Mata Amritanandamayi

Sudhamani / Mātā Amritanandamayī Devi
Born	September 27, 1953 (1953-09-27) (age 56) Parayakadavu, Kerala, India

Mātā Amritanandamayī Devi (Devanagari: माता अमृतानन्‍दमयी,Malayalam:മാതാ അമൃതാനന്ദമയി, born Sudhamani Idamannel, September 27, 1953) is a Hindu spiritual leader revered as a saint by her followers, who also know her as "Amma", "Ammachi" or "Mother". She is widely respected ^[1] for her humanitarian^[2] activities and is known as "the hugging saint".^[3]

In the words^[4] of Swami Amritaswarupananda Puri, Vice Chairman of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math,

For Amma, removing the sorrows of others is as natural as drying the tears from her own eyes. The happiness of others, this is Amma’s happiness. The security of others, this is Amma’s security. The rest of others, this is Amma’s rest. This is Amma’s vision. And it is this vision that Amma’s life is dedicated to awakening in mankind.

Early life

Mata Amritanandamayi Devi was born Sudhamani Idamannel in the small village of Parayakadavu (now partially known as Amritapuri), near Kollam, Kerala in 1953 ^[5]. 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. She is known to the world as the "hugging mother". She was also the subject of a television documentary in the Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends series on BBC TV. She hugs people and passes on to them `energy'. Reportedly she has hugged and healed some 20 million people all over the world as part of her mission. On Fridays she acts as the goddess Kali, and on many occasions she has claimed to be Lord Krishna himself.

Publications

Matruvani is a monthly magazine featuring accounts of Amma's religious and humanitarian activities and stories by devotees. It is published by the Amritapuri Ashram in both Indian, and European languages. Matruvani was first published in 1984. The magazine has been translated into English, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali and Hindi. European Matruvani is also published in French, German, Italian, Finnish and Spanish. Also published is a quarterly international magazine is known as "Immortal Bliss".

International events

• 1993, Chicago: speech at the "Parliament of the World’s Religions" 100th Anniversary.
• 1995, New York: address at the Interfaith Celebrations at the 50th Anniversary of the UN.
• 2000, New York: keynote address at the Millennium Peace Summit, UN General Assembly.
• 2002, Geneva: keynote address at the Global Peace Initiative of Women innaugural meeting at the UN in Geneva.
• 2002, Geneva: "Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence" from The World Movement for Non-Violence at UN headquarters.
• 2004, Barcelona, Parliament of World Religions.
• 2006, New York, James Parks Morton Interfaith award.

History

^[6] 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. She addressed the United Nations General Assembly^[7] and was recognised as a universal mother figure.

Recognition

Mata Amritanandamayi, the Hugging Saint

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

Mata Amritanandamayi was the keynote speaker at the Global Peace Initiative of Women, at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland held in October 2002. This was an initiative of the UN' Millennium World Peace Summit,^[8] in which Mata Amritanandamayi spoke in August 2000.

In 2002 Mata 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.

In 2006, Amma was honoured with the 4th Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award at the Interfaith Centre, New York. The Interfaith Award annually honors global leaders who forward the ICNY-mission of promoting peace, interfaith understanding and action through social and cultural programs. Some others who had previously accepted the awards are former US President Bill Clinton, Dalai Lama, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, Shirin Ebadi, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and famous Indian musician Pandit Ravi Shankar.^[9]

In Oct 2007, Amma was awarded for her humanitarian activities at human rights film festival, Cinema Verite, in Paris. Actress Sharon Stone presented the award.^[10]

In March, 2008, in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, Amma gave the keynote address for the Global Peace Initiative of Women's international conference entitled "MAKING WAY FOR THE FEMININE for the Benefit of the World Community".

Senior disciples

The first set of monastic disciples of Mata 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.^[11] Other senior disciples are Swami Paramatmananda, Swami Ramakrishnananda, Swami Purnamritananda, Swami Turiyamritananda, Swami Amritatmananda, Swami Pranavamritananda, Swamini Atmaprana and Swamini Krishnamritaprana. The ashram, known as the Mata Amritanandamyi Math (or Ashram), is located in Amritapuri. Bramachari Dayamrita Chaitanya is one of Amma's senior disciples stationed at the MA Center located in San Ramon, CA. He is in charge of all activities performed by the MA center in the US and all branch groups. Brahmacharini Dipamrita Chaitanya is in charge of the French ashram in Pontguin, France.

