Amma's Empire: Sex, Lies and Hugs
The hugging saint known as Amma is accused of physical abuse, having sex with disciples and financial fraud.
- Amma's translator of 13 years, Jacques Albohair, alleges in a new book that Amma engaged him sexually on multiple occasions despite her claim of being celibate for life.
- Gail Tredwell, Amma's personal assistant of 20 years, published a book alleging she was kicked, beaten, hit, and verbally abused by her. She also alleges she was raped numerous times by the head of Amma's organization.
- Brigitte Chemla, a kitchen worker for seven years, claims she was forcibly locked in a room for two weeks at the ashram when Amma found out she was wanting to leave. She also witnessed Amma be "cruel and abusive."
- Amma claims to be God and a faith healer, restoring a paralyzed boy's ability to walk and resurrecting dead children. She also claims to have cured cancer, brought someone out of a coma and shot fireballs.
- Tredwell says Amma made her steal donations by filling coolers with cash and jewelry and taking it to Amma's family.
- Amma sells bracelets "blessed with her sacred energy" for $300. She sells an Amma brand skin care line with shower gels and facial toners. She also sells a one-foot tall "Amma Doll" for $200, each one being "personally blessed" by her.
- Albohair claims Amma would laugh about creating dumbed-down spiritual techniques for her followers. He said she also knowingly exaggerated her role and claims of a guru. Tredwell says Amma made up miracle stories and forced her to share them in public.
- Only $4 out $100 that is donated goes to programs in the field. The rest is put in bank accounts to accrue interest or to build Amma's entrepreunurial empire.
Be Scofield is a prominent cult reporter whose work is cited by the NY Times, Rolling Stone, People, Netflix, and more. Be is the author of Hunting Lucifer: One Reporter's Search for Cults and Demons. She exposed the Love Has Won cult which led to the hit HBO series.
By BE SCOFIELD
11/18/24
It was September 1975 in a tiny fishing village in Kerala, India and a 21-yr-old young woman named Sudhamani Idamannel was about to become God. Walking home with her brother after picking grass for the cows she heard her neighbors singing a hymn about Lord Krishna. She suddenly stopped upon hearing the chant and ran into the courtyard. "Her hands spontaneously formed sacred mudras...She was overwhelmed with divine bliss," the book Mother of Sweet Bliss says. It is the "true story" of her life and is sold and published by her organization. "Suddenly, to their great wonder, the people saw that her face had changed. It was Krishna’s glorious, radiant face they saw before them. It was the Lord himself who had come among them."
Shortly after her public God-realization the villagers demanded to see miracles. After initially refusing out of humility Sudhamani finally acquiesced. "She asked the same man who had brought the jug to dip his fingers into the water that was still left in the jug," the book states. "He did so and saw that the water had turned into pure milk!" She called another skeptic over and asked him to put his fingers into the jug. "Lo and behold! The milk that was left in the jug had turned into a sweet pudding called panchamritam. When everyone saw what had happened, they finally understood that it really was Lord Krishna who was standing in front of them. The panchamritam was distributed among more than a thousand people who had gathered, yet the pot remained full to the brim."
“I was able to know everything about everyone," Sudhamani later said of the incident. "I was fully aware that I myself was Krishna, not only during Krishna Bhava, but at all other times as well."
Sudhamani Idamannel would later become Amma, the "saint" who has hugged millions of people worldwide and met with leaders such as the Pope. She's revered as holy by many and her devotees are convinced that she is God. Amma has built an empire in the last several decades that brings in tens of millions of dollars per year.
AMMA'S ORIGIN STORY IS SHROUDED in myth and mania. According to her biography, Amma's mother had a dream that she would give birth to Krishna. "Thus it was that on the morning of 27th September, 1953, the Holy Mother was born in a simple hut made of plaited palm leaves," Mother of Sweet Bliss states. The book claims Amma showed signs of being a "divine child." She didn't cry at birth as babies usually do. "She lay with her legs crossed in a lotus posture, and her little fingers formed a mudra." Her skin was dark blue like Krishna's for the first few years. She skipped the crawling stage and began walking at six months. She also began speaking then. At the age of two she was singing hymns to Krishna.
Biographies published by Amma describe her family rejecting her, partially because of her dark skin and because of her devotion to the Lord. They took the other children to religious festivals but made her stay at home. Amma was "unusually intelligent" and received the "highest remarks in every subject" but was only in school for four years. Her mother got sick with arthritis and Amma was forced to drop out at the age of ten in fourth grade and work tirelessly as a servant for her family. She'd wake up at 3 a.m. and work until 11 p.m. She had to clean the house and yard, cook for the family, scrub the pots and pans, wash everyone's clothes, milk the cows, and fetch water from the far away well. "No matter what sort of work Sudhamani was doing, she always imagined she was doing it for the Lord."
Amma's mother would "beat her severely" according to her biographies and she was "tortured cruelly." She spoke of the abuse. "If there was even a little scrap left in the courtyard after sweeping she would hit me. If a speck of dust or ash fell into the cooking pot punishment would follow." Her mother would hit her with a wooden pestle, a large bat-sized object used to pound rice. At 13 Amma was sent to be a servant for her grandmother and then aunt. Both of them physically and emotionally abused her as well. She returned home at around 16 where the abuse continued. Her father once beat her for stealing a piece of jewelry from her mother which she gave to a poor man. "When her father discovered the theft, he tied her to the trunk of a tree in a fit of fury and mercilessly beat her until her tender body bled." The abuse and mental torment got so bad that she tried killing herself at least three times according to the biographies.
