• “Amma” Devi September 2009 Jivamukti Focus of the month

    yad-yad acharati shreshthas tad-tad evetaro janah sa yat pramanam kurute lokas-tad-anuvartate -Bhagavad Gita III.21

    A great person leads by example, setting standards that are followed by others all over the world.

    Not too long ago, on September 27th 1953, in a poor village near the remote backwaters of Kerala in Southern India, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, affectionately known as “Amma” or the “Hugging Saint,” was born. From her early childhood, she would spend long periods of time sitting in silence or singing to Krishna as a form of prayer. Her divine moods and meditative states seemed unusual to her family, and as a result, she was mistreated and had a difficult childhood.

    At the age of nine, when her mother fell ill, Amma left school to care for her seven siblings and immediate family. Whatever domestic chore was piled up on her, she did it happily without ever complaining. She also went to work at the homes of her relatives. As she went from home to home to cook, clean and wash clothes, Amma became deeply troubled and confused by the suffering and poverty she saw all around her. Although she had very little for herself, she shared her small portion of rice with the starving, gathered her family’s clothes and gave them to the poor, bathed the elderly. Like children who seek comfort in their mothers’ arms, people from her village and around would go to the young girl for refuge and a hug. This is how Amma started to give “darshan.” Darshan means to have a vision of the divine or to be in the presence of a holy being. Amma adds to it a loving hug.

    Nowadays, not unlike the olden times, people continue to seek Amma’s blessing, but it is now she who travels around the world to offer her love in the form of an intimate hug. Whether a person is young or old, healthy or sick, rich or poor, Amma accepts them with the same affection and warmth. Amma does not care what we look like, how much we have, or where we come from. She takes us all in the way a mother takes her own children into her arms.

    Yoga is a tantric practice. The Sanskrit word tantra means “to weave”, referring also to a physical string, which denotes continuity. This comes from the Sanskrit roots tan and tra. ‘Tan’ is “to stretch” or “to extend” and “Tra” means “to cross over”. By welcoming or embracing with open arms anyone she meets, Amma reaches across the space between herself and others, thus weaving a connection.

    The aim of yoga is to recognize the divine essence in all of creation, to realize that we are all connected. To attain this wisdom, it is helpful to start connecting with one other living being by extending something of ourselves – a kind word, a gentle touch, a smile of acknowledgment. When instead of seeing others only in our peripheral vision, we actually turn to face them and acknowledge them, the way we often acknowledge one another in a yoga class, we begin to shrink the divide between ourselves and others, we begin to experience togetherness, hence yoga. Yoga means to join.

    Amma teaches us that without connecting to others, no progress in yoga can come. Even if we meditate, practice asana and chant devotional songs, if we do not reach out to others, it is like rowing a boat that is tied to a dock. In the divine example of this holy being, let us untie our hearts from the dock and row towards our own holiness and divinity. Let us celebrate the life of this great Saint and immerse ourselves in Her teachings so that our own saintliness can manifest.

    – Rima Rabbath, September 2009

    For more information about Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, her teachings and charitable projects, log on to www.amma.org or www.ammany.org.

  • The Path of Yoga-Jivamutki Focus of the month for July

    What is yoga? The word has many meanings: relation; means; union; knowledge; matter; logic; and so on. For now, let us say that the meaning of yoga is upaya, which means path, or way which we follow or by means of which we attain something. What then is the path we should follow? What or whom should we seek to attain? The mind should seek to attain what is best. Just as a servant seeks a king to serve, a disciple seeks the best guru, and a wife seeks an ideal husband, so too will the mind seek the Universal Self. Even this is one type of union.

    As the servant who wins his master’s heart and blessings through his virtues and good conduct verily attains royal character himself; and the disciple who, by great virtue and intellectual power, verily wins the heart of his Guru and becomes as one with the Guru; and the wife who shows virtue and character, as well as devotion to her husband, verily becomes as one with her husband, so too, if the mind establishes itself in the Self or attains the Self, it will not exist as different from the Self. Thus, the way of establishing the mind in the Self should be known as yoga. An aphorism of Patanjali, the great sage and founder of the science of yoga, makes this clear: yogash chitta vritti nirodhah (yoga is the process of ending the definitions of the field of consciousness).

    It is in the nature of our sense organs to grasp their respective sense objects. If the sense organs are harmonized by the mind, and if the mind establishes itself in the sense organs, then objects are known or grasped. If, however, there is no contact between the mind and the sense organs, knowledge of objects will not occur. The mind is thus the basis of all sensory functions. The means by which the mind is directed towards the Self and prevented from going towards outside objects is what is known as yoga, as a hymn of the Katha Upanishad affirms: tham yogam iti manyante sthiram indriya dharanam (Yoga is considered to be the steady fixing of the senses). Here, the means to establishing the sense organs in the Indweller, and thus to prevent them from going towards external objects, is called yoga. Therefore, the word yoga signifies the means to the realization of one’s true nature.

    We now have to ask whether it is possible to realize the true nature of yoga simply by understanding its meaning as a word. By the mere study of texts on yoga, by the mere grasp of yoga’s meaning as a word, by a mere discussion of the pros and cons of this intellectual grasp, one cannot have a thorough knowledge of yoga. For, just as good knowledge of culinary science does not satisfy hunger, neither will the benefits of yoga be realized fully by a mere understanding of the science of its practice. Thus, the scriptures only show us the right path. It is left to us to understand them and to put them into practice. By the strength gained through this practice, we can come to know the method for bringing the mind and sense organs under control. Thus can we achieve yoga. For it is only through the control of the mind and sense organs that we come to know our true nature, and not through intellectual knowledge, or by putting on the garb of a yogi.

    Hence an aspirant, by the grace of his Guru and constant practice of yoga, can someday realize, before casting off his mortal coil, the Indweller that is of the nature of supreme peace and eternal bliss, and the cause of the creation, sustenance, and destruction of the universe. Otherwise, an aspirant will be unable to see anything in this world but turmoil.

    -Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, excerpted from Yoga Mala, 1999