Returning Home
"Thank you, Amma. Thank you so much," said Manikuttan before he was initiated into a mantra by Amma. "That orphanage was such a bad, bad place. I have so many bad memories of my time there. I feel so happy to know that you have taken it over and transformed it." Manikuttan was nine years old when a Dutch couple adopted him and his sister from the Parippally Orphanage and took them back to live with them in Holland. This was in 1985, just before Amma's Ashram took the orphanage over and transformed it into Amrita Niketan, a loving home that provides the highest standard of education. |
"That orphanage was a horrible place. I had a very, very bad time there," he said a few hours after his mantra deeksha. "They would beat us all the time, and there was nothing for us to do for entertainment. No games, no music. Nothing good to eat. Horrible schooling. We were forced to work all the time in this tile factory. When we were sent toys, the people who ran the orphanage would just sell them off; we would never get them."
When Manikuttan decided to come to the Massport Arena to have Amma's darshan, he had no idea that Amma had taken over the orphanage {news} in which he had been raised. He found this out only when looking at information about the Ashram's charitable activities during Amma's programme.
"I've held a lot of anger in his heart towards my mother," he said. "Because really she gave me up twice: once when she sent me to the orphanage and a second time when she agreed to my adoption. In a way, I've held a lot of anger towards India too. I mean, I didn't want anything to do with that place, because I just associated it with all the bad times I had in the orphanage. Really bad things happened there. But now I believe there was a purpose behind my mother giving me away and me coming to live in Holland. It was fate. It was so that I could meet Amma here today. Now I want to go back to India. I feel that she is my real home. I want to live a spiritual life. Amma has awoken that desire within me. I am so happy to learn that she took over the orphanage."
Manikuttan said he is also interested in relearning Malayalam--his mother tongue--as there are many questions he would like to ask his biological mother. "I still have some contact with her. She lives in Kottayam. When I go to India, I would like to visit her and find out more about my roots. I have so many questions for her. Then I can also visit Amma's Ashram and stay there for some time. I feel reborn. This is a rebirth for me."
--Kannadi