From a young age Amma showed symptoms of severe mental illness and was often disassociated from reality. Her family was convinced she was schizophrenic and delusional. "Sometimes she would enter the bathroom for a shower, but would be discovered there hours later, oblivious to the surroundings," Amritaswarupananda writes in her biography. She would go long periods without sleeping or eating. "Even a basic task such as brushing her teeth was ignored by her soaring mind," Amritaswarupananda writes. "When she did eat, she sometimes consumed discarded tea leaves, cow dung, glass pieces or human excreta; she was unable to notice any difference between delicious food and all of these."
When Amma's first devotees showed up on the scene they interpreted her erratic behavior as evidence of her divinity. Amritaswarupananda said Amma had "crossed the threshold into the Absolute" and was in a state of "divine madness." An early disciple named Krishnamrita writes that "she was completely merged in God, immersed in God-intoxication."
"Crying and rolling on the ground, she began tearing at her clothes," Amritaswarupananda witnessed. "The next moment she burst into laughter, still rolling uncontrollably." Amma lived outside and communed with animals who would remarkably bring her food. "She would dig big holes to hide in, so as to escape from the diverse world and sensuous-minded people. She spent her days and nights enjoying the perennial Bliss of God-Realization and avoided all human company." The biography Ammachi states, "Sometimes Sudhamani would become God-intoxicated while waiting at the bus station. Forgetting the external world, she rolled on the ground and burst into blissful peals of laughter."
"She sometimes consumed discarded tea leaves, cow dung, glass pieces or human excreta; she was unable to notice any difference between delicious food and all of these."
"I witnessed Her falling into samadhi and lying in the sand, laughing and then crying, fully absorbed in an incredible unearthly love," Krishnamrita writes. "I could feel it touch my soul as She lost consciousness of Her body and soared off into some divine realm where we could not follow." She writes about a time when Amma knocked over a glass of buttermilk. "I rushed to get a cloth, but Amma stopped me and proceeded to drink the buttermilk directly off the floor," she says in Sacred Journey. "Two visiting westerners who were present on that occasion looked at each other, shocked. Soon afterwards, they left the ashram—apparently they were not ready for such an advanced lesson."
While in her twenties Amma saw her neighbor breastfeeding a baby and began sucking on the woman's breast. "Sudhamani went to her straight-away, displaced the suckling baby, and lay in the woman's lap for nourishment."
Be Scofield
Amma Replicates Her Abuse
Some of Amma's most long-serving staff have now accused her of replicating the abuse that defined her upbringing. Gail Tredwell was one of the first Western disciples alongside Neal Rosner and Jacques Albohair. After spending 20 years as Amma's personal attendant she broke away in 1999. Years later she published a tell all book called Holy Hell: A Memoir of Faith, Devotion and Pure Madness.
"She became extremely ill-tempered and would hit, kick, slap, punch, rip me by the hair for the slightest mistake and sometimes for no reason at all," Tredwell writes. "Towards the end, her signature move became to grab me by the throat with one hand, dig her nails in and claw towards the center. I was left with scratch marks and sometimes blood."
“Serving and living with Amma was like walking a tightrope. I could never really relax, and I had to watch every step,” she writes. “Her moods were unpredictable, dark, angry, aggressive, and at times violent. It didn’t take much, if anything at all, to set her off, and even the slightest mistake had grave consequences." Amma once yelled at her, “Get out of my room, you disgusting madama, you rotten bitch."
Tredwell describes an incident of Amma's violent rage.
Amma entered her room, grabbed hold of the door, and slammed it shut with such thunderous might that the entire brick wall shook. Immediately she rushed over to Vidya and rammed her up against the panel of switches by the door. Then she turned and came charging at me like a raging bull. Grabbing a fist full of my hair, she flung me to the ground and spun me around over the smoothly polished linoleum floor as she kicked me a few times.
“How many times have I told you to check on the kitchen? You lazy, good for nothing bitch, just sitting around in my room like a queen.”
Releasing me from her grip, she turned and charged toward Vidya again. After I stood up and regained my senses, I had to laugh. Instead of standing like a helpless rag doll and meekly accepting another pounding, Vidya had a better idea. She ran for her life up the stairs with Amma hot on her heels. I followed, thinking that once it was all over, we could make an easy exit through the upper level across the bridge to the temple building. Now Vidya was trapped in the corner of the upstairs room in the process of receiving a couple of slaps. Running out of steam, Amma turned to me and said, “Piss off. Piss off, the both of you.” Then she stormed back to her room.
One time Amma whipped her. "No sooner had I stepped into the dining hall, than Amma began whipping me with a few pliable and stinging sticks of a broom made from coconut branch stems," she writes. "One strike landed right over my ear."
In 2012 Rolling Stone published an article about Amma that included Tredwell's allegations of abuse. The reporter also spoke to a former devotee who claimed to have been slapped by Amma and witnessed similar abusive treatment of others at the India ashram. In 2017 The Daily Beast published that Tredwell experienced "brutal beatings" by Amma. Her story was covered by various news outlets globally.
