Nestled in the rolling hills of San Ramon county, California, the MA center is a pleasant and readily accessible haven of spiritual retreat. The landscape might remind one of a quaint little Himalayan ashram, but this lovely sanctuary lies less than an hour away from the heart of Silicon Valley.
Shaped by loving hands, the place certainly seems to be getting prettier every year. I notice new organic gardens and fruit trees. Signs strung with marigold flowers welcome us as we drive up the winding road leading to the main retreat enclosure. The center’s most anticipated event of the summer is about to get underway.
Amma has come to visit.
Several volunteers have worked long hours behind the scenes, preparing for the hundreds of people who have started to trickle in very early this morning. Hosting a retreat on this scale is no easy feat. Scores of parking assistants, kitchen staff, shop volunteers, dining hall helpers, ushers and stewards have all come together in a spirit of seva, or service, ready to help unfold the retreat.
Their inspirer-in-chief, of course, is Mata Amritanandamayi, or Amma as she is popularly known. If the measure of a leader’s impact is reflected in the joie de vivre in her followers, Amma is easily one of the leading spiritual lights of our times. Over the decades, her name has come to be synonymous with her mission of selfless love and service to the world. Her following cuts across boundaries of race, religion and nationality to comprise a truly global spiritual family. Aside from her exemplary charitable initiatives, Amma is also most popularly associated with her unique gesture, the embrace of love she offers everyone who comes seeking darshan, or the blessing of her spiritual presence.
Arriving early, I still had to park a distance away, giving me the chance to enjoy a scenic walk back to the main staging area in the crisp air of the morning. The crowd gathered was numbering in the hundreds already. Friends met and caught up with one another. First time visitors were formed into their own special line, for an early chance to have Amma’s darshan and receive her hug. A jolly mood prevailed, lightening the wait under a bright morning sun.
Shortly, the lines were taken up to where alphanumeric tokens were dispersed for Amma’s darshan, by the entrance of the main retreat hall. We went in to seat ourselves. There was still some time before Amma would come in to address everyone. A documentary showcased the far-reaching impact of ‘Embracing the World’, the umbrella banner for Amma’s several charitable initiatives worldwide. Several stalls lined the side and back of the hall inviting people to explore their wares. On offer were eco-friendly clothes, blessed jewelry, incense and fragrance, pictures, books and music. More stalls were open outside, including one that displayed a whole lovely range of crystals. Crystals seem to be an integral presence today in almost every spiritual mandala.
A vibrant market of joy got going, but we were soon back to our seats, as Amma presently made her entrance, welcomed with a traditional invocation to the guru or spiritual teacher. The assembly rose in reverence as she walked up to stage, raising folded hands to everyone in namaste. She was soon seated amidst her entourage of swamis (monks), and several kids and adults who were invited to join her on stage, making for a cute family picture.
Amma spoke in Malayalam, with one of the swamis on stage translating for the benefit of the audience. Her theme for today was one of cultivating an essential fragrance as we go about daily life. If our thoughts were selfless and our actions kind and responsible, we would bring a natural fragrance to every situation we encountered, which would also buffer us from untoward circumstances.
A short meditation later, the stage was now rearranged for Amma to commence darshan. Seating in the audience was rearranged as well, to make space in front for a live orchestra, whose talented musicians embarked on a wonderful set of chants, songs and prayers. People queued up on stage according to the sequence of their tokens, as Amma, now occupying her asana or seat, began to hug each person in turn. A light yet palpable sweetness hung in the air. As each person came up, Amma held them for a few moments in an embrace of beautiful sincerity, sharing a personal moment of spiritual togetherness. Many also sensed a spiritual transmission.
The sheer scale of Amma’s profound gesture boggles the mind. Seated untiringly for hours on end, taking no breaks, she is there to ensure each of the thousand, frequently many thousands of visitors receive the embrace they so look forward to. We were witness to spirituality in action, of steadfast intent joined with genuine love, with an intensity rarely found anywhere else.
What might be attracting these multitudes of people from across the world to bask in her presence? Amma is certainly no scholar of a sophisticated philosophy to engage the ego of erudition. Her hug is certainly no mere feel good gesture of emotion. Perhaps it is the joyous mood she exudes as much as her air of reassuring calm. Perhaps it is people getting a glimpse of their own high spiritual destiny which her presence helps mirror for them. Perhaps it is the sense of pure and timeless presence she so naturally embodies.
Among the many people in the darshan line that afternoon was Ash Kalra, member of the California legislature. It happened to be a day of statewide direct primary elections, but he was taking time out along with his deputy to visit and welcome Amma to California. Post darshan, one got to converse with him for a few minutes. Surveying the huge and joyous throng of people, Ash reflected sagely that these were precisely the types of people we needed to come out and vote. We needed the energies of love represented in the ballot, in contrast to the energies of divisiveness and hate. A lady in the audience, who happened to also be a former member of the legislature, joined in the conversation, echoing similar sentiment.
Philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has written eloquently about love. “The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.” Amma, for her devoted following, is an embodiment of the sacred energies of love.
There have of course been other extraordinary spiritual masters from the East who have made no less of an impression upon America. More than a century ago, Swami Vivekananda had captured the American imagination as he paved the way for the arrival of Eastern spirituality on Western shores. The great disciple of Sri Ramakrishna and his spiritual consort Sharada Devi spoke of dynamic will and nerves of steel, delivering a message of leonine strength and fearlessness, which he felt was the positive need of the time. A century and more later, however, the message from Amma, while of very same essence, is clearly in the spirit of Sharada Devi, of the Motherliness of the Divine.
It is almost fifty years as well since the Summer of Love, during which time the West has readied itself for the touch of the Mother. India has produced women of spiritual genius aplenty, but few of them have taken their message beyond its shores. In this Age of Aquarius though, it is Amma who has carried the tradition of the divine feminine to a world thirsty for love. And the crowds were there to catch a glimpse, a touch and a hug from their beloved Mother.