– Prabhu Rajagopal
In the last issue we saw how Hindu society is headed towards a serious social crisis unless quick and efficient action is initiated. A study of Pandit Pandurang Shastri Athavale’s (Dadaji) life offered many positive leads in this direction. However, appropriate action is hampered today by the difficult predicament nurtured by liberal Hindus. The liberalism which a large number of Hindus imbibe is mostly western in its approach due to the influence of colonial residues in Indian education. Also, I have been pointing out that western liberalism developed in response to rigid views held and propagated by the Semitic religious traditions. Hence, liberal thinkers in the west were compelled to completely reject religion, which had become palpably static. In the past 50 years, Hindu liberals have tried a similar approach in India and failed. Predictably, the methods have not been successful and a sense of frustration is beginning to obfuscate their vision. On the other hand many liberal Hindus do not want to touch their own traditions even with a barge pole, because of the psychological baggage they carry against religion and spirituality.
One of the major critiques discussed earlier, against engrafting the methods proposed by western liberals to Hindu society, is about the stark difference between the worldview propounded by Hindu dharma and the Semitic religions. Through the life and work of Dada we saw how the separation of Sruti from Smriti provides Hinduism a scope for great dynamism and adaptability to change. Hindu dharma seems to be an ocean of wisdom as it were and each saint who delves deep into it seems to come out with unique pearls to enrich our experience. The life of the saint we present in this article provides us with a different and refreshingly new, if not radical, perspective on the issue of Hindu social reform.
Double Disqualifier
The life of this remarkable saint breaks all those stereotypes which uncharitable critics have sought to bind Hinduism with. A girl child born to illiterate, so-to-say ‘low caste’ parents, in a remote fishing village of the southern Indian state of Kerala has risen to be recognized worldwide today as a living teacher of the Hindu way of life. Her followers find in her a living spark of the principle of universal motherhood and unselfish love. After Sri Sarada Devi1 , she is the only woman in the recent spiritual history of Hinduism (and yes, actually of any religion in the world included) to head a monastic order. From the child Sudhamani of Vallikkavu to Mata Amritanandamayi directing a spiritual mission from Amritapuri, her life is one long commentary on how spiritual visionaries like her have been silently revolutionising our social norms.
Out of the ‘dialogic process’
We are dealing with the life of a living saint, and so in sifting through the different accounts and extracting the core, we may bear in mind what Max Muller called ‘the dialogic process’. In brief, it is to understand that legends naturally grow around factual events, when they are transmitted by word of mouth.
Sudhamani was a precocious child, but had to be withdrawn from school owing to her mother’s illness. The poor girl had to literally serve her large family of seven sisters and brothers, tending to the different chores from dawn to midnight. But what separated her from others of her age was her deep bhakti, enhanced by the religious piety and lore of the family, and her concern and love for the suffering people around.
For a moment, let us go back a little in time to take note of the astounding change wrought upon the Keralite Hindu society by the great saint Sri Narayana Guru: it was through his life and work that in a land, which was once so ridden by caste animosities, Hindu spiritual lore could penetrate the ‘lowest’ strata and eventually serve to influence a Sudhamani there. The child Sudhamani carried around a photo of Bhagavan Sri Krishna to whom she prayed, sang songs full of deep love and cried her heart out. She spent the spare time she got after her day long hard work, immersed in waves of devotional longing. As she grew up into a girl, she was established in the mood of supreme love of the divine and this led to the manifestation of Krishna Bhava.2 She would have lost herself completely in the divine, unseen by anyone, but for what she experienced and which she later related:
In the early days, I used to dance in bliss and move about alone, persisting in Krishna Bhava, but no one knew. One day I strongly felt the urge to be absorbed in the Supreme Being without returning. Then I heard a voice from within saying, ‘Thousands and thousands of people in the world are steeped in misery. I have much for you to do, you who are one with Me.’
Thereafter she appeared to people in her exalted spiritual moods, but this brought her hostility from rationalist youth of neighbouring villages who misunderstood her as a charlatan. Meanwhile, Sudhamani continued to have further spiritual experiences and one day she had a vision of the blissful Divine Mother herself. She was so enraptured by this vision that she forgot all about her household duties, which were already affected by her constant ecstasies. Now she cared for nothing else but the uninterrupted vision and mystic union with the Divine Mother. But her family could not appreciate what spiritual summits she was scaling. Enraged at her lapses from work and at all the crowds gathering at the house, they refused to allow her to remain in the house. Nature became her home and for some time, she endured great hardships. Until one day, she reached the culmination of her spiritual practices: the Divine Mother Herself appeared before her once more and conveyed to her, her mission henceforth:
‘It is to give solace to suffering humanity that you have come into this world and not merely for enjoying Divine Bliss. Therefore, worship Me by showing mankind the way back to Me.’