Tredwell says Amma kicked her assistant so hard it cracked her rib. "One time when she was kneeling by Amma’s bed, lovingly massaging her legs, she nodded off from exhaustion," she writes. "Amma became infuriated and with one of her stocky legs kicked Leela so hard it cracked a rib."
Brigitte Chemla worked in the cafeteria for many years and says she witnessed abuse. "Over the course of my seven years living at the Indian ashram I saw Amma being cruel and abusive to many residents, witnessed her family become super rich and learned that only a fraction of the money donated was being used for charity," she writes.
IN 2021, AMMA'S TRANSLATOR OF 13 years, Jacques Albohair, published a book called The Amma Empire. He arrived in the tiny fishing village in 1980 and lived alongside Tredwell and Rosner. After five years Amma sent him to begin the European movement which he built out successfully.
Albohair has held important positions in Doctor's without Borders, the International Committee of the Red Cross and was a program officer for an NGO dedicated to human rights education in Latin America. He finally broke away from Amma after she got jealous of his girlfriend and demanded he end the relationship. "She advised me to discreetly go to see prostitutes, or to secretly move away for a year with this woman to live the worldly earthly life in a country where there were no devotees who could recognize me and risk tarnishing her reputation," he writes.
Amma has claimed to be celibate her entire life. Yet, both Tredwell and Albohair say she was having sex with multiple men. Albohair describes several occasions where Amma engaged with him sexually.
Often, I would massage her feet or legs and then she would eventually invite me to lie down next to her. Then she would take my hand and put it on her breasts. Often, she would pull out one of her breasts and give me her nipple to suck. Sometimes she would remove her bra and present me her full bare chest. Several times she lifted her petticoat, spread her thighs, and invited me to put my penis on her pubis, then on her outer lips. I held on to what I knew of neo tantra and felt this was the right moment to practice. It was important to me to stay as tantric as possible, to control my pleasure and my excitement and not to slip into basic sexuality. Then she invited me to rock my hips and so I ended up rubbing my erect penis over the whole height of her vulva. It could continue for quite some time. It was erotic, exciting, and serene at the same time. From her bed, I saw the starry sky through the window, sometimes the light of the moon. We had developed this practice which we used several times. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I was willing.
One of the many sexual encounters happened while they were traveling in Italy.
During one of the late-night meetings, I had with her in Italy, in a small room where Gail was already sleeping, she got off her bed, put a blanket on the floor and offered me to join her. This time we were lying on our side. We got into the scissors position and she invited me again to resume our practice. I do not know how much time had passed and I think she was half asleep. She must have started to lubricate abundantly because after a while the glans of my penis slipped and nested between her lips against the wet opening of her vagina. Despite the intense excitement and pleasure, once tucked in this spot, I froze. I tried to stay still in this position.
Amma once had a "slight tear of the skin in the anus" writes Albohair. "She told me that she had tried many remedies to no avail and that it hurt intensely especially during her Darshans when she remained sitting for many hours." He said to her that the worshipper of God is imbued with divine energy so he offered to lick her wounds. "After all, she licked the wounds of Dattan the leper, did she not?" He's embarrassed at what transpired. "So, we had several sessions where she laid on her back with her legs in the air, while with the tip of my tongue I salivated profusely on the wound and fervently repeated my mantra imagining this was an act of devout worship. In retrospect, the scene makes me shudder."
Tredwell once saw Amma having sex with Swami Amritaswarupananda aka Balu.
I witnessed with my own eyes Amma and Balu having sex. We had just arrived on the Big Island of Hawaii, and Balu was alone with Amma in her room. I stepped onto the verandah of the house and, as I turned, I could see them through the open windows of her room. In a glimpse I saw the two of them in bed together. Amma’s legs were spread. Naked from the waist down, Balu was moving on top of her. They had forgotten to close the windows, perhaps not realizing that their room overlooked the adjacent verandah. I gasped and swiftly ducked so that they wouldn’t see me. I was livid.
It was the lies about her sexual activities, her abuses and duplicity that pushed Tredwell out. "If she acted cruelly, she was merely destroying your sins, eliminating some bad karma," Tredwell says. "If she made a prediction that turned out to be a dud, she was merely testing your faith. If she did or said something you couldn’t understand, she was merely working on you, trying to crush your ego." Tredwell said she "rationalized" Amma's abusive behavior for years. Krishnamrita notes, "Amma may scold us for something that we did not do, just to see how we will respond." The night before Amma and the team was to leave the U.S. Tredwell escaped, never to return to the group.
The final straw for Brigitte Chemla was when Amma ordered everyone to burn financial records due to a potential inspection. "I was told by the head of accounts that Amma had sent direct orders for me to burn all the canteen’s [cafeteria] financial records. The ashram had been tipped off that a raid and financial audit was imminent, and all departments were being ordered to clean house."
