Amma: Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi

Society Religion & Philosophy
1

Many Indian spiritual leaders and gurus are becoming popular in the West. Satya Sai Baba , Ramakrishna Paramhans, Swami Vivekananda, Pandurang Shastri Athavale , ISKCON founder Prabhupada and Swami Chinmayananda have many followers all over the world along with Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. In US alone you find hundreds of Chinmaya Missions, ISKCON temples set by Americans.

Do you’ll believe that these human beings are someone special who have special powers? How come so many people are attracted to their teachings.

Sufi mysticism is becoming popular in the West too.

Half a million prepare for spiritual rally with India’s mother of hugs
By Phil Reeves in Delhi
24 September 2003

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=446418

“Amma”, India’s most popular female guru, once described the sensation of being on the receiving end of one of her famous two-minute hugs. She said it was like suddenly having a gulp of pure river water after drinking sewage for a lifetime.

Many people clearly agree. Today, Amma - also known as Her Holiness Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, meaning “full of immortal bliss”, and as “Mother” to many more - begins her 50th birthday celebrations in the south Indian state of Kerala.

Hotels, flights and trains have been fully booked for days. Organisers expect some 500,000 people at Amma’s “Golden Jubilee”, joining the 30 million others from across the world who have been wrapped in, and knocked out by, the refreshing bosom of the woman some regard as the next Mother Teresa.

If these expectations are met, this would be one of the biggest spiritual gatherings in India, where religious festivals and rallies routinely attract huge crowds, a spectacular event, even without the hugging.

A sports stadium in the port city of Cochin has been booked for the four days of celebrations, with a new sewage system installed in the stadium complex, a kitchen able to serve meals thrice a day to 200,000 people and a media room with 60 computers, e-mail, fax and Web-casting facilities. The spiritualist’s website, Amma.org, says events include an International Conference of Important Women, a drive to “awaken Universal Motherhood”, and a summit of business executives.

The aim of the latter is nothing if not ambitious, given the grubby realities of operating in a country regularly buffeted by corruption scandals and political skulduggery. It is intended to create a “spiritually strong, economically self- sufficient India with loving, compassionate and selfless leaders,” and will be presided over by India’s President - all “in the Divine Presence of Amma” herself, says the promotional blurb.

It all marks the astonishing rise of a small woman, with a beaming, chubby face and a white sari, born in a Kerala fishing village on 27 September 1953, but now regarded by her followers as a living saint.

She was - says her mythology - seen as a problem child by her fishing family, refusing to go to school, spending all her time praying to the Hindu god Krishna, and sleeping on the beach. But she soon attracted devotees. Today, her movement has branches in Europe, America and the Far East. It is so large that she has been criticised for being more of an international corporate executive than a guru.

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, arranged for her to address a peace conference in New York. Among the prominent guests this week are the daughter of Martin Luther King, Yolanda King; some of the heaviest hitters from India’s biggest firms; and an array of politicians, including India’s pugilistic Deputy Prime Minister, L K Advani.

There are also the ordinary followers, bubbling with zeal: Koyichi, a Japanese businessman and devotee of Amma, has been doing manual labour in the stadium for the past fortnight. “I am ready to work hard everyday for Amma. I get satisfaction earning money and spending it for charity, all because of Amma,” he said.

Miranda, a Dutch follower who has moved to India to be close to Amma, said: “I have been cleaning toilets since morning. I never feel tired when I think I am doing this for Amma. I felt heavenly when she hugged me. I then knew the meaning of life.”

Most of the people Amma embraces relate similar experiences - but not all. A Daily Mirror reporter in London three years ago said being hugged by Amma was “like lying on a rather comfortable pillow”.

2

Interesting!

3

They all are self-styled Prophets.

In West they easily get gentry, by chanting two three astonishing Mantras from Asia holy books.

Frankly if anyone tells you that he (or she) has interaction with God or with any agent of God, I assure you that this person is a fraud or has some mental problem.
Now, it is up to you to how you welcome at a Prophet.

4

After Indian guru’s hugs, many followers leave career, family behind

ASSOCIATED PRESS

COCHIN, India, Sept. 24 — California businessman Stephen Parr has traveled a long way for a hug.

   Parr is one of hundreds of thousands of people flocking to a sports stadium in southern India this week seeking spiritual fulfillment in the arms of religious leader Mata Amritanandamayi, a Hindu woman who hugs her devotees. Her followers claim she has given 30 million hugs in 30 years. 
   Amritanandamayi, known by her followers as ''Amma,'' which means ''mother'' in many Indian languages, is marking her 50th birthday with a four-day celebration that started Wednesday. 
   Amritanandamayi chants the name of the Hindu deity Krishna on a stage as her devotees sit cross-legged, singing songs from different religions, in which the name of a god is not specified. 
   Among the participants Wednesday was Yolanda King, daughter of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. 
   ''The most profound thing about her is she doesn't preach from the platform of one religion. She touches everybody. So Christians love her, Muslims love her, everybody loves her,'' King told The Associated Press. 
   Organizers expect half a million people to attend the celebrations looking for spiritual transformation and encouragement to help those less fortunate. 
   Planned activities include forums on conflict resolution, interfaith dialogue and peace building — and lots of hugs. 
   ''Outsiders might find it crazy. But those who have experienced her hug know that they go back transformed,'' said Parr, 50, who runs a film archive in San Francisco. 
   ''As we make more and more money, we are less and less in control of things. Peace comes from living for others. Life is all about showing love. Once she hugs, you know,'' Parr said. 
   A maternal figure who hugs her devotees in a gesture of blessing, Amritanandamayi, whose full name means ''Mother of Absolute Bliss,'' travels most of the year, meeting people from several cultures and religions. 
   Amritanandamayi, whose birthday is on Saturday, was born in a southern Indian fishing community, treated as low caste in Hinduism. When she was 10, she refused to go to school, preferring to meditate. 
   Her parents thought she had gone mad. She ran away and took a vow of celibacy and service in the 1970s, her followers say. During the next three decades, she won over millions with her constant smile and firm hugs. 
   Her disciples are hoping this week's celebration — which has attracted some of India's top politicians, artists, executives and poor villagers — will bring new people into her embrace. 
   Dressed in the traditional orange and saffron sacred Hindu colors, they carry cell phones to direct thousands of volunteers, erecting the stage, cooking, and cleaning toilets. 
   Amritanandamayi — one in a long line of Indian holy men and women who have captivated spiritual seekers around the world — has inspired rich and successful people to make a priority of serving the poor. 
   Many followers say they believe that Amritanandamayi herself is a god, which has drawn criticism from more conservative Hindus. 
   Some devotees have quit their careers and traveled to dusty Indian villages where she works, although her organization, the Amrita Ashram, does not give the number of full-time participants. 
   Prem Nair, 46, said he quit his job as a professor of medicine at the University of California to serve in one of the group's hospitals. 
   The 800-bed hospital treats people for free in Cochin, also known as Kochi, a city of 1 million, 1,320 miles south of New Delhi, India's capital. The bulk of the organization's operations are focused around the city in southern Kerala state, but aid work is done throughout India. 
   Followers say they often face ridicule when they talk about their devotion to the so-called ''hugging saint.'' But they say her work has been increasingly appreciated amid news of disaster and conflict. 
   ''After Sept. 11, there is a big change. People know that Amma's message of love is the answer,'' said Elizabeth Rose Raphael, a 40-year-old writer based in New York. 


   On the Net: 
   http://www.ammachi.org