In an age that measures success by net worth, market value, and the number of one’s social-media followers, a simple truth is easily lost: No one is remembered for their bank balance. The only thing that truly outlives us is the way we treated others.
That message lies at the heart of the teachings of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, the spiritual master and humanitarian known to millions as Amma.
In our world, many hesitate to share even a smile or kind word. The mind tends to evaluate everything through money. “If I listen to someone’s troubles, smile at them, or offer them comfort, they might later ask me for money.” This is the fear. As a result, we hold back and the world becomes a bit colder.
Many will help when asked, but few reach out on their own. A true leader flows towards those in need without hesitation, without questioning the logic of it, moved only by a heart full of compassion.
Today, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math runs a network of institutions and humanitarian activities worldwide. However, back in 1989, we didn’t even have a real prayer hall.
For about 10 years, we had cherished the hope of building a proper prayer hall and it was finally seeming like that long-held dream was about to come true. At the same time, in Kollam, Kerala, the administrators of an orphanage had reached the end of the road. For years, they had struggled to care for the children entrusted to them, but now, every source of funding had dried up. They were preparing to do the unthinkable: Send the orphans and other children from poor families out onto the street. But before taking that final step, someone urged them to try one last thing. Go to Amma, they said, and tell her what is happening.
So, they came and laid their situation before her.
Amma listened, and without a moment’s pause, she instructed that the donations we had acquired for the prayer hall be used to take over the care of the orphanage instead. Amma set aside our plans for a physical temple and laid the foundation for another—a temple of compassion.
Amma could have reasoned that the temple was long overdue, that the money had been given for that purpose alone, and that taking on an orphanage with heavy liabilities was simply too great a burden. In India, where people hold temples especially dear, donors often expect their gifts to be used for that sacred purpose and nothing else. Every logical argument pointed towards building the temple. But Amma didn’t make a calculated decision. She made a decision of the heart, and the funds flowed to where they were needed most.
When we first arrived at the orphanage, years of financial desperation had taken a heavy toll. The children were severely neglected and malnourished, and the buildings had fallen into disrepair. There were even accounts of children being drawn into stealing and exploited by outside antisocial elements for their own selfish ends.
Today, that orphanage still stands, but it is hardly recognisable. The children study and play on a safe and secure campus. The institution has become one of the more competitive schools in the area, with students excelling not only in academics but also in music, sports, and dance, often taking first prize in state and local cultural competitions. Alongside their studies, they are nurtured in a culture of the heart, learning the same compassion that once saved their home. And more than 35 per cent of them go on to higher education, with the full cost sponsored by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math.
The Ashram’s prayer hall would eventually be built, but the choice Amma made that day continues to bear fruit in ways no building ever could. Children who once faced a future on the street now stand on stages, sit in university classrooms, and carry forward the compassion that was shown to them. Every achievement of theirs is, in a sense, a prayer answered.
This story asks something of each of us. We may never be called upon to redirect the funds for a temple, but every day we are offered chances to choose the heart over the calculating mind: to listen when it would be easier to look away, to smile when it would be safer to stay guarded, to offer a kind word without first asking what it might cost. These moments may seem small, yet they are the bricks with which a more loving world is built.
Amma’s example shows us that compassion is not a luxury to be indulged once our own plans are complete. It is the foundation on which everything worthwhile is built. When we open our hearts without hesitation, we too become builders of temples of compassion, and the lives we touch become their living walls.
This inner realisation marks the start of compassion. It is what makes Amma’s life both unique and inspiring. She appears ordinary, yet her boundless compassion, extended to everyone regardless of nationality, language, faith, religion, or caste, elevates her life to the extraordinary.
