When in India, my humble self had the honor of experiencing Darshan at Amachi, also known as Amma, the “Hugging Saint” given in Madurai, India. She is a Kali devotee who channels the Mother Goddess. My Satguru Shri Param Eswaran sent me and my spiritual sister Devanayagi, to experience this “Hugging Saint” and observe
her students to recognize how grateful we should be to have his personal attention to help us grow in our experience of love.
Amachi has thousands of disciples, both of Indian and Western origin. Because we were white and guests in their country, when we first arrived, the Indians working crowd control directed us towards the front of the very crowded hall. At the stage’s left side, upon which Amma’s devotees fussed and arranged cushions, we found our seats on the floor in an area roped off from the rest. Many of her followers wore wrinkled white cotton saris or chettudas and crowded up against the stage. The difference between Amachi’s white, Western students
and Her Indian students and devotees was incredible. I will explain.
The familiar sensations of goose bumps, tingles up and down my spine, blissful tears, intense body heat, and an overall feeling of buoyancy were a sure sign the Shakti Power in the room was high. The smile with which I entered the center could not be contained in my body when Amma began singing, accompanied by her
musicians and other singers. The audience repeated a phrase she uttered, and the whole place surged with love for the Universal Mother. My spine rocked back and forth and swayed side to side. Love was present in every molecule and cell in the room, and my body danced with joy, even as I sat crossed-legged, surrounded
on every side, front, back, left, and right with hot bodies pressed against me and stepping over my shoulder every five to ten minutes.
The love in the room was everywhere. We came to see the Shakti Mother, and in Her presence, somehow every woman and girl in the room was transformed into a Mother. Tears of bliss continued to stream down my face as my heart surged in recognition of the Divine Mother so present and evident in the faces and hearts of the thousands of Indian women. I also saw the intense longing and love for their divine Mother, which I imagine reflected my yearning. Mothers, Grand Mothers, sisters, aunties, daughters, and nieces sat together in clusters. Through the medium of our blood bond as women, golden threads of love light danced and wove in a magnificent tapestry of Shakti from each heart and womb in the room. Love for Self, love for family, love for the Goddess, and love for life.
I found myself tenderly covered by this light cloth, woven with love and devotion. A beautiful little Indian girl about the age of ten sat next to me. I felt the familiar sensation of being stared at, eyes devouring every detail.
After indulging in eye contact and smiling at her several times she asked me my name in English. We took to each other immediately and when events were announced in Tamil she informed me in English regarding what was about to happen. She was there with her sister and several aunties, an integral part of a close knit family cluster.
I unknowingly managed to wipe of my red bindi sticker along with the sweat on my brow. Before I even knew it was missing, the girl’s aunties had located another sticker from the abundant purses in the room and had replaced my Bindu before I even knew what was happening. These women and a young girl I’d never met before
Mothered me like one of their own. As one of them placed the sacred mark on my third eye, Shakti surged in another wave through me. This simple act added even more sunshine to an already brilliant tapestry and my heart and womb flowered with love and connection with the Mother’s energy.
As I mentioned, I was warned ahead of time by my Satguru Shri Param Eswaran to be aware of the faces of Amma’s Western students. When love is flowing through the body, Shakti-power is evident on the face as grace, openness, softness, and beauty, readily evident in the Indian women. The white people wore white, which
made them stand out of the crowd. But what really made them stand out were the expressions on the majority of their faces. I was amused to see multiple variations of boredom, and disgust. I recognized facial expressions reflecting busy brains working overtime as they scanned the audience, judging the Indians and complaining about the heat, the crowd, the fans…anything and everything. One white woman in front of me was violently rocking back in forth and flailing her arms around with a sparkling mala bracelet, completely disregarding the
small children trying to make their way past her without being knocked over by her unchecked thrashing. She forced herself through the motions for some indiscernible purpose. I exchanged glances with my sister and several Indians who looked on amused. Some of the children stared, wide-eyed, but no one interfered.
For several hours we were immersed in the love. My soul felt massaged, nurtured, uplifted and buoyant throughout the car ride back to our ashram. When we arrived back home I fell at the feet of Shri Param crying tears of gratitude for his having shown me how to feel love. The practice of ParaTan and his loving guidance, along with my true desire to change is the only difference between me and the other Western students.
Love is readily available in the world. It is everywhere and in everything. We only need uncover it within our own being to feel it. However, just feeling the love Amachi channels is not enough to help her Western students. The Western mind is poisoned with busy- ness, egotism, need, greed, self-centeredness, laziness, and a whole other assortment of madness from which we suffer. Thought patterns create the emotional state of the individual and form the blue print structure around which the body’s cells conglomerate. We must reprogram our brains to think lovingly and maintain a steady emotional state to conserve and build our energy and maintain health and well being. Otherwise we are not strong enough to maintain the vibration of love and we fall back into unconscious thought patterns and emotional cycles and suffer from pain and illness. SatguruShri Param’s loving guidance and the practice of ParaTan is the only difference between the other Westerners and me. Amachi has thousands of disciples, to whom she can hardly give individual and personal advice, or spend hours patiently
reprogramming her students.
Mahavidya temple only accepts a maximum of six students at a time. Our Satguru Shri Param spends a lot of time with each of his students in the deprogramming and reprogramming process. Following four simple
practices are what make ParaTan so effective:
1) Deprogramming and reprogramming the mind.
2) Regularly participating in Agni (fire ritual) cleanses the aura.
3) Developing one’s capacity to resonate sound clears cellular memory and blockages in nadis.
4) Living a simple lifestyle -free from environmental and mental pollution.
To read more about my Transformative experience with Satguru Shri Param, read “Reclaiming
the Goddess Within.”
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
Mother Center
Mahavidya Temple
1/244 Killankulam village,
Periayur Taluk, Madurai district,
Tamil Nadu, South India.