Mata Amritanandamayi ,is she a real mother?

[Paramananda das]

dear aspiring devotees of Lord Krishna

Please accept my dandavat pranams

all glories to the lotusfeet of my  Guru and Lord Caitanya

All glories to His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada

I was told that  Amma (mother) ,refering to Mata Amritanandamayi was going to hug people at ISKCON  Potomac, then later I was told it did not happen.Whatever the case is, I like to shed some lights on her teachings.

I found this :  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi

So clearly she is a very kind and warmhearted person, and seems very unselfish, that are very noble characters .Regarding her teachings

we find there  statements that she is certainly an impersonalist. 

This contradicts the teachings of Lord Krsna in Bhagavad Gita and in all the vedas.So should we fully dismiss Amma?

Srimad Bhagavatam states:

mahat-sevāḿ dvāram āhur vimuktes

tamo-dvāraḿ yoṣitāḿ sańgi-sańgam

mahāntas te sama-cittāḥ praśāntā

vimanyavaḥ suhṛdaḥ sādhavo ye

SYNONYMS

mahat-sevām — service to the spiritually advanced persons called mahātmās; dvāram — the way; āhuḥ — they say; vimukteḥ — of liberation; tamaḥ-dvāram — the way to the dungeon of a dark, hellish condition of life; yoṣitām — of women; sańgi — of associates; sańgam — association; mahāntaḥ — highly advanced in spiritual understanding; te — they; sama-cittāḥ — persons who see everyone in a spiritual identity; praśāntāḥ — very peaceful, situated in Brahman or Bhagavān; vimanyavaḥ — without anger (one must distribute Kṛṣṇa consciousness to persons who are hostile without becoming angry at them); suhṛdaḥ — well-wishers of everyone; sādhavaḥ — qualified devotees, without abominable behavior; ye — they who.

SB 5.5.2: One can attain the path of liberation from material bondage only by rendering service to highly advanced spiritual personalities. These personalities are impersonalists and devotees. Whether one wants to merge into the Lord's existence or wants to associate with the Personality of Godhead, one should render service to the mahātmās. For those who are not interested in such activities, who associate with people fond of women and sex, the path to hell is wide open. The mahātmās are equipoised. They do not see any difference between one living entity and another. They are very peaceful and are fully engaged in devotional service. They are devoid of anger, and they work for the benefit of everyone. They do not behave in any abominable way. Such people are known as mahātmās.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The human body is like a junction. One may either take the path of liberation or the path leading to a hellish condition. How one can take these paths is described herein. On the path of liberation, one associate; with mahātmās, and on the path of bondage one associates with those attached to sense gratification and women. There are two types of mahātmās — the impersonalist and the devotee. Although their ultimate goal is different, the process of emancipation is almost the same. Both want eternal happiness. One seeks happiness in impersonal Brahman, and the other seeks happiness in the association of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. As described in the first verse: brahma-saukhyam. Brahman means spiritual or eternal; both the impersonalist and the devotee seek eternal blissful life. In any case, it is advised that one become perfect. In the words of Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya 22.87):

asat-sańga-tyāga, — ei vaiṣṇava-ācāra

'strī-sańgī' — eka asādhu, 'kṛṣṇābhakta' āra

To remain unattached to the modes of material nature, one should avoid associating with those who are asat, materialistic. There are two kinds of materialists. One is attached to women and sense gratification, and the other is simply a nondevotee. On the positive side is association with mahātmās, and on the negative side is the avoidance of nondevotees and women-hunters.

So if someone is an impersonalist some respect is given if their character is good, just like on our South Indian pilgrimage Padayatra in 1985  we met the the head of the Sankacarya sampradaya , and we devotees had a big kirtana which he and his followers liekd very much.

Lord Caitanya used to mix with the followers of the Sankacarya impersonalists to bestow His mercy on them.

The conception of Brahman is however a lesser understanding of the aboslute truth which is also confirmed in Bhagavad Gita by Lord Sri Krishna:

BG 12.1: Arjuna inquired: Which are considered to be more perfect, those who are always properly engaged in Your devotional service or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the unmanifested?

BG 12.2: The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: Those who fix their minds on My personal form and are always engaged in worshiping Me with great and transcendental faith are considered by Me to be most perfect.

BG 12.3-4: But those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable — the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth — by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me.

BG 12.5: For those whose minds are attached to the unmanifested, impersonal feature of the Supreme, advancement is very troublesome. To make progress in that discipline is always difficult for those who are embodied.

