Seva in Mata Amritanandamayi Mission: Social Service as a Public Face of Faith

Based on fieldwork with Mata Amritanandamayi Mission (MAM) headed by Mata Amritanandamayi and headquartered in Kollam, Kerala, India, I discuss its aspects of seva or social service. I propose that seva in MAM is done by followers and disciples volitionally and then it becomes a doctrine in Amma...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pandya, Samta P. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Equinox [2016]
In: Implicit religion
Year: 2016, Volume: 19, Issue: 3, Pages: 401-423
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Mata Amritanandamayi Mission / Social services
Further subjects:B Guru
B Political systems
B Social Services
B Faith
B Mata Amritanandamayi Mission
B Seva
B Social Systems
B Will
B Proposition (Logic)
B Hugging Saint
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Summary:Based on fieldwork with Mata Amritanandamayi Mission (MAM) headed by Mata Amritanandamayi and headquartered in Kollam, Kerala, India, I discuss its aspects of seva or social service. I propose that seva in MAM is done by followers and disciples volitionally and then it becomes a doctrine in Amma's ministry. I observed two social service projects in terms of their interfaces with various systems such as economic-political-social, partnerships and nature of routine operations. I make some propositions on seva in MAM and emphasize that it typifies the living guru's expansive agency, uncontainability and more specifically a form of implicit religion. For followers, seva is a means to gain a place in Amma's coterie, and, the actual operations of the projects signify a sacred-secular partnership such that we can begin to speak of its politics.
ISSN:1743-1697
Contains:Enthalten in: Implicit religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/imre.v19i3.31114