I have had the good fortune to live next door to the Ernakulam Ashram of Amritanandamayi Math for over a decade, from its inception till it shifted to the Brahmasthanam. However, to begin with, I kept what I considered a safe distance, my experiences in the past with ashrams and sanyasins being what they were.
Then brahmachari Sreechaitanya came down from Amritapuri and took charge of the ashram. One look at him told me he was different. His glittering eyes and childlike smile spoke volumes. I went over, introduced myself and paid my respects. The more I got to know him the better I liked, loved and respected him.
It was obvious that he sincerely believed in what he was saying, doing and thinking. He loved everybody, everything and every activity without developing any shade of bondage. He was assiduously following a path expertly chalked out for him, steadily elevating himself. This miracle, the practical illustration of a way of life stipulated by the Upanishads and considered Utopian by many, naturally made me curious about the great source of inspiration in his case. Amma, of course, it was.
She professes to be just an ordinary mortal like anyone anywhere else but I could feel the difference the moment her ever-benevolent eyes fell on me. A tidal wave of love engulfed me. It was of a different kind too - of pristine purity. It cleansed, soothed and infused a rare sense of well-being by straightening out the entanglements in one’s relationship with the rest of the universe.
‘Love,’ she said with that precious Amrita smile, ‘Love Unlimited is the solution!’
It is Love extra-ordinary. To love the bold and the beautiful is easy but to love the hapless, the ugly, the dirty and the sick equally well is superhuman, easier said than done. Amma does it with natural ease.
She has established excellent institutions of care - hospitals, poor homes, palliative centres, dispensaries, habitats for the old and housing schemes for those without a roof over their heads. She has also built up schools and colleges for imparting skills and higher erudition to mould the next generation into one that competes and succeeds in developing the concept of universal love besides performing well enough in worldly chores.
She works tirelessly here and abroad to spread the message of universal love, which alone can metamorphose the strife-ridden world of today into a haven of peace - a World Ambassador of the Nation of the Upanishads, in every sense of the term.
I am grateful to his holiness Sreechaitanya-turned-Swami Poornamritanandapuri for guiding me on to Amma’s blessings and teachings. Let us pray for her eternal presence amidst us as the light kindly leading us.
Amma’s birthday is best celebrated if it serves as a day of introspection: How far has Amma been understood right? What is the most salient feature of her teaching?
One does not have to think twice to find the answer to the second question. Amma prescribes the amrit of universal love to cure humanity of all disorders and pains. But how far has it been digested good and proper?
Amma repeats the message time and again and demonstrates it in action while consoling each and every devotee without any discretion whatsoever. All children are equal in her presence. No one is more equal or less. Of course, the ones in great distress are often given a little more time and attention, even out of turn.
The approach is non-exclusive. One is reminded of Swami Vivekananda and the most salient point of his address to the Chicago Congress of World Religions. He enlightened the assembly with the fact that the Upanishads did not exclude any from access to them. In fact, Sanskrit language has no exact translation for the word ‘exclusion’! (In other words, the very idea is excluded!)
One can easily see that exclusion is the root of all sin. It sows the seed of ‘mine-yours’ dichotomy which leads to himsa, alienation and misery. It makes us small and poor because we disown the entire universe for a pittance that we call our own. Much more: We then proceed to long for what has ceased to be ours (by our own decision!) and capture it.
One never craves for what is already one’s own. If there is no craving there is no ground for the feel of hurt caused by failure to possess, no friction, inequality, enmity, weapons and wars. On the other hand, the happiness of sharing blossoms into universal love.
Amma has often underlined the fact that all gurus are, in essence, one and the same. Together they form a lineage without beginning or end. There is no question of comparison between any two. Exclusion of one or many in preference to any is blasphemy!
The most befitting birthday offering to Amma therefore will be a pledge of commitment on our part to the non-exclusion principle she expounds. From the first moment of the universe till now everything and everybody has had the same mother and she is going to be forever - the rationale for universal brotherhood personified. Pranams to her!
(C Radhakrishnan, noted Malayalam writer, is the winner of Kerala and Kendra Sahitya Akademi Awards)