Quoting a mail message sent by Manasi to her parents Sri Menonji and Manjuji.
" Om Amriteshwaryai Namah!
Dearest pappa and amma,
As i told you earlier it was a real miracle that
i could go to meet Amma on new year. The conference i
was supposed to attend got cancelled due to the
tsunami alert and our principal issued a notice asking
no body to leave for kerala...as i had taken written
permission one week earlier i left the place without
giong to ask again knowing that i wont be allowed....
When i reached vallikavu on 1st jan all the ashramites
had already gone back to the ashram from AICT.I heard
many stories about what happened there on the
26th...the day the tsunami hit the ashram...
It was a Devi bhava day and there were about 20000
to 25000 people in the ashram that day for Amma's
darshan. It seems Amma asked one of the Bhramhachraris
to go and have a look at the sea at about 12:15pm
while she was giving darshan.... he went and came back
running telling Amma that the sea had gone back
several meters....hearing this Amma told all the
devotees to go upstairs....Even before this Amma
warned one of the devotees to move her car from where
they had parked it ...ie near the back gate of the
ashram....suddenly water started flowing in through
the back side of the ashram...by then it had already
washed out many of the small houses on the beach and
the local people were also running into the ashram
having lost everything... the first 2 waves pulled
down the wall behind the western cafe .... just as
everybody thought it was over a third wave
which was
much bigger than the first 2 came gushing in.... it
really caused a lot of panic....Meantime Amma asked
the temple doors to be opened completely so that all
the locals who were running for their lives could come
in....they came crying to Amma having lost
everything...many lost their houses...many lost their
family....many didn’t even know whether their near and
dear ones were alive or not....
The way i heard it was so touching...Amma, seeing the
plight of these people raised both her arms and told
them to come running to her and that she would save
all of them...."makkale odi vaa.... makkale Amma
rakshikyam... jackal endue kondum veshamikyanda..."
they all ran to her shedding pools of tears...
By this time the water in the ashram was 3 ft high and
was still rising.... many devotees over there
witnessed a very miraculous incident
there.... seeing
the rising water Amma got very angry... in that mood
Amma took off her veil and threw it in the water..
everybody who saw it were amazed to see that the water
never came up after that...
Amma had told all the devotees to pray and loudly
perform archana.... it was the most touching sight to
see... all the people over there were chanting with
tears filled in their eyes... many out of grief. Many
out of gratitude towards Amma for saving their life...
it was a once in a life time chance for many to see a
miracle happening before their own eyes.... as they
were all chanting loudly and were in Amma's presence
no body panicked... Amma send people in groups to the
boats... first the locals ..then the foreigners and at
last the ashramites..... Amma then shifted the cows
and the elephants to the temple hall.....
after
sending everyone... only Amma and senior swamis
stayed back.... it is after everybody pleaded to Amma
that she at last obliged to leave the ashram.....
then Amma immediately started relief work for the
people who lost everything.... she set up about 9
relief camps...she went around consoling people and
shed a lot of tears along with them... it was an
extremely touching sight.....rest of the story i guess
you all must be knowing.....
its Amma's infinite grace that nothing happened to
the 25000 people in the ashram that day.....its truly
a miracle......that’s all for now.... I’ll write to u
later......
with lots of love and prayers....
maanasi
"
