In India women gurus abound and have been many times more open and playful with their wisdom and teachings than most male gurus . You dont need any tradition to begin your own. There is no one Up there (Patriarch or Matriarch !) you need clearances or quality certification from. You need no qualifications from any school, traditional or modern . Kabir and Meera went to no institution, neither did Nanak . If you have what it takes, you will create your own satsang . We in India , need no past , no future . We can just decide , when we want , what to begin to support flow and transcendence . And then again you may belong to an old or recent tradition . There are really no rules. And this for me is the ultimate democracy of meaning . That is the truest basis of democracy . Not some election by votes inspired by media myth-making . There are and always will be false prophets . But we have a choice to throw them away . And make new ones. We are stuck to no book, no moment in time, no one Master , dead or living. Some make huge empires , some go as quietly as they arrived . You make your choice . And when I was with the Swami Spiritual Supermarket in the 90s I was told that there may be as many as 5,000 ashrams in USA alone ! So the Land Of Opportunity has offered much support to all kinds from Vivekananda to Yogananda to Osho to Gurumayi . Ah, Baba, youve brought me the river Ganges, proclaimed Indias beloved saint, Anandamayi Ma, as His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi presented the shy young Ravi Shankar. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was blessed by Ma Anandamayi . Anandamayi Ma was born Nirmala Sundari (নির্মলা সুন্দরী; Nirmôla Shundori) on 30 April 1896 (died 1982) to Bipinbihari Bhattacharya and Mokshada Sundari Devi in Kheora, Brahmanbaria District, British India, in what is now Bangladesh. Her father, originally from Vidyakut in Tripura, was a Vaishnavite singer known for his devotion. Anandamayi Ma never prepared discourses, wrote down, or revised what she had said. People had difficulty transcribing her often informal talks because of their conversational speed, further the Bengali manner of alliterative wordplay was often lost in translation. Anandamayi Ma blessed Saivites, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Muslims and Christians equally. Even now, the Muslim population of Kheora still refer to her as “our own Ma”. She also advocated spiritual equality for women; for example, she opened up the sacred thread ritual, which had been performed by men only for centuries, to women. Her style of teaching included jokes, songs and instructions on everyday life along with long discourses, meditation and reading of scriptures. Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Devī (born Sudhamani Idamannel; 27 September 1953), better known simply as Amma [Mother]. Born to a family of fishermen in 1953, she was the third child of Sugunanandan and Damayanti. Her education ended at the age of nine, when she began to take care of her younger siblings and the family domestic work full-time. Amritanandamayi also began to spontaneously embrace people to comfort them in their sorrow. But despite the reaction of her parents, Amritanandamayi continued. Regarding her embracing of others, Amritanandamayi commented, “I don’t see if it is a man or a woman. I don’t see anyone different from my own self. A continuous stream of love flows from me to all of creation. This is my inborn nature. The duty of a doctor is to treat patients. In the same way, my duty is to console those who are suffering.” In 1981, after various seekers had begun residing at her parents property in Parayakadavu in the hopes of becoming Amritanandamayis disciples, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math (MAM), a worldwide foundation, was founded. Amritanandamayi has recorded more than 1,000 bhajans in 35 languages. She has also composed dozens of bhajans and set them to traditional ragas. Regarding devotional singing as a spiritual practice, Amritanandamayi says, If the bhajan is sung with one-pointedness, it is beneficial for the singer, the listeners, and Nature as well. Other popular ones in 20th century India were Nirmala Srivastava (née Nirmala Salve) (21 March 1923 – 23 February 2011), also known as Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi, was the founder of Sahaja Yoga, a meditation technique and new religious movement. Nirmala Srivastava was born in Chindawara, Madhya Pradesh, India to Hindu father & Christian mother Prasad and Cornelia Salve. Gurumayi Chidvilasananda born 1959 (or Swami Chidvilasananda) is the current spiritual head of the Siddha Yoga path. She is formally known as Swami Chidvilasananda or more informally as Gurumayi . Swami Chidvilasananda is the monastic name of Malti Shetty, who was the oldest child of a Mumbai couple who were devotees of Muktananda in the 1950s. After she had been initiated by Muktananda through shaktipat at age fourteen,she moved to the ashram as a formal disciple and yoga student.At age fifteen, Muktananda made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his world tours.On 3 May 1982, she was initiated as a sannyasin into the Saraswati order. In 1994, Lis Harris noted that Gurumayis ashram in New York State is sleekly modernized, in country-club-glitz style from three prewar Catskill hotels in neatly landscaped grounds of 550 acres, and had an estimated market value of fifteen to seventeen million dollars in 1994.Author Linda Johnsen observed the appearance of wealth at the ashram and took it positively. She noted that the ascetic traditions of yoga are only one type and that others exist. She quotes a Brahmin priest who told her The Goddess is beauty and wealth. Prosperity is a gift of the Mother. And then there is the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya) or BKWSU is a new religious movement that originated in India during the 1930s.The Brahma Kumaris (Hindi: ब्रह्माकुमारी, daughters of Brahma) movement was founded by Dada Lekhraj Kripalani, who later took the name Brahma Baba.It is distinctly identified by the prominent role women play in the movement.The BKWSU has established many educational programs, environmental projects, hospitals, and outreach programs. In 2008, the movement claimed to have more than 825,000 regular students, with over 8,500 centers in 100 countries. The Brahma Kumaris at the United Nations is an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) in general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and UNICEF. It is associated with the UN Department of Public Information. It was granted International Peace Messenger Initiative status by the U.N. for the Global Co-operation for a Better World campaign and has permanent office space in New York for their work at the United Nations.Brahma Kumaris is one of over 1600 accredited observer organizations to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the group has attended events including World Summits on the Information Society, a Global Forum on Reinventing Government and Framework Conventions on Climate Change.Dadi Janki Kripalani, administrative head of the group, is a Grand Cordon of Jordan under the Order of Independence, for her work promoting peace and inter-religious harmony. In 2010 Dadi was awarded Spiritual Personality of the Year by the Indo-European Business Forum, Incredible India and Demystifying India. https://amritasinha.wordpress/tag/maa-anandamayee-maa/ srisri/6-7-text.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Amritanandamayi en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmala_Srivastava en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurumayi_Chidvilasananda en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Kumaris_World_Spiritual_University
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 03:45:56 +0000