She tells of this momentous event of her life in her mystical poem, ‘Ananda Veedhi’:
…Thenceforth, Seeing nothing as apart from
my own Self,
a single unity, and merging in the Divine Mother,
I renounced all sense of enjoyment
Mother 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 in your Self!”…
Rain of Nectar
As the 19th century Hindu mystic and spiritual luminary Sri Ramakrishna had observed, ‘When the lotus blooms, bees come of their own accord to gather honey’ and slowly a small group of people gathered around her to seek her guidance and motherly succour through the vicissitudes of spiritual practice. Gradually, before her genuineness, the resistance from family and rationalist groups frittered away. Upon the insistence of the disciples Sudhamani assumed just another form of her own name: Amritanandamayi (Amrita or nectar is synonymous in Sanskrit with the word Sudha) and she began to be revered as ‘Mata’ or Mother. She is affectionately called ‘Amma’ (which literally means ‘Mother’ in many Indian languages) by her devotees.
Hindu sainthood is implicitly linked to the revival of dharma – rediscovering the Truth pointed out by the Sruti and applying these experiences to rejuvenate the Smriti – this is actually the essence of the Hindu idea of ‘social reform’. There is here again, a very important point lost to liberal Hindus. Influenced by the west, they perceive all spirituality to be otherworldly. This is true for the Semitic faiths, which are distinctly otherworldly, where the present life is to be led in privation and piety to be allowed entry into a heavenly after-life. But Hindu spirituality, by insisting upon spiritual realization in this life and the importance of the human birth for this, is intensely connected to the welfare of human society and its destiny. All great modern teachers of Hinduism have emphasised this practicality and realism. Swami Vivekananda said at Ramesvaram in 1897:
He who wants to serve the father must serve the children first. He who wants to serve Shiva must serve His children — must serve all creatures in this world first. It is said in the shastra that those who serve the servants of God are His greatest servants
These ideas, in fact, constitute the foundation of modern Hinduism and Vedantic thought. Following in their illustrious line, Mata Amritanandamayi too illustrates our thesis and preaches such spirituality. Through her own realization, she reached the conclusion that the God whom we seek is best reflected in the human being and service of mankind itself becomes a path to perfecting ourselves.
She stated this beautifully in her speech at the second Parliament of the World’s Religions, held in Chicago, from 28th August to 4th September 1993:
‘To show compassion towards suffering humanity is our obligation to God. Our spiritual quest should begin with selfless service to the world. People will be disappointed if they sit in meditation, expecting a third eye to open after closing the other two. This is not going to happen. We cannot close our eyes to the world in the name of spirituality and expect to evolve. To behold unity while viewing the world through open eyes is Spiritual Realisation’
She asks people to put to practice the immanence of God which Hindu philosophy preaches. She herself sets an example through her almost indefatigable dedication to service, sleeping just over a few hours a day. Asked once if she had any desire left, she replied saying that she wants to attain the life of an incense stick: she literally lives this desire by the day.
Her Math has launched large number of charitable and humanitarian activities in keeping with these ideas. These are either involved in direct aid or in indirect support such as educational facilities designed to empower the underprivileged. The most ambitious of these is Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS), which offers state-of-the-art medical treatment including open-heart surgery, neurosurgery and organ transplants, free of charge to the needy. AIMS has grown over the years into a hospital with facilities for hundreds and has treated around 20,000 patients free of cost.
The Math has built over 25,000 houses for the poor in a dozen Indian states and proposes to build another lakh in the next decade. It rebuilt three earthquake-hit villages in Gujarat. Other direct aid schemes include orphanages and homes for the aged, hospices for the terminally ill, community aid centres, programmes for village reconstruction and integral development of tribal people and a recently launched free legal cell for the poor. Concurrently, a network of educational facilities is being set up all over India. So far, it includes numerous elementary, secondary, vocational and graduate schools, ranging from remote tribal tutelage to advanced business and technical qualification. Higher educational institutions managed by the Mata Amritananda Mayi Math – including Amrita Institute of Technology and Science, the Amrita Institute of Management and the AIMS medical college – have been conferred with deemed university status under the name “Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’ and is the only institution in India to achieve this status in a very short span of time.
