Anandmurti Gurumaa
Encyclopedia
Anandmurti Gurumaa also known as Gurumaa born in Amritsar
, Punjab India
, is a New Age
spiritual guide. She is respected by followers of many faiths including Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sufism. Her message transcends gender, religious, political, geographic and material boundaries. She claims to be well versed with varied subjects like Zen, Buddhism, Art, Upanishad, Yoga and fuses scientific aptitude with ancient wisdom which enables her to take a pragmatic approach to life and its varied shades.
Anandmurti means “an embodiment of Divine Bliss” and Gurumaa means “Master Mother” in Hindi
. Gurumaa teaches the disciplines of meditation
, yoga
, present moment awareness and self realisation, using meditation techniques from yoga, zen
, tantra
, sufism
, sikhism
, buddhism
and devised methods. Gurumaa's core teachings include meditation, self realisation, evolving consciousness and non-duality.
Gurumaa is said to have attained enlightenment at age 16. She says she didn't put in years of austerities for enlightenment and she was a normal girl who used to enjoy all games, sports and extra-curricular activities, which she continued after college.
Gurumaa's discourses started coming daily on Sony entertainment television in the morning in 1999 and her popularity started increasing. Her followers started organizing meditation camps in rishikesh twice a year. She established an ashram in ganaur
area of sonepat district in Haryana
. Since the ashram had limited residential capacity of around 500 people, she started conducting different meditation camps for people of different regions.
Gurumaa conducted series of discourses on various spiritual texts of hindus, sikhs, muslims, budhists like Bhagavad Gita
, japji sahib
, rehraas sahib, jaap sahib
of Guru Granth Sahib
, Guru Gita
, Shankaracharya
's Nirvana Shatkam and Bhaja Govindam
, Narada Bhakti Sutra and poetries of sufi mystics like Baba Bulle Shah, baba farid and Rumi. Sony discontinued airing Gurumaa's discourses in 2007.
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi into the Hindi language, for the first time in India. These poems were published in the book Prem ka chalakta jaam. Gurumaa has also sung few of Rumi's poems, translated to Hindi, on her album Rumi - Love at its zenith.
Amritsar
Amritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
, Punjab India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, is a New Age
New Age
The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...
spiritual guide. She is respected by followers of many faiths including Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Sufism. Her message transcends gender, religious, political, geographic and material boundaries. She claims to be well versed with varied subjects like Zen, Buddhism, Art, Upanishad, Yoga and fuses scientific aptitude with ancient wisdom which enables her to take a pragmatic approach to life and its varied shades.
Anandmurti means “an embodiment of Divine Bliss” and Gurumaa means “Master Mother” in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
. Gurumaa teaches the disciplines of meditation
Meditation
Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....
, yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
, present moment awareness and self realisation, using meditation techniques from yoga, zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
, tantra
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
, sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
, sikhism
Sikhism
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...
, buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and devised methods. Gurumaa's core teachings include meditation, self realisation, evolving consciousness and non-duality.
Life sketch
Gurumaa was born on the 8 April 1966 at Amritsar in Punjab, India. She was educated in a convent school and did graduation in arts. In her childhood she used to accompany her mother to spiritual discourses, gatherings, satsangs. She would also have assemblies of sadhus coming home. Some of the friendly mahatmas would pick her to speak to.Gurumaa is said to have attained enlightenment at age 16. She says she didn't put in years of austerities for enlightenment and she was a normal girl who used to enjoy all games, sports and extra-curricular activities, which she continued after college.
Gurumaa's discourses started coming daily on Sony entertainment television in the morning in 1999 and her popularity started increasing. Her followers started organizing meditation camps in rishikesh twice a year. She established an ashram in ganaur
Ganaur
Ganaur is a city and a municipal committee in Sonipat district in the state of Haryana, India.- Demographics : India census, Ganaur had a population of 29,005. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Ganaur has an average literacy rate of 68%, higher than the national average of...
area of sonepat district in Haryana
Haryana
Haryana is a state in India. Historically, it has been a part of the Kuru region in North India. The name Haryana is found mentioned in the 12th century AD by the apabhramsha writer Vibudh Shridhar . It is bordered by Punjab and Himachal Pradesh to the north, and by Rajasthan to the west and south...
