Mother Meera

{{Infobox Hindu leader

|name= Mother Meera

|image= Mutter Meera März-2020.jpg

|caption = Mother Meera

| religion = Hinduism

|birth_date= {{birth date and age|df=yes|1960|12|26}}

|birth_place= Chandepalle, Telangana, India

|birth_name= Kamala Reddy

|death_date=

|death_place=

|footnotes=

}}

Mother Meera (born Kamala Reddy on December 26,[https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/03/magazine/the-merry-mystic.html The Merry Mystic, New York Times Magazine 1993] 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,Mark Matousek: Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera, Random House Publishing Group, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-958972-23-6, S. 57 and does not promote a particular religion, she is considered a contemporary female saint of India in the Anglo-European hemisphere.Mithilesh Mishra: Presence of 'America' in Religious Circles of India, Comparative American Studies, 14775700, Jun. 2014, Bd./Jhrg. 12, Ausgabe 1/2The contemporary guru field Religion Compass, 17498171, Feb. 2022, Bd./Jhrg. 16, Ausgabe 2 She is referred to by followers as an avatar.Floyd Skloot: Honeymooning with the feminine divine, Antioch Review, 00035769, Spring 95, Bd./Jhrg. 53, Ausgabe 2

Life account

File:Mother Meera1.jpg

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.Mark Matousek: Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera, Random House Publishing Group, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-958972-23-6, S. 11 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.Mark Matousek: Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera, Random House Publishing Group, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-958972-23-6, S. 16 A few months later, he took her to a girls' school, where she stayed for about two years.Mark Matousek: Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera, Random House Publishing Group, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-958972-23-6, S. 19

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.Andrew Harvey: Hidden Journey, a spiritual awakening Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0140194487. P. 51 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.Adilakshmi, 'The Mother', page 7 She currently gives darshan at the "Waldecker Hof," the former outbuilding of Schaumburg Castle in Balduinstein, which has been converted into a hotel.[https://www.gemeinde-balduinstein.de/tourismus/mutter-meera/ Darshan in Balduinstein'', Gemeinde Balduinstein].

Activities

Mother Meera receives many thousands of visitors for darshan, which takes place in silence.[https://www.rhein-zeitung.de/bilder_galerie,-geruechte-um-mutter-meera-_mediagalid,15333.html Rumours about Mother Meera (Gerüchte um Mutter Meera)], Rheinzeitung 2012 During darshan, she touches the visitors on the temples and then looks into their eyes. She does not give lectures.[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mother-meera_b_1965864 Jack Schimmelman, Sitting With Mother Meera], Huffpost 2012

According to her teachings, her task is to bring down the Paramatman light (explained as the "light of the highest Self").[https://www.elephantjournal.com/2014/09/receiving-darshan-from-mother-meera/ Grace Cooley: Receiving Darshan from Mother Meera, Elephantjournal, 2014] One can open oneself to this light through japa, the mental repetition of a divine name or mantra.Sonia L. Linebaugh: At the Feet of Mother Meera: The Lessons of Silence. Xlibris Corp 2004, ISBN 978-1-4134-1054-9, p. 41 This can be done quite informally. Her teachings belong to bhakti, the path of loving, emotional devotion to the Divine. About the light she says:

{{quote|Like electricity, the Light is everywhere, but one must know how to activate it. I have come for that.Answers, Part I}}

Through Japa, the mental remembrance of any Divine Name or Mantra, which may be done informally, and whenever convenient, people could open themselves up to this Light.Mother Meera, "Answers, Part I", pages 89 -98 She does not claim to be a guru or have followers. To be connected to her work, people do not have to recognise her. Her teaching is mainly related to Bhakti, that is devotion to God, and in that she accepts all denominations.

Mother Meera does not belong to any particular Indian tradition. However, her work has a certain affinity with Aurobindo.Brown, C. Mackenzie; Colonial and Post-Colonial Elaborations of Avataric Evolutionism, Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science. 2007, Vol. 42 Issue 3, S. 31

Mother Meera opened an international English-language school at her ashram in Madanapalle, India, on June 7, 2010.Mark Matousek: Mother of the Unseen World: The Mystery of Mother Meera, Random House Publishing Group, New York City 2017, ISBN 978-1-958972-23-6, p. 81 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.Devotional rescue. by: Gordinier, Jeff, Stukin, Stacie, Entertainment Weekly, 10490434, 10/28/94, edition 246

Critics

After splitting from Mother Meera, the writer and former follower Andrew Harvey wrote The Sun at Midnight.Harvey, Andrew, The Sun at Midnight: A Memoir of the Dark Night, 2002, {{ISBN|1-58542-179-0}} 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),[http://www.markmatousek.com/ Mark Matousek Homepage] www.markmatousek.com, accessed 16 May 2021 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."Mark Matousek, "Sex, Death, Enlightenment"

Books

Answers, Part I – by Mother Meera, {{ISBN|0-9622973-3-X}}
Answers, Part II – by Mother Meera, {{ISBN|3-9805475-5-8}}

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

Notes

External links

[http://www.mothermeera.com/ Mother Meera Germany]
[http://www.mothermeerafoundationusa.org/ Mother Meera Foundation USA]
[http://mothermeera.org.uk/ Darshan in the UK]
[http://mothermeera.school/ Mother Meera school in India]
[http://meremeera.fr/ Mere Meera (official french site)]
[http://matkameera.cz/ Matka Meera (official czech site)]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160404173825/http://thisisawar.com/AuthorsMatousekInterview.htm Mark Matousek on Mother Meera]
[http://www.mysticsaint.info/2008/09/silent-darshan-of-mother-meera.html An experience of Darshan with Mother Meera]

Category:1960 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century Hindu religious leaders

Category:21st-century Hindu religious leaders

Category:20th-century Indian women

Category:20th-century Indian people

Category:21st-century Indian women

Category:21st-century Indian people

Category:German Hindus

Category:Indian Hindu saints

Category:Indian women religious leaders

Category:People considered avatars by their followers