On the other hand, she teaches that the greatest service to mankind can be the awakening of its own divine potential and has undertaken to spread spiritual values as a Guru and accepts disciples, both lay and monastic. In fact, under her direct supervision and guidance, her main Ashram at Amritapuri has evolved into a lively spiritual centre with novices, brahmacharins (celibates to be initiated into monasticism after due training) and Sannyasins (monks). To others, she bestows this spiritual awakening in her own inimitable way – her famous hugs, through which she transmits her love and spirituality. She has also established sixteen ingenious ‘Brahmasthanam’ temples in which devotees also get an opportunity to take part in the worship. The image in the temple is four-faced and carved out of a single stone, representing Siva Kutumbam (Siva’s family) and signifying unity in diversity.
Her Unique spiritual message
But there is something refreshingly more to her message which has path-breaking implications to the very idea of social reform. She brilliantly outlined these in the speech, ‘Awaken the Universal Motherhood’ delivered upon receiving the 2002 Gandhi-King award for non-violence (at the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held under the auspices of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland in October, 2002):
The balance of the male and female principles is essential for social progress; unselfish love, compassion, dedication and patience are qualities associated with enlightened motherhood and these are intrinsic to and constitute the fundamental nature of women; the ills of the society: oppression, crime, etc are due to excessive dominance of exclusively male qualities like aggression, ego and the like, born out of suppression of women externally and the feminine aspect of men internally; men everywhere could do well to cultivate these neglected aspects of their own nature, while women would also do well to balance the positive masculine qualities like strength. At the same time, women are to be encouraged everywhere to break the artificial shackles with which a society prejudiced towards patriarchy has imprisoned them…
God is beyond gender but more female than male because the masculine is contained within the feminine; cultivation of the qualities of divine motherhood is the key to spiritual progress itself.
I quote her words again for their sheer force and genuineness of feeling:
‘Anyone – woman or man – who has the courage to overcome the limitations of the mind can attain the state of universal motherhood. The principle of motherhood is as vast and powerful as the universe. With the power of motherhood within her, a woman can influence the entire world. The love of awakened motherhood is a love and compassion felt not only towards one’s own children, but towards all people, animals and plants, rocks and rivers – a love extended to all of nature, all beings. Indeed, to a woman in whom the state of true motherhood has awakened, all creatures are her children. This love, this motherhood, is Divine Love – and that is God.’
‘In the process of striving to regain their rightful position in society, women should never lose their essential nature. This tendency can be seen in many countries, and will never help women to achieve true freedom. It is impossible to attain real freedom by imitating men. If women themselves turn their backs on the feminine principle, this will culminate in the utter failure of women and society. Then the problems of the world will not be resolved, but only aggravated. If women reject their feminine qualities and try to become like men, cultivating only masculine qualities, the imbalance in the world will only become greater. This is not the need of the age. The real need is for women to contribute all they can to society by developing universal motherhood, rather than only their masculine qualities.’
These ideas may not sound new; indeed it is no coincidence that many of those who pioneered modern Hindu resurgence were from the land of Bengal, the traditional seat of Shakti worship. Most of great Hindu saints and teachers of the past thousand years who made an impact on the society have emphasised the importance of Shakti: ‘Maya’ in Shankara’s Advaita is identified with Shakti; Ramanuja’s great contribution was the recognition of the importance of Sri or Lakshmi’s grace in spiritual redemption. Thus we find that the ideas of worship of God as mother and the reverence for women subtly pervade the Hindu worldview.
However, to the common Hindu masses that encounter her ideas, they are indeed radical. The essence of Hindu spirituality is to get close to God or Truth, which involves cultivation of divine virtues like unselfish love, purity, compassion etc. These are motherly qualities, intrinsic to the feminine nature, but found in both men and women. Again if the idea of God itself is more feminine than masculine, then spirituality means cultivation of the sublime values associated with the feminine nature.
In addition to the humanitarian and charitable projects which we mentioned above, Mata Amritanandamayi has inspired a set of activities particularly aimed at promotion of these ideas and also for emancipation of women. She has adopted the revolutionary practice of appointing women as priests in her Brahmasthanam temples and she consecrates them herself. She has launched schemes for providing pension to widows and destitute women and shelters for homeless women. Everywhere she goes, she urges women to awaken to their innate potential.
