The Gospel of Shri Anandamayi Ma: Conversations With The Divine Mother (Set of 2 Volumes)

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The worldly life of the crown jewel of Hindu spirituality, Shri Anandamayi Ma, spanned most of the 20th century (1896-1982). Thousands of people from India and many other countries were transformed by Ma's luminous Presence, from simple villagers to heads of state. Although She was said to be illiterate and never wrote a book, spiritual truth and inspiration sprang from Her lips every time She spoke. Ma's words are considered to be gold, full of the Light of Her Perfect Being, containing maps for traversing the material world and gaining an experience of Ultimate Reality. This book is a collection of 48 of Ma's conversations and talks, tape recorded between 1960 and 1981. They include gems of Her teachings and Her stories, all imbedded in animated sessions of questions and answers with Her devotees.

LISA PRAJNA HALLSTROM is a teacher, singer, and spiritual mentor with a PhD in Hinduism and Buddhism from Harvard University. In 1990, Prajna spent a year in India researching her first book on Ma, Mother of Bliss: Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982), a trip from which she returned Ma's devotee. This precious collection of Ma's words, Ma's gospel, is the fruit of seven years of editing and in some cases retranslating transcriptions of Ma's satsangs, based on tapes in the Anandamayi Ma Archive at Harvard Divinity School.

India has been the home of saints and sages since time immemorial. Each century has been marked by the existence of extraordinary beings who have attracted followers on the path of God-realization. The earthly life of the crown jewel of Hindu spirituality, Shri Anandamayi Ma, spanned most of the 20th century (1896-1982). Thousands of people from India and many other countries, from simple villagers to heads of state, were transformed by Ma's luminous Presence. Although She was said to be illiterate and never wrote a book, spiritual Truth and inspiration sprang from Her lips every time She spoke. Her Presence transformed people's hearts and lives and this transformation continues even forty years after Her passing. Although I never had the blessing of meeting Ma in person, I can testify that since I first encountered Her Presence through reading Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi in 1971, my life has never been the same.

During the early years of Ma's life, Her vani (words) were recorded in personal journals by Her close devotees and were later published in Bengali, Hindi, English, and many other languages. Ma's words are considered to be gold, full of the Light of Her Perfect Being, and contain maps for how to traverse the material world and gain an experience of Ultimate Reality. Ma's discourses and conversations were witnessed by countless people all over India, each of whom remembered Her words according to their own capacity.

In 1960, something extraordinary happened in Ma's community. Vishuddha Di, one of Ma's "girls," or brahmachaarinis (celibate nuns who served Ma), took on a new role in the ashram. Born in Assam in 1936 to a family devoted to Ma, Vishuddha and her family had moved to live close to Ma's Kanyapeeth, or girl's school, in Varanasi when she was ten years old. In her memoir, My Mother Anandamayi, she narrates the many magical childhood experiences she had with Ma.