I was recently in Mauritius and discovered a Mata Amritanandamayi ashram in Quatre Bornes, where I happened to visit. But it was closed. I just had a look through the glass door into the darshan hall and took a photo from the building.
Soon after, on Facebook, I got under “people you may know” the Mata Amritanandamayi Ashram in Quatre Bornes as a suggestion. It was somehow spooky, how Facebook got to know that I was there so briefly.
Yet it encouraged me to read again the chapter on Amma in my book “Thank you India” and I decided to put it on my blog. Actually, I have two chapters on Amma in my book. I post here the second chapter first – about my 2 visits to her ashram in Kerala. The first chapter is about her life.
Chapter 34 from my book “Thank you India” published by Garuda Prakashan 2018 (available on Amazon or PadhegaIndia):
In Amma’s Ashram
In December 2000, I crossed over the backwaters by boat to the narrow strip of land full of palm trees right on the shore of the Arabian Sea. It was my first visit to Amritapuri. The sun still stood low on the horizon as I had reached the nearest railway station by night train.
The first person I came across was a woman whom I had met in the ashram of Satya Sai Baba. She looked similar to what I had looked in Puttaparthi: thin and unhappy. But she was kind and helpful. “Come and put your bag into my room. The office opens only at 10 o’clock. You can take a shower and then we go for breakfast.” She camped with two other women in a room – for the last two years.
I knew from own experience that one can get used to such circumstances. Moreover, the lingering, constant unhappiness may finally turn out as a blessing. It is a passing phase. Yet I was glad that I had left this phase behind me. As much as I was impressed with Amma’s life, I was sure that I would stay in the ashram only for a few days. Now, I drew my support not from an outer guru but from my self – the one self that permeates everything. Yet this self was doubtlessly more translucent in Amma’s form than in mine, so I appreciated the fact that I had a chance to be in her presence.
On the forenoon, Amma came to the temple, gave a short talk and started guiding a meditation. She appeared soft and motherly and her face was beaming. There were many foreigners present, because Christmas was near. Amma talked in Malayalam, her mother tongue, which a saffron robed sanyasi translated into English. “Breathe in love and breathe out light”, she advised. “While you breathe out, the light spreads far and wide.”
In the end, some people formed a queue in front of Amma and she took the first one into her embrace.
“Did you arrive only today?” a foreigner asked me.
“Yes, this morning.”
“Then you can join the queue.”
I hesitated. Somehow, I did not feel prepared for an embrace. There were only about five people left in the line, when she urged me again. “Go to her. It is your chance.”
Amma pressed me to her shoulder and whispered something into my ear that I did not understand. I looked up to her. Then she pressed again my head to her shoulder. When I was sitting down afterwards, I felt extremely blissful. I did not want to get up when everyone got up and left. I knew it was time for lunch and I might miss my meal, but I did not mind – rather untypical for my usual self. I was alone in the big room and enjoyed the feeling of bliss. Finally, someone came and swept the floor. I had to get up. Lunch was already over.
On the next day, there was darshan day, which meant that Amma would embrace everyone who came. The ashram was full of visitors, about two to three thousand, and Amma sat for 5 hours in the same position and took one after the other into her arms. I wanted to save her at least one embrace and did not join the queue. Yet unexpectedly, someone called me to help out: I was asked to sit directly next to Amma and hand her small envelopes with sweets which she gave to each person after the embrace.
On the following Sunday, I joined the queue for an embrace. It was a special day. Amma identified herself with the divine Mother, called Devi bhava.
All day long, people streamed into the ashram. There was a festive atmosphere. In the late afternoon Amma gave a talk and then sang bhajans with great devotion.
At around 7 o’clock she disappeared for a short while. She changed from her white cotton sari into a red silk sari and returned with a small crown on her head. The outer appearance gave a finish to her identification with Devi, the divine Mother.
Meanwhile, in the big, open hall two long queues were building up – one for men and one for women. Amma sat down on a cushion on a small pedestal on the stage and one person after the other kneeled down in front of her and she took him into her embrace. First in the queue were handicapped children. It was touching to see them in Amma’s arms. On a big screen, everyone could observe Amma’s facial expression. She looked very soft, very loving.
