“Give solace to suffering humanity.” Her mission
has matured into a dynamic global congregation.
She runs an orphanage near her ASHRAM, housing
about 400 poor villagers. She has built hospitals in
Bombay and Ernakulam and industrial and com-
puter training centers to help poor students learn
vocational skills. She advocates the establishment
of schools at every ashram to impart religious
education.
The house where Ammachi was born has
become an ashram and the headquarters of
Mata Amritananda Mayi Trust. The ashram,
Amritapuri, offers food and accommodations
for travelers, funds social services for indigents,
and sponsors humanitarian activities around the
world. Hundreds of devotees work there on social
service projects all day and attend daily sessions
with Ammachi. At each of her daily appearances,
Ammachi sits on a simple chair on stage with 30
male students, brahmacharis, seated on mats on
her right and 30 female students, brahmachari-
nis, seated on her left, all dressed in white. Each
DARSHAN, which can last for six to eight hours,
includes the singing of BHAJANS while each of the
attendees walks forward for a blessing and an
embrace from Ammachi, who remains on stage
until all have experienced her embrace.
Ammachi tours the globe with a constant
schedule of appearances held at major cities in
many countries. She does not deliver teachings
or speeches. Instead, she blesses all those who
go forward. Often thousands of admirers stand in
line for hours to be hugged by Ammachi. She says
that her life itself is her message and teaching. “An
unbroken stream of love flows from me towards
all beings in the universe,” she has said. “That is
my inborn nature.”
At gatherings she disappears behind a screen,
where she puts on the clothes of KRISHNA or DEVI,
the goddess. She returns to serve as a channel for
God, blessing the audience. She says, “The ATMAN,
or Self, that is in me is also within you. If you can
realize that Indivisible Principle ever shining in
you, you will become That.”
Ammachi has initiated 11 senior disciples into
the order of sannyas (renunciants), two of whom
are women. She has followed Hindu tradition by
having Swami Dhruvananda of the RAMAKRISHNA
MAT H AND MISSION give the rites of sannyas to
Swami Amritaswarupananda, her first disciple to
renounce worldly life. Since then, Amritaswaru-
pananda has performed the rites with Ammachi
in attendance.
In 1993 Ammachi was named one of three
presidents of Hinduism by the Parliament of the
World’s Religions in Chicago. That same year Hin-
duism Today bestowed a “Hindu of the Year” award
upon her. In 1995 she spoke at the interreligion
meeting of the United Nations. A movie, Darshan,
released in 2006, portrays her life and the services
organized by the headquarters of her trust.Further reading: Amritanandamayi, Awaken Children:
Dialogues with Sri Sri Mata Amritanandamayi. Adapta-
tion and translation by Swami Amritaswarupananda
3d ed. (Kerala: Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust,
1992); ———, Eternal Wisdom. Compiled by Swami
Jnanamritananda Puri. English translation from the
original Malayalam by M. N. Namboodiri (San Ramon,
Calif.: Mata Amritanandamayi Center, 1999); Swami
Amritaswarupananda, Ammachi: A Biography of Mata
Amritanandamayi (San Ramon, Calif.: Mata Amritanan-
damayi Center, 1991).Amritsar
Amritsar is the sacred city of the SIKHS, located
in Punjab state. The land was given to the fourth
Sikh guru Ramdas by the Muslim Mughal emperor
Akbar, and Ramdas shortly thereafter, in 1577,
founded a city there. The city was built around
a sacred spring, called Amrita Saras, “the flow
[saras] of the nectar of immortality [AMRITA).”
The famous AKAL TAKHT or “eternal seat,”
of central importance in Sikhism, is located in
Amritsar within the GOLDEN TEMPLE. The Adi-
granth, or Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the
Sikhs, is enshrined in the temple; it is the sole trueAmritsar 27 J