HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: Amma's Movement in America

Author(s): Amanda J. Huffer

Source: CrossCurrents , SEPTEMBER 2011, Vol. 61, No. 3, RELIGION IN ASIA TODAY
(SEPTEMBER 2011), pp. 374-398
Published by: Wiley

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 HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION
Amma's Movement in America

Amanda J. Huffer

theological messages outside of India, they have a substantive ten

H s dency
Hindu new
to wrestle religious
with the category of themovements
"Hindu" in their rhetoricglobalize and disseminate their
and practices. While diasporic temple communities of ethnically Indian
immigrants frequently embrace a Hindu identity as a means to take
their place "at the multicultural table,"1 transnational gurus and mod
ern practitioners of yoga both have a unique legacy of tension with the
category of the "Hindu." Some disavow the categoiy entirely claiming
the terms "spiritual" and "spirituality" as more effective markers and
distance themselves from the perceived orthodoxies of Hindu religiosity
by using a decontextualized theolinguistic register to signify more egali
tarian, democratic, inclusive, ecumenical, and universalistic impulses.
Very few of these types of modern global movements that derive their
roots, practices, and theologies from Hindu religiosity proudly proclaim
themselves to be Hindu. But why?
For many, the active distancing from the Hindu religiosity of their
roots develops in tandem with their rise to global fame. As Tulasi Srinivas
tells us, "No longer rooted in traditional Hinduism, the new sacred per
son of Sai Baba is disembedded from the religiocultural milieu and is
free to travel across the global network."2 But do global guru movements
perceive this distancing from "traditional Hinduism" as a necessary cor
relation to becoming globally marketable? Does this signify that Western
audiences (and even modern Indian ones) are unprepared to accept Hin
duism with its plurality of particular and localized formations and even

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

suggest a continued prejudice against Hindus and Hin

staunch Hindu advocates would have us believe? Or has the historical

legacy of the extraction of a generalized ecumenical universalism,

based in derivative forms of Advaita Vedantic philosophy, become
so ingrained that it constitutes an independent religious category,
nearly complete in its dissociation from its broader religious context of
Hinduism?

Turning our gaze toward the pragmatic, one might argue that this
ambivalence toward the categoiy of the "Hindu" stems from discomfort
with the fact that the term "Hindu" can readily be defined as a religio
ethnic categoiy and one bound to a particular sacred geography: India.
Thus, when attempting to reach geographically exogenous non-Indian
Hindu audiences, [Hindu] gurus must at least deal with the potential for,
if not the prior existence of, categorical dissonance among their follow
ers. They must preempt the possibility that potential non-Indian Hindu
recruits will question, "How can I follow this [Hindu] guru, if Hindu reli
giosity is a religio-cultural birthright available only to ethnically Indian
Hindus?"

Or to speak in the stark terms of materialism, it might simply be the

fact that the language of spirituality sells more effectively to global audi
ences, among both practitioners who identify with non-Hindu religious
denominations and by the increasing populations of those who have
become disillusioned by mainline Christian traditions.
The active distancing of largely Hindu ideologies, practices, dis
courses, and so on from the categoiy of Hindu religion engenders the
often virulent contemporaiy debates in which Indian Hindu activists
attempt to reclaim contemporary modalities (such as yoga) as Hindu,
while many of their practitioners staunchly defend their spiritual (non
Hindu) foundations (Vitello 2010). Recently, the head of the Hindu Amer
ican Foundation touched on the commonplace marketing of Hinduism
as spirituality, when he explained, "our issue is that yoga has thrived,
but Hinduism has lost control of the brand."3 Like yoga, Advaita Vedan
tic theology has been branded globally as "spirituality" by religious lead
ers who locate their roots in India and draw heavily from Hindu
religiosity. But also like yoga, this particular strain of Hindu theology,
often termed neo-Vedanta, has been adapted and transformed, some
times to the point of non-recognition in order to make it palatable to

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

diverse (both intra-Hindu and inter-religious) au

histoiy of transnational gurus in the West shows
them have chosen to implement generalized uni
usually derived from Advaita Vedanta and couch
spirituality, but dissociated from the greater c
order to garner popular acceptance of their "foreig
Regardless of the multiplicity of motivations
tion from the category of the Hindu, there are s
pected consequences. When modern proponen
practices and theologies argue that their innovati
than religious, or more specifically, Hindu, they
category of the Hindu to that which is tradition
and so on and in the process they siphon off its
and renewal in modernity. This categorical dist
many of the participants in new [Hindu] religiou
seek to detach themselves from "traditional" Hin
it to be a signifier of backwards, ritualistic, hier
ern sensibilities. In so doing, both parties stymie
religiosity's adaptations to "multiple moderni
Eisenstadt 2000, Tambiah 2000), which ultimately
tion and fixity of our understanding of what it m
active process of siphoning results in the fact that
Hindu identity are more often than not restrict
orthodox options because the innovative and lib
been recoded as spirituality. Thus, we might ima
of spirituality may unwittingly contribute to the a
ideologies, which are of particular concern in d
the desire to represent an authentically Hindu ide
Scholars, for their part, have largely reflected th
than challenging it. In attempting to describe and
this disassociation from "traditional" Hinduism,
fortably innovate new terminologies to evocate t
of many avenues of global Hindu religiosity, e.g., H
spirituality (Huffier 2010, Sharma 2006). In his r
Veda, Philip Goldberg differentiates the moder
Yoga" as "India's leading export," while George D
"Hindu NRMs [New Religious Movements]" and ri

