4 mar 2026, holi – amritapuri
yesterday, preethi srinivasan gave a talk here at the ashram, sitting next to amma. she was a gitamritam speaker for “my life, my passion” ten years ago. yesterday she once again narrated her story, in a nutshell.
i remember very clearly something she said back then. she was praying to god to keep her slate clean all the time — meaning she did not want to ask anything from god.
after ten years, she repeated the same prayer. but this time she added one more thing.
her mother has been taking care of her for the last twenty-five years, without proper sleep or food. her mother has never had the chance to sleep eight hours peacefully even for a single night. she has been serving her daughter selflessly all these years. for preethi, her mother herself is god.
yesterday, preeti prayed to amma to bless her mother with mukti.
and for herself she prayed:
“i don’t want to write anything on my slate. i want to finish this life, exhaust my karma, and merge at amma’s lotus feet.”
what resilience. what conviction. what bhakti. what surrender.
for those who don’t know who preeti srinivasan is — she was once a young, very pretty girl who won a gold medal in swimming, was the captain of the tamil nadu ranji team under-19, and also won a gold medal in academics in the usa.
when she was eighteen, she met with an accident while swimming in the ocean. that moment changed her life. she became paralysed below the neck. since then she has been completely bedridden. she needs help for eating, going to the bathroom — basically for every activity.
yet today she runs an organisation and rehabilitation centre called soul-free.
she supports girls with spinal injuries who come from families below the poverty line. so far nearly 3000 families have been helped through this effort.
to raise funds, she travels to colleges and schools, giving talks and lectures. the money she raises supports this rehabilitation centre. amma inaugurated the hospital in 2021 in thiruvannamalai.
preeti often says:
better to live in a broken body with a stable mind than to live in a stable body with a broken mind.
amma used to call preeti a rainbow. today amma called her “miss universe” — a truly beautiful one. the so-called miss universe’s beauty is only skin deep, but preeti’s beauty shines from the heart, full of love and compassion.
after listening to preeti, i don’t think there was anyone in the hall, or online, who could easily hold back their tears. amma herself was in tears most of the time. it was so transforming.