KARUNAGAPALLY: Matha Amrithanandamayi’s 66th birthday celebrations began in Karunagapally on Friday. The day started with Ganapathy homam at 5 am and it was attended by 54 brahmacharis and 54 Brahmacharins.

On Thursday, being her birthday, Amma reached the ashram at 9:10 am with the accompaniment of panchavadhyams.
At 9.15 am, padapuja led by Amrithananda Swaroopa took place. It was attended by Sanyasis. After that Amma gave her birthday message.

Amma reached the college in the evening and she led bhajan session at 6pm. The main celebration is today (Friday) at Amritha Engineering College ground pandal at the ashram headquarters at Vallikkavu.

A number of charity initiatives including a technology enabling centre for the state will be launched here. Mass wedding of 66 bride and bride grooms will be held. The dependents of Pulwama attack victims will given Rs Five lakh each.

The ashram will launch the Kerala centre as per the vision of the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology to have one centre per state to serve as an ecosystem for technology development. The centre will be set up on the Amritapuri campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for network researchers, institutes, national laboratories and industrialists to help researchers with market studies, characterising and scaling of innovations to fit the needs of the government, MSMEs, NGOs and corporates, a release said.

Amrita Keerti Award will be presented to Vattaparambil Gopinathan Pillai. The award has been instituted for outstanding contributions in the fields of spirituality, philosophy, science, and literature.As part of the birthday celebrations, Amrita School of Sustainable Development will be opened on the Amrita University campus. The Math will also sponsor 400 free heart surgeries. The institution has provided free medical care to more than 47 lakh patients so far at a cost of more than `670 cr.

State an Central ministers/leaders including Rajnath Singh, Ramesh Chennithala, Kadakampally Surendran, P C George, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Suresh Gopi, G Sudhakaran, and Mercykutty Amma are expected to attend the celebrations.