On the weekend of January 13-15, AYUDH Chicago hosted its first ever AYUDH-led winter Retreat! Let’s look back on it!

With the announcement of Amma being the chairperson for India’s C20 this year, the retreat was formed around the C20 focal points for 2023. C20 was born out of G20, which is an intergovernmental forum for economic cooperation. There are 20 member countries, including USA, India, America, the UK, France, China, Indonesia, and more.

Since its inception in 1999, G20 has been the premier governing power on controlling international financial issues. Each year, the group elects one country to lead the forum, and 2023 is India’s turn.

C20 is a civil offshoot of G20, where non-governmental organizations act as the voice of the people and help respond to the issues that the public is most concerned about. For her extensive humanitarian and civil work, Amma has been appointed as C20 India 2023’s chair. Amma said she wants to use science and multi-disciplinary work to combat environmental destruction, hunger, and rural poverty. She has come up with the tagline #youarethelight to convey that all of us are a crucial part in leading the change that is needed. To contribute to this cause, the retreat includes many activities such as Letters of Love and Blanket seva for local children in need. AYUDH Chicago will be making the C-20 goals the focus of our activities this year. The retreat was built upon these focal points of Amma’s C20 efforts:

(1) Seva – Sense of Service, Philanthropy and Volunteerism

(2) Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – World is One Family

Coincidentally, South Indian harvest festival of Pongal fell on the same weekend of the retreat so the retreat also became a representation of the 3 days of Pongal celebration. Pongal is also widely known as the Tamil New Year (Tamil Nadu is a southern state in India, right next to Kerala), and conveniently lines up close to our own new year. Pongal celebrates the end of the winter solstice as well as the sun god Surya. The 3 days of Pongal are Bhogi Pongal, Surya Pongal, and Mattu Pongal. Bhogi Pongal marks new possessions and burning of the old. People paint their houses and wear new clothes as well as pray to Indra, the god of rain.

During Surya Pongal, the traditional sweet dish sakkarai pongal is prepared in an earthen pot decorated with turmeric root. After the dish is offered to Surya and Ganesha, it is shared within the community. Also on Surya Pongal, people decorate their homes with kolam, which is a pattern made from colored rice flour. The last day of Pongal is known as Mattu Pongal, and is a day for celebrating cattle, which are bringers of wealth and regarded as sacred in Hinduism. Cattle are decorated with flowers and fed sweet fruits and the community has cultural programs. In this retreat, we celebrated Pongal through Sip and Paint workshop in which we will be creating our own versions of Rangoli and Kolam. The cultural program on the 2 day of the retreat also showcased different art forms in India that ring in the new year.

In addition to all of these exciting initiatives and festivals we celebrated together, AYUDH Chicago wanted this to be an opportunity for everyone to reunite once again and to relax through singing, dancing, painting, and doing something for our own mental health and spiritual journey while also making a positive impacts on someone else’s life.

Day 1:

The retreat opened up with Swami Shantamritananda Puri and the AYUDH Chicago leaders conducting the retreat inauguration. In the speeches, the main ideas of Pongal, upcoming AYUDH projects, and C20 initiatives were introduced for participants to learn about throughout the 3-day retreat.

We also had a surprise visit from Br. Ramanandamrita Chaitanya from Florida, helping us get excited for the days to come. We kicked off the first workshop through “the Letters of Love” workshop. In this activity we worked together to create cards and bracelets to bring light to children and seniors. Many studies have shown that receiving a handwritten note or card has great emotional impact and makes people feel special and cared about.

The organizations that received these letters and bracelets were: (1) Letters for Destiny (sends handwritten cards to Children’s Hospitals across the country) and (2) Sending Sunshine (aims to help reduce the negative effects of social isolation and loneliness among senior citizens in our community by providing them with handwritten cards).

Also, as some of us may know, the Govt of India has appointed Amma as the Chair of the country’s C20. In efforts to contribute to this cause, this activity is in line with the C-20's focal points through these aspects of Seva (Sense of Service, Philanthropy and Volunteerism), and Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World is One Family).

