BY REZA GANJAVI
Sometime ago I was invited to go see Amma – the chubby woman who hugs her visitors – that’s a new fad – in the old days gurus would bless the visitors in other ways, now she hugs – that’s her competitive advantage – and it works, not meaning that it transforms people but that people are suckers for it. Flocks of gullible Westerners go to see her and donate money and free service. She does “good”, no doubt, charitable work, but her empire is also materially rich and her ego as well, boasted by power. The followers are the same genre that made the other gurus into masters of giant empires. Rajneesh’s knack was sex. Her knack is hugs. It was a huge hall. Music was blasting at jet decibel. People were lined up for the hugs. Many stands were selling Amma commercial material. From little Amma statues to pictures of her (not so attractive) feet, to digital mantra counters. The ideology is the same old Hindu stuff; nothing original, nothing fresh. Same old ideas of bow to the master and she will purify your mind nonsense. (page 9). According to one of the books: Amma considers herself to be a “sat guru” who “raises us to God’s world”. “The sat guru means more to the disciple than God. Once you find a sat guru you no longer need to think about realization, nor do you need to worry about rebirth. All you need to do is follow the path of your master… all the disciple needs to do is surrender wholeheartedly at the master’s feet…” (page 21/22) The whole book is about dedicating yourself to the master and her feet. That “the master knows far better than the disciple what is good or bad for the disciple, and what he or she does or does not need”. (Page 30) Anotherwords, be a sheep. Give the money to Amma, and don’t worry about anything else. Nice easy life. But dull and illusory. “it becomes impossible to away from the master even for a moment” page 26. And the rest of standard practices of Hinduism and the same cosmology and the same primitive simplistic and false approach to psychology: “creation exists only when there is a notion of ”I”. Wrong !! “the universe is an illusion”. Sure!! :) Check out her epistemology: “…the things that we perceive through our senses … in truth, they are nonexistent, just like dreams”!! Ok, that chair is not there :) “you can get everything you need from a satguru; there’s no need to go anywhere in search of anything” pg 76). Same exact lines as Sai Baba and some other gurus: “Mother is always with you…there is no need to be afraid”. “The mind of mahatma resembles the brakes of an expensive car”. Wow, how profound :) – “a mahatma holds a firm grip on her mind”… so there’s still duality, conflict, effort… This is about slavery not freedom! There are plenty of page on the internet about Amma. One good article is Cult of the hugging saint: http://cultofhuggingsaintamma.wordpress.com/ “Let us worship Amma as the embodiment of all forms of God, knowing that all divine forms are hers alone. Then, let us expand our minds still further and realize that all forms in this universe are her forms and that she resides in each one of us as the very core of our personality.” - Swami Amritageetananda Puri (AMRITANANDAM Second Quarter, 1996) One critic wrote based on examination of her writings: “You aren’t just getting a hug, you are taking part in a ceremony that worships Ammachi as not only God, but higher than God.” Amma said: “AMMA IS AWARE OF YOUR MENTAL STATES ALL THE TIME- REGARDLESS OF WHETHER YOU ARE PRAYING TO HER OR NOT AT THAT POINT” Now who would believe that nonsense? “Her words are not Her own but are that of the Lord.” And it gets violent: “last year, a group of ashramites nearly beat a group of villagers to death when the villagers removed a billboard of their beloved guru.”