about AMMA

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Dear friends                 below , i have posted a detailed life

history of amma   Mata Amritanandamayi is an embodiment of

unconditional love, devoted to the service of all humanity. So open

is she, so approachable and accessible, that people have come to

realize in her that archetypal, universal 'Mother-Love', at once

personal yet boundless like a vast ocean, beating softly on the

shores of troubled minds and searching hearts. People from all walks

of life seek out the Mother, as she is affectionately called. She

receives everyone in the same loving way, regardless of his religious

faith or non-belief. She welcomes all alike from the wealthy executive

to the leprous beggar, from the newborn babe to the wrinkled old man,

from the hostile detractor to the ardent admirer. As an untiring

servant of all people, her time and life are dedicated solely to

removing the suffering of humanity. No one's concerns are

insignificant to her. All find that her compassion and knowledge

unfailingly guide them in their uncertain lives, and her motherly

affection is a soothing balm to their afflictions. Tak ing each one to

herself without reservation, she moves like a mother with children,

bringing solace and peace of mind to all. This familiar closeness is

so deeply moving that many burst into tears as they experience the

radiance of her divine love and compassion and attain a glimpse of

their own true divine nature. She teaches by the example of her own

life and conveys the highest spiritual truths in the simplest

language. An inspiring example of humility, compassion, simplicity,

and patience, she has infused devotion to God, love for fellow beings

and the spirit of selfless service into the hearts of millions.

Sudhamani, as the Mother was called, was born in 1953 to an extremely

poor but pious family in the lush state of Kerala on the west coast of

India. Although she underwent many severe hardships and encountered

many obstacles, she sought solace only in God. Her life was to serve

as an inspiring example to the thousands of people who would later

come under her care and guidance. She would show what it is to be a

true seeker and earnest devotee of God, and out of her love and

compassion, she would serve humanity as Mother and Teacher. At the

age of five, she started composing songs of deep mystical

significance. Her enchanting soulful singing became well known

throughout the village. "From childhood I had an intense love of the

Divine Name. I would repeat the Lord's Name incessantly with every

breath and a constant flow of divine thoughts was kept up in my mind

no matter the place where I was or the work I was doing." Required to

work long hours in the service of her family, she could not continue

her schooling beyond the fourth year. In addition to looking after

all the household chores, she served the elderly, the poor and the

sick in her seaside village, looking after them as if they were

members of her own family. She would stealthily remove food grains

from her family's storeroom and give them to those who were poorer

than herself. One day, not finding anything else, she gave away her

mother's only gold bangle to a poor starving man. She received a

severe beating when her father found out, yet she was happy that she

could relieve someone's suffering. Sudhamani worshipped God in the

form of the cowherd boy Krishna, considered in India to be a Divine

Incarnation born thousands of years ago. She used to carry a little

picture of Him and would tell her sorrows to Him. When she went to

graze the family's cows, she felt that she herself was Krishna and

that her playmates were the cowherds, the childhood friends of the

Lord. She was often seen singing in a mood of ecstatic devotion or

blissfully immersed in meditation. Though her parents were religious,

they were just simple folk who could not understand her unusual

behavior. They thought that her deeply spiritual and overly

charitable nature were nothing more than a kind of eccentricity.

However, in spite of repeated obstacles, her love of God and her

spiritual moods continued to deepen. Eventually Sudhamani was locked

out of the house and not even given any food to eat. When sympathetic

local women tried to bring her food and care for her, they were sent

away by the

family. Some of the local villagers who could not understand her state

of divine bliss ridiculed her by throwing stones at her. They also

placed thorns where she was to walk and even went so far as to try to

poison her. Once someone actually threatened to stab her with a knife.

Yet despite all these threats and abuses, Sudhamani remained

undisturbed, oblivious to the harassment and physical conditions. She

slept outdoors, the sand was her bed, the stars her blanket and the

moon her only light. Animals came to feed her. A dog brought food

packets to her in his mouth; a cow stood near her so that she could

drink from its udder. In due course, Sudhamani attained mystic union

with the Lord as the fruit of her intense spiritual longing. Seeing

her in that unusual divine mood, some of the villagers said to her,

"Show us a miracle, for how can we believe that you are really one

with Him?" She replied, "Children, do not ask to see miracles. The

greatest miracle of all is for man to realize

his True Self." Yet out of compassion towards them and to inspire th

em with faith, she asked one of them to bring a little pitcher of

milk; when he then dipped his finger into it, it had changed into

sweet jam which was distributed to the hundreds of people there. This

created a vast change in the minds of the people and from that day on,

large crowds gathered around the Holy Mother. On another occasion, a

devotee of the Mother brought her an oil lamp for the little temple

in which she received devotees, but her elder brother, one of her

greatest antagonists, smashed it. Mother then asked her devotees to

bring shells into which water was poured and a wick was placed in

each. She asked the people there to light them and the light from

these shells lasted the entire night. One day, while Sudhamani was

sitting alone in a meditative mood, a beautiful orb of brilliant

light appeared before her. As she looked on in wonder, the Divine

Mother emerged from the globe in an exquisitely beautiful form and

then disappeared along with the light as suddenly as she had come.

