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Mata Amritanandamayi

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Mata Amritanandamayi

Mātā Amritanandamayī Devi (Devanagiri: माता अमृतानन्‍दमयी, Malayalam: മാതാ അമൃതാനന്ദമയി), also known by her followers as 'Amma', 'Ammachi' or 'Mother' (September 27, 1953 - ), is an Indian spiritual leader revered by her followers as a saint. She is a widely respected humanitarian and called by some 'the hugging saint'.

Early life

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Amritanandamayi was born Sudhamani in the small village of Parayakadavu (now partially known as Amritapuri), near Kollam, Kerala in 1953. Sudhamani was born to a fishing family of the Arayan caste. Her schooling ended when she was nine, and she began to take care of her younger siblings and the family domestic work full-time.

Rise to fame

Her devotees claim that she had many mystical experiences as a child. Since 1981, she has been teaching spiritual aspirants all over the world. She founded a worldwide organization, the Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust, which is engaged in many spiritual and charitable activities. From humble beginnings she undertook a journey to attain "universal motherhood". She addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

International events

Recognition

In 1993, she was one of the representatives of Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.

Amritanandamayi was the keynote speaker at The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland held in October 2002. This was an initiative of the UN' Millennium World Peace Summit, in which Amritanandamayi spoke in August 2000.

In 2002 Amritanandamayi was presented with the Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence by The World Movement for Nonviolence at the UN General Assembly Hall (Palais Des Nations) in Geneva in recognition of her lifelong work in furthering the principles of non-violence. The three previous recipients of the award were Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, and primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall.

She is also considered an avatar of the Great Mother.

Senior disciples

The first set of monastic disciples of Amritanandamayi came to her in the late 1970s. Today, they as well as other disciples and devotees look after the ashram's multifaceted activities. The first disciple to be initiated as a sanyasi was Swami Amritaswarupananda. Other senior disciples are Swami Turiyamritananda, Swami Ramakrishnananda, Swami Purnamritananda and Swami Amritatmananda. The Ashram is now known as Amritapuri.

Darshan

Amritanandamayi is known to the world media as 'the hugging saint'. She offers warm hugs to everyone who approaches her and in India she has been known to individually hug over 50,000 people in a day , sitting sometimes for over 20 hours. Worldwide, Amritanandamayi is said to have hugged at least 30 million people in the past 30 years.

"Darshan – The Embrace", a film on the life of Amritanandamayi was officially selected for showcasing at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Jan Kounen, an award winning filmmaker who was born in Netherlands and is based in France, directed the film. Manuel De La Roche of France, is the producer. Jan Kounen and his crew began shooting the footage for the film in 2003 during Amritavarsham50 , Amritanandamayi's 50th birthday celebrations in Kochi. The team also traveled with Amritanandamayi on her Indian and International tours in order to complete the movie. About the film, Kounen says, "when I first took up the project and started filming, I thought, 'Amma is a good person, doing good things, in turn I can do something good for her'. But as it went on, I realized, no, I am the one who is receiving the gift".

Matruvani

Matruvani is one of the most well-known monthly magazines concerned with spirituality in India.

It is published by the Amritapuri Ashram in both Indian and European languages. With the blessings of Amma, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Matruvani was first published in 1984. The magazine has be translated into English, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Hindi. European Matruvani is also published in French, German, Italian, Finnish and Spanish.

These editions of Matruvani reach more than 200,000 subscribers.

Bhajans

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Amritanandamayi is also well known for her singing of Bhajans, or Indian devotional chants. Amritanandamayi joins the daily chanting when she is present at ashram. She has sung in over 30 different languages. Since her early childhood she has composed hundreds of bhajans. The senior swamis are accomplished musicians in both vocal and instrumental areas of music.

Amritapuri

Amritapuri is the main Ashram of Amritanandamayi. It is located in Parayakadavu, Kollam, Kerala about 120km north of Thiruvananthapuram and 120km south of Cochin. Amritapuri is also the name by which the location of the ashram is now known.

Amritapuri is also one of the campuses of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

Humanitarian activities

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Mata Amritanandamayi Math's website describes various charitable and humanitarian projects undertaken by the organisation. Examples include a program to build 100,000 homes for the poor; hospitals; orphanages; hospices; women's shelters; pension disbursements for widows; community aid centers; homes for the aged; eye clinics; and speech therapy centers. Many of Amma's centers in the US run 'Mother's Kitchen', or 'vegetarian soup-kitchens', where volunteers prepare and serve meals to the poor and needy.

The Mata Amritanandamayi Math runs 33 schools, 12 temples, one super-speciality hospital in Kochi, feeds thousands during mass kitchen, provides pension every year to over 15,000 widows, builds 25,000 houses annually for the homeless and has 35 Amma welfare centres all over the world to spread her spiritual message.

