Mother Meera

Template:Short description Template:EngvarB Template:Wikidata imageTemplate:Compare Mother Meera (born Kamala Reddy on December 26, 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, and does not promote a particular religion, she is considered a contemporary female saint of India in the Anglo-European hemisphere. She is referred to by followers as an avatar.

Life account

File:Mother Meera1.jpg

Mother Meera Ashram, Madanapalle, A.P., India

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. 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. A few months later, he took her to a girls' school, where she stayed for about two years.

In 1976, she returned to Pondicherry. There she met the first visitors from the West and began giving darshan. In 1979, she was invited by her first followers to Montreal, Canada, where she gave darshan at larger audiences and returned several times. 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. She currently gives darshan at the "Waldecker Hof," the former outbuilding of Schaumburg Castle in Balduinstein, which has been converted into a hotel.

Activities

Mother Meera receives many thousands of visitors for darshan, which takes place in silence. During darshan, she touches the visitors on the temples and then looks into their eyes. She does not give lectures.

According to her teachings, her task is to bring down the Paramatman light (explained as the "light of the highest Self"). One can open oneself to this light through japa, the mental repetition of a divine name or mantra. 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.

Mother Meera opened an international English-language school at her ashram in Madanapalle, India, on June 7, 2010. 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.

Critics

After splitting from Mother Meera, the writer and former follower Andrew Harvey wrote The Sun at Midnight. 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), 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."

Books

• Answers, Part I – by Mother Meera, Template:ISBN
• Answers, Part II – by Mother Meera, Template:ISBN

Quotes

"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

• Mirabai

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

• Mother Meera Germany
• Mother Meera Foundation USA
• Darshan in the UK
• Mother Meera school in India
• Mere Meera (official french site)
• Matka Meera (official czech site)
• Mark Matousek on Mother Meera
• An experience of Darshan with Mother Meera