Chemla and her best friend knew they had to escape. When the two of them warned some young Western women about the abuse and corruption they were reported to Amma. "Within a couple of hours, the two of us were summoned to Amma’s room where she put us on trial in front of a gang of angry senior members," she writes. "The first thing they demanded was to tell them everything we knew about Gayatri [Gail Tredwell]. Her whereabouts, who helped her get away and anything else she may have told us. Our answer was quite truthful and simple, we knew nothing. Instead, we took the opportunity to tell her what was on our minds about her lies, cheating, corruption, and abuse. From that moment on we were viewed as traitors and watched around the clock. Our decision to leave was firm, but we had no clear plan on how. All we knew was that we could not leave together."
The following night her friend left her shoes outside her door while "going to the bathroom" to deceive the ashram spies. She simply never returned. Chemla knew she had escaped.
"Next morning once they learned my friend had managed to leave, I was forcibly taken and locked in a separate small room with attached bathroom," Chemla writes. "Apart from Saumya who brought me meals, I was in isolation for almost two weeks. It is for your own good I was told, you need time to think, meditate and come to your senses." Chemla described the time as "awful" and said she feared she'd be kept in "jail" forever. She finally realized she'd have to pretend to have been "reformed" and so she played along with them. "In front of Amma, I apologized and said that I was not myself when I had spoken poorly of her. I falsely professed my love for her and promised that I would never speak ill again or do anything against the organization." It worked. Two days later she was released from confinement but the ashram still kept her under surveillance.
"I was forcibly taken and locked in a separate small room."
During a birthday celebration Chemla convinced them of her love for Amma and they "relaxed their scrutiny for a few hours." She knew it was a rare moment to escape. "With nothing in my hands, I slowly approached the river and climbed into the ferry," she writes. "When I reached the other side, I ran like I have never run before in my life to the shop of my friend’s sister." She was penniless having had donated 100,000 Euro's to Amma over the years. For the next two months she hid away in Karnataka until her brother could send her a ticket back to France. "Here I was seven years later, fleeing for what felt like my life, without a rupee to my name."
Manufacturing Miracles
"I'm telling you, man, she's like Jesus, but on Earth," a devotee said to a Rolling Stone reporter. The reason millions of devotees like him believe Amma is God is simple: For decades she and Swami Amritaswarupananda have been writing and publishing books claiming she is God. When asked directly Amma will deflect to avoid sounding grandiose. However, she is the creator of her own mythology.
A book published and currently sold by Amma, Inspiring Experiences with the Divine Mother, claims she is "omniscient" and "omnipresent." When a woman refused Amma's prasad or food offering, she got violently sick. Amma told her it was because she refused. "The Guru is God," Amma said to her. "Whatever the Guru gives should be accepted with utmost acceptance and devotion." Amma has also said, "I myself am Devi" and "I myself was Krishna, not only during Krishna Bhava, but at all other times as well."
"The Mother speaks to us from the exalted state of a Self-Realized Master in the Absolute Reality." – From a book Amma publishes
There are countless statements published by Amma that portray her as a God. The back cover of Awaken Children! reads, "At the age of 21 she outwardly manifested her state of God-realization," and says, "She was born in full awareness." Amma publishes a book called Sacred Journey by her disciple that says, "Amma is a fully God-realized Master who has no karma Herself." In her dialogues she also frequently speaks to devotees about Self-Realized Masters, God-Incarnated beings, and Mahatmas as if she is one and is an authority on the subject.
According to Inspiring Experiences which she publishes, Amma can change the weather. "Amma, being one with God, cannot only accurately predict the weather, but can create the weather," it states. Her biography tells the story of a time when a downpour commenced all around her devotees. "But to the amazement of all, no rain fell on the place where the devotees were standing, although it fell in torrents all around them!" She can also bi-locate, appearing in two locations at once. Amma can speak all languages and has levitated. "As She manifested all these gestures, the Mother levitated," Awaken Children Vol. 4 states. "She was not touching the floor at all!"
THE ACCOUNTS OF AMMA'S MIRACLES are so extraordinary that she appears more like a mix between a comic book hero and a prophet. Her biography describes a time when Amma once generated a fireball out of thin air to ward off her critics. "Mother, please show them something to keep their mouths shut," a devotee said to her. "A few more minutes had passed when suddenly there rose up from the nearby graveyard a tremendously blazing fireball. Rays of fire emerged from it as if dancing around the fiery orb."
In Mother of Sweet Bliss, another official biography, Amma resurrected a young girl from the dead. She had died from an asthma attack and the hospital could do nothing. Her grandmother took her dead body to Amma out of desperation. "Mother sat down on the floor and lifted the body onto her lap," the book states. "With the dead child lying in her lap, she began to meditate. Mother sat for a long time in meditation. Suddenly the little girl opened her eyes and gradually came back to life."
Amma has resurrected children from the dead, healed paralyzed people so they can walk again, cured cancer, levitated, and created fireballs out of thin air.
The same book has a story of Amma healing a paralyzed young man so he could walk again. He had been injured after a scaffolding fell on him. She met with the boy, massaging his legs and kissing his feet. "Two hours later he discovered that he was able to walk!" the book states. "Thanks to Mother’s grace he was completely cured." At another time Amma brought a boy out of a deadly coma. Amma also claims to have cured several people of cancer.
Amma was once resurrected from the dead herself. According to Ammachi and other biographies she supposedly died for eight hours. Her father had demanded that the Divine Mother leave her body. She warned him he'd only be left with a corpse, however. He persisted and she collapsed. Amma had no pulse and stopped breathing. She says she witnessed people mourning from outside her body. After several hours rigor mortis was setting in. Only after the father became remorseful and prayed to the Divine Mother to restore her did she miraculously come back to life.
