I saw that my Mother, my Mother Kali had come! Experiences of swamis of Sri Ramakrishna Ashram with Amma @ Amritapuri.org



MotherPage From Her Childrens Experiences My Mother Kali Had Come

"I saw that my Mother, my Mother Kali had come!"

Swami Atmananda and his 'Gurubhai' (spiritual brother) Swami Dhruvananda run the Sri Ramakrishna Ashram in Karur. They are both direct disciples of the famous Swami Chidbhavananda, who is highly respected for his commentary on the Bhagavad-Gita.

Swami Atmananda describes his first experience on meeting Amma in 1985 in one word: Ananda, or bliss. "It was eternal bliss... we then invited Amma to come to our ashram in Karur and She came in 1986. There were not so many monastic disciples with Her at that time, maybe fifty. We had just acquired 296 acres of bare land and we had the plan to build a school there. Mataji blessed us by performing Bhumi Puja, a puja for Mother Earth, laying the foundation stone for the school. She prayed that there would emerge a lot of educational institutes there, and thanks to Her sankalpa more and more institutes are gradually emerging on the grounds of the Sri Sharada College in Karur."

While speaking on stage in Amma's presence at the Vivekananda Higher Secondary School, where the darshan programs were held, Swami Atmananda had added, "Some may feel that they are not blessed because they were not fortunate enough to see Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Sharada Devi or Swami Vivekananda. But, we can see all three of them in Amma!"

Swami Dhruvananda also recalls his first encounter with Amma, "It was in 1985 that I saw a photo of Mataji and a book about Her and I knew in my heart that She was Mataji (the Great Mother)."

Clad in the traditional ochre-clad robes of the Puri order, with sparkling eyes and a warm smile on his face, he talks about his experience. "When I saw Her sometime later I knew... I saw that my Mother, my Mother Kali, who was born a hundred years ago in the form of Sharada Devi had now come in the form of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. She looked at me and took me in Her lap, and said: 'My son, you are my son from time before!'

When I asked my Senior Swami for permission to stay with Amma, he did not agree, but after some time I had the chance to spend more time in Vallickavu, living in the Amritapuri ashram from 1987 until 1990." Swami Dhruvananda also mentioned that while there he helped translate some of Amma's books into Tamil.

Swami Dhruvananda was present as Amma's Swamis were initiated into the sannyas tradition. In the Indian tradition, the taking of sannyas is done through initiation from one of the ten established sannyasa lineages of Sri Adi Shankaracharya. The Puri lineage, which both Amma's sannyasin disciples and the swamis from the Ramakrishna Order belong to, is one of these ten.

- Devadath