Recently, Mata Amritanandamayi Math announced a billion rupees (23 million dollars) in aid to the victims of the 2004 tsunami. The Math's relief work is happening in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar islands and in Sri Lanka.

In September 2005, Mata Amritanandamayi donated $1,000,000 to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund. She also sent a top aide to the devastated areas soon after the storm struck in the United States to assess the kind of help needed by victims.

In October 2005, thousands of blankets were sent and distributed to the survivors of the Kashmir and Pakistan earthquake.

Miracles

Many of Amritanandamayi's followers believe in her powers to perform miracles. For instance, she mentioned in an interview given to The Week (Kottayam, Kerala, September 21, 2003) that she is often asked by her devotees to perform miracles. She goes on to say that water was miraculously changed to panchamrutham (a sweet often prepared for Hindu religious ceremonies) in her presence and that her devotees were able to light lamps out of conches filled with water. Such claims cause many people to be skeptical of her powers while fueling more devotion in others.

Criticism

A book by rationalist writer Sreeni Pattathanam entitled Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities), first published in 1985, talks of deaths reported from the precincts of her ashram which the author says are suspicious and need investigation (for more details, see Sreeni Pattathanam article). The book contains critical comments about Matha Amritanandamayi's personal life and sexual behaviour. The book also has references to court records, newspaper reports and quotations from some literary figures, and attempts to refute the Math’s claims to miracles and contends that there have been many suspicious deaths in and around her ashram, which he says need police investigation

According to an article by Anivar Aravind published by the Independent Media Center, this book later became controversial and brought the threat of legal action and pressure for criminal prosecution from one high ranking resident of the ashram against the author for "insulting or attempting to insult the religion or religious beliefs of any class of citizens with an intention of outraging its religious feelings". This action was, according to Aravind, widely criticized both locally and internationally by activists, writers and rationalists, and eventually the threat of criminal prosecution was dropped.

According to the newspaper, Metro Now , In June 2007, the ashramites of Mata Amritanandamayi had put up a sign for Amma's visit, which New Delhi's Green Ave. residents agreed to. But after Amma's visit, the residents wanted the sign down as it was in breach of the local covenant. After a long period without response from Amma's ashram, the residents took it upon themselves to remove the sign. When they showed up to do so, the ashramites attending the sign made some phone calls. Soon afterward, an ashram bus showed up with 50 devotees who attacked the residents with canes and crow bars. The ashram has not yet responded to the allegations.

In June of 2007, Amma came under criticism from dozens of elected officials, religious and community leaders throughout the state of California as a result of her choice to stay at the LAX Hilton during a labor dispute. The strongest of criticisms came from Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun Magazine and a leader of the progressive Jewish community in Southern California. The Rabbi declined to receive an award he was scheduled to receive from the hugging saint, and said in a letter addressed to her"Amma, there is no possibility of creating a more loving and caring world that I know you are so committed to so long as spiritual leaders like yourself fail to link spiritual ideals to concrete social justice for poor and working people. Her decision to stay at the hotel caused public outcry from religious leaders and workers participating in the hotel boycott.

See also

References

  1. BBC-News article about Amritanandamayi
  2. Hurricane relief
  3. Tsunami relief
  4. Social Service
  5. Amma: Healing the Heart of the World by Judith Cornell, (William Morrow & Company, ISBN 0-688-17079-X)
  6. Messages from Amma: In the Language of the Heart by Janine Canan (Ten Speed Press, ISBN 1-58761-214-3)
  7. Department of Health issues measles warning: CDNA
  8. Getting to Joy: A Western Householder's Spiritual Journey with Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) by Karuna Poole (Shantini Center, ISBN 0-9643629-2-9)
  9. The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World by Theresa Cheung (Barnes & Nobles, Inc, ISBN 0-7607-90233-X)

http://amritapuri.amrita.eduNachiketa 13:51, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

Notes

  1. Los Angeles Times: The Week In Photos, (2006). www.latimes.com. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.
  2. BBC-News Article About Mata Amritanandamayi
  3. Ammachi - A Biography of Mata Amritanandamayi by Swami Amritaswarupananda, ISBN 1-879410-60-5
  4. BBC-News Article About Mata Amritranandamayi
  5. I am Receiving the Gift, Interview with Kannadi on September 10th 2004, Cochin, Kerala, Available Online
  6. Social Service,
  7. Social Service,
  8. Hindustan Times, "Healing wounds with a hug" by Surendra Singh, October 9th 2003, Available Online
  9. Tsunami relief
  10. Hurricane relief
  11. M. A. Math Responds to Kashmir Earthquake Available Online
  12. , retrieved 15 February 2007

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