Gail Tredwell says she and other devotees were required to lie about "untrue miracles" and Amma's bodily functions. It's widely believed that Amma doesn't have her monthly period because she is a divine being. Both Jacques Albohair and Tredwell knew she did, however. On one occasion Amma was having abdominal pain while on tour in France so they went to a gynecologist. "Gently pushing on Amma’s belly, the doctor asked, 'When was her last period?'" Tredwell writes. "Innocently Priya began to reply, 'Oh she doesn’t have her period.' Amma turned to me and interjected: 'Two weeks ago.'”
"Amma's institution has a habit of modifying and rewriting biographies according to their political needs," writes Albohair. Some of the countless miracle stories were removed from later biographies including those of the "Shaktiprasads." They were children Amma gifted to infertile women merely by her simple intention. The children were destined to "save the world." Amma spoke of them in an early biography. "During my meditation, a power goes out of me and comes into the womb of the mother who thus becomes pregnant," she said. "Some of these children will become perfect sannyasis."
-> Hunting Lucifer is the new book by journalist Be Scofield about hunting cults and dangerous gurus as a nomad. "A real-life epic and hero's journey."
Sexually Abused by the Director of Amma's Organization
The current director of Amma's organization is Swami Amritaswarupananda aka Balu. He was one her earliest disciples and is thought of the "architect" behind the myths and legends of Amma. He's written the numerous biographies and books where we learn of Amma's miracles and status as a God. "He had fallen headfirst with passionate attachment into his role as Amma's son," Tredwell writes. According to Albohair he would inject Amma's books with whatever spiritual books he was reading at the time. At one point Osho devotees complained after having recognized full sections plagiarized from his writing in her books.
Tredwell says that all she wanted from joining the ashram was "love and illumination." But soon she was wrapped up in Swami Amritaswarupananda's desire. "Little did I know that within five years and completely out of the blue I would have a sobbing mess sitting before me professing his love," Tredwell says of Amritaswarupananda. She describes the first incident of being raped by him.
Early the next morning I proceeded to the library to talk with him. He immediately locked the door and wrapped his arms around me. Before I knew it, I was lying on the floor and he was forcing himself upon me. It all happened so fast. I felt powerless. I flinched as his initial entry came with a sting. I was no virgin, but it had been six years since I had allowed any man inside me. There I lay, motionless, staring at the wall, but this time the tears were in my eyes. There was not a drop of sexual excitement running through my body, only terror and shock. I couldn’t believe what was happening. But it was too late. Anyway, within one minute it was all over. He quickly ejaculated into a wash cloth he had kept ready.
Tredwell says the sexual abuse and rape continued for years.
There were other times when we were on tour in the West that Balu came to Amma’s room at night and sat by her bedside rubbing her legs till she fell asleep. My heart would sink, for I knew that shortly afterwards I would hear him crawling across the carpet toward me. Right there on the floor at the foot of her bed, right under Amma’s nose, I would be raped. It was useless to fight against the abuse. So I lay there passively. While every cell of my body and soul cried in disgust and anger, I let him misuse me and walk off.
"Due to my innocent and soft-hearted nature, and one moment of weakness, I became a captive object for Balu’s sexual gratification," she writes. "To put it more bluntly, I became the victim of his manipulation and ongoing rape." The incidents continued over the years. "As soon as he was in my presence, he would whip out his penis, lie on top, ram himself inside, thrust and grunt four or five times, then it was all over." The encounters would at times include physical abuse. "One night, holding my arm in a tight grip, (it later turned black and blue), he raised his fist and began beating me in the back. In fear and disgust I moved toward the cold, dirty bathroom floor and lay down."
As to the repeated and ongoing nature of the sexual abuse, Albohair likens it to rape within families. "That too can last for years without anyone deciding to report it." Tredwell didn't want to endanger what she believed was the holy nature of the ashram. At the time she wondered why if Amma was omniscient she didn't know about the continued sexual abuse.
"A few months before I left, Balu began spiraling into severe depression and was put on medication," writes Tredwell. "He was on suicide watch—an utter mess. He had probably had the condition for a very long time." Albohair noticed the erratic behavior as well. One time Albohair jokingly grabbed him by the love handles in a "playful and brotherly fashion" after he had gained some weight. "He went raving mad, having picked up an iron crowbar he was trying to beat me with it," Albohair writes. "The others had to dissuade him and calm him down. For a period, he was clearly manic-depressive, what is now called bipolar."
Be Scofield
Selling Spirituality
The central strategy behind Amma's empire is fostering dependency on herself. She works diligently to create create an infantilized spiritual devotion. On numerous occasions she has said to a disciple, "I am your mother now." She, "clucks syllables like baby talk" into the ears of followers during Darshan. "The most devout inheritors largely see Amma as a mother and situate themselves as her little children," writes Amanda Lucia in Reflections of Amma. There's even a DVD produced by Amma called "I am Amma's Baby" designed for children and adults. "Be like an innocent carefree child in the lap of the Divine Mother," it states. "Sometimes I hide so you will come running to me like a small child," Amma told a follower named Savitri Bess.
