That explains it....I knew there was a reason were were praying to Amma as God
- or God and Goddess as the case may be!
What about Jesus? Does he qualify as an avatar?
Interestingly, I met a woman who travels extensively to follow both Amma and
Mother Meera. She's lower key at this point, but so was Amma at one point
before celebrity hit.
--- On Sun, 7/24/11, fflmod <ffl...@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: fflmod <ffl...@yahoo.com>
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Visit with Amma
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, July 24, 2011, 2:26 PM
Amma is an avatar, an incarnation of the divine. Not a karmic human at all.
That is why the name of Amma is prevalent throughout the bhajans and elsewhere.
There is no difference between praying to God and praying to an avatar. A
familiar example of this is how in MMY's Gita, Krishna is referred to as the
Lord.
An interesting case is that of Mother Meera. Mother Meera is also an avatar and
recommends that seekers do japa (repeating the name of the divine as often
during the day as possible) to Mother Meera. Yet, Mother Meera is as far from
being a guru-led organization and/or a cult as can be.
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "dmevans365" <dmevans365@...> wrote:
>
> I am writing this as an account of my and my children's participation in a
> recent Amma retreat. As background: I was laid off a stressful job in
> corporate america in January after many years in a deadline-driven career.
> We were invited by a friend to attend the retreat. I was curious and
> interested in meeting a "saint" who supposedly embodies the concepts of love
> and compassion. I have no background in the Hindu religion, Indian culture,
> or "guru" philosophy. I am not religious but believe in God, as the universe
> and nature, and our ability to access and receive personal guidance and help
> from the "source" energy. I believe that God is love. I attended with my
> heart wide open to possibilities and encouraged my kids to do the same.
>
> I attended the free program on Friday around 3 in the afternoon to introduce
> myself to the environment I had signed us up for the following 3 days. Loud
> Indian chant music was playing, many things were being sold, people were
> standing in line, the energy in the room was apparent. I purchased white
> clothing and a book and a cute little "tiny Amma" doll for myself and the
> kids. I had little idea what to expect, having never attended anything quite
> like this, but stayed in place of "non-judgement" and was excited.
>
> Over the next three days, I followed the program plan schedule. Receiving a
> hug from Amma was not like any hug I've ever received in that we were all
> physically positioned, but it seemed understandable that with so many people,
> a procedure needed to be in place. (I asked many about this and heard that
> this is because of the time involved in darshan - many apparently get spaced
> out seeing her and need to be physically moved away and when hugging
> thousands, every second counts). I did not feel an intimacy or personal
> connection or feeling of love and compassion. Something was repeated in
> monotone in my ear that I didn't understand. Shortly after receiving our
> hugs, however, we were all completely wired. I told the kids I felt like I
> had received an "energy transfer" or "hit" during the exchange. It didn't
> feel bad, but not good either, and we could sense that Amma seemed to be a
> "powerful person" energetically.
>
> Saturday morning we were up early for breakfast and to stand in line. One of
> my daughters and I were signed up to attend the IAM meditation courses - hers
> being the youth one - and so wanted to get our hugs in early. We were in
> line starting at 8 AM, listened to the Swami from 9 to 10, sat and waited for
> Amma to arrive at 10 AM, and then waited and moved up through the heavily
> orchestrated and controlled process. This time we went individually and
> brought our "questions" that we kept in our minds, as Amma could supposedly
> intuit and respond. Again, a "manhandled" hug routine (hands placed
> particularly, head pushed forward on chest, with a monotone repetition of a
> word in the right ear).
>
> I attended the IAM meditation course and enjoyed it, but was put off by the
> requirement to sign a confidentiality agreement. It was at this point I began
> to feel like I was being encouraged to pray to Amma - based on the Swami
> lectures, instruction and visualization received during the meditation. Amma
> was continually reinforced as the "form" to keep in our minds.
>
> We continued through the weekend - were full of so much energy Sunday evening
> that we worked out between 10-11 PM. We did our Seva at dinner by helping
> load dishes into the cart, which was fun. We participated in standing in
> line for hours and receiving hugs in the morning and evening, wanting to
> follow the scripted schedule and also waiting to feel this overwhelming "love
> connection" that so many talked about. We received blessed candy and got the
> dolls blessed.
>
> Monday I was up at 6:15 to do the yoga class. Monday evening was Dhevi Bhava
> - lots of ceremony and long, translated talk that was starting to feel very
> top down and condescending. Blessed water, chanting to music, change in
> Amma's costume to the crown and gown, and the hugs began with the loud
> bhajans (music) sung by a swami and group in the background.
