Mata Amritanandamayi
Amma or Mata Amritanandamayi ( Malayalam: മാതാ അമൃതാനന്ദമയി; Sanskrit: माता अमृतानन्दमयी, Mata Amṛtānandamayī; * as Sudhamani Idamannel in Parayakadavu, Kerala on September 27, 1953) is an Indian avatar guru with a worldwide following. From their followers it is Amma or Ammachi ( Malayalam / Tamil: Mother ) called.
Life
Amma was born Sudhamani Idamannel in a poor fisherman family. Of the 13 children who gave birth to her mother, five died at birth or in infancy. Of the eight surviving children, four girls and four boys, Sudhamani was the third oldest. At age nine, she left school and started in the home of her family to cooperate and to take care of their younger siblings. Later, she completed three years training as a seamstress in a Christian mission station.
In September 1975, she will have her first Krishna Bhava experienced ( incarnation or merger with the Godhead ). This caused considerable unrest in their environment. Many people wanted to see and they began to worship. When her family and a part of their environment, however, they came with their behavior with incomprehension and rejection. In March 1977, she went through a phase of fasting and strong religious devotion, during which she had visions. During this phase, they could barely take care of himself, which is why women from the village took care of them. In 1977, also Devi Bhava were added. The Krishna Bhava but she gave up after a few years.
The end of 1979, the core of a non- official ashram formed around Amma. It consisted of a group of four young Indians, who had grown up together in the city Harippad, and the Americans Neal Rosner, who later became known under the name Swami Paramatmananda, and a then 18- year-old Australian. An Ashram was founded on May 6 of 1981 under the official name Mata Amritanandamayi Math.
The Embrace
Mata Amritanandamayis trademarks are darshans in which they anyone who wishes, hugs. In English, it is therefore known as the hugging saint, in Dutch as knuffelgoeroe. At first she did this on three days a week, now it makes these hugs almost every day for many hours. For the hugs numbers are issued and Amma hugged so long before everyone has received a number the embrace, often deep, sometimes even lasts into the night until sunrise. Due to the Andrangs the hugs were becoming shorter, especially in India, where the rush is very large.
To hug from Amma also heard that they each as prasadam mitgibt a candy, usually an Indian sweet and vibhuti. She travels regularly to Western countries to prevent these encounters, which often include thousands of people come. Until 2006, they gave away an estimated 24 million hugs. She also answers questions that you are translated into Malayalam. Amma makes, in contrast to other masters, easily accessible for everyone.
Teaching
Amma's teaching is based on Sanatana Dharma, the " eternal, universal law," the basis of the Vedas and of Hinduism. The core idea of the Sanatana Dharma is the panentheistic monotheism - the simultaneous transcendence and immanence of God in creation. Amma teaches the path of bhakti - yoga, and at the same time it emphasizes the nondualistische perspective of Advaita Vedanta. She stands in Vaishnava tradition, but without having had a spiritual teacher himself or to belong to a certain tradition tradition. Besides bhakti karma yoga, the path of good deed, important for Amma.
The really new at Amma are the hugs that are without precedent and precursor. "Saints do not play by conventional rules of conduct, their behavior is often puzzling. There are saints who always silent; and there's this woman, Mata Amritanandamayi, known as Amma ( "mother" ), which embraces all men without distinction and caresses, as if they were little children. Their behavior would work anywhere in the world unusual - in the Indian caste society, with its purity and Meidungsregeln, their pronounced fear of contact, it seems revolutionary. "
Followers of Amma will not be asked to leave their traditional religion. The role of a spiritual master, a guru is, but stresses. Amma gives their teachings orally; Students draw on it and publish it. Amma considers it important that the practice is more important than theory. The study of the sacred scriptures of Hinduism attaches no excessively high value.
Charitable projects
Amma is known for its numerous charitable projects and foundations. Carrier in India is the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, a registered "Public Charitable Trust " ( a registered charitable association ), headquartered in Amritapuri. Mata Amritanandamayi Math is a non-governmental organization (NGO) and awarded the consultative status of the UN. In Germany, the non-profit organization supported eV Amrita Amrita Association eV Switzerland and Austria in the Amrita Austria Headquartered in Bad Honnef Mata Amritanandamayi Math to, Switzerland
Among the most famous activities include a Housing Development, are made by the free accommodation for homeless families. So far, 56,000 houses have been built. In Paripally an orphanage for nearly 500 children was built. In addition, 56 primary and secondary schools ( www.amritavidyalayam.org ) were built in the last 25 years, all over India in which ever more than 80,000 children and young people acting as their own responsibility, are formed. 1994, a university was founded and directed by her, in the meantime 13 faculties, which are distributed over the whole of India and currently educate more than 20,000 students. The credo of the University is to devote all research for the benefit of humanity and not of the substantive profit. Global cooperation and selfless dedication of all participants have made in recent years, this university ( www.amrita.edu ) one of the fastest growing and most successful private university in India.
A 1450 beds scoring Hospital ( www.aimshospital.org ), which has been conducted since 1994 in all medical fields several million treatments to those in need free of charge, each year 54,000 patients are 615,000 patients treated on an outpatient basis and mainly financed by the income of the paying inpatients as well and is connected to the medical school, is one of the best in the country.
The funding of the charitable works is ensured through donations but also with government aid and commercial profit type business as AmritaLife ( www.amritalife.com ) or Amrita TV ( www.amritatv.com ).
Furthermore, there is a project that poor widows and invalids secures a small pension, and provides disaster relief ( tsunami, earthquake in Gujarat, Hurricane Katrina ), nursing homes and a project that is in need of legal counsel. In addition, an environmental project called "Green Friends" was established, which aims to promote environmental awareness in India, forests aufforstet again and protect existing forests studied. More and more farmers are killing themselves because of their hopeless debt in India. Mata Amritanandamayi Math support the relatives: 30,000 children receive school money / clothes / food and 5,000 women paid an education, so they can work in the cotton industry. In addition, loans for opening your own business will be awarded.
World tour
Since 1987, Amma takes every year tours where they visited Europe twice a year, the United States and Canada as well as Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Reunion, Mauritius, Chile and Brazil. In 1988, she first visited Germany. In 2007, she celebrated her 20th annual visit to Munich, during which they embraced about 15,000 visitors. Be organized the free events of numerous volunteers.
Trailer
The followers of Amma is very heterogeneous, but the majority represent Indians. The Indian middle class is particularly well represented by Maya Warrier. Furthermore, there is Amma's followers in countries with populations of Indian origin such as Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius and Réunion. In Europe, North America and Japan Amma has many followers, but usually not regard themselves as Hindus, but are more or less strongly rooted in the religious traditions of these countries.
The followers of Amma's satsang are organized into local groups, usually the meeting between once a month to once a week. In addition, there are several dozen brahmacharis and sannyasis who live in organized communities of Amma and include both men and women. The rule of the order was taken over by the Ramakrishna monks who took over the first monk ordination.
Awards
- 2002: Gandhi King Award for Non-Violence
- 2006: James Parks Morton Interfaith Award ( he is awarded personalities who seek to inter-religious understanding )
- 2007: cinéma vérité Award for her efforts to peace and harmony in the world