"Unconditional obedience to Amma is what it means to 'really be with her,'" Amma once said, speaking in the third person as she often did. "In front of a guru, a disciple should be like a servant in front of his master," she said. "The servant has no opinions of his own, only complete obedience to whatever the master says - no opinions at all." Tredwell said Amma encouraged separation from family. "To have emotional attachment to family was considered a spiritual flaw...We were taught you could only become one with God if you surrendered fully to Amma, which meant stripping yourself of any previous identity and family ties."
Albohair claims Amma intentionally played up her role as a guru, fearing that if she didn't she would lose followers to other more dramatic gurus. He said she would reveal "her latest discoveries on the naivety of Westerners and how to take advantage of it," to him. "Repeatedly, Amma clearly told us that she was not there for the sophisticated, the educated, the sensitive, the wise or the righteous but for the (spiritually) needy masses," he writes.
Amma's Integrated Amrita Meditation Technique® (IAM) is trademarked practice designed to foster spiritual awakening. Albohair said she got the idea after learning that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created simplistic mantras that followers loved. "I was present on several occasions when Amma and her disciples laughed about it, a little ashamed of what they were concocting, but which seemed inevitable in order not to lose potential devotees/disciples," Albohair writes. Amma claims the technique, "promises to lead us to the ultimate goal of Self-realization."
Amma sells a doll of herself for $200 that is a "physical representation of an experience" with Amma. "These dolls were personally blessed by Amma for sale in The Amma Shop," the sales page states. You can buy different outfits for the doll and there's even a "doll hospital" for damaged ones. Devotees "tell the doll their problems, seek its comfort, and listen in their minds for its advice." Some devotees travel with their Amma doll and post photos. "When you’re losing your shit because you don’t know what the fuck is going on with your life or what you are or are supposed to be doing, you grab your Amma doll and you have a good cry," writes a devotee.
Amma also sells $300 bracelets "blessed and worn by Amma" and "imbued with her sacred energy." A necklace also blessed with her energy and worn by her sells for $250. She sells a necklace with an acorn-looking seed from the trees at her ashram for $72. They are "said to connect the wearer/seeker directly to the source of existence and pure consciousness," the sales page states. These too are supposedly worn by Amma "many times a month over a year."
Amma also sells $300 bracelets "blessed and worn by Amma" and "imbued with her sacred energy."
She sells her own Amma brand of body care products. This includes "Amma's Rose Moisturizing Conditioner," hydrating facial toner and "whipped body butter." Amma also has her own line of essential oils, tinctures and other wellness products. In 2012 Rolling Stone reported that Amma sold Puja's or religious ceremonies on her website for $30-$250. The site no longer lists them. "The puja symbolizes the surrender of the devotee to God," the site used to say. You can also buy several photos of Amma's feet. Amma used to also sell a silver crown for $5,000.
It's hard to see much difference between Amma and a scheming American Televangelist. Imagine if a Christian preacher claimed to be Jesus, sold holy water for $300, performed faith healings that claim to restore paralyzed people's ability to walk, claimed to turn water into milk, had sex with some of his followers, sold a doll of himself and photos of his feet, and traveled the world "fundraising" millions. Imagine if he told his followers, "I am your father now."
Amma's Empire
The most lucrative aspect of Amma's business is an international fundraising effort that brings in tens of millions per yer. It has allowed Amma to amass a vast technological, medical and entrepreneurial empire. She has built a for-profit hospital, numerous biotech companies, a medical college, research centers, virtual academies, cyber security companies, a TV station and she even holds hundreds of patents. It's any self-appointed guru's fever dream.
Amma has built her empire under the guise of being a charitable organization but records show the money is not spent as donors may think. "Most of the funds raised in the name of charitable activities during programs in the West are in fact allocated to income-generating activities," writes Albohair. He was able to analyze 13 years of the reported foreign donations between 2006 and 2019 based on data reported to the government. He concluded that only $4 out of every $100 donated goes to programs. $41 of the $100 goes to Amma's entrepreneurial pursuits while $55 goes to a bank account to generate interest. Compared to Amma's 4%, the industry low for NGO's is typically around 80%.
When Amma "donates" money to things like hurricane relief almost none of it comes from her organization. "In the case of emergency relief activities, the organization spends almost nothing out of its own pocket. It collects funds abroad and transfers them to the field," Albohair notes. When the tsunami struck it was the "best mask Amma's million have yet worn," writes Paul Zacharia. "It increased her money-gathering power a hundred times."
Only $4 out of every $100 donated goes to programs.
India requires charitable organizations to report foreign donations but not domestic. According to Albohair's analysis, Amma's organization brings in around ten million a year in foreign donations. She once told him that fundraising from within India had surpassed international contributions. It's thus possible that Amma is bringing in over $20 million per year from donations alone.
Unlike other NGOs Amma refuses to publish an annual report showing income and expenditures, casting a cloud of suspicion over the organization. Albohair once showed an annual report pamphlet of a French charity to Amma and Swami Amritaswarupananda. "I presented it to Amma and I argued that this form of transparency would facilitate fundraising by improving the credibility of the institution," he writes. He said Amritaswarupananda "took it with disdain" without saying a word and "put it down somewhere as he left the room." That was the end of it.
