In her first visit to Pune after an attempt on her life last year, Ma Amritanandamayi, speaks to Anupam V Kapil in a rare interview on dilemmas facing the New Age and the relevance of spirituality to face them. Excerpts…

Anupam - How can one know one's past bad karma and improve?
Maa - If we always get angry without reason, it is a chain reaction from the past birth. ‘Sarpa dosha' does not mean poison of the snake, negative vasanas is also poison, the ancient rishis presented these in a symbolic way. Negative emotions are equal to poison. When we perform action with selfish motives we create bad karma, but in situations when people perform action without deliberate intention, it is not bad karma.

Only actions with selfish motives attract bad karma, eg., if a cow is eating leaves in your garden, you can't ask the cow to go away by words, but when you use hard words and show it the stick it runs away, similarly people who don't listen to have to be told in a strict manner.

Anupam - Bhagwad Gita says God is formless, then why do we worship idols?
Maa - All these various forms are only to acquire concentration because we cannot conceive of a God without a name and form. Whatever we behold is atman, so its only to attain concentration. When a kindergarten student is shown the picture of a crow, the picture is not the real crow, you have to show them the real crow too. Only by showing them through pictures you can take them too reality. If you feed a month old baby meat, it can't digest it, so you have to breast feed it. We have to see the mental constitution, the intellectual capacity and physical structure before instructing people. Spirituality has a similar dosage like medicine has for diseases. In homeopathy, the constitution and environment is seen, likewise in spirituality too.

Anupam - You conduct mass shanti poojas of Shani and Rahu, how does it help?
Maa - Shani pooja is like meditation, I conduct it to transform one's entire life into meditation. Normal people cannot attain concentration easily, for them it is difficult to meditate, so its important to do procedures. People boast of being intellectuals, maybe they have sharp intellects but they don't have subtle intellects. For those identifying themselves with the body and mind and those living on the gross plane, we show them the steps to attain concentration. It's the same principle of unity in diversity. Most of these people don't have detachment or awareness of scriptures, for such people this is the only way. When you take them through these gross steps, it will help. I instruct all paths to people, manas puja (for devotees), karma yoga, bhakti yoga and raj yoga. Some people spend thousands for such poojas, why should we allow that?

Anupam - Are we heading towards a third world war? Is India's tilt to the U.S in the Iran issue good for us?
Maa - Even now there is a war going on everywhere, both externally and internally. The war is possible anytime. India has always sided with someone, earlier it was with Russia, we have our own individuality, we are not like others. Previously we were more independent in the middle ages. Each government has its own policy, if someone wants to die let him die happily.

Anupam - Have BPO's, technology and western culture eroded our value systems and relationships?
Maa - Why do we blame western culture or criticize their technology? Western countries have never copied us, we copy them, and it is such a shame. It is our own weakness, its absolute slavery and we are blindly imitating them. When Indians go abroad and come back we completely imitate their lifestyle, whereas westerners don't go back and do the same. In old times too night duties were common, we should change our weaknesses of imitating them. Westerners are actually teasing us for being such weaklings, we are unaware of that, their mainstream journalism is also writing about us. It is just like Lord Shiva dressing up like Lord Brahma. We are not encouraging our own scientists.

Anupam - What is the relevance of spirituality in a capitalist and technology era?
Maa - Spirituality alone can rebuild our society, parents should teach their children about spirituality in young age. The westerners , especially the Americans, are all suffering due to excess of physical freedom, sex changes, gay and lesbian marriages. Despite so much freedom in the US they are so unhappy. We are also heading there. To attain real peace it has to be within.

©Anupam V Kapil

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