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〔本報訊〕六月九日在 West Shore Unitarian Universalist
Church ,來自印度的AMMA Sri Karunamayi隆重舉辦了Spiritual Discourse and
Blessing,這是她六月進行全球演講美國第一站,她也是第一次到克里夫蘭來演講,那天來自各個社區崇拜者和信徒們五百多人聆聽了她的講座。
AMMA在台上近二個小時的演講,她的平靜悅耳的聲音和她的聽衆交流,她以講和唱和觀衆交流,她講的是人道主義,同時她開導人要快樂,快樂首先要有健康的思想和身體。人要清凈,不要貪欲,快樂是由內在升起,而健康最好的良藥是開懷大笑。當日有剛退休的克里夫蘭五頻道新聞主持人TED主持。
AMMA Sri
Karunamayi1958年出生在印度南部,從小就是一個心地善良同情他人,她在世界各地有學校和醫院,她還提出每人每天捐款$
4。一年就可以給非洲窮人造一棟房子。 |
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Sri Karunamayi is revered in India as an embodiment
of divine motherly love, due to the love and affection that she
showers liberally on people, animals, and even plants, the spiritual
knowledge and guidance that she gives freely to all of humanity, and
the humanitarian works that she has undertaken. "Amma," as she is
affectionately called by her devotees, is simply the Telugu word for
"mother," Telugu being Amma's native language. Although it is not
possible to convey the experience of being in Amma's vibrant
presence through words or pictures, the links on this page attempt
to provide a brief glimpse into her nature, through a brief
biographical sketch, a description of Amma's mission, and an account
of a devotee's first experience of Amma.
Spiritual Childhood
Born in the traditional South India of 1958, Sri
Karunamayi spent a childhood immersed in an atmosphere of prayer and
worship created by her deeply spiritual parents. Both of her parents
had received visions indicating that Sri Karunamayi was not an
ordinary child, and her astrological chart indicated that she would
dedicate her life to serving humanity.
Naturally inclined toward charity as a
child, Sri Karunamayi, or "Amma," would often give away food and
clothes to whoever needed them. When a family servant contracted
cholera, a deadly contagious disease, Amma tended closely to the
servant without concern for her own safety. To the delight and
amazement of Amma's family, the servant survived the illness and
recovered quickly, despite the doctor's dire prognosis.
One time, during a religious festival, Amma
came to know that some poor people who had come had not eaten in
several days. Amma immediately brought and served them some food
that had been prepared by her grandmother specifically to be offered
to God during a special ceremony. When her grandmother saw what she
had done, Amma told her, "Ammamma, today you have done a very good
thing. This is how the food so nicely prepared by you has been
accepted by the Lord in the form of these people." Amma's
grandmother was moved by her granddaughter's universal outlook, and
quickly brought out the remainder of the food for distribution to
all who wanted it. [Amma's biography is available in English, Telegu,
Hindi, and Spanish, in the AmmaStore.]
As a child, Amma enjoyed helping her mother by
making flower garlands by hand for her mother's daily practice of
worship to Lord Rama. She also delighted in hearing Sanskrit prayers
and verses sung by her father. Though she had never studied
Sanskrit, she would often surprise her father with spontaneous
insights into the inner spiritual meaning of the verses. When Amma's
parents invited learned scholars to their home to give teachings,
these scholars were often shocked and amazed to hear the original
thoughts that flowed spontaneously from Amma's mouth. They had never
heard of such a young girl discussing the spiritual essence of the
Sanskrit prayers with such expertise.
Austerities in the Sacred Penusila Forest
As she grew into a young woman, Amma felt an
inner urge to begin spending more and more time in the family
worship room, immersed in prayer and meditation. As she was now a
first-year college student, she was forced to make time for
meditation by reducing the time she spent sleeping. As her
meditations deepened and intensified, she also began reducing her
intake of food. These meditation sessions grew in length until one
day Amma locked herself inside a room of the house and remained
there in meditation for a month. Though her family members were
perplexed, they did not dare to disturb her, having witnessed the
profundity of her meditations before.
When she finally emerged, she seemed like a different
person to her family members. Though she still showed the same sweet
affection to which they were accustomed, her demeanor now expressed
a more impersonal, universal love. Determined to fulfill the sacred
purpose of her life, Amma gently told her mother that it was time
for her to go into seclusion in the sacred Penusila Forest, to
meditate there in solitude. Always respectful of her daughter's
divine nature, and trusting completely in God, Amma's mother did not
try to stop her from going.
In the year 1980, at the tender age of 21, Amma left the
comfort and security of her parents' home and traveled by foot to
the remote and sacred Penusila Forest, where a number of India's
ancient sages had meditated for many hundreds of years. There, she
was free to live according to principles established by India's
ancient Vedic sages. Rising at 2:30 in the morning, Amma would bathe
with cold water from a pure river. Wearing only a simple cotton
sari, she would go to one of the forest's many sacred groves and
remain there, absorbed in meditation for hours, days, or even weeks
at a time.
Local villagers who spotted her sometimes mistook her for a
statue, as they could not even detect the movement of breath in her
perfectly still form. Some of the more mischievous ones would toss
small pebbles on her, just to see if she was really alive or just a
corpse! Others, feeling that only an incarnation of the Divine
Mother could sit for so long in deep meditation, would leave small
offerings of fruit before her. Whether she emerged from her
meditations to find stones or fruit in front of her, Amma always
maintained a state of perfect equanimity and gave her blessings to
all, regardless of how they treated her.
Amma never felt that these meditations were done for
her own sake, as she was following the example of India's ancient
Vedic sages, who meditated for hundreds of years in order to
discover the best teachings for all of mankind. Through Amma's
austerities, she determined which of the Vedic teachings and
practices would be of greatest benefit to people living in this
difficult modern age. After performing such intense tapasya for ten
years, Amma decided that it was time to share her knowledge with all
those who thirsted for true spirituality, wherever they may live in
the world.
Current Activities
Emerging from her relative seclusion, she was invited by a
devotee to stay in Bangalore, where a simple building was
constructed to house a temple as well as living quarters. She began
giving public discourses on various aspects of Sanatana Dharma,
India's ancient spirituality, and conducting sacred ceremonies to
promote world peace and universal well-being. As these discourses
began attracting more and more people, she also began working toward
fulfilling her dream of bringing medical care to the villagers of
the Penusila area by arranging for free medical camps and initiating
construction of the
Sri Karunamayi Free Hospital.
In 1995, Amma was invited to come to America to give
public programs, and since then she has returned to the US every
year to give teachings and blessings, hold meditation retreats, and
perform sacred fire ceremonies for the benefit of the world. During
her visits to each city, people come by the hundreds to express
their worries and problems and to request blessings or guidance.
Amma's feeling, as she comforts each person like a mother, is that
even her sari has become sacred because she has used it to wipe away
the tears from her children's eyes. Amma often likes to say that her
only work in this world is to remove the suffering from the hearts
of her children. This she does through her kind, loving words of
spiritual guidance and encouragement, her healing touch, and her
divine knowledge and insight. Today, Amma divides her time between
the US, Europe and India, fulfilling her life's mission of providing
comfort, solace, and spiritual guidance to all who come to her。 |