. Since the ashram had limited residential capacity of around 500 people, she started conducting different meditation camps for people of different regions.
Gurumaa conducted series of discourses on various spiritual texts of hindus, sikhs, muslims, budhists like Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
, japji sahib
Japji Sahib
Japji is a universal song of God composed by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith.Japji Sahib consists of the Mool Mantra as the beginning followed by 38 hymns and a final Salok at the end of this composition. The Japji appears at the very beginning of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book...
, rehraas sahib, jaap sahib
Jaap Sahib
Jaap Sahib is the morning prayer of the Sikhs. The Prayer or Bani was composed by the tenth Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh. This Bani is one of 5 Banis that a Sikh must recite everyday and is recited by the Panj Pyare while preparing Amrit on the occasion of Amrit Sanchar , a ceremony held to admit...
of Guru Granth Sahib
Guru Granth Sahib
Sri Guru Granth Sahib , or Adi Granth, is the religious text of Sikhism. It is the final and eternal guru of the Sikhs. It is a voluminous text of 1430 angs, compiled and composed during the period of Sikh gurus, from 1469 to 1708...
, Guru Gita
Guru Gita
The Guru Gita is a Hindu scripture authored by the sage, Vyasa. It is a part of the larger Skanda Purana. It describes a conversation between the Hindu God, Lord Shiva and his wife, the Hindu Goddess Parvati, in which she asks him to teach her about the Guru...
, Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya
Shankaracharya, is a commonly used title of heads of mathas in the Advaita Vedanta tradition. The title derives from Adi Shankara, a 9th century CE reformer of Hinduism. He is honored as Jagadguru, a title that was used earlier only to Lord Krishna...
's Nirvana Shatkam and Bhaja Govindam
Bhaja Govindam
Bhaja Govindam[Praise/Seek Govinda ] also known as Moha Mudgara is a popular 8th century Hindu devotional composition in Sanskrit attributed to Adi Shankara...
, Narada Bhakti Sutra and poetries of sufi mystics like Baba Bulle Shah, baba farid and Rumi. Sony discontinued airing Gurumaa's discourses in 2007.
Teachings
- In Gurumaa's own words, If her teachings are to be summarized in one thing, it would be awareness.
- Gurumaa also emphasizes the need for all seekers to free themselves from the outer garb of religion, asserting that we don't experience fulfilment because of our expectations. Enlightenment can only happen if one surrenders completely to the existence.
Shakti
Shakti is a mission started by Anandmurti Gurumaa to empower female children in India and stop female foeticide. Shakti supports the education of the girls from poor and needy families until 12th standard. Shakti gives financial support for education without any color/caste/creed discrimination. It was started informally in 2000. In the 2006-2007 academic year, around 175 girls were given full tuition fees for their studies.Works
Gurumaa has translated the Sufi love poems of the Turkish Sufi dervishDervish
A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...
Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi into the Hindi language, for the first time in India. These poems were published in the book Prem ka chalakta jaam. Gurumaa has also sung few of Rumi's poems, translated to Hindi, on her album Rumi - Love at its zenith.
Further reading
Gurumaa's products (details below) are available at high cost.- Anandmurti Gurumaa, Know Thyself (Full Circle) 2010 ISBN 9788121614863
- Anandmurti Gurumaa, Quotes of the Unquotable (Gurumaa Vani) 2004 ISBN 108190406019
- Anandmurti Gurumaa, Shivoham (Rupa & company.) 2006 ISBN 81-291-0897-6
- Anandmurti Gurumaa, Rumi Aur Main (Rupa & company.) 2005 ISBN 81-291-0824-0
- Seema Varma, Rays of Light (GM Vani) 2002
- Anandmurti Gurumaa, Ath Kahe Narad (saraswati vihar) 2004 ISBN 81-216-1043-5 http://www.prakashbooks.com/details.php3?id=17096&c=Religion%20/%20Spritiuality
- Anandmurti Gurumaa. Going beyond the mind (Gurumaa Vani)