We continued to celebrate the night by watching a special premier of the documentary, "Amma's Way: A Journey to Embrace the World Again.” The documentary directed by Anna Agnelli, was the opening night film at the ILLUMINATE Film Festival, on November 5, 2022. Amma’s Way tries to capture the astonishing humanitarian enterprises that Amma has created in parallel to her hugging/blessing activity. Enterprises through which she has served and continues to serve millions of people in a multitude of needed ways, such as providing free quality healthcare, quality education, sheltering and relief support after natural disasters.

Day 2:

The second day of the retreat commenced with a relaxing sip and paint workshop in which everyone was given an opportunity to participate in a Rongoli competition. The concept was to sit back, relax, drink chai, and connect with retreat members while painting. Congratulations to Jayashree on unanimously being voted as the winner!

We celebrated the rest of the day which was packed with different programs: bhajan games, team bonding activities, Pongal celebrations, AYUDH bhajan set, special satsang by Swami Shantamritananda Puri, and cultural programs. The bhajans workshop was a fun way for the retreat members to emerse into the world of bhajans. They played various games with Amma bhajans, such as antakshari, word Association, finish the Line.

Retreat members also participated in a Dance workshop in which they learned simple choreography to the bhajan “Pongal Vaithu.” The leader of this workshop, Bhavani Nair, also gave groups a chance to display their own choreography to the bhajan. At the end, we recorded a video for Amma to watch as her children dance their heart out. The team bonding activities includes the competitive but fun games of Telestrations and blocks game organized from Anjana Ramachandran and Harini Muthukumar. These games tested the groups to use their brains together and its resulted in barrels of fun and laughter. Pongal celebrations was led by MA Center adults, Kasi and Muthu, who guided the members to make the classic Pongal (boiled rice and milk). Each member poured rice into a pot and the overflowing rice and milk on Pongal is a symbol of abundance, prosperity and good luck. Everyone shouted “Pongalo Pongal” and rejoiced!

We then celebrated the rest of Pongal with a special satsang by Swami Shantamritananda Puri, followed by AYUDH led bhajan set. We finished off the night by a cultural program set which included group choir performing Carol of the bells Ft. Amma lyrics, dance performance by Harini, Kaida tabla piece by Praful Saveen, Saxophone solo by Jenae Armstrong, Electric mixing by Aditya Ramachandran.

We ended the night by an energetic instrumental jugalbandi by Divin Vishnu Ramachandran, Rishikesh Nair, Shrey Deshpande, Praful Saveen, Mirabhai, and Chandan Yashraj. This instrumental medley was derived from popular Devi Bhava bhajans as well as some which celebrate Lord Ayyappa and the folk nature of Pongal.

Day 3:

The final day of the retreat started off with all the members assembled in the main hall for a special zoom call with our Divine Amma. We were all so excited when She waved and showered us with Her love. We all sat and listened to the livestream, when Amma started singing the bhajan, Pongal Vaithu! What a surprise! We all decided to show Amma what we had just learned the previous day, and danced our hearts out.

This was the biggest highlight for many, as we were able to showcase our love for Amma while also celebrating the wonderful festival of Pongal together with Amma. Amma, once again, inspired us with Her compassion towards each and every person.

The day continued on with an opportunity for seva through making blankets for the children who are seriously ill, traumatized, in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere that a child might need a big hug just like Amma's warm embrace. Many of us pointed out that we were passing on Amma’s hug by making these blankets that the child can embrace themselves with.

We also took part in a Q&A session with Swami Shantamritananda Puri in which many expressed that they were able to “gain a lot of clarity on spiritual questions that were bothering them for a long time.” The retreat ended with a very heated but fun jeopardy game hosted by Shrey Deshpande and Rishikesh Nair. Team members gained a lot of knowledge on various topics through the jeopardy game about nature, bhajans, composting, history, and our very own Amma. In the end, team Jai Jai Mohan won with a total score of 9200 pts and with that, the events came to an energetic end.

The concluding speech, given by Divya Ramachandran, gave thanks to all that made the retreat possible, and also left everyone feeling like it was the last moments of Amma’s visit, With that, everyone danced to the bhajan Pongal Vaithu one last time to reflect on the wonderful time spent together with all of Amma’s children. This is just a rough summary of all the fun, excitement, and selfless services the members shared during the retreat. It has so much more fulfilling to have shared these moments with Amma’s children from around the nation in person.

Special thanks to the MACC Food, accommodations, and hospitality team for the immense support!

See you at the next one, AYUDH Chicago

#YouAreTheLight