Amma - interview

[Guest guest]

'The Greatest Miracle Is Mental Peace'

Beliefnet interviews Mata Amritanandamayi, a Hindu holy woman who

literally embraces the world.

 

Html version :

 

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/84/story_8416_1.html

 

 

Interview and photos by Arun Venugopal

 

 

 

For a woman who is revered by millions as the Goddess incarnate,

Mata Amritanandamayi, or Amma, has a surprisingly down-to-earth

quality. She laughs easily and often, throwing her head back. There

is nothing self-important or vain about her; even her translator and

disciple, Swami Amritaswarup, occasionally teases her, singing

devotional songs to her as if they were characters traipsing through

an Indian film and earning more laughs from the guru.

Our interview was conducted on the stage of Roone Arledge Hall, at

Columbia University, as Amma, dressed in a simple white sari, gave

darshan (literally, 'a vision of') to hundreds of spiritual seekers

who lined up for a long hug. Even as she answered questions, she

continued embracing her devotees, offering words of comfort along

with a Hershey's Kiss. Divinity or not, it becomes clear just what

makes grown men weep at her touch. When they're hugged, however

briefly, many feel that the crowd recedes and the world fades away.

The Goddess becomes the mother, a child in her arms.

 

 

You had a difficult childhood, and many of your devotees come to you

with heavy hearts. Can true understanding and compassion come to us

only after great suffering?

 

For those who have a spiritual understanding, this will happen. Not

for everyone. If you understand the essential principles in life,

then sorrow can become the light in the darkness. But normal human

beings sometimes become deeply depressed when faced with challenges

of life's sorrows and pain. Whereas the spiritual seeker channels

all his energies to God, the pain and the sorrow. He pours out his

heart to God, to a higher reality. For him, it becomes a source of

great understanding and compassion.

 

 

 

So pain is necessary?

 

It's not that it's necessary. It's just the nature of the world,

it's the nature of experiences, the nature of life, that it will

bring pain and pleasure, failure and success. But how you receive

it, and how you look at it, how you evaluate it, is more important.

 

So a normal human being, he doesn't receive it with a positive

attitude. So it becomes a source of unhappiness and sometimes even

culminates in depression. Whereas a spiritual seeker channels that

to God, the pain and sorrow, he pours out his heart to the Divine.

Then it becomes a source of compassion, and it really deepens your

understanding.

 

 

It's like, in the heat of the sun, ice melts and mud hardens. When

there are trials and tribulations in life, our faith and our

determination should become stronger, like the mud that hardens. We

should not be like the ice that melts.

 

 

As the wax melts, the candle becomes brighter. Likewise, in the case

of a spiritual seeker, when there is more pain, when there is more

sorrow and suffering, his inner light becomes more and more

brighter.

 

Is the wax representative of the ego?

 

It can be compared to the ego, but it depends on how you interpret

it. You're going beyond the body and the mind mechanism. Basically,

it's the ego or the mind or the thought process. A spiritual person--

or a person who has a higher goal in life, like self-realization or

God-realization--gains more awareness and alertness while going

through the pain and sorrows of life. Suppose you have a headache

and you suddenly become aware of your head. Until then, although we

have a head, we have a forehead, we're never aware of it. It's the

way you look at it.

 

Some people become depressed and they even reach a dead end of life,

but others utilize it as a path to attain more understanding and

also to move closer to God.

 

The story of your childhood is filled with many miracles. Aren't you

worried that these miracles will distort your true message?

 

I'm not interested in all these miracles. There are no miracles

which don't exist already on Earth. The biggest miracle of all is

the miracle of mental peace. That's the only miracle I'm interested

in. I never did anything. [in her youth, Amma was often berated by

her elder brother, who disapproved of her spiritual ways. As the

story goes, he one day destroyed the oil lamp that she and her

followers used for prayers. She then instructed her distraught

followers to fashion lamps out of seashells, substituting water for

oil. The lamps managed to stay lit overnight.] They wished to bring

water, so I said, "OK, go ahead and do it."

 

They alone did it. I didn't touch anything with my hand. They wished

it themselves. I have no interest in it. They were the ones who

created an uproar.

 

When we went there [the temple], there was neither oil nor lamps, so

what was I supposed to do? I just told them to go get some seashells

and pour a little water into them.

 

 

There are many people who do not believe in you, and others who do

not question a thing you say. Is a little skepticism a good thing,

or is complete surrender necessary?

A little bit of skepticism, but it should be born out of

inquisitiveness. Some people's questions are born out of ego. That

won't help you to know the reality. You will be closed. You will be

obstructed, your view will be obstructed by the ego and the egoistic

thoughts. People who are willfully ignorant are difficult to teach.

 

 

 

Someone who pretends to be asleep is harder to wake up than someone

who actually is asleep. So an inquisitive nature is good.

 

All the scriptures, like the Bhagavad Gita, or the Upanishads,

they're all in dialogue form. The disciple asks questions to the

master and the master replies. But they were very genuine. The

questions were very genuine and the disciples or the questioners

were very sincere.

 

But finally, we have to go beyond all questions and all doubts. All

the questions we express should be to go beyond. It's like when you

look at a flower. The insect or worm will completely destroy the

flower. And the scientist will make it an object of research. And

the honeybee will come and suck the nectar from the flower. And the

poet will write a beautiful poem, looking at the flower. And the

believer in God will offer it to God. It's the same flower.

Likewise, you can look at an object or a person or an experience in

different ways, it depends on your mental constitution and your

inherited tendencies from the previous lives.

 

There will come a time when all the answers will be answered from

within. We will not have to ask the questions externally.

 

 

 

 

-Ohm Amritheswaryay Namah

 

manesh