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.

TO JOIN us please visit::

Mata-Amritandamayi/

or

at

Mata-Amritandamayi-

with love

ajju

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