Darshan

Mata Amritanandamayi is known to the world media as 'the hugging saint'. She offers a hug 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.^[3] Worldwide, Mata Amritanandamayi is said to have hugged at least 30 million people in the past 30 years.^[12]

"Darshan – The Embrace," a film on the life of Mata 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,^[13] Mata Amritanandamayi's 50th birthday celebrations in Kochi. The team also traveled with her 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".^[14] [1] Darshan The Embrace - Official film website

Humanitarian activities

Mata Amritanandamayi Math's website describes various charitable and humanitarian projects undertaken by the organization.^[15] 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.^[15] 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 M.A. Math runs around 100 schools, 20 temples, a super-speciality hospital in Kochi, feeds thousands from its kitchen, provides pensions every year to over 15,000 widows, builds 25,000 houses annually for the homeless and has 35 Amma welfare centres worldwide to spread her spiritual message.^[16]

M.A. Math announced a billion rupees (23 million dollars) in aid to the victims of the 2004 tsunami.^[17] The Math's relief work is happening in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar islands and in Sri Lanka.The Math spent over 100 crores for the rehabilitation of the victims in Tamil Nadu.Also they opened a school at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu for the affected children and it was opened recently in June,2009. ^[18]

In September 2005, Mata Amritanandamayi donated $1,000,000 to the Bush-Clinton Hurricane Katrina fund.^[19] 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.^[20]

Quotation

Criticism

Mr. Sreeni Pattathanam the Kerala-based head of the Indian Rationalist Association has written a book Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities, Mass Publicationas, Kollam, Kerala, revised edn.) that becomes the controversial one in Malayalam language. It was first published in 1985, since this godwoman was not as famous as she is today. For the book there was no demand from the Math to prosecute the author. But later, when the lady became an incarnation of the Lord Krishna himself, they could persuade the government to move against the author. His main contentions are: the Math's claims to miracles are bogus, and that there have been many suspicious deaths in and around her ashram, which need police investigation. The research work contains elaborate references to court records, newspaper reports and quotations from well-known literary figures, including statements from the Math's close relatives, as well as an interview with Matha Amritanandamayi herself. The State government sanctioned prosecution of Pattathanam, the owner of the publishing company and the printer of the book. The order followed directions from the Kerala High Court to the State's Home Department for considering an application by a high ranking devotee and inmate of the Mata Amritanandamayi Ashramam, T.K. Ajan, to criminally prosecute the three^[21], based on criticisms found in the book. The order ultimately received international attention, and was rescinded after criticism by Humanists, Rationalists, writers, and the Communist Party.

See also

• Amrita survey
• Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham (One of the Premier Indian Universities which she founded and is also the Chancellor of)
• J and Friends Sing and Chant For Amma - A compact disc of devotional songs written and recorded by American alternative rock musician/songwriter J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr), an open follower of Ammachi. All of the proceeds from the CD go to Amma's charites.
• Amrita TV
• Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre
• Amrita Learning

Notes

References

• BBC-News article about Mata Amritanandamayi
• Hurricane relief
• Tsunami relief
• Social Service
• Amma: Healing the Heart of the World by Judith Cornell, (William Morrow & Company, ISBN 0-688-17079-X)
• Messages from Amma: In the Language of the Heartby Janine Canan (Ten Speed Press, ISBN 1-58761-214-3)
• Getting to Joy: A Western Householder's Spiritual Journey with Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi) by Karuna Poole (Shantini Center, ISBN 0-9643629-2-9)
• Teachings

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mata Amritanandamayi

• Amritapuri.org (Official mission site - India)
• Amma Europe (Official portal to European Amma sites)
• Amma.org (Official mission site - USA)
• Youtube Ammafootage (Official Youtube site)
• embracingtheworld.org (Amma's Charitable Projects site)
• Amma.org Centers (USA site directory of all centers worldwide)
• Amma Foundation of Canada (Official mission site - Canada)
• Amma Russia (Official mission site - Russia)
• Amma Japan (Official mission site - Japan)
• Amrita Centre Kenya (Official mission site - Kenya)
• Amma Australia (Official mission site - Australia)
• Ammabrasil.org (Official mission site - Brazil)
• Amrita.edu (Amrita University is a multi-campus and multi-disciplinary teaching and research university offering over a hundred different programs - Various cities in India)
• AIMSHospital.org (Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences - Kochi, Kerala, India)
• Amritapuja.org (International puja request site)
• Amrita Technologies (Healthcare informatics)
• Amrita Research Labs (R&D Center of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University)
• Amritavarsham 50 (Golden Jubilee 50th Birthday Celebration 2003)
• Amrita Learning (Amrita Learning is a research-based; 'adaptive learning' software for children, in collaboration with Amrita University based on NCERT/CBSE syllabus)
• Amrita Vidyalayam (In India - A national network of value based schools managed by Mata Amritanandamayi Math)
• AYUDH International (Amrita Yuva Dharma Dhara - International youth movement)
• Darshan The Embrace (film website)
• Farmers Relief Project In India - Farmers Relief Project
• Green Friends (Amma's international environmental initiative)
• Immortal Bliss Magazine (Immortal Bliss is a publication dedicated to spreading Amma's teachings and publicizing the worldwide activities of the M.A. Math)