This vision left Sudhamani with an intense desire to see the Divine

Mother again and after many days of deep meditation and crying to

Her, she did see Her again. Following this experience, Sudhamani

withdrew herself from everything and everyone, and remained immersed

in the intense inner bliss of God-Consciousness. But suddenly one day

she heard a voice from within her say, "I am in all as the One Essence

and do not have any particular abode. It is to give solace to

suffering humanity that you have come into this world and not merely

for enjoying Divine Bliss. Therefore, worship Me by showing mankind

the way back to Me."This was a turning point in the

Mother's life. The following days found her identified with the lov

ing Divine Mother and it was from this time onwards that people began

calling her "Mother." Since 1981 the Holy Mother has been

disseminating spiritual knowledge to a dedicated group of spiritual

aspirants who have come to study with her, training them with

practical spiritual discipline. She feels that the greatest of all

blessings is to rouse an aspirant to the glory of the divinity

within. The awakened man solves all his problems for himself and

becomes a blessing to society. Today her work has blossomed into a

worldwide organization, the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, which

is engaged in many spiritual and charitable activities. Crossing the

backwaters, one arrives at the Mother's birthplace, an island flanked

by these waterways and the Arabian Sea. It was here, around the middle

of 1979, that a number of young educated men and women started coming

to the Mother for spiritual advice. The Mother's home soon became a

pilgrimage place where people came seeking relief from their

travails, and thus a small hermitage or ashram came into being. Today

there is a seemingly endless flow of people from all over the world

who come to the ashram to spend as much time as they can with the

Mother, as well as over 200 permanent residents who have made this

their spiritual home. Some come for relief from their problems, while

others find a peaceful retreat where they can meditate under the

Mother's guidance; still others come to take part in her charitable

service projects. The Mother insists that all of the residents or

"children" as she calls them, have a thorough grounding in spiritual

practices like

meditation, devotional singing, yoga and scri ptural study. This will

give them the necessary stability and inner peace to deal with the

unavoidable ups and downs of life. But they should also have skills

useful for serving the poor and needy. It is toward this end that all

of the work of maintaining the ashram and attending to the thousands

of people who come there is done by the residents themselves. The

Mother feels that only if one works hard and undergoes the

tribulations of the poor, will one be able to serve them properly

through a sympathetic understanding. The Mother practices what she

preaches and she herself joins in all of the work. "I desire peace

for the people; this is what makes me happy. In this world where so

many people live in luxury and comfort, there are many who are

suffering poverty and even starvation. With cooperation and love, we

must selflessly serve the whole world without expecting anything in

return."

Mother's compassion for the poor resulted in her assuming the

responsibility for a financially troubled orphanage about 30 miles

away from the ashram. The more than 400 children were starving and

lived in filthy buildings on the verge of collapse. The Mother felt

moved by their plight and acquired the orphanage along with its huge

debts. Some of the ashram residents were sent there to clean it up.

They installed electricity and plumbing and fixed the leaking roofs

and floors flooded by the monsoon rains, and for the first time in

their lives, the children were fed with nourishing food. With the

material basics taken care of, emphasis has been laid on their

education. Classes in Sanskrit and activities in music, dance, drama,

arts and crafts have stimulated much interest and enthusiasm among the

children. The orphanage is only one of the Holy Mother's many world

service projects. Other charitable activities include a free medical

dispensary, a Vocational Training Center,

two Computer Training Institutes and a fifty-bed hospice for

terminally ill cancer patients. Free medical camps are periodically

conducted, and food, clothing and homes are being provided for the

poor. A five hundred bed hospital is to be constructed next year. In

1987, some of the Mother's admirers in the West requested her to

visit their countries in order to give those who could not travel to

India a chance to benefit from her holy company. Feeling this to be

the Divine Will, she agreed, and sponsored by the devotees there,

visited numerous cities in America and Europe. Two years later, a

residential ashram and retreat center just outside of San Francisco,

the Mata Amritanandamayi Center, was started for those wishing to

lead a monastic life dedicated to spiritual practice and social

service in the West. Classes there are taught daily by one of the

Mother's senior disciples who is in residence. Devotional singing and

meditation are also part of the daily practice in conjunction with the

service required to maintain the ashram and the projects it supports.

Since then, similar centers have been established in Europe and

Reunion Island.