>
> The music/chanting was very loud, repetitive, and mesmerizing; the Swami's
> voice was very hypnotic; the Swami lectures were full of what seemed like
> very conflicting messages which confused me on several levels (is the
> underlying message that we should all pray to Amma as God?), and I was
> feeling like I was on some kind of wierd emotional and energetic high. I
> decided also that I wanted a mantra to aid me on my path of forgiveness. So I
> said the word "mantra" at the last hug as instructed. I knew nothing of
> mantras or initiation and clearly misunderstood what they are. I read the
> sheet passed around. I was shepherded into a circle with others and asked for
> my definition of God - I stated "the Universe." I was told that a mantra did
> not address any aspects of God, such as forgiveness, but that this would
> bring me closer to God and would be a personal, exactly right thing for me to
> repeat, as whispered to me by Amma.
>
> We were also told that giving a mantra to someone who hasn't studied with
> their guru for years is unusual, so because of Amma's great love and
> compassion for us, we needed to understand that our accepting this mantra
> meant that we were committing ourselves to her - she would help us through
> our karma in this life and the subsequent lives and we would devote ourselves
> to her as our guru. Hmmmm....I realized that I wasn't sure about this, but
> continued through the process as I was too far in to retreat and I continued
> to be curious as to when the "connection" to her would occur.
>
> I did receive a mantra while she was giving someone else a hug and while I
> was again, "positioned" on a stool next to her. The lady in charge of
> listening pulled a printed mantra from a recipe box and handed it to me. I
> was then shepherded to another swami with a group to get it "translated" and
> make sure that we could pronounce it. Each mantra was supposed to be secret
> - while we held our hands over our ears, he told each person what their
> mantra meant. I could hear, however, and also could see his lips....all
> mantras meant one of two things....either bowing down to "supreme
> consciousness" or bowing down to the "divine mother". This put me off
> completely as again, there was a big discrepancy in what was supposed to be a
> deeply personal and private thing and the reality of what seemed a highly
> generic description. I could feel myself shutting down....I went to go get my
> younger daughter who had spent hours in the event hall subjected to all the
> energy
and devotion and ritual and music - it was around midnight at this point. She
was crying and said she was going to "miss Amma." I bought her a photo to
appease her and another book (Awaken Children I) for me as I still didn't
understand what we were experiencing. We left with all the blessed candy,
water, dolls, books, clothing, photos and IAM instructions intact.
>
> The following day I was in a state of emotional and mental and spiritual
> confusion and googling what the sanskrit terms in my mantra meant to better
> understand what I had signed up for. I was resistant to doing the mantra and
> ended up spending the rest of the day continuing my search on the internet
> re: Amma.
>
> I could not find anything much on the internet that wasn't clearly part of
> the PR campaign with regard to Amma, her projected image, and her Swami's.
> What I did find opposing Amma seemed to be written with inflammatory and
> emotional language - also not what I wanted as a reasonable discussion.
>
> I finally found the examma link on Yahoo Groups and asked to join. I was
> concerned about my younger daughter's rapid fascination with all this. I was
> also confused and disturbed about the effect of the weekend on my own psyche,
> sending me into a state of internal confusion re: the inconsistencies I felt
> and the pressure to conform to Amma's projected image and mission. I spent
> hours reading posts starting from the first one and moving forward through
> the years. On Thursday, mid-day, still reading, I went and threw out
> everything - program, book, blessed candy, blessed water, picture, CD, doll,
> meditation instruction, information sheet, etc. I continued to read posts,
> focusing primarily on the first person accounts.
>
> It seems that I exposed myself and my children to a weekend of intense
> indoctrination to Amma. Everything we experienced, including how the weekend
> was scheduled; the production aspects affecting our senses; the visuals; the
> programs; the music; the waiting in line; the corporate commercial focus; the
> 8-hours of meditation instruction; the lectures; the pumping of Swami's
> guided meditation into the dining hall at breakfast was geared towards the
> attendees celebrating and accepting Amma as our guru and the incarnation to
> pray to.
>
> I don't dispute the message of love and compassion, but the particulars of
> the "how" in the context of Amma and the organization absolutely warrant
> evaluation. Responses to questions with the answers that "ego is in play" or
> "the soul may not be ready" tend to negate thoughtful analysis or objective
> consideration of the positive and negative issues associated.
>
> It took me a couple of weeks to recover and I felt ike I was invaded by an
> energy that I subsequently needed to clear. I was a complete novice to this.
> I acknowledge that this movement likely didn't start out with the seeming
> current corporate, capitalist, convert/follower focus and the larger picture
> concepts of love and compassion continue to hold true as ideals, regardless
> of the interpreter. However, it seems that at this point, Amma is human in
> many respects and that the Amma organization and possibly Amma herself has
> evolved to serve and expand the very ego she professes against. Namaste.
>
