 trees during the course of the day. There were also 3 campaigners for the 350 movement from Denmark present for the event. The day started with a short talk by Br. Shantamrita on how man depends on Mother Nature and the need to contribute towards preserving Mother Nature. After the talk there was a demonstration about how the trees were to be planted, and teams of between 7-10 people were formed to commenced with the event.

There was a lot of enthusiasm amongst the youth who managed to finish planting 500 trees in the morning alone. This was the target intended for the entire day. There were a lot of innovative methods of teamwork on display as well particularly whilst watering the trees. Only one water tank was available, which was pretty far away and all the participants formed a chain to transport the water to the trees.
After lunch and a small singing session the youth gathered for the final activity, which was to create a small garden next to one of the children’s dorms. This was the most challenging activity of the day and it concluded at 3:30 pm.

The event ended on a very positive note with each person adopting at least one tree, showing their commitment towards ensuring that they would come back for another event and to make sure that the trees planted would also grow healthy. A round of ultimate Frisbee concluded the day. It was a fun-filled event for all who took part.
As the children’s center is nearing completion and the kids are about to move into their new home, AYUDH dedicated this day to create a more welcoming and beautiful surrounding for the children and at the same time contributed to the protection of Mother Nature.

A group of youth build a house with earthern materials at Amma Center France near Chartres. Beehieves are embedded into the walls. The house serves as a temple of nature, an educational object for school children and large bee hieve.
The project with the name BABEL was supported by the “Youth in Action” programme of the European Commission DG Education and Culture.

download now!

21st of September, United Nations World Peace Day, was celebrated with great passion and enthusiasm in Amritapuri. After weeks of preparation, AYUDH and GreenFriends put together a grand event welcoming all. The focus of the day was to spread awareness of the current environmental issues to the students of Amma’s various colleges in the Amritapuri campus. The theme being Peace with Nature, emphasized the need to reconnect with and protect our Mother Earth.
Swami Ramakrishna addressed the gathering by highlighting the differences between our relationship towards nature now and in the past. He said that we have to regain an attitude of worship and respect towards nature in order to restore the lost harmony of life. Several videos were shown to highlight Amma’s teachings on environmental protection and the various projects that her devotees have undertaken in this respect all around the world, ranging from a house made out of beehives to trash cleanup and tree planning activities by AYUDH.

Dr. Murali Valabhan, a leading advisor and lecturer on sustainable development and eco-spirituality in Kerala, spoke on internal peace and external harmony in the context of the man-nature relationship.
As a symbol of peace between people of different cultures as well as and man and nature Swami Poornamritananda Puri handed over a peace tree to the international AYUDH and Greenfriends members. He then led everyone in chanting the peace prayer ‘Lokah Samastah Sukino Bhavantu’ 18 times. Swamiji addressed the gathering with a beautiful message on how we should connect with our Self and become peaceful internally before trying to spread the peace in all directions.

Dr. Diana Weis, an environmental activist from UK, concluded the morning session with a very uplifting talk about social entrepreneurship and green solutions to medicate the environmental crisis. She gave great examples of how to live efficiently with green alternative resources, ranging from zero-waste communities in the Arizona desert to whole cities in China who cultivate their own food on their rooftops, watered and fertilized by the drainage water of the household. At the end, the audience was convinced that with our sincere desire to change and the guidance of our beloved Amma, each one of us can start today to counter global warming.

In the afternoon, different workshops were conducted to get the students and guests active and participating in the ashrams ongoing green projects. There was a recycled plastic weaving workshop, where they would make their own little box out of waste plastic. A herbal, organic, and natural body care product workshop, which showed how to make 100% natural products in order to avoid the harmful chemicals which are contained in most beauty products. At the ashrams composting site a group of people were taught how to make compost from scratch.

A gardening workshop at one of the ashrams tulasi and vegetable gardens invited everyone to get their hands into the soil and grown their own organic vegetables. Finally, there was an art work workshop where they collected and compared natural and man-made items to create beautiful mandalas. In the late afternoon the Amrita students of Social Work put on a skit about the tree-hugging movement in Kerala.
World Peace Day was not only celebrated in Amritapuri: AYUDH USA used the occasion to inaugurate a new youth-run organic vegetable garden at M.A. Center, California. In Ireland and Germany the youth went to schools to keep a minute of silence and reflect on the importance of peace.

The day was a great success, raising awareness about the importance of environmental protection and igniting the passion to work towards practical solutions. As Amma says: “It is our supreme duty to protect and preserve nature. If we protect nature, she, in turn, will protect us.”
The Amritapuri peace tree was taken to Amma to bless and she gave it a gentle kiss. It will soon be planted at the Amrita college as a reminder of “Peace with Nature”.