Paramahansa YoganandaMahatma Gandhi Swami ChidanandaJ. Krishnamurti
The Mother of PondicherrySwami RamdasSwami SivanandaDaya Mata
Sri Mohanananda Brahmachari
Mother Hamilton
Mildred (Mother) Hamilton was born on Christmas Day in 1904 in Duluth, Minnesota. and first met Paramahamsa Yogananda in Seattle in 1925. She was made the centre leader for Self-Realization Fellowship in Seattle, WA, and ordained a minister in 1950 by Yogananda. He gave her the title Yogacharya in 1951 – one of six worldwide. After Yogananda took Mahasamadhi, she remained as centre leader until 1958. She continued on her own and held meetings in her disciples’ homes and centres in the Northwest and Canada. She was a lifelong disciple of Yogananda’s. She also had great reverence for Swami Ramdas who she says helped her gain complete Realization of God after Yogananda’s Mahasamadhi. She took mahasamadhi on 31 January 1991.
Mother Hamilton met Anandamayi Ma four times, the first time on February 4, 1968 in Allahabad and the subsequent three times a few days later in Varanasi.
Quote by Mother Hamilton from a talk
“It is very difficult to describe her. She is in a class by herself. She certainly has a presence, and she goes into high states of ecstasy, of the bliss of God at times. She has thousands and thousands of followers all over India, and 25 ashrams. The work that she does in taking all of these people to God, of awakening them to what they can be, to their spiritual stature, is absolutely tremendous.
I was with her four different times. The first time was at Allahabad, and the other times were at Benares.
– Mother Hamilton with Sri Ma at Allahabad or Varanasi Feb 1968 –
The first night I met her, I came under her spell, and I have loved her ever since. And she seemed to love me very much. We had an interpreter the first night, who was just brand new, and she didn’t do a very good job of interpreting. She didn’t understand me because “I spoke United States.” So I wasn’t able to converse with the Mother, through the interpreter, in the way that I wanted to, and I felt very bad about it, because the interpreter mixed up things quite a good deal.When I went to sit before Ma in the big assembly room, I sat quite near the front. I wanted so badly to speak with her, so I sat in deep meditation for a while, just speaking to her from my heart. All of a sudden, she opened her eyes, she looked directly into my eyes, and she smiled and nodded her head and her whole face just shone. Obviously, she was getting what I tried to convey to her. And that filled me with great happiness.
Every time I was privileged to be in her presence, she showered prasad, or blessing from the saint in the form of flowers, fruit, smiles and so forth at me. When I visited her a second time in Benares, she even went so far as to put on a special bhajan for me. The devotees played, and one devotee sang for us so that we could make a recording. This particular day, when I bowed to her, she also bowed her head, as far as she could reach, to me. And this was the first time that any of the devotees around had seen her do this.
“The last time I was with her, it was Krishna’s birthday, and the devotees were there, literally by the hundreds in this huge bhajan hall, and Ma sat there. When I came in, the hall was completely filled, and I went up there. Her whole face lit up when she saw me, and she motioned to me that I should sit in the front row. Well, I went to the second row and she spent the whole evening throwing fruit in my lap. I came out with more fruit than I could carry. It was a very wonderful experience as far as I was concerned.”
Additional commentary by Marge Ranney, who accompanied Mother to India
“At the end, Mother [H] joined those who went for individual darshan and Mataji looked at Mother with extreme love and said “you have come so far and with such great love,” and then gave her a lei (garland) and then an extra lei, two roses and a great big orange. Mother held Ma’s hand and put her head on it and then when she got up, she turned to the interpreter and said, ‘Please tell her that I have no words to express what I feel for her in my heart.’