Albohair and other journalists have also noticed massive discrepancies in their accounting. "The balances carried forward are all wrong with sometimes astronomical variations totaling $195 million," writes Albohair. "These are gross accounting anomalies." The amount that Amma's American branch reported to have given the Indian one doesn't match what the Indian branch has reported receiving either. "After looking at the documents of the Indian Ministry of the Interior and tax returns from a US branch, it is indeed noticeable that Amma's association has declared less income over several years than the US branch has transferred to it," reports the French outlet Le Monde.
Much of the money Amma brings in on her lucrative U.S. and world tours is in the form of cash and hidden away. Albohair describes how she would smuggle the money back to India to avoid having to report it for taxes. "When she and her suite travelled from country to country and especially when returning to India, her concern was avoiding as much as possible the transfer of money through official channels, with the risk of having to declare large amounts," he writes. "Thus, each member of her suite served as a mule, traveling with $10,000 in cash (the maximum allowed) and all that could be worn as jewelry and gold ornaments without drawing too much attention – the latter coming from donations in kind."
In India Amma had Tredwell steal cash and gold. "Tredwell goes on to describe how she had to bring jewelry and large sums of money from the ashram to Amma's family - hidden in a cooler," the Swiss news outlet the Daily Gazette reported. Over the years Amma's family became very rich from the donations Amma was stealing.
"I saw Amma being cruel and abusive to many residents."
- Brigitte Chemla
"I observed one ashramite in the process of, as she told me, forging financial records for the ashram's Ayurveda centre creating the names, dates, and payments of fictional people who received fictional Ayurveda treatments," a former devotee writes. When Amma dispatched Albohair to build the European Amma movement she refused to let him set up proper legal entities. "She made me run incredible risks by siphoning enormous amounts of money from half a dozen European countries to send to India, from private accounts in my name, in order to avoid paying taxes," he says.
Meanwhile the ashram residents and staff were barely getting by. "The accumulated profits are made thanks to a free workforce of several hundred workers," writes French journalist Jean-Baptiste Malet. The staff that work Amma's tours have to pay $2,000 while working for free.
"Ashram residents who had dedicated their lives to Amma, who had given most or all their money to Amma, and who worked around the clock sacrificing their health for her—these devotees were living in impoverished conditions with no decent nutrition or care," writes Tredwell. "These offerings had been given by devotees in the belief that the money would support Amma’s charitable work...Her parents, three brothers, and three sisters each received large sums of money and gold." She said Amma judged people based on the "thickness of their wallet."
A former devotee describes the ashram environment. "People have to work outside the ashram to pay rent," they say. "For us at the ashram our path to God realization was 'karma yoga' (work) also called seva or selfless service to the guru. To work long and hard past the point of exhaustion was considered good. We could achieve God realization that way by overcoming our bodily limitations." She says "much of the work involved sending out letters asking for donations" and chides them for their "excessive fundraising focus." Amma also sells access to a private room for $30,000 to wealthy followers when they visit the ashram.
Amma's hospital known as Amrita Hospital (AIMS) is pitched as a charitable operation that benefits the poor and thus has raised millions. It runs as a profitable business, however. A devotee and Harvard graduate named Aniruddhan was asked by Amma to be a management consultant for AIMS. In 2013 he went public exposing the deceit he felt the hospital was carrying out by claiming to be 50% charitable. "The actual amount of care given by AIMS to non-paying patients was around 5% of the hospital's total care," he wrote. He saw this in their financial statements. Even the "free drug bank" was a ruse he wrote. Paying patients were charged extra for the drugs which were then given to poor people. Care is often paid for by the government as well. Amma does run a few smaller health clinics that are more charitable in nature.
Another "charitable" endeavor by Amma are her schools. Yet, they are very lucrative businesses. "The engineering, management and computer colleges are particularly profitable for the ashram," a former follower writes. In 2016 parents staged public protests in front of Amma's college over fee hikes. "The private schools collect exorbitant amounts," and "many children are forced to give up on education," when they can't afford it the news reported. A similar protest happened in 2013. News reported, "the school had increased the fees by nearly four times for CBSE sections," and that "the school did not promote students whose parents refused to pay these higher fees, the parents claimed."
The Amma Mafia
With power comes politics. Being one of the largest spiritual movements in the world, Amma has attracted support from leaders both domestically and internationally. In India Amma is revered by right-wing Hindu nationalists such as the RSS. "I reiterate our utmost reverence for Amma and her mission, and extend support to all the efforts," they wrote in response to Gail Tredwell's book. "We strongly condemn these shameful attempts to berate a holy saint like Amma."
"Amma’s flock certainly includes individuals and organizations associated with right-wing Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva," Salon magazine wrote. "Many Hindutva ministers of state are Amma devotees, including former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, and her ranks swell with members of the RSS and VHP, nationalist organizations that have been accused of, among other things, helping foment the bloody Gujarat riots in 2002." Amma has even been given a VIP security detail by the ruling Hindu nationalist BJP party. In 2017 she met with the leaders of the RSS movement. It was an RSS member, Nathan Godse, who murdered Mahatma Gandhi over his efforts to reconcile Hindus and Muslims.
