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Life has been functioning rather differently since the past few months, to say the least. There is a lot to be grateful about for women like us. I’m assuming that while this article is being read, its reader is protected by the four walls of their homes. You, also just like yours truly, probably have kids who are either working remotely or are attending classes online.
Or maybe, just like me at this very moment, you’re just waiting for your house help to show up to do the regular chores while you sip on your green tea, eat baked snacks on your study table which also houses your laptop and your current quarantine read (Currently reading: Everything is figureoutable by Marie Forleo. Highly recommended!)
Whatever the situation might be, I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy and safe, wherever you or they are.
When you are a woman in her 40s (Which, let’s not forget, is the new 30s!) who has spent time in trying to empower women and helping teenage kids with special emotional needs through yoga for a couple of decades now, the mind automatically starts thinking about them. How are they doing? Are they safe? Are they healthy? How are they dealing with such times? Hence the mind only gets its greatest joy by simply being in touch with them, Which is something I do religiously every day.
While connecting with my women or yoga kids virtually, you tend to wonder about what you mean to them. I may have a rough idea of that. To an extent, some of them think of me as this wise soul who has most of the answers and/or tools to help them with whatever it is they are dealing with. You know, like a female yoga Guru.
This kind of thought process can get one thinking about all the spiritual gurus that have walked in the face of this earth since its inception and how, for whatever reason, the male spiritual leaders are the ones that have got to be under the spotlight most of the time.
We have all heard about Osho, Sri Ravi Shankar and Sadhguru, but how many times do you hear about female spiritual yoga gurus who are spreading the message that is on the same lines as that of the aforementioned saints. That is not to say that it is unfair towards female yogis, but all I am saying is that India, much like its male priests, has enough of women too that are preaching love, humanity, equality and empowerment, and they deserve the spotlight too!
The article that is going to follow these introductory passages is an attempt at shining that halogen at the female spiritual gurus around the world who are silently (but effectively) changing the world.
Here’s hoping that these ladies and their constant strive for betterment inspires you as much as they have inspired me.
It is perhaps an uncontested fact that one of the most popular Indian female gurus that the subcontinent has been blessed by is Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, who is fondly known as Amma the Hugging Saint.
The year was 1953 and on a chilly winter day of September 27th, a beautiful soul had taken an incarnation somewhere in a coastal village in Kerala. This soul, in the form of a baby, was unlike any other. Instead of crying like most of the babies do, she smiled. What was also astonishing was the fact that at the time of her birth, her skin was dark blue in colour. Her name was Sudhamani Idamannel.
During her early years, it was clear that she was unique. She started walking and talking at the age of six months and singing by the age of three. Amma was allegedly composing beautiful, extraordinarily profound hymns for Lord Krishna.
At a very early age, Sudhamani had learned to make the best of her adversities and had learned the art of loving all of humankind selflessly. It is sometime during these formative years that she committed herself to give selfless love to anyone and everyone in ways known and unique. Her unique methods would involve simply embracing the affected and she would feel their emotional weight lifting. This would become her mode of operating and it is due to this unconditionally loving nature, she would come to be known as Amma (Mother to all).
One can safely say that Amma is the human embodiment of selflessness, compassion and love. This female Indian guru is what you would call an intellect, a humanitarian and a selfless loving soul all rolled into one.
It is said that Amma is deeply rooted in the truth of the universe and she selflessly shares her knowledge with those who have the thirst for it. For the emotionally wounded, she is an infinite reservoir of love and for the needy, she’s a generous humanitarian.
“If it is one man’s karma to suffer, isn’t it our dharma (duty) to help ease his suffering and pain?” - Amma
This female yogi is a personality that is known all over the globe and has interacted with the who’s who of the world.
Here’s what some of them have to say:
Amma has embraced 26 million people. But she has done this as an action not only of giving but as an action of example. I welcome this saint, this angel, this person of active goodness. - Sharon Stone
Her energy is just incredible. I picked up youthful, bright, exciting energy. She is endlessly just giving, giving, giving. I think a lot of people need to feel her energy because it will make a difference in their life. - Doug E Fresh, American Hip-hop legend
I was feeling down about life’n’love. Then I met a woman named Ammachi and She gave me back my smile. Darkness can not compete with her - Jim Carey.
