Mata Amritanandamayi vs. Karunamayi: two avatars of the Divine Mother

Namaste. Mike Brooker (a.k.a. Keval) here. Yes the guy with the kewl home page, DX page, India page, Sanskrit page, and Guru's gallery. The following is my comparison of the experience of Mata Amritanandamayi and Karunamayi, two female gurus who are revered as avatars (incarnations) of the Divine Mother. Over the years since 1998 I have experienced both of them, and for those interested in "guru shopping" or in an experience of the Divine Mother's shakti, I present my observations.

I would like to emphasize that this is an unofficial personal page of a devotee of the Divine Mother in Her various forms. The views expressed herein are my own, and not those of the ashrams, organizations, etc. officially associated with either Mata Amritanandamayi or Karunamayi. Please visit their official Websites, by clicking on the links in the previous paragraph.

Their shakti is much different, but the Divine Mother's love is the same. They're both great!!! If possible, you should try to experience both of them. Karunamayi may be more accessible than Ammachi. Karunamayi's North American tour takes her to more places than Ammachi, including a stop in Toronto. Ammachi came to Vancouver in 1989 or '90, but for many years since then she never returned to visit Canada (Until July 2004, that is! -- click here or scroll down a bit!!). Karunamayi has fewer devotees than Ammachi, at least in North America, so her public programs and darshans are not mob scenes. Ammachi, on the other hand, has literally tens of thousands of devotees in the west, and millions more in India. Wherever she goes, the place is packed to the rafters and she keeps you waiting for hours for a 20-second hug. But it's worth the wait :-) Everyone should have the experience of being hugged by Ammachi.

Once again, Toronto was not on Karunamayi's 2001 North American tour schedule. (She didn't come here in 2000 either!) But when I checked her schedule on the web and found that Karunamayi's Chicago programs would be easily accessible on the Chicago Transit Authority, I decided to go for it! I've always enjoyed visiting Chicago, but this time I didn't come to see the Blue Jays take on the Chisox. One the evening of June 25, I took in Karunamayi's love, blessings and sweetness at the Unity Church on the North Side. Quite an intimate gathering -- there couldn't have been more than 150 people. (Had it been Ammachi, the darshan line would have stretched to Kenosha, Wisconsin). The next morning, June 26, Karunamayi presided over a Homa (Vedic fire ceremony) on the Lake Michigan shore at the Northwestern University campus. There were some astrological reasons for doing this particular Homa -- to counter the bad influences of Jupiter, so I was told, though I don't put much faith in astrology. Nonetheless, the Homa was so powerful that it might even send Northwestern's football team back to the Rose Bowl. But I couldn't stay for the whole thing, as I had to catch the El to Addison Ave., for an afternoon Cubs game at Wrigley Field. The Cubs beat the Mets 4-2, thanks to Karunamayi's grace! Another blessing from Amma: the weather was perfect -- what Ernie Banks had in mind when he said "Let's play two!" After the game, I got back on the El to the Unity Church to receive Karunamayi's blessings. As I knelt in front of her, she gently stroked my head, like you would pat a kitten, and said "I love you so much...you're so sweet". OK, so it wasn't an Ammachi bear hug, but it felt just as nurturing. She gave me a small packet of vibhuti (holy ashes, from a homa ceremony in India) that (so I'm told) she charged with energy specific for my needs and a yantra (a geometric representation of the Divine Mother) that she also personally blessed. You can spend a few minutes one-on-one with Karunamayi for individual blessings or personal sharings. No way you could do this during Ammachi's U.S. tour, even if you speak Malayalam.

If you're planning to visit Chicago, I would recommend getting a CTA Visitor Pass. All the bus and El rides you can take in 3 days for only $12. However, when Ammachi came to Chicago a couple weeks later, her darshans were held in Lisle, IL -- a long way from the Loop and impossible to reach by public transit!

