Amma's Teachings

Human Rights

Amma says people from all nations and religions become victims to the ravaging effects of human enslavement and experience extreme abuse and suffering. Their physical and mental pain does not differentiate between language, race or skin colour. These victims are just a single group of humans, struggling against the clutches of endless sorrow and emotional suppression.

The human mind has created many divisions in the name of religion, caste, language and national boundaries. Let us try to create a bridge of all-encompassing pure love to break down these self-created walls.

Interreligious Harmony

Amma says, “The essence of all religions is love, compassion and recognising the underlying divinity that serves as a substratum to this world and human existence. However, tragically, many people are overly focused on external traditions, which vary from religion to religion. In doing so, they are forgetting the essence. This is why the diverse religions, which were originally meant to foster peace and unity, have become instruments of war and conflict. If everyone were to adhere to the essential principles of their religion, without being overly concerned about its external aspects, then religion could become a pathway to world peace.”

Gender Equality

Amma says, “Like our two eyes, men and women are equal. Could one ever say that the left eye is more important than the right? Or the right more than the left? Men and women are meant to complement one another — to function in harmony and cooperation. Only when their essential equality is appreciated and they treat one another with mutual love and respect will society attain peace and prosperity.”

Poverty

In Amma’s vision, all of creation is a manifestation of the one True Self. Spirituality is the path of grasping and assimilating this ultimate truth. When one realizes that everyone is an expression of themselves, then they will reach out to help the poor and suffering with the same clarity with which they currently reserve for their own limited self and immediate family.

In Amma’s words, “It is like how when our left hand is injured, our right hand immediately comes to its aid—to caress it and apply medicine if needed. This is because it does not see the left hand as different from itself. If we have spiritual understanding, this is how we will react when we see others suffering.”

Sustainable Development

As Amma says, “Mother Earth is serving us: the sun, the moon and the stars all serve us. What can we do in return for their selfless service?” This profound statement reflects the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. Amma’s advocacy for sustainable development resonates with the belief that we must reciprocate the gifts nature is bestowing upon us. Thus, in Amma’s view, we have to mitigate climate change and ensure our social-outreach programs foster equality. It is only when we recognize our responsibility to Nature that we begin paving paths toward a harmonious future. It is acting with compassion that ensures a legacy of wellbeing for generations to come.

Education

“There are two types of education,” Amma says, “education for earning a living and education for life. When we study in college, striving to become a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer, that is education for a living. But education for life requires an understanding of the essential principles of spirituality—it is about gaining a deeper understanding of the world, our minds, our emotions and ourselves.” Amma feels that in today’s world, importance is only being given to the former. But we have to ensure our children receive both types of education.

Environment

“The creation and the Creator are not two,” Amma says. “Just as all golden jewelry is nothing but gold, just as all earthen pots are essentially nothing but clay, just as every wave is basically water, so too it is the Creator that has become this world.” Amma says it was because of this outlook of viewing the creation as God’s manifest form that in ancient times there was no specific need for environmental preservation. Protecting Nature was part of worshiping God and life itself. The Creator was seen through the creation, loving, worshiping and protecting Nature as the visible form of God. We should try to reawaken this attitude.

Youth Empowerment

Amma says the younger generation possesses tremendous energy, and if that energy is properly channeled, they can perform wonders; they can even change the world. However, in the modern world where universal values such as compassion, service-mindedness, honesty, humility and patience are waning, and the use of drugs and alcohol are on the rise, far too many young people are perishing without ever even beginning to fulfill their potential. What our youth require today is strong role models who can guide them to becoming the shining lights of goodness, universal values and positive change they are destined to become.

Leadership

In Amma’s view, a good leader will always lead by example—becoming one with the people, understanding their hearts and approaching their problems with compassion. See the pain of others as your own pain; see their joy as your joy. Thus, it is only when we have the attitude of a humble servant that we can become a true leader.

Serving Society

When Amma was a young girl, seeing the poverty and suffering in those living in neighboring houses, she contemplated the nature of suffering. An inner voice told her that ultimately people suffer due to negative actions performed either in this or past lives. Contemplating further, she realized that while people suffer due to their karma, it is our dharma (duty) to help them. Thus, in Amma’s view, each of us has a responsibility to serve society—protecting the environment, serving the poor and needy, helping the elderly, educating the youth, taking care of plants and animals, etc.

Happiness

Amma says that, in reality, there is only one source of happiness—our Inner Self. All experiences of happiness gained through the external world are but blurred reflections of that original source. She gives the example of a dog chewing a bone. “When the dog’s gums bleed, it thinks the blood is coming from the bone. Chewing on and on like this, thinking it is getting more and more blood from the bone, the dog can even collapse due to loss of blood. When people lack discernment regarding the sense pleasures, they can find themselves in similar circumstances.” Spirituality is understanding the true nature of happiness and the true nature of the world and living accordingly, trying to establish yourself in the inner bliss that is everyone’s true essence.

Managing the Mind

The mind is meant to be an instrument to serve us. However, for the majority of people it has become the master. Amma says this is like the tail wagging the dog. Through spiritual practices like meditation, chanting a mantra and prayer, etc, one can increase their power of concentration as well as develop a more relaxed mental state in general. In Amma’s own words, “We should gain as much control over our mind as we do over a television when its remote control is resting in our hand.”

Fulfilling Our Potential

Amma says each of us has tremendous inner potential—much more than we know—lying dormant within us. We need to put in effort to make it manifest. With optimism, dedication and self confidence, our inner goodness will gradually unfold and bloom forth.

Unity in Diversity

Amma says, “It is pointless to deny the diversity of the world. Each nation, religion and social group will have its own culture, viewpoint and focus. But at the heart of all this diversity there is but one common eternal divine substratum—God, the True Self.”

Spiritual Practices

As per traditional Indian spirituality, our true nature is one of eternal blissful consciousness, and everything we experience arises from us, is sustained by us and eventually merges back into that True Self. However, due to our confusion regarding our nature and that of the world, as well as other obstacles such as mental lethargy, intense likes and dislikes, agitation and other negativities, we are unable to experience this eternal truth.

Spiritual practices such as meditation, chanting a mantra, prayers, rituals and service done with a devotional attitude are all means of purifying the mind of such obstacles, leading us toward the goal of true spiritual understanding. Each practice has its place. In Amma’s own words, “If the two wings of a bird are devotion and spiritual actions, spiritual knowledge is its tail. Only with the help of all three can the bird soar into the heights.”