You can learn more about the female Indian spiritual yogi Amma right here.
Once you start growing in your self-realization, you develop such a personality that you see the whole world as one. - Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
The soul of this enlightenment female Indian guru took a corporal form on March 21st, 1923, but her story began in British India, a time when she, a girl born in the city of Chimdawara, Madhya Pradesh, began living with none other than the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi left a lasting impression on everyone, including Nirmala Devi Ji, who got acquainted with him during the year 1930 when she was merely seven years old. Before she knew it, she was taken under Gandhi’s wing by the man himself, from whom she gained deep insights about human nature and psyche. She also allegedly began figuring out ways of bringing about a social revolution. Soon, she became a freedom fighter and stood by Gandhi, while this famous female guru simultaneously set an example for all the college students at the time.
It would be many years after Independence before the yoga guru began her transformative work through Sahaja Yoga, which focuses upon finding the inner balance within oneself and unleashing their true potential through awakening self-realization and self-awareness. She would go on to teach the Yoga form to millions over the course of four decades until the end of her life in 2011.
Nirmala Devi Ji is the primordial mother - Wayne Dyer, an eminent American author.
This female yogi is also the author of several books such as Sahaja Yoga, Meta Modern Era, The Journey Within and many more.
To know more about the famous female Indian spiritual yogi Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi visit Sahaja Yoga website
"Life is the most fragile free gift of the lord. Handle with care." - Anandmurti Gurumaa
Anandmurti Gurumaawas born as Gurpreet Kaur Grover on the 8th of April, 1966 in Amritsar. She has one brother and two sisters and is the second eldest among them. She had begun showing an insatiable thirst for knowledge very early on in her life.
From the youthful age of nine, she would put forth astonishing inquiries before her teachers and others that they would be astonished by her sharp astuteness and profound bits of knowledge in otherworldly existence. People around her thought it was amazing that an offspring of her age could put such inquiries. Her going on a pilgrimage as a fifteen-year-old girl where she was in the company of admirers and searchers, was not an incident which amazed or surprised her family.
Within the matter of a few years, this female yoga guru was conducting her own spiritual talk sessions also known as Satsang and travelling all around the globe by the age of 33.
Anandmurti Gurumaa is also one of those Indian female yoga gurus and mystics who is making waves at an unprecedented scale in recent times. Moved by the pervasive plight of the masses, she has been bestowing upon people the greatest gift ever viz eradicating the root cause of all suffering. And she has been doing this relentlessly for over thirty years through innumerable discourses and meditation camps held in India and abroad. She has extensively spoken on a myriad of subjects like mind, meditation, emotions, health, indulgence, reality and god, to name a modest few. She has also given erudite commentaries on numerous scriptures including Srimad Bhagawad Gita, Sri Guru Gita and Gurbani, amongst others. She has devised a vast array of meditation methods to foster the growth of all those seeking to delve within, written several books of wisdom
Gurumaa is characterised by a mesmerising persona, piercing eyes, a crystal clear mind, the wisdom of the ages and a beautiful demeanour - which constitutes the personality of Anandmurti Gurumaa. Defying definition, pragmatic, realistic, of liberal views, she is open-minded like the sky and intense like space.
Guru maa, in addition to a myriad of things she is, is also the author of some pretty revolutionary books such as Mind Undressed, Aatma Bodh and Know Thyself, amongst many others.
She’s an All-In-One guru - The Dean Of Syracuse University
Want to know more about the famous female Indian spiritual yogi Anandmurti Gurumaa? visit her Facebook page
"For the mind to flower it has to go beyond what it knows." - Mother Meera
Another extraordinary female Indian spiritual guru that has walked on Indian soil is Mother Meera. The Mother was born as Kamala Reddy in 1960 in the state of Andhra Pradesh, southern India. After a few years of her birth, her family members realized that she was an enlightened soul born to them as her behavioural pattern revealed qualities of divinity in her childhood itself. Therefore, her parents, who were not very religious but followed certain traditions, began to treat her as an exceptional child and ensured that she was not brought up in a traditional manner.
Even in childhood, she reportedly often went in the state of Samadhi. True to their belief she soon showed herself differently and grew as an unusual child.
