posted July 24, 2007 12:18 AM         

Who is Ammachi?

Ammachi is regarded by many to be an incarnation of the Divine Mother and is often referred to as the 'hugging saint". She has spent most of the past 25 years hugging anyone who approaches her. Often she will sit dispensing her love and her hugs for 8, 10, 12 hours and more without a break of any kind. In India, where she is quite well known, it is not uncommon for her to hug 10 to 20 thousand people in a single session. The fact that she does this most of the days of every week of every year, at first evades our notice. But when we try to imagine the amount of love and patience one would need to accomplish such a feet of compassion, we begin to be struck by the magnitude of it. No ordinary human being would have the inclination to spend their lives hugging, giving solace and encouragement, and wiping away tears. We have to ask ourselves why someone would do this. Ammachi asks nothing in return. No collection plate is passed. There is nothing to join or pledge allegiance to. There are no strings attached. She is simply a fountain - a river - that flows with unimaginable love and is available to anyone who wants to put in their cup and drink.

Ammachi encourages all major religions. She says that all religions are paths to God. Regardless of one's faith, be it Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, she will help in the fulfillment of that. She encourages practitioners of other faiths to remain where they are and work within those paths. Amma states that direct knowledge of the Self as the pure luminous all-pervading non-dual Reality is the goal and, that for most people, the path of love and devotion is the way to it.

posted July 24, 2007 12:24 AM         

Children, we need to meditate regularly, for our own spiritual upliftment as well as for everyone else in the world. Every being in the universe needs peace. To attain peace for yourself, burn the seeds of the negative karma of the past with meditation performed today. Meditation performed with a sacred mantra will purify the energy around us and will penetrate space throughout the entire cosmos. Your pure meditation has the power to break the chains of old latent tendencies, or samskaras.

You must pray for the welfare and prosperity of everyone. Selfless prayer pleases Amma greatly. We should pray to Divine Mother in the form of the five elements-earth, water, air, fire, and space-to fill our hearts with goodness and to destroy all commotion. There is a beautiful sloka from the Vedas that goes:

Om vata avatu bheshajam
Shambho mayo bhavano hridaye
Prana ayamshi tarishat

This sloka means, "May God come in the form of the purifying wind. He is a divine medicine, and He resides in all hearts in the form of peace. He flows through the subtle channels in the form of the vital prana, as the breath of all creatures."

This mantra can be chanted every day. It requests Vayu Deva, the Wind God, to bless us with peace, happiness, longevity, and the power to do good actions for the benefit of the world. Because there is so much commotion and unrest in the world right now, we must ask for balance and harmony. Forgiveness is divine, forgiveness is truth, and forgiveness is meditation. It is divine to forgive and love those who hate you. Don't waste words. Measure each and every word, which should be spoken with love. The words we speak are more powerful than innumerable suns put together. Every word we speak is a gift of Devi Saraswati. Don't waste Divine Mother's gift by speaking about meaningless things. Words can cause wars, and words can bring hope. Always speak kind, hopeful and comforting words, because our words, prayers and thoughts have the power to travel everywhere in the world and touch the hearts of people everywhere. It is Divine Mother's wish that all of Her children will work selflessly towards universal peace, and I am giving my blessing that you will all become peacemakers in the world.

Hari Om Tat Sat

posted July 24, 2007 12:29 AM         

With Amma it doesn’t quite work that way. Mata Amritanandamayi, a fifty-something woman from Kerala, India, upends this and many more devotional customs and has carried her glorious, giving version of darshan around the world. She’s currently touring the U.S. and this past week was in Dallas. Two of our friends made the trip from Austin to join her.

“Just being in the same room with her creates a sense of meditation and peace,” said our friend and neighbor Brooks Kasson, who has attended many of these retreats. Amma is popularly known as “the hugging saint," a title she has earned by bestowing some 26 million squeezes on any and everyone who comes to her. “This may not seem so unusual to Angelenos accustomed to greeting with an embrace, but in Amma’s native India, there is no precedent for a single woman—even a holy woman—embracing multitudes of strangers. Defying traditional Indian mores, Amma’s long, tender motherly enfoldment has become her trademark gesture of compassion.”

...“People are born to be loved,” she says, “As long as I can continue to reach out to those who come to me, as long as I have the strength to caress people, console them and wipe away their tears, I will continue to do so. One day, everyone’s body will die. This is inevitable. Therefore, rather than allowing our bodies to rust from lack of use, it is better to wear them out in service to the world.”

If you’re not the huggie type, consider that Amma’s organization has built 3000 houses for refugees of the 2004 tsunami.

In this article from San Francisco, several of her faithful describe how they had felt abandoned by other gurus. Says Cathi Schmidt, “Your father is the authority figure who walks off and goes to his den. Mother is always there.”

Brooks spent two days in Dallas. With thousands of others, she took a number and spent many hours meditating, enjoying the food on hand, looking around, and scooting forward to receive her blessing. When she arrived at Amma’s bench, the holy mother was seated and joking happily with two of her associates. Brooks lay her head on Amma’s chest, “smelling all rosy, nice soft bosom.” Amma tucked her head right next to Brooks’ ear and began a gentle muttering, then looked into her eyes, pressed a Hershey’s kiss into her hand and sprinkled flower petals over her head. From Amma’s darshan, Brooks says she receives “an honoring of my spirit.”