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

of "distinctively Indian village practices...that are less palatable to

westerners."4 Lola Williamson recently went so far as to champion an
entirely new category of [Hindu] religiosity, developing the term Hindu
Inspired Meditation Movements (HIMM) to denote the dual influences of
ethnic-Hindus and theologically kaleidoscopic non-Indian Hindu spiritual
seekers who comprise devotee populations. She argues that HIMMs are a
new religion consisting of the hybridized influences of Hindu religiosity
and "Western traditions of individualism and rationalism."5 Noting the
dissimilarity to what we might precariously term "traditional" Hindu
religiosity, some scholars have opted for the disavowal of the term
"Hindu" entirely, instead locating contemporaiy [Hindu] hybridity
within the realm of "Indie" religiosity (Srinivas 2010) or "modernist"
approaches as opposed to Hindu "traditionalism" (Warrier 2006).
My endeavor here examines closely one influential contemporary
transnational guru, Amritanandamayi Ma (also known as Amma, the
Malayalam [and more generally South Indian] term for "Mother"), who,
like many of her contemporaries, actively disavows the categoiy of reli
gion in favor of spirituality. In addressing the category of Hinduism,
Amma exhibits an ambivalence, in which she simultaneously exalts Hin
duism as the most tolerant and ecumenical of the world's religions but
also attempts to transcend the categories of Hinduism and religion to
promote a non-denominational spirituality. Amma creates her vision of
spirituality by drawing on the universalistic monism of Advaita Vedantic
[Hindu] discourses and offering an expansive interpretation of Hinduism.
With regard to her systematized orthopraxy, she performs and subsidizes
rituals, practices, and administrative hierarchies that are undeniably
Hindu. I juxtapose Amma's discourses with ethnographic data from her
devotees in order to question precisely what is at stake in her somewhat
commonplace move to promote discourses of spirituality instead of
Hindu religion in her global transnational guru movement.

On universaKsm

But how do we get from the language of Hindu "religion" to that of

"spirituality"? Ironically, one of the most effective theological resources
that many of these [Hindu] new religious movements employ to obfus
cate the category of the Hindu stems from within Hindu religiosity itself,
in the form of neo-Vedantic universalism. Contemporary gurus have

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

popularized hallmark Vedic maxims of universa

such as "ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti" or "Tru
it by many names" (Rg Veda, 1.164.46) and fam
such as "tat tvam asi: Thou art That," or "ayam atm
Brahman." These textual citations are used to evidence several funda

mental claims: first, the essential unity of all living creatures and
(conceived as both immanent and transcendent), which one must re
by pulling aside the curtain of maya (illusion); second, the realizati
this ultimate reality is moksa (liberation) attained through person
development by means of spiritual practice and discipline, and third
viability of a variety of means and methods to accessing that esse
Truth.6 Historically, the systematized philosophical school of Adv
Vedanta can be traced to Shankara's eighth-century commentary on
Brahma Sutras (Vedanta Sutras), but contemporary gurus often anachro
tically attribute its roots to the Upanisads and the Bhagavad Gîta, both
which exhibit proto-Advaita Vedantic sensibilities. Many modern
proponents, like Aiya, the temple priest/guru in Corinne Dempsey's eth
nographic account of a goddess temple in upstate New York, explain
neo-Vedantic sensibilities with the metaphor that like there are many
rivers flowing into oceans with a variety of names, still all of these ulti
mately converge in the same body of water; so too is the nature of the
world's religions eventually leading to one Ultimate Truth.7 This modern
ist interpretation of Advaita Vedanta provides the foundation for a
universalistic idiom that subsumes the multiplicity of difference into a sin
gular conception of cosmic unity. It also resonates among Americans,
many of whom easily elide it with Unitarianism, pantheism, and the traces
of New Thought and Theosophy that continue to exert their influence
in what Catherine Albanese terms American "metaphysical religion."8
Universalizing discourses present general normative claims that
aim to speak to and represent all of humanity while camouflaging the
fact that they are extracted from particular and particularizing ideolo
gies. Characterized by the obfuscation of difference and particularity,
universalizing discourses exert systemic violence upon differences
between a multiplicity of religious expressions, which is often over
looked in favor of their unifying tendencies. The European universal
isms of Enlightenment reason and rationality fueled the colonial
endeavors of empire building directed at asserting Western hegemony