BG 12.6-7: But those who worship Me, giving up all their activities unto Me and being devoted to Me without deviation, engaged in devotional service and always meditating upon Me, having fixed their minds upon Me, O son of Pṛthā — for them I am the swift deliverer from the ocean of birth and death.

BG 12.8: Just fix your mind upon Me, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and engage all your intelligence in Me. Thus you will live in Me always, without a doubt.

Though Lord Caitanya liberated many impersonalist to the worship of Krsna ,he was very very strict with his followers to avoid the impersonalists.

Srila Prabhupada has stated:

"Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu says, mayavadi krsne aparadhi: one who thinks that everything is maya instead of thinking that everything is Krsna is called an aparadhi, or offender. Although the Mayavadis, impersonalists, are offenders at the lotus feet of Krsna, they may nonetheless be counted among the siddhas, those who have realized the self. They may be considered nearer to spiritual perfection because at least they have realized what spiritual life is. If such a person becomes narayana-parayana, a devotee of Lord Narayana, he is better than a jivan-mukta, one who is liberated or perfect. This requires higher intelligence.    There are two kinds of jnanis. One is inclined to devotional service and the other to impersonal realization. Impersonalists generally undergo great endeavor for no tangible benefit, and therefore it is said that they are husking paddy that has no grain (sthula-tusavaghatinah). The other class of jnanis, whose jnana is mixed with bhakti, are also of two kinds--those who are devoted to the so-called false form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and those who understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead as sac-cid-ananda-vigraha, the actual spiritual form. The Mayavadi devotees worship Narayana or Visnu with the idea that Visnu has accepted a form of maya and that the ultimate truth is actually impersonal. The pure devotee, however, never thinks that Visnu has accepted a body of maya; instead, he knows perfectly well that the original Absolute Truth is the Supreme Person. Such a devotee is actually situated in knowledge. He never merges in the Brahman effulgence. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.2.32):
                 ye 'nye 'ravindaksa vimukta-maninas                 tvayy asta-bhavad avisuddha-buddhayah                   aruhya krcchrena param padam tatah                 patanty adho 'nadrta-yusmad-anghrayah
   "O Lord, the intelligence of those who think themselves liberated but who have no devotion is impure. Even though they rise to the highest point of liberation by dint of severe penances and austerities, they are sure to fall down again into material existence, for they do not take shelter at Your lotus feet."  

I hope this is helpful in understanding ,Amma- mother.Actually all women are to be seen as mothers.

• Matrvat para-daresu. Canakya Pandita, the great politician, has given the definition of a learned scholar. Who is learned scholar? He has given the definition. What is this? Matrvat para-daresu. To see every woman except his wife as mother. This is education. This is education, perfection of education, when you can see all women except your wife as mother. This is education.

       Srila Prabhupada, Lecture, BG 1.26 – 27. London, 21 Jul 1973.

So Amma is also a mother, but since she teaches that the soul can become one with Krishna and can become Krishna, is she really my mother? 

Servant of the servants servant

Paramananda das

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi

"In the book The Timeless Path, Swami Ramakrishnananda Puri, one of Amritanandamayi's senior disciples, writes: "The [spiritual] path inculcated by Amma is the same as the one presented in the Vedas and recapitulated in subsequent traditional scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita."^[14] Amritanandamayi herself says, “Karma [action], jñana [knowledge] and bhakti [devotion] are all essential. If the two wings of a bird are devotion and action, knowledge is its tail. Only with the help of all three can the bird soar into the heights.”^[15] She accepts the various spiritual practices and prayers of all religions as but various systems for the single goal of purifying the mind.^[16] Along these lines, she stresses the importance of meditation, performing actions as karma yoga, selfless service, and cultivating divine qualities such compassion, patience, forgiveness, self-control, etc. Amritanandamayi says that these practices refine the mind, making it fit for assimilating the ultimate truth: that one is not the limited body and mind but the eternal blissful consciousness that serves as the non-dual substratum of the universe.^[14] This understanding itself Amritanandamayi refers to as jivanmukti [liberation while alive]. Amritanandamayi says, "Jivanmukti is not something to be attained after death, nor is it to be experienced or bestowed upon you in another world. It is a state of perfect awareness and equanimity, which can be experienced here and now in this world, while living in the body. Having come to experience the highest truth of oneness with the Self, such blessed souls do not have to be born again. They merge with the infinite."^[15]"