01-26-2005, 02:04 AM
Pathma,
Thanks for the info on shaktism.
You have mentioned Amma a few times by now. Most people in Tamilnadu apply this term for Jayalalitha. But the context that you have used the term seems to suggest Mata Amritanandamayi who is also called Amma.
In context of this thread, which perhaps has lived its life, Amma should be a very good example to put forth. She was born in a fisherman's family, hardly educated, had to suffer immensely even from her own fmily, but is now revered as Mother by a huge number of people.
She now gives sanyAs diksha and people feel lucky to get it from her. Many brahmins are her devoted followers amongst all possible castes and nationalities. Amma's approach doesn't exclude any aspect of hinduism. The temple at the ashram has statue of Kali, but the archana that is performed is Lalita-sahasranama. Bhajans sang by her are for every hindu deity. She has vedic scarifices performed at the brahmasthanam temple in the ashram regularly. It would be utterly futile to put such a great saint in a narrow parochial confines of caste or sect.
About her compassion,I would just wish to recall an event:
The current swami at the California ashram was a member of the 'rationalist' movement and had first gone to Amma with the intention of 'exposing' her as a fraud. He narrated the following incident that he was witnessed to. A leper with a very bad and advanced case of leprosy came to see Amma. As is her custom she gives darshan by hugging (also known as the hugging saint). She kept the leper waiting till the end of the darshan. After every one else had had their darshan, she called the leper. Everyone was concerned that Amma, as is her practice, is going to hug that man. Amma not only hugged him with great love, but to the utter surprize and horror of the witnesses, started to lick his open wounds with great love. Few people fainted watching this. This was a stark lesson and demonstration of the divine love. Forget caste and such divisions. Such love to a suffering person was a demonstration and lesson to all people standing there, and the swami who had gone there to expose her as a fraud, as well as the affirmation of divine love for suffering humans.
The same Amma, has this to say about Shankaracharya's arrest:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/13700.asp
Kanchi Seer's arrest painful: Amritanandamayi
Nov. 21, 2004
Describing Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi's arrest as "painful", Hindu spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi, today hoped that the Seer's "ordeal" passes of as a "bad dream". "It is painful to learn about the arrest of Kanchi Acharya. It seems like a bad dream and may it continue to be nothing more than that...", she said. "The arrest should not weaken the lineage of the Advaita philosopher and Saint Adi Shankara, whose order has helped to preserve the Vedas and its associated culture", she said in a release here. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is what some of her devotees wrote:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.kanchi-sathya.org/voice.htm
  A letter from a devotee of Mata Amritanandamayi
  Namaskarams. We are devotees of the Great Mother Shri Amritanandamayi Devi and are also devotees and admirers of the Kanchi Mutt, a mutt which was decorated by no less a Saint than the Paramacharya of Kanchi. Recently my family and me happened to take Darshan of our most beloved Guru, Shri Amritanandamayi. Here are a few things AMMA has to say regarding the Unfortunate Arrest of Jayendra Periava and we heard it directly from Her:
  1. She is really pained to hear about the charges mounted on a saint like him.
  2. He is the ONLY Shankaracharaya who really served the society by
  performing a lot of Social Service to the poor and the needy.
  3. She also expressed hope that the whole episode will pass like a "bad
  dream"
  [A devotee from Newark, California]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks for the info on shaktism.
You have mentioned Amma a few times by now. Most people in Tamilnadu apply this term for Jayalalitha. But the context that you have used the term seems to suggest Mata Amritanandamayi who is also called Amma.
In context of this thread, which perhaps has lived its life, Amma should be a very good example to put forth. She was born in a fisherman's family, hardly educated, had to suffer immensely even from her own fmily, but is now revered as Mother by a huge number of people.
She now gives sanyAs diksha and people feel lucky to get it from her. Many brahmins are her devoted followers amongst all possible castes and nationalities. Amma's approach doesn't exclude any aspect of hinduism. The temple at the ashram has statue of Kali, but the archana that is performed is Lalita-sahasranama. Bhajans sang by her are for every hindu deity. She has vedic scarifices performed at the brahmasthanam temple in the ashram regularly. It would be utterly futile to put such a great saint in a narrow parochial confines of caste or sect.
About her compassion,I would just wish to recall an event:
The current swami at the California ashram was a member of the 'rationalist' movement and had first gone to Amma with the intention of 'exposing' her as a fraud. He narrated the following incident that he was witnessed to. A leper with a very bad and advanced case of leprosy came to see Amma. As is her custom she gives darshan by hugging (also known as the hugging saint). She kept the leper waiting till the end of the darshan. After every one else had had their darshan, she called the leper. Everyone was concerned that Amma, as is her practice, is going to hug that man. Amma not only hugged him with great love, but to the utter surprize and horror of the witnesses, started to lick his open wounds with great love. Few people fainted watching this. This was a stark lesson and demonstration of the divine love. Forget caste and such divisions. Such love to a suffering person was a demonstration and lesson to all people standing there, and the swami who had gone there to expose her as a fraud, as well as the affirmation of divine love for suffering humans.
The same Amma, has this to say about Shankaracharya's arrest:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.indiadaily.com/breaking_news/13700.asp
Kanchi Seer's arrest painful: Amritanandamayi
Nov. 21, 2004
Describing Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi's arrest as "painful", Hindu spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi, today hoped that the Seer's "ordeal" passes of as a "bad dream". "It is painful to learn about the arrest of Kanchi Acharya. It seems like a bad dream and may it continue to be nothing more than that...", she said. "The arrest should not weaken the lineage of the Advaita philosopher and Saint Adi Shankara, whose order has helped to preserve the Vedas and its associated culture", she said in a release here. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is what some of her devotees wrote:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->http://www.kanchi-sathya.org/voice.htm
  A letter from a devotee of Mata Amritanandamayi
  Namaskarams. We are devotees of the Great Mother Shri Amritanandamayi Devi and are also devotees and admirers of the Kanchi Mutt, a mutt which was decorated by no less a Saint than the Paramacharya of Kanchi. Recently my family and me happened to take Darshan of our most beloved Guru, Shri Amritanandamayi. Here are a few things AMMA has to say regarding the Unfortunate Arrest of Jayendra Periava and we heard it directly from Her:
  1. She is really pained to hear about the charges mounted on a saint like him.
  2. He is the ONLY Shankaracharaya who really served the society by
  performing a lot of Social Service to the poor and the needy.
  3. She also expressed hope that the whole episode will pass like a "bad
  dream"
  [A devotee from Newark, California]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->