As one of the biggest popularizers of Hinduism in the modern era, Amma's efforts align with RSS right-wing nationalists who seek to, "carry the nation to the pinnacle of glory, through organizing the entire society and ensuring protection of Hindu Dharma." Tredwell even accompanied Amma to the homes of various RSS-aligned government members.
Amma has a long history of threatening, silencing and attacking her enemies and critics. "Some of the villagers who arrogantly ridiculed Sudhamani had to face great disasters in life," the biography Ammachi states. There are several accounts of her critics suffering painful deaths in her origin story. One man had his fishing boat destroyed by violent waves, narrowly escaping with is life. Amma's brother had been one of her most vocal critics and abusers. After he harassed a woman who visited Amma she predicted his death. "Whoever has caused this undue grief will die after seven days," Amma stated. He was then found hanging by a noose from the family house with them claiming he committed suicide. A man who tried to stab Amma suffered terrible pain in the exact spot where he tried to strike Amma and then died.
"Once she senses that you have LOST FAITH...you could potentially see the ruthless and the 'other' face of her," writes a former devotee. "Your character assassination will follow, so that your 'voice/reason' would not have any value there." Another follower who spoke out said, "My parents and family had to face the brunt of the organization’s reaction."
Amma's organization ruthlessly smeared the creators of the website "Cult of the hugging saint." They dug through their personal lives searching for anything and everything to use against them. "The time and energy spent on this research is rather frightening," Albohair notes. "Everything has been carefully researched and documented in such a way as to destroy the credibility of the authors and to sully them publicly."
Those such as Gail Tredwell or Jacques Albohair have faced persistent attacks and smears by Amma's organization. The publisher of Tredwell's book in India was ransacked, news agencies have been threatened and intimidated to remove stories, ex-members like Brigitte Chemla have been forcibly confined, local police have intimidated critics, and detractors have been publicly harassed. "The organization also uses the services of hackers or rather what one might call web terrorists," writes Albohair. When Sreeni Pattathanam wrote a critical book on Amma her "organization did everything to prosecute the author and some members of his rationalist organization."
"In Kerala the biggest mafia is Amritanandamayi," writes a former RSS member. This became evident after the police intervened on behalf of Amma. "In an unprecedented move, Kerala Police has registered a case against a former member of Amritanandamayi mutt and five news organizations for reporting on her book," India Today reported. Tredwell gave an interview on TV and Amma's organization fought back. Kerala Today had an advertisement placed with "several lines directly threatening media with dire consequences if they continue to report against [Amma]." The ad read, "Know one thing: There is limit to everything. If that limit is transgressed, the consequence will be disastrous."
In 2007 when Amma's neighboring community Green Avenue had signs removed for her ashram that were not allowed they were violently beaten. "When the staff refused to be bullied they observed some ashram people making mobile phone calls and suddenly a bus loaded with armed people approached to attack them," it was reported. "A loaded bus with about 40-50 goondas armed with lathis and iron rods came out of the bus and attacked us," a victim said.
There have also been numerous mysterious deaths at Amma's ashram which have never been investigated. In 1982 a man named Bhaskaradas drank a glass of milk at the ashram, went home and then died. There was no investigation. In 1994 Pradeep Kumar had an argument about gold with Amma's father, whom he was related, and soon after was taken into custody by police. He mysteriously died in custody. Narayanan Kutty was found badly beaten at the ashram in 1990 and died as a result of his injuries. Dhuram Dhar died in the ashram in 1997 and his body was cremated without informing the relatives. Locals were so upset that after many years of unexplained deaths they organized protests in front of her ashram in 1998.
In 2012 a mentally unwell man named Satnam Singh Maan charged quickly towards Amma in the ashram while saying a Muslim phrase. He was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Just a few days later he was found dead in the mental hospital. His body was "riddled with bruises" and had 77 documented injuries. "After being admitted to a mental asylum, Mann was attacked and was physically tortured," the investigation concluded. He was beaten with a cable wire and his head was smashed into the wall. "He died as a result of the injuries sustained in this attack."
News story from 1998 covering protests over mysterious deaths at Amma's ashram
When nurses went on strike in India Amma cracked down on them by firing the people who formed a chapter of the union at AIMS. Amma's hospital pays nurses half of the government's designated minimum wage for nurses. AIMS invited six members from the union to "dialogue." They were greeted by the HR person and walked to a specific corridor in the hospital. The HR person then disappeared. "A group of people in saffron dhotis suddenly emerged from behind and attacked us brutally," a victim said. "They had weapons and were shouting that they would kill us. My left arm was broken. Our state committee member’s right knee was shattered to pieces. He had to go through multiple surgeries."
The news reported on the attack at Amma's hospital. "Both at Amrita hospitals and Sanker's Hospital, the nurses were beaten up at the hospital premises for going on strike by men paid by the management. A male nurse at Amrita broke his right leg in an attack. In all, four nurses who suffered serious injuries at Amrita were admitted to hospital."
Given Amma's antagonism towards labor rights it's not surprising that in 2008 and the year prior she crossed the picket line in Los Angeles. An organizer at a rally spoke eloquently about Amma's actions. "This is the second year in a row Amma has returned to the hotel despite efforts of outreach by the workers and community asking her not to return until the Hilton hotel workers get the respect and dignity they deserve."