When she was twelve, her uncle Shri. Bulgur Venkat Reddy who met her for the first time realized that a girl who had once appeared to him in his visions as Divine Mother was very much the same like Mother Meera and therefore she must be divine incarnate. He started taking special care of her and lived in Pondicherry to ensure that she unfolds her inner experiences.
In 1974, Reddy reportedly brought Mother Meera to Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry (Now called Pondicherry) where he was a member. Though Mother Meera does not belong to any particular tradition, in her early age when she went to Aurobindo Ashram in a normal manner and reportedly met the subtle bodies of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Mirra Alfassa) after visiting their graves.
It is claimed that only while she was in Pondicherry, the divinity just came into her out of nowhere every single time she visited the Shri Aurobindo Ashram. Though not much detail is available about her activities during the said period, her divinity silently attracted the attention of people who met her.
In 1981, the guru, along with Shri. Reddy and her close companion Srimathi Adilakshmi made the first trip to West Germany and settled down there a year later. A year later, she was married to a German and moved to a quiet village called Thalheim in Germany.
Today, this famous India spiritual guru lives in a small village in the German countryside known as Balduinstein. Here, and during her travels around the globe, the female Indian guru gives her unique blessing of Darshan. The free transmission of Light, Love and Grace is Mother’s gift to the world.
She does not meet devotees in private as often as visit to her home either in groups or as family or even singly. She never entertains meeting anyone alone to discuss their personal problems. She meets them only in Darshan (appear before the audience) which is organized by those family members residing with her in Germany. The manner of giving Darshan to her devotees is unique. She gives blessings in silence using Divine Paramatman Light without uttering a word, or allowing one to present their problems before her.
Mother Meera has penned down a large part of her wisdom in the form of a Question And Answers format and turned them into two enlightening volumes, namely Answers and Answers 1.
You can learn more about the famous female Indian spiritual guru Mother Meera visit her official website.
Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was born as Malti Shetty near Mangalore, India on 24 June 1955. She, who would go on to become one of the most influential Indian spiritual yogini the country has ever seen, was the oldest child of a Mumbai couple who was devotees of Swami Muktananda in the 1950s. Her parents took her to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth ashram at Ganeshpuri for the first time when she was five years old. During her childhood, her parents brought her, her sister, and two brothers to the ashram on weekends.
She received spiritual initiation (shaktipat) from Muktananda at age fourteen and moved to the ashram as a formal disciple and yoga student. At age twenty, Muktananda made her his official English language translator and she accompanied him on his second and third world tours
She is now a Siddha Yoga Guru who walked the path of yoga under the guidance of her Guru, Swami Muktananda. She received the power and authority of the Siddha Yoga lineage from Swami Muktananda before he passed away in 1982. She teaches the Siddhas' message that the experience of divine consciousness is attainable in this human body.
Gurumayi constantly points us back inside ourselves, where this state is both possible and accessible.
As a Guru, she carries out her mission of awakening seekers to their own potential for enlightenment by bestowing shaktipat. Through her teachings and her writings and through Siddha Yoga teaching and learning events and study tools, she guides students on this mystical journey towards God, helping them move beyond their own limitations and reach the goal.
Gurumayi has an impressive roster of devotees that belong to the Hollywood circuit. Some of Swami Chidvilasananda followers that belong to the western film fraternity are Jerry Brown, John Denver, Andre Gregory, Diana Ross, Isabella Rossellini, Phylicia Rashad, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and Marsha Mason.
Gurumayi expresses great love and reverence for children as the holders of our future and has written books and songs especially for them.
Some of the books that have been penned down by the mystic are Sadhana Of The Heart, Courage And Contentment and The Great Hiss (which is a book for children)
To know more about Gurumayi the popular Indian female spiritual yogi visit her official website
I hope that these fantastic ladies inspire you to find the goddess that lies within you and find that inner power, of which you have in abundance.
I tell my students; It starts with you, it’s up to you and it’s In you. You are your own generator, you are your own operator and, unsurprisingly, you are your own destroyer. In a sense, you are your own G.O.D.
Most famous Indian female spiritual gurus (recap)
I hope you enjoyed reading this article about Most Popular Indian Female spiritual gurus, I promise to update this blog in the near future upon your requests.
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