Om Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu
May all beings in all worlds be happy and live in peace.
Who is Amma?
Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, lovingly known as Amma - the Mother of Embracing Love - is a living embodiment of unconditional compassion and divine selfless service. Through more than 40 million heartfelt embraces, she has comforted hearts across every continent, embodying the ancient truth that Love itself is the highest path.
Amma’s life is a radiant offering. A tireless river of grace, flowing toward the healing of human sorrow, suffering, and disconnection. Her teachings are simple, timeless, and direct: Love. Serve. Remember the Divine. Her vast humanitarian mission, Embracing the World, brings food, shelter, medical care, education, disaster relief, and spiritual solace to countless souls worldwide.
Meeting the Divine Mother
Before I ever met Amma in person, I was touched by a vivid vision at a lake near Mount Shasta. I saw her - real and radiant - and heard her voice. She held me with both hands, as if cradling me like a small child, and I floated on the water. I could feel her hands, feel her love. I cried... I didn’t yet know who Amma was, but I was deeply moved by this encounter. It was during our first journey to the sacred mountain.
Shortly after this extraordinary experience, I saw a flyer about Amma pinned to a bulletin board in the local health food store in Mount Shasta. That’s how I found a group of loving souls who gathered to sing, pray, and hold satsangs in Amma’s name. It felt like coming home. The stories they shared about the Divine Mother of her hugs, and the vision I had received, ignited something deep within me. I began to search for Amma - and longed to meet her.
Two months later, she came to the Netherlands as part of her European tour. Since then, we’ve visited her every year, receiving her darshan - a powerful transmission of a true spiritual Master. At that time, I was very ill, and through her blessings, I felt my body begin to heal, and my inner spiritual journey deepened.
Living Her Love
Through seva - selfless service - I began to understand more deeply what 'divine flow' truly means. Whether I was sewing, washing dishes, cleaning the ashram grounds, tending Amma’s path in the garden of the Amma Center in Zeist, offering lectures, or simply being present during satsangs - I discovered that when you serve with love, you are innerly nourished by love.
Over the years, I’ve visited Amma’s sacred ashrams in Amritapuri (India), San Ramon (USA), and Brombachtal (Germany). Each journey deepened my spiritual process, allowing me to experience her love and compassion ever more intimately in my heart.
Amma’s Humanitarian Projects
Amma is devoted to the well-being of countless people. She has built two large, professional, and deeply compassionate hospitals where the underserved receive free, high-quality care. She has provided emergency relief after devastating tsunamis in India, supported thousands of impoverished families with food, clothing, and housing, and launched empowerment programs for women - such as the Amrita SREE Self-Help Groups.
This initiative has grown into a nationwide movement across India, created by women and for women, helping more than 250,000 women rise out of poverty with dignity. Her humanitarian efforts extend across the globe. Her example is profoundly inspiring.
Motivated by her spirit of compassion, I co-founded the Local Spirit Foundation with dear friends, to begin manually planting trees in a fire-ravaged forest in the dunes near our village. Since then, with Amma’s inspiration and support, Local Spirit has continued to plant trees and guide ecological projects in many places.
The rainbow seen from Amma's ashram above the ocean.
Amma Satsang in Bergen
Since 2016, at Amma’s request, I have been hosting a monthly satsang at our home in Bergen - evenings filled with prayer, bhajans (devotional music), silent meditation, and the warm circle of our sangha - a spiritual family. You are welcome to join us, usually on the third Thursday of the month.
Send me an email for more information or to join us at the satsang:
In Amritapuri I helped to gather donations for recycled products - for Amma's humanitarian projects