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

across the globe. Proponents of Islamic universa

construct a pan-Islamic ummah that claims to repres
social and religious needs of all of humanity. Hindu
turn, also derive from the obfuscation of real differences between reli
gious sects, people, and cultures. In their claims to universality, propo
nents not only minimize the importance of the particularities of
subjects' self-identities, but they claim to represent those particularities
by supplanting them with generalizing principles. In each of these cul
tural traditions, universality becomes a criterion and a site of conflict
of who (and which universalist ideology) is best equipped to represent
humanity. Thus, as Etienne Balibar suggests, in speaking of universal
ism, we instead must speak of multiple universalisms and recognize
these claims as contested spaces constructed by political motivations.9
By focusing their attentions on universalisms, such as "One God/
many paths," it might appear that contemporary gurus aim to parallel
explicitly the universalisms of the Christian tradition, perhaps supposing
that these maxims will ring familiar for Western audiences outside of
India, many of whom have relations to Christian traditions. In these
pithy maxims, they may find echoes of the Pauline demonstration of
"the subsumption of the Other by the Same...how a universal thought,
proceeding on the basis of the worldly proliferation of alterities (the Jew,
the Greek, women, men, slaves, free men, and so on) produces a Same
ness and an Equality (there is no longer either Jew, or Greek, and so
on)."10 In Paul's preaching, differences and particularities exist in the
world, but they are not granted the subjectivity of truth; they must be
transcended through faith, hope, and love to reach God. In Alain
Badiou's summation, "[T]hese fictitious beings, these opinions, customs,
differences, are that to which universality is addressed; that toward
which love is directed; finally, that which must be traversed in order for
universality itself to be constructed, or for the genericity (généricité) of
the true to be imminently deployed."11 Similarly, in Advaita Vedantic
universalism worldly alterities are imagined as fictitious; they are illu
sions (maya) that must be recognized as such, dissolved into monism in
order to recognize the ultimate sameness and equality of all phenomena.
In the universalism of the Advaita Vedantic lens, there is only monism
(.sarvo brahman: everything is Brahman); the existence of actual difference
(and hence multiplicity) itself is denied. To use categories often deployed

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

to translate Indie philosophical concepts, ultimat

to be only conventional difference. The non-dual
cannot accept a plurality of opinions, tastes, cre
without undermining its own philosophical foun

Spiritual but not religious

Many contemporary gurus use the unifying lan
because it enables them to speak in a language th
rate and diverse audiences. Their contemporary
audiences demand a transidiomatic theolinguistic
Aravamudan terms "Guru English," a cosmopolit
cation that aims to appeal to populations (and aud
a variety of religio-cultural backgrounds.12 The
guistic register of Advaita Vedantic philosophy e
ded spokespeople to transgress the particularities
order to speak to global audiences in terms of ge
ity, and humanism. It is a product of the cultu
India and the "West," which aims to translate a
ideology by cloaking its particularities in unive
perhaps no surprise then that the upswell of th
Vedantic universalism marks its beginnings at the f
the Hindu Renaissance of the eighteenth and ni
similarly emerges from the cultural apologetics o
gali) literati within the dialectical legacies of colo
This type of register is also vital for devotees
the generalist and unifying language of spiritu
tonic of similitude as globalization has rapidly i
of radical differences through cultural diffusion
ters, and a cosmopolitan panoply in the market
Additionally, it also appeals to those who have d
particularities of a sectarian religious tradition
alternative religiosities based in the unmediat
experiences of the supernatural. In fact, while
ously nebulous term to define, there is somethin
focus on unmediated and internal experience of
ated from any particular form of divinity, whic
the category of religion. Robert Wuthnow define

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

of being related to a divine, supernatural, or transcendent order of

reality or, alternatively, as a sense or awareness of a suprareality that
goes beyond life as ordinarily experienced."13 Martin Riesebrodt rightly
notes that "the now widespread notion of 'spirituality' continues the
individualistic orientation of Romantic discourse."14 In fact, the modern
definition of spirituality closely resembles the romanticism inherent in
the highly interior and ecumenical terms with which William James
famously defined religion as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of indi
vidual men in their solitude, so far as they apprehend themselves to
stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine."15 Thus, the
modern discourses of spirituality direct us toward the internal rather
than the external and the experiential rather than the institutional; the
term spirituality signifies the individual's personalized quest for an
unmediated experience of the transcendent.
In the United States, the accelerating trend toward supplanting
Christian church membership with self-defined alternative and eclectic
spiritualities has supplemented the entrée of the new religious category
"spiritual but not religious" (SBNR), which, as Philip