Following the publication of Holy Hell by Gail Tredwell anger was unleashed, not just online. Some critics have been assaulted by Mata Amritanandamayi's devotees. Swami Sandeepananda Giri is one of the victims.
The story entitled "Swami Sandipananda faces Mata Amritanandamayi’s ire" has been reported by many media. In March 2015 the swami was on tour when suddenly :
"Mata Amritanandmayi’s devotees arrived in the noon by Amrita TV van"
They came that day to threat him but the reason for this is unclear. This event occured a few days after he had criticized Amma but according to some sources, he was a former inmate of Amritapuri. He was supposedly denied Sannyasa and thrown out of the ashram, by reason of his bad behavior.
One month after this first assault, another one occured but this second one was more violent. The injured swami has been later admitted in a hospital. A day after, the police arrested three people. Who are they?
"Unnikrishnan of Mangalam Kavunchery, Kundanippadikkal Vasu and Kandakayil Veetil Rajesh, three of them workers of RSS"RSS workers. Is it still a surprise for anyone? The motive behind their attack is cristal clear :
"The attackers claimed that Swami had made some inflammatory comments against Mata Amritanandamayi in his speech a day earlier"
We think that critics call for debate, not blows. Mata Amritanandamayi often says that she doesn't send her devotees to threat and silence her opponents. She pretends that they act spontaneously on their own. If this is true then a few details bother us.
First of all, Amma claims that she spreads peace and love in the world. How come that her devotees are the very ones who don't get her lessons? We have never heard about people assaulting devotees. On the contrary, instances of aggressions perpetrated by devotees abound. So in order to remain peacefull is it safer to not become a devotee?
Second of all, Amma claims that she spreads peace and love in the world. How come that she never raises her voice when her devotees spread violence? They abuse, they hit, they kick, they beat, she keeps silent. Is this another unfathomable divine way of doing divine things that we are not subtle enough to comprehend?
A few days ago Amma addressed the keynote at a UN conference. Mata Amritanandamayi is extremely talkative when it's time to criticize the modern world but she suddenly becomes deaf and mute when her own devotees misbehave. Or are we mistaking? What kind of enlightening bouts of wisdom did she delivered at the UN?
"Before cutting a tree, people would first worship it and then apologize"
Is she trying to make us understand that a faithfull devotee should apologize to trees and beat up critical people? Do plants deserve to be worshipped while humans deserve to be abused? It would be so dissonant from a cognitive point of view.