Mataji received Gandhi-King award for non-violence at the UN’s General Assembly Hall
Volunteers learn through nearly backbreaking works of service to emulate the love of a mother, which does not make her tired in looking after her child. And her trademark hug also seems to dawn out of her own identification with this motherly love, because of which she was able to revolutionise the concept of darshan – a hug instead of mere personal audience – and also be able to muster the sheer physical stamina to hug thousands of people for hours at a stretch.
The Impact
In a short span of 30 or so years of her ministry, Mata Amritanandamayi has truly made a deep positive impact on Hindu society. The scale and number of awards and international recognitions she has been accorded show how her success has been appreciated by people across the world. In 1993, she was invited to the second World Parliament of Religions in Chicago (marking a centenary of the epoch-making first Parliament of religions which the redoubtable Swami Vivekananda took by storm, introducing Hinduism to the west), where she was elected as one of the three Presidents representing the Hindu faith. Later that year, the respected ‘Hinduism Today’ magazine named her ‘Hindu of the Year’ and presented her with their annual Hindu Renaissance Award. In October 1995, she was invited to the United Nations on the occasion of its 50th Anniversary Celebration, in New York as a special guest speaker for the UN conference on “Visions for the 21st Century.” In August 2000, Amma addressed the UN on ‘The Role of Religion in Conflict Transformation’ at the millennium world peace summit. In October 2002, she was a keynote speaker at the ‘Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders’ at the United Nations, in Geneva where for the first time in history, as many as 500 women leaders from religion, business and government from all parts of the world gathered to claim a more active role in building peace. On October 7 2002, she was presented with the prestigious Gandhi-King award for non-violence at the United Nations General Assembly Hall (Palais des Nations) in Geneva in recognition of her lifelong work in spreading the message of love and peace throughout the world, and uplifting the poor and needy through the vast network of charitable institutions she has established (awarded previously to such eminent persons as Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa). Last year, she was one among 50 women whom the ‘Ms Magazine’ (a landmark institution in both women’s rights and American journalism) recognized as having made significant impact on society.
But no award can ever assess the profound psychological impress her rise has made possible. For one, the fact that a woman (that too from a so-called ‘lower caste’) has been universally recognised as a spiritual teacher itself is an affirmation of the definite potential for change in the Hindu society. The material for transformation is already present in seed from in Hinduism’s own traditions – they just need to be brought out and broadcasted. When the orthodox Brahmin priests of the Rameswaram temple honoured her exceptionally during her recent visit, golden chapters were being added to the ongoing story of Hindu reform. Again her role as a Satguru holds the promise to undo the currently widespread and decadent portrayal of women as mere objects of pleasure. Her story is an ongoing saga and the movement she has inspired is a growing one, with exciting prospects. As her teachings and service activities based on her interpretation of Vedantic thought spread, so do the cultivation of universal motherly virtues and the recognition and respect for the innate motherhood of women. Ultimately, this is a two-pronged weapon for social transformation. Most of the problems of the Hindu society like caste oppression and strife and suppression of women stem from an excessive manifestation of the aggressive masculine qualities. A dose of feminine love will restore the balance. Further, oppression of people and exploitation of nature is aggravated because of the unfortunate spread of the mentality of objectification: treating others as objects to satisfy ones’ concerns. As people learn to see the person of mother in women, they also learn to gradually de-objectify and see the person in others as well as the surrounding nature.
Implications for Social Reform
Through Mata Amritanandamayi we discover a special and new perspective on social reform. Perhaps, Western liberalism was not a reaction against religion, but against the excessive patriarchy of Semitic theology. Western liberals promoted virtues like equality, compassion, freedom, which vaguely hint at feminine virtues as opposed to order, fear and obedience preached by Semitic religions. In hindsight, perhaps, they did not reject God, but the excessively masculine idea of an overbearing God who demanded surrender and punished errors with merciless wrath. In addition, the feminist movements seemed to only further defeat the purpose of liberalism by persuading even women to overtly court masculine values. The life and teachings of Mata Amritanandamayi have resurrected the understanding and application of the idea of Shakti and the benign face of feminine nature. Liberal Hindus have today an opportunity of harnessing another powerful thought current from their own tradition to better understand the Hindu society and propose an effective line for Hindu social reform.
1 Sri Sarada Devi was the ‘Sangha Mata’ of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission until her Maha-Samadhi.
2 Dissolution of the lower ego and individuality in the consciousness of Sri Krishna and complete spiritual union with Him.
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