Spiritual Transmissions - Gifts of Grace
Along with these hugs, Amma has given out many thousands of spiritual experiences. This alone is quite astonishing and is perhaps her most magnificent gift of grace. Your author has experienced these on a number of occasions.
The scope and intensity of these transmissions can vary. For some, Amma puts them into a state of non-duality or pure witnessing lasting a few hours or a few days. Others may dissolve into the Divine Light. Visions and knowledge of the Divine Mother or visions of Amma as Jesus or Kali are common. One may be overcome with intense love and devotion for the Divine or for Amma shedding rivers of tears swimming in the ocean of cosmic bliss.
Swami Paramatmananda recounts in his book On the Road to Freedom, volume 1, an experience that occurred only a few days after arriving at Amma’s hermitage for the first time. He had been suffering from severe health problems for many years.
“That night was Darshan. I remained in the temple for as long as I could during both the Bhavas. I felt the atmosphere within the temple charged with spiritual peace. Meditation came with very little effort. I went and lay down behind the temple. I did not feel like going into the house. I wanted to be as near to Amma as possible. The Darshan was finishing and Chandru came to call me. He said that Devi (Amma) was calling me to come to the front of the temple.
"I came around to the front of the temple and stood facing her. Seeing me there, she walked briskly over to me and gave me an affectionate hug. Then bending down, she whispered into my ear, “My son, do not worry, your body will become better.”
"She then slowly backed up into the temple and was standing in front of the door looking at me. As she was looking at me, I noticed that her face was getting brighter and brighter. Gradually, the brightness expanded so much that it engulfed her whole body and then the temple and even the surroundings. I could see nothing but that brilliant but soothing light. Suddenly the effulgence contracted to the size of a pinpoint, its brilliance making me squint. A moment later it stopped. I was once again seeing Amma smiling at me. The temple doors were closed, and the Darshan ended.”
Here is another example. A friend of your author’s, we will call her Marty, was sitting in the hall while Amma was leading the singing of bhajans (devotional songs). People were clapping and some were dancing on the sides. Marty then had the desire for everything to be quiet and still. Suddenly a beam of light shot out of Amma’s heart and connected with Marty’s heart. She rose out of her body to the top of the hall and everything was very quiet and peaceful.
She describes the experience as being in the middle of a perfectly calm ocean. She could also see a rain of golden light falling everywhere in the hall blessing all in attendance. Marty was not a meditator and had had no other transcendental experiences. This was wholly by Amma’s grace.
On another occasion, Amma put sandalwood paste in between your author’s eyebrows. This resulted in a blissful state of being the pure witness of all that was occurring. This lasted for two days.
Another friend was sitting with your author listening to Amma lead the singing of bhajans in an evening program. He had his eyes closed and his hands were held straight out with his elbows at his sides and with the palms up. As he listened to and became absorbed in Amma’s singing, he felt as if both hands had become connected to a very powerful current of blissful, divine energy. This put his mind in a very still and high plane of consciousness lasting for some time.
Another good friend says that each time Amma hugs her, she goes into a transcendental breathless state.
Yet another friend went to see Amma for the first time and on the first hug, Amma drew a circle between her eyebrows and wrote or marked something in the circle with the tip of Amma’s finger. For the rest of the day, the friend felt she was totally one with Amma and was in a place of deep imperturbability.
The first time your author went to see Amma, she gave him the vision of the Divine Mother which has not only lasted to this day but has deepened and expanded as the result of doing practices suggested by Amma. This experience is described in detail in your author’s autobiography Into the Mystic.
These spiritual transmissions from Amma are called diksha in Sanskrit. This is the transmission of spiritual energy or insight by a self-realized being to another and can happen by a glance, a touch or by silence. Normally, these experiences are rarely given by Masters to those who come to them. But Amma is the Divine Mother of the Universe and it is her way to bestow endless blessings on her children.
This is the nature of a Mother. She is a cornucopia of spiritual experiences. She has strewn jewels of cosmic bliss and insight on the ground in front of us and we only have to pick them up. Such a powerful and fortuitous dispensation of grace is extremely rare and we should not pass up the opportunity to experience Amma’s great light and benefit from it.
Another personal friend left his body upon being hugged by Amma. His hug was over but he could not move because he was hovering above his body! In short order he got his arms to work but his legs were still immovable. Attendants picked him up under the arms and set him beside Amma allowing a little time to pass so that he could completely reinter his body. He describes the experience as being very blissful and transcendent.
Amma gives us these experiences as a way of teaching. She gives us the experience of the Divine so we know how to direct the course of our spiritual path – that we will be inspired to persist. She is teaching us what it feels like otherwise we would have no inkling as to where we are going. She is giving us the carrot to motivate us. This is much better than being motivated by the whip of suffering!
Sri Ramakrishna died in 1886 at the age of 50. He had throat cancer. He stated that the cancer was the result of giving spiritual experiences to some people. He did not pass them out freely like Amma nor did he have even a small fraction of the crowds. He might have 20 people in his room on a good night maybe once or twice per week. It is your author’s guess that perhaps in his whole life he gave spiritual experiences to 50 people. This is based on the frequency of such occasions in The Gospel of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna commented that when he gave a spiritual experience, he had to accept into himself some of the person’s karma. According to him, taking on these karmas eventually resulted in throat cancer.
How powerful is Amma who has given tens of thousands of these spiritual experiences!
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