Mother Meera
Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Hindu leader Mother Meera (born Kamala Reddy on December 26,Template:Sfn 1960 in Chandepalle, a small village in the Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district of Telangana, India) is an Indian spiritual teacher and author living in Germany. She gives darshan, a silent blessing, and meditations in Germany and many other countries to which she travels. Although she does not consider herself a guru,Template:Sfn and does not promote a particular religion, she is considered a contemporary female saint of India in the Anglo-European hemisphere.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn She is referred to by followers as an avatar.Template:Sfn
Life account
Mother Meera allegedly had her first samādhi, a state of complete spiritual absorption, at the age of six, which lasted for a whole day. Her uncle Bulgur Venkat Reddy met her for the first time when she was 11 years old and recognized her as the girl of his visions.Template:Sfn He became convinced that she was the divine mother, and he took her under his wing. In 1974, he first brought her to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, of which he was a member.Template:Sfn A few months later, he took her to a girls' school, where she stayed for about two years.Template:Sfn
In 1976, she returned to Pondicherry. There she met the first visitors from the West and began giving darshan.Template:Sfn In 1979, she was invited by her first followers to Montreal, Canada, where she gave darshan at larger audiences and returned several times.Template:Sfn In 1981, she visited Germany, where she settled a year later and married a German. Uncle Reddy died in 1985 and was buried in the local cemetery in Dornburg-Thalheim, Hesse.Template:Sfn She currently gives darshan at the "Waldecker Hof," the former outbuilding of Schaumburg Castle in Balduinstein, which has been converted into a hotel.Template:Sfn
Activities
Mother Meera receives many thousands of visitors for darshan, which takes place in silence.Template:Sfn During darshan, she touches the visitors on the temples and then looks into their eyes. She does not give lectures.Template:Sfn
According to her teachings, her task is to bring down the Paramatman light (explained as the "light of the highest Self").Template:Sfn One can open oneself to this light through japa, Template:Sfn the mental repetition of a divine name or mantra.Template:Sfn This can be done quite informally. Her teachings belong to bhakti, the path of loving, emotional devotion to the Divine, in which she embraces all names and forms of God.
About the light she says:
She does not claim to be a guru or have followers. To be connected to her work, people do not have to recognise her. Mother Meera does not belong to any particular Indian tradition. However, her work has a certain affinity with Aurobindo.Template:Sfn
Mother Meera opened an international English-language school at her ashram in Madanapalle, India, on June 7, 2010.Template:Sfn As of April 2017, the school had approximately 1,300 students.
Trivia
According to an article in Entertainment Weekly in 1994, Madonna's global hit Secret was inspired by Mother Meera.Template:Sfn
Critics
After splitting from Mother Meera, the writer and former follower Andrew Harvey wrote The Sun at Midnight.Template:Sfn In it, Harvey accused Meera of homophobia, saying that Mother Meera disapproved of Harvey's marriage to another man. In his first book about her, Hidden Journey, Harvey had originally praised her as an avatar, attributing his own claimed enlightenment to her. Harvey's accusation of homophobia is disputed. One of Harvey's former lovers, the writer Mark Matousek (1997),Template:Sfn said that: "I do know that the idea that she's homophobic is completely ridiculous. For God's sake, we were served breakfast in bed together in her house."Template:Sfn
Books
- Answers, Part I – by Mother Meera, Template:ISBN
- Answers, Part II – by Mother Meera, Template:ISBN
Quotes
Template:Copy section to wikiquote "One common mistake is to think that one reality is the reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one." – Answers, Part I
See also
Notes
References
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Further reading
- The Mother – by Adilakshmi, Template:ISBN
- At the Feet of Mother Meera: The Lessons of Silence – by Sonia Linebaugh, Template:ISBN
- Hidden Journey: A Spiritual Awakening – by Andrew Harvey, Template:ISBN
- In Search of the Divine Mother: The Mystery of Mother Meera – by Martin Goodman, Template:ISBN
- Sex Death Enlightenment – Mark Matousek (1997), Riverhead books, Template:ISBN
- Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera. - by Mark Matousek, Template:ISBN
External links
Template:Commons category Template:Wikiversity Template:Wikibooks
- 1960 births
- Living people
- 20th-century Hindu religious leaders
- 21st-century Hindu religious leaders
- 20th-century Indian women
- 20th-century Indian people
- 21st-century Indian women writers
- German Hindus
- Indian Hindu saints
- Indian women religious leaders
- People considered avatars by their followers
- People from Nalgonda
- Telugu people
- Women mystics
- German people of Telugu descent
- 21st-century Indian women educators