Each person had taken a number and the turn of my number would be only at around 2 o’clock at night. At 10 o’clock, I went to my room, which I shared with three women, and slept for a few hours. When I reappeared, Amma had been sitting already for six hours on her cushion in the same position and pressed men, women and children to her chest. Her face was still as soft, loving and radiating as six hours ago and she gave every single person full attention.
I felt a little bad that I had slept. The queue moved slowly towards the stage. When it was my turn, Amma pressed me close to her and whispered “my daughter” into my ear. “Sit down behind me on the stage”, she indicated, before I got up. An assistant showed me a place at an angle directly behind Amma.
The feeling after the embrace was not as intense as the first time. The circumstances were probably responsible: the first time, the queue was short and Amma took her time. During the Devi Bhava there were about 10.000 people in the ashram who all wanted to be embraced. Understandably, her assistants urged everyone to get up as quickly as possible after the embrace to make room for the next person.
During the following hours, I sat only about 2 metres away from Amma and could closely observe her. What she did was humanly impossible. She welcomed everybody with the same, loving smile, pressed him resolutely to her chest, whispered something into his ear and gave him prasad. Some took more time, asked questions or confided to Amma a problem, but most people were content with the short embrace. Only once, she briefly interrupted her routine and took a sip from a cup which an assistant offered her. At around 5 o’clock in the morning a woman started massaging her back, yet Amma did not take notice of it. She kept sitting in the same position, until the queue finished. That was at 8.30 in the next morning.
Amma however still kept sitting, and now around hundred people came again to her, who had asked Amma for a mantra. Each one had written on a chit his Ishta Deva, the form of the Supreme he or she loved most. Indians have many gods and goddesses and everybody is free to choose the one to whom he feels most attracted. These gods are connecting links to the formless Brahman from a higher plane, for it is not easy to love the formless. There are many stories about the gods, they are like good friends, ever ready to listen and it is easy to love them. Moreover, it helps to have a loving, intimate partner, as long as we do not yet realise that we are one with everything and ourselves divine. Amma gave corresponding mantras, depending on what was written on the chit.
At 9 o’clock Amma finally got up. I hardly could believe that her legs carried her. She stood on the stage, beaming, without any trace of tiredness and looked at us who were still left over from the night. Most people had gone back to their villages and towns and were probably already at work.
This night was no exception for Amma. She hardly needs any sleep. Once someone asked her how she manages to endure those long sittings. She answered, “Where there is love there is no difficulty.”
“God is not a limited individual, who sits on a golden throne in the clouds. God is pure consciousness that is in everything. Understand this truth and learn to accept and love everyone in the same way”, Amma advises.
She does what she preaches. To a question of a journalist, how she manages to embrace even sick people and criminals in the same loving manner, she replied: “If a honey bee buzzes around the flowers in a garden, it does not see the different flowers, but the honey that is in them. Similarly, Amma sees the highest Self in everybody.”
Amma is in all likelihood the most accessible person that has ever graced this earth – a mother to all humanity. Whoever wants can walk right up to her, feel free and embrace her and many million people from around the world have done so till now. He or she might have to wait for some hours for his turn to come, but he will not be refused.
On this first visit in December 2000, I was sure that she could not go on like this. Her body would not stand it much longer – bending forward and taking into her arms a man, a woman or a child thousands of times for ten or twenty hours in a stretch. Today, in 2018, Amma is still giving her unconditional love to everyone with a strong motherly hug. She is not concerned about her body but goes about her task:
“Devi told me to ask the people
To fulfil their human birth.
Therefore I proclaim to the whole world
The sublime Truth that She uttered
“Oh man, merge into your Self”.”
By Maria Wirth
link to Thank you India on Amazon.in
My latest book “Why Hindu Dharma is under attack by Muslims, Christians and the Left” is available on Amazon both in English and Hindi.
https://www.amazon.in/Hindu-Muslimon-Isaiyon-Vampanthion-Aakrman/dp/9391154832