The retreats typically take place in a hotel ballroom. From the moment Amma arrives until many hours later, she welcomes an unbroken stream to her loving blessing. The second evening, after two days of spiritual transmission, she “becomes the goddess” and wearing a golden crown, throws clouds of flowers over all those present as they approach, Brooks says, in waves, four or five abreast. By the close of her Devi Bhava, usually about 4 am, the petals lie ankle deep.

What does it mean for a saint to give flowers rather than just receive them? Brooks says that Amma’s darshan is one of “unguarded love...freely bestowed, indiscriminate.” Her blessing of patient embrace and flowers is “relaying what a gift I am...and the courage it takes to incarnate, especially at this particular time.”

What more exuberant expression could this take than a cascade of roses, carnations and marigolds?

...“Our prayer is Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu,” says Amma—May all beings in all the worlds be happy. Who’s arguing with that?

posted July 24, 2007 12:37 AM         

Recently at work, fellow nurses have become catty, bitchy and backstabbing ( I have my own observations as to why...)

So I have decided to fight fire with...water! Instead of going into my bosses's office with complaints about co-workers as people are doing these days (and piddly things I might add) I have decided to go into her office daily with praise of peers...of piddly things!!

I can not go so far as to hugging yet, but I know what this individual you have posted speaks of and I think we all need alot more positivity in our daily lives!!!

Blessings

posted July 25, 2007 09:25 PM         

HUGS TO YOU TOO!!!!!

Hippichick!!!!! NICE!!!!

Love the way your dealing with your fellow coworker's, very admirable!!!!!

I have a FREE HUGS T-Shirt for this REASON!!!!

WHAT A LOVELY LADY!!!!!

THANKS!!!!

Quote:

Because there is so much commotion and unrest in the world right now, we must ask for balance and harmony. Forgiveness is divine, forgiveness is truth, and forgiveness is meditation. It is divine to forgive and love those who hate you. Don't waste words. Measure each and every word, which should be spoken with love. The words we speak are more powerful than innumerable suns put together. Every word we speak is a gift of Devi Saraswati. Don't waste Divine Mother's gift by speaking about meaningless things. Words can cause wars, and words can bring hope. Always speak kind, hopeful and comforting words, because our words, prayers and thoughts have the power to travel everywhere in the world and touch the hearts of people everywhere. It is Divine Mother's wish that all of Her children will work selflessly towards universal peace, and I am giving my blessing that you will all become peacemakers in the world.

posted July 27, 2007 04:39 AM         

Wow. What a truly inspired post portraying such a truly inspired lady. Thanks, Naiad

I definetly feel inspired to become less selfish now. I feel I have been far too selfish, allowing myself to get entangled in all the confusion in the world. I feel it is surely time to let go of some of this selfishness.

posted July 27, 2007 05:49 AM         

I do not subscribe the concept of human Gods, and hence stay away from the worship part of things, which I cannot relate.

She as such is a wonderful soul, but not the people around her who is making a business out of everything.

posted July 27, 2007 06:03 AM         

I was going to add....although I feel Amma surely is a vessel from which the river of unconditional love can flow.....I do not feel she is unique.....rare, but only rare in as much as not many people chose to be a selfless vessel of love in the way she and others have chosen. It is something every-ONE can tap into if their hearts desire it

I wonder how the universal source of unconditional love can be gently awakened in those who are the most cut off and in almost complete amnesia from it? Such as those who abuse and take pleasure in torturing others- no empathy at all?

posted July 27, 2007 11:27 PM         

that's very cool that you're from the same place as Amma, SattvicMoon...and that you've met her....

as for human gods, isn't she described as a saint? i think that we all are representative of a higher power, when we choose to express ourselves in that manner of giving and love. it seems that Amma does this extraordinarily well.

posted August 08, 2007 02:53 AM         

Surrender arises from helplessness.

Helplessness provides the opportunity

for you to release your ego.

The ego makes you feel important,

but a hopeless situation makes you realize

you are nothing and will not be free

unless you give up the sense of I.

This realization dawns

when you experience the burden of the ego.

Only a great blow or a serious threat

can bestow this knowledge.

***

The difficulty is not expressing love

but letting go - outgrowing - the ego.

Love is human nature;

it is already present within us.

but we are held back

by our individual boundaries.

We have to outgrow our individuality

in order to become universal.

Ego stands in the way of love.

When it is removed, we can flow like a river.

posted August 22, 2007 03:00 PM         

As the body needs food to survive

and grow, the soul needs love.

Love instills a strength and vitality

that even mother's milk cannot provide.

All of us live and long for real love.

We are born and die searching for such love.

Children, love each other and unite in pure love.

Pure Love is simply

emptying the mind of all fears,

tearing off all masks

and revealing the Self as It truly is.

Love is the face

of God.

~Amma~

posted August 22, 2007 09:56 PM         

I read a book of interviews with Amma last year.

A few of my friends got to hug her.

My friend Dan got a boner when he hugged her and she giggled.

Wasnt there a documentary made about her recently?