Path of the Mother Book

"What are the greatest qualities of a Mother?
Love, forgiveness, and patience."

Much has been written about the feminine faces of God. Now The Path of the Mother introduces us to a divinity more whole than any we have yet encountered—her arms open to men and women of any persuasion or practice. She is at once masculine and feminine, creator and transformer, joy and anguish, the all-loving Mother and the true, realized human Self. Drawing on her most vibrant expression, this inspiring book traces her myriad faces—compassionate, fierce, enchanting, challenging, passionate—in male and female deities of many religions.

"As far as Mother is concerned, everyone is her child. . . . Children, did not Mother come when you called? Thus did she not obey you?"

The Path of the Mother is a six-stage journey to union with the Great Mother, framed by Savitri Bess's own years of devotion to one of her most famous incarnations—the Hindu mystic Ammachi. Interweaving Hindu myths with her own quest and those of others, Bess reveals this journey as an exodus from aloneness to the wondrous integration of love, worship, and service into life's daily tasks.

Practical exercises, meditations, yoga, and prayers will help both novice and veteran seekers to rediscover their innocence, balance their inner masculine and feminine energies, resolve their buried wounds, desires, and talents, and open their hearts to the nurturing guidance of the Mother-God within us all.

"Love is Amma's nature. She cannot be otherwise. . . . Amma cannot return our anger, hatred, or abuse. Amma can only bestow boundless compassion and love."

Publishers Weekly

This disjointed book aims to illuminate the "path of the Mother," a journey to the divine feminine that is based largely in Hindu traditions with a smattering of Goddess threads from other religions. Bess, a therapist and artist who began practicing yoga nearly three decades ago, deepened her understanding of Eastern spirituality when she discovered Ammachi, an Indian guru (b. 1953) who is regarded as an incarnation of the divine Mother by thousands of followers in India and America. Bess describes Ammachi's preternatural spiritual gifts (she walked and talked at six months and composed devotional songs and prayers as a toddler) with the adoration of a disciple, so readers desiring more balanced biographical information are left hanging. The narrative then becomes confusing, as Bess introduces other 20th-century women gurus (one, nicknamed Amma, has a life story confoundingly similar to Ammachi's). Bess discusses the many contradictory goddess-incarnations of the Mother, who appears as a sexual seductress in Kundalini Shakti, a destructive force in Kali and a source of wealth and beauty in Lakshmi. The diffuse book is rescued somewhat by its practical focus on meditation, chanting, prayer, altar-building and other activities of bhakti yoga, guiding Western readers through the basics of daily Hindu spirituality. While the book fills a void in providing insight into Hindu goddess traditions and contemporary Indian women saints, such rich material deserves more careful study. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|