Amma – Mata Amritanandayi.(The saint who hugs you like a mother.)

Amma was born in 1953 in a small coastal village in Kerala, India. At the age of nine years she was withdrawn from school to look after her seven siblings and the household as her mother was ill. She collected food scrapings from door to door for feeding her cattle and realized the pangs of hunger and suffering.

The sufferings made her delve deep into meditation and she realized that suffering is due to past actions or karma of the person. Amma accepted the concept but she refused to accept it as a justification for inaction. “If it’s one man’s karma to suffer, isn’t it our Dharma (duty) to help ease his pain and suffering?”

Since 1987 Amma has been conducting programs throughout the world in selfless service, her  unique form of Darshan is hugging people like her children, she hugs almost 12000 people in a span of twenty two hours and has hugged more than thirty six million people over a span of thirty years. Simply spreading love, compassion and kindness.

Amma stresses on the importance of selfless service to purify the mind and cultivating divine qualities of compassion, forgiveness, patience and self control. She recognizes two types of poverty – one is lack of food , clothing and shelter and the other is lack of love and compassion. She believes if we have love and compassion in our hearts , then we will wholeheartedly serve those who suffer from lack of food , clothing and shelter. This is the secret behind her charitable mission. Amma says that once we experience the highest truth of oneness with an attitude of serving others knowing them to be extensions of one’s self we attain liberation.

Amma says that her religion is love which when expressed is compassion – meaning accepting the needs and sorrows of others as one’s own. She has never asked anyone to change their religion but only to contemplate the essential principles of their own faith and try to live accordingly.

Amma has recorded more than ten thousand bhajans or devotional songs and regards devotional singing as a spiritual practice.

Amma holds free public programs throughout the world and offers words of wisdom and guidance on personal fulfillment as well as climate change, terrorism, women’s right, cross cultural tension and invites everyone to get involved in rebuilding a concerned and caring society.

More information on Amma’s activities can be found on her website www.amritapuri.org which spans across disaster relief, healthcare, education, social welfare , cultural and spiritual activities.

The saints , fakirs, pirs, yogis always focus on love for Humanity across caste , religion , nationality and break down all barriers to help the individual evolve beyond his karma or destiny to liberation by serving humanity.

Lahiri Mahasaya - reviver of Kriya Yoga.

Lahiri Mahasaya was born in 1828 and passed away in 1895.

He got married in 1846 and had two sons and three daughters. Therefore he always advocated marriage and living a family life and improving society.

He met Mahavatar Babaji in 1861 at the age of 33 years when He was posted in Ranikhet, Uttarakhand , as he was working as an accountant in the Millitary Engineering Department of the British Government.

Lahiri Mahsaya is an important saint and why I like him is because he was a simple family man who lived as a normal householder and taught the art of scientific breathing without any hocus – pocus.

Lahiri Mahsaya was initiated by a mythical Yogi known simply as Mahavtar Babaji.

Kriya Yoga is mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita and it seems to have been passed down to Manu, who in turn instructed Ikshwaku, founder of India’s solar warrior dynasty.

However Lahiri Mahasaya is “world famous” because he taught this ancient art of breathing to Sri Yukteshwar Giri , the Guru of Paramhansa Yogananda who wrote the famous book “Autobiography of a Yogi”.

Kriya Yoga is a simple, psychophysiological method by which human blood is decarbonated and recharged with oxygen. The atoms of this extra oxygen are transmuted into life current to rejuvenate the brain and spinal centres. By stopping the accumulation of venous blood, the Yogi is able to lessen or prevent the decay of tissues. The advanced Yogi transmutes his cells into energy. Elijah, Jesus, Kabir and other prophets were past masters in the use of Kriya, by which they caused their bodies to materialize and dematerialize at will.

Bhagavad Gita reads: “Offering the inhaling breaths into the exhaling breath and offering the exhaling breath into the inhaling breath, the Yogi neutralizes both breaths; thus he releases prana from the heart and brings life force under his control”.

Anyway , Lahiri Mahasaya freely gave Kriya initiation to Hindus, Muslims and Christians and encouraged people to adhere to the tenets of their own faith , adding Kriya techniques to what they already were practicing very much like Baba Ramdev spreading Yoga as a physical exercise to all of humanity.

He asked Muslims to perform namaz five times daily, Christians to read the Bible and Hindus to pray to their Deity.

Why I personally like Lahiri Mahasaya is because he shared his secrets with anyone who was seeking God within . He never gave any preaching or sermons but imparted Kriya purely as a scientific way of breathing or praanayam.  

To get out of the entanglement of Karma or cause & effect , the breathing is very important as our breath , thoughts and blood pressure are interconnected and if we can control any one , the other two are automatically controlled. Yogi’s by controlling their breathing get into a state of no thought and also control their blood pressure and heart.

Lahiri Mahasaya was one of the Sadguru’s and continues to bless Humanity.