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Mata Amritanandamayi, also known as ‘Amma’, ‘Ammachi’ or ‘Mother’ (born September 27, 1953), was born Sudhamani in the small village of Parayakadavu, near Kollam, Kerala and is a humanitarian and a revered saint.
Sudhamani was born to a family of fisher folks. Her schooling ended when she was nine and she had to take care of the domestic work full-time. From these humble beginnings started the journey of a young fisher woman on the path to ‘universal motherhood’, which took her even to the United Nations General Assembly, where she addressed the world. Even her own mother (Damayanti) and father (Sugunanandan) now address their daughter as Amma. Other aliases are ‘Her Holiness’ and the ‘Divine Mother’. She has also been called ‘Beloved’, a ‘Mahatma’, ‘Mataji’, and the ‘embodiment of the primordial, supreme consciousness, the Paramatman’.
Rise to fame
Also known to her followers as ‘Ammachi’, she is a devotee of Krishna. 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.
International events
1993, Chicago: speech at the “Parliament of the World 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 Religious & Spiritual Leaders at the UN
2002, Geneva: “Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence” from The World Movement for Non-Violence at UN headquarters
2004, Barcelona [Parliament of world religions]
Recognition
In 1993, she was one of the three people who represented Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. Amma was the keynote speaker at The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, at the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference was held in October 2002, and was an initiative of The UN’ Millennium World Peace Summit, at which Amma spoke in August 2000.
Amma was presented with the 2002 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.
Inner circle
The first set of monastic disciples of Amritanandamayi were from Harippad, a town not very far from Vallikkavu, Kerala, in the late 1980s. Today, they as well as some others of that era are senior swamis, looking after the ashram’s multifarious activities. The first disciple to be initiated as a sanyasi was Swami Amritaswaroopananda, now known as Valiya (Big) Swami in ashram circles. Others are Ron Gotsegen, Dr. Prem Nair, Swami Amritatmananda and Swami Ramakrishnananda.
Darshans
Amma is known to the press as ‘the hugging saint’. Amma 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. Amma travels all around the world, and is said to have hugged at least 21 million people in the past 30 years.
“Darshan - The Embrace", a film on the life of Amma has been officially selected for showcasing at the prestigious 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 movie in 2003 during [Amritavarsham50], Amma’s 50th Birthday celebration in Kochi. Afterwards, Kounen and his team traveled with Amma 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".
Humanitarian Activities
Mata Amritanandamayi Math executes various charitable and humanitarian projects. A program to build 25,000 homes for the poor, women’s shelters, pension disbursements for widows, orphanages, hospices, hospitals, and community aid centers, homes for the aged, eye clinics, speech therapy centers, are examples. Math run ‘Mother’s Kitchen’ or ‘vegetarian soup-kitchens’ volunteers prepare and serve meals to the poor and needy in many US inner cities.
Recently, Mata Amritanandamayi Math announced a billion rupees to the victims of 2004 Tsunami. Math’s relief work is happening in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar islands and in Sri Lanka.
Miracles
Many of her followers believe in her powers to perform miracles. For instance she mentioned in an interview given to The Week (Kottayam, Kerala, September 21, 2003, see references) 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. Hearing of such miracles cause many people to become skeptical of her powers while it fuels more devotion in others.
Most famous is her often-used ability to perform Shaktipat ("energy touch") by hugging.
Controversies
These are described in detail by Sreeni Pattathanam Sreeni Pattathanam. He has written a book, Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities), first published in 1985, that later became controversial and brought the threat of legal action from one resident of the ashram against the author.
The book, which contains 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 Mata Amritanandamayi herself, refutes the Math’s claims to miracles and contends that there have been many suspicious deaths in and around her ashram, which need police investigation. The book’s claims notwithstanding, no evidence of foul play has been found by any governmental agency.
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