If you want to know about Amma’s love and grace you can find thousands of people to share it with enthusiasm. But if you want to know about Amma’s life 35 years ago, there are only a few people who can talk about it with authority.

Mr. Mahadevan Pillai, 86 years old, a retired school teacher, recalls the moment when he saw Amma for the first time, in 1980. Then, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math was just a 9 cent plot with Amma’s parents house and the Kalari. A friend of Mr Mahadevan who was a devotee of Amma used to encourage him to have Amma’s Darshan. But he used to refuse to come as his family members were not favorable to Amma. When that friend told Amma about this, Amma replied “They will come, don’t worry”.
This trend continued for one year. One day Amma told this friend “Call them”. The friend came to Mahadevan Pillai’s home and invited him. He was again reluctant. But something struck him immediately, he went inside his pooja room and opened Bhagavatham. The line he first read was “Kalpichu Maheswari” which means “Goddess has ordered”. He took this as a sign and went with that friend to the Ashram. The first thing he saw there were small children chanting Bhajans. He felt as if he had come to heaven.

He recalls that at times Amma resembled Goddess Kali. And when she would come for Darshan she would look like Goddess Saraswathy with divine Love and Grace radiating from her face.

He also remembers his first tour with Amma to Kanyakumari where they met an Avadoot, Mayiamma. She was around 120 years old and used to live on the beach. She used to stay with dogs and rarely used to talk to humans. He remembers that Mayiamma talked to Amma for some time.

Amma used to tell that she will travel throughout the world and will have hundreds of thousands of children. The people then used to make fun of her. But after 36 years when he looks back, Amma’s words have proved to be true.

— interview by Sreedhar.P, Vivin Vincy & Vignesh S Kumar