Less than two weeks after getting Karunamayi's blessings in Chicago, I was off to New York and Rhode Island for Ammachi's hug-fest. Her New York program, at a Columbia University auditorium named after the creator of Monday Night Football (Roone Arledge), was a media circus: interviews on CNN and NBC's Today Show, journalists from the leading print media, and camera crews from the major networks. Sometimes it was hard to separate the sincere devotees from the guru groupies, curiosity seekers, and papparazzi -- not that Ammachi would make these distinctions, of course! She would have given interviews and hugs to Howard Stern and Don Imus, had they approached her. Where once Ammachi was known only in New Age circles, or only among fans of Eastern spirituality, she has now become mainstream thanks to the recent mass media exposure. Your average Joe Six-Pack or Sally Soccermom may not have experienced Ammachi's hugs, but would probably now be aware of "the hugging saint" or "that Indian woman who hugs everyone".

Minor league baseball is great -- only $6.50 for a box seat! The Jays creamed the Yankees 8-0 with Ammachi's blessings!

Except for going to a Mets game in 2004, during one of Ammachi's NYC public programs, I had never taken a trip to Queens on the #7 train. Though she held a couple of public programs in Manhattan earlier in the week, Amma K.'s Friday night public program, individual blessings and meditation retreat were held at the Ganesh Temple, aka Sri Maha Vallabha Ganapati Devasthanam, a short ride on the Q27 bus from Main Street station (the end of the line for the #7 train). Downtown Flushing - the corner of Main and Roosevelt where you get off the #7 train - is very heavily Chinese and Korean. Lots of Hispanics too, not necessarily Mexicans or Puerto Ricans. Indeed, native speakers of North American standard English seem few and far between on that #7 train, if not in New York City generally. But I digress...now back to a native speaker of Telugu! The number of Karunamayi's devotees have grown over the years. Still nothing like Ammachi's mosh pits, but this was the largest Karunamayi gathering I have seen. Being in New York and being a long weekend might have had something to do with the size of the program. For a chance to experience the pure sweetness and love of the Divine Mother, without having to put up with the humungous crowds, guru groupies and paparazzi, not to mention having to stay up long past midnight waiting hours for a darshan, Karunamayi could be just the ticket!

This year, Karunamayi has been teaching much about the Lalita Sahasranama. Ammachi's devotees are quite familiar with the recitation of the Sahasranama (1000 names of the Divine Mother), so it was way kewl to hear Karunamayi's take on this Devi scripture and to hear her sing a few of the thousand slokas. She began her talk by singing a beautiful Ganesha bhajan:

The program was winding down by 10 PM. Getting to sleep at a reasonable hour. What a concept! Had it been Ammachi, she wouldn't have even started hugging by 10 o'clock.

Got to the temple early Saturday morning, for Amma K.'s individual blessings. The individual blessings program is when you can get some one-on-one face time with Karunamayi and say a few words to her - whatever you can fit on the 3 x 5" card they supply. Actually she didn't say much to me, as she stroked my forehead and top of my head as if petting a kitten (her usual M.O. of transmitting her love and offering blessings). After receiving the blessings, and a small packet of vibhuti, it was off to Yankee Stadium for another of my New York traditions - catching a ball game! The Yankees met the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Orange County, near Disneyland. A day game - beautiful day for baseball, 30ºC/86ºF, drawing over 50,000 to Yankee Stadium, aka "the Bronx Zoo". Karunamayi's blessings didn't help the Yankees. They lost 3-1, and wasted a good outing by Chien-Ming Wang. Ex-Blue Jay Kelvim Escobar was the winning pitcher for the Angels. The game ended with Bobby Abreu standing at the plate, bat planted on shoulder, taking a called third strike! Forget about catching the Red Sox. Though the Yankees might yet make a run for a playoff spot - anyone remember 1978? - where's Bucky Dent now that they need him!

Truth in advertising - there were only two meditation sessions of about one hour each. So it wasn't an all-day meditation retreat, but a day of Karunamayi's teachings. Along with instructions on how to meditate and recommended spiritual practices such as doing pujas, Karunamayi taught quite a bit about the Lalita Sahasranama, and offered some guidance for how to observe the nine days and nights of Navaratri (Oct. 12-21, 2007).

One surprise during the day-long retreat: While Karunamayi usually speaks in the Queen's English, some of her discourses were in Telugu! All of us poor non-Telugu speakers had to wait for the swami's translation. Trying to be more like Ammachi? As you no doubt know, the Big Hugger only speaks Malayalam, forcing all the non-Keralites to wait for the translation.

