amma adi sakthi, swami shanmuga | adiyargal
Open-eyed darshan of Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi
There was a single lamp flame, cutting the darkness in the room. From the depths of our souls, we were heartfully crying out for the Mother to touch us, to heal us, to grace us with Her presence, to give us the Devi Darshan. Suddenly everything appeared to come to a stand-still. From the lamp emanated a blue light. Small at first, it started swirling and expanding until it filled the whole room. We heard sweet music with drums. We looked at each other to check if we were seeing and hearing the same thing. And from the lamp flame, in the blue light, a figure appeared. It was the Mother, in Her full glorious form. There She was, to comfort us. To let us know She is always within us, that She is us, that we are Her. It was an experience beyond the beyond. Our hearts opened, tears in our eyes. Mother, Mother, Mother, thank you for the Devi Darshan! No words can express our experience of spiritual awakening. Even today, when we think of it, we get the same experience. Jai Ma! Jai Jai Ma!
In 1997, Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi revealed Herself to Swami Shanmuga and Amma Adi Sakthi. She blessed them with a pure open-eye Devi Darshan. When Amma and Swami relate this spiritual awakening, they speak about Her with great Bhakti (devotion). She revealed Herself in full energetic expression and appeared with 1008 heads spreading in all four directions. Her laughter was of Ksham (pure bliss), and it shot out like fireworks that rained onto them. Each of Her 2016 hands carried a symbolic item or weapon, representing all the attributes of a perfected Soul. She was seated on a chariot pulled by four lions and revealed that the number four was of crucial importance to the Mother’s teachings.
The four lions represent the four Yugas (ages), the Satya, Treta, Dwapara, and the present Kali Yuga. They represent the four stages of one’s life—baby, child, adult, elder. They also represent the four objectives of human birth—Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha, and the four stages of spiritual evolution—Sariyai, Kriyai, Yogam, Gnanam. The four lions represent and honor the four divine presences—Mata, Pita, Guru, Daivam (Mother, Father, Guru, God). Beneath this chariot was an eight-petal lotus, revealing that the path to becoming free from life and birth is the Eight-Fold Path. This experience was a Maha Vishwaroopa darshan of the Mother where She showed Herself in full form.
With tears of bliss and gratitude, Swami and Amma had a great spiritual awakening and the realization that this Mother exists within all of us. We are all Divine, and each soul carries these qualities. It is only because of illusion and duality that we recognize each other as the material physical self and separate from one another. Sri Maha Pratyangira Devi has merged fully with Amma and Swami. She is their Guru and their Breath and a parent to them which is why they call Her as Gurumata. She is them, and they are Her. It is their mission to awaken this Consciousness within all of us.