Early on the morning of Memorial Day I took a ride on the Metro North Hudson Line to Hastings-on-Hudson to attend the Homa (Vedic sacred fire ceremony) presided over by Amma K. Actually there were seven homas:

After all the above, there was the "Purnahuti" or final offering. That's when they chuck almost everything into the fire - fruits, flowers, even a silk sari! Burn baby burn!

July 20-24 - Ammachi's Summer 2007 tour rolls into Toronto - actually the Best Western/Sheraton Parkway Hotel in Richmond Hill, amid big-box stores, god-awful office parks and car-addicted sprawl of the "905" (the Toronto suburbs, known by their area code; the city of Toronto is 416). The streetscape could be any U.S. city, if not for the gas sold by the litre and road signs in kilometers, to remind Americans who brave the highway-robbery cost of gas, ramped-up post 9/11 border security, and CAD well above 90 U.S. cents that they're actually visiting a foreign country!

For the host Toronto Satsang group, Amma's visit is the culmination of several months of hard work to prepare for her visit, and when she does arrive, four full days of seva coming out the wazoo!!

As usual, Amma and her swamis cranked out a load of new bhajans. A new Punjabi bhajan that really rocked the joint...or should I say "rocked the casbah" (the Clash, 1982...oh geez...those songs from my party-animal days a quarter-century ago at Laurentian are still reverbing in me!!) was Mata Rani. The version on the 2007 World Tour CD doesn't do it justice. You have to hear it sung live by Amma! MATA RANI KI JAI!

As with all of Amma's visits, there were too many people, too little sleep, and too much stimulation, above and beyond Amma's shakti. Quite a lot of challenges for someone with Asperger's. But I find ways to handle it, e.g. avoiding seva jobs such as greeters and darshan line entry that require social skills and people-handling ability that I don't possibly have. Of course, I'm not the only Amma devotee on the autistic spectrum. There is a kid named Eknath with classic Rain-Man autism, who's been coming to Toronto for the past few years, as well as to some of Amma's other tour stops. You can't miss him, particularly when he's dancing like the Energizer Bunny during Amma's high-octane bhajans.

The colour of Amma's devi bhava sari is always a matter of speculation and even friendly wagers. For the record, Amma was wearing a dark red sari with gold trim at the Toronto devi bhava, July 23-24. Her sari blouse looked like the Washington Redskins road jersey (though the 'Skins, like the Cowboys, prefer to wear their white jerseys). I lost my bet. Well maybe next year she will wear Leafs or Blue Jays blue and white here in Toronto!

Unlike past Toronto programs and many other U.S. cities, there were no VIP's such as local mayors and provincial or federal politicians getting face time with Amma this year. There is an Amma supporter (if not a true devotee) in Canada's Parliament, an obscure Liberal backbencher, Ruby Dhalla. Although Ms. Dhalla, who represents a 905 riding with a large Indian-Canadian population, did appear at last year's programs to garland Amma, get a hug and make a little speech, she didn't come to Amma's programs this year. Perhaps she was too busy attending the opening of Toronto's new BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir on July 22, along with Canadian PM Stephen (lousy haircut) Harper, Ontario Premier Dalton (Pinocchio-nose) McGuinty, Toronto Mayor David (His Blondness) Miller, et al. While Amma may not have met any political biggies in Toronto, she certainly did in Chile. From Toronto, the Amma tour flew directly to Chile for Amma's first ever appearance in South America. She met personally with Señorita Presidente Bachelet. General Pinochet must be rolling over in his grave!!

Local print and broadcast media coverage seemed to be almost non-existent this year. Perhaps because Amma has become a regular visitor to this town, since her initial visit in the summer of 2004 when she was front page news ("Hugging Saint to embrace Toronto"). Also, Amma had to compete against the opening of the BAPS temple, which was front page news, and a major event as a Hindu temple of this size has never been built in this country. The BAPS temple is quite similar to the BAPS organization's Neasden Temple in London, which I visited during a trip to England in February 2007. But with one huge difference: it's only a short walk from the Neasden tube station and in a nice mixed residential neighbourhood, while the Toronto temple is almost impossible to get to by public transit and is in the midst of a barren industrial wasteland.

Below are Mata Amritanandamayi's and Karunamayi's messages of prayer and condolences, following the 21st century's Day of Infamy.

Duel of the Divine Mothers

Mata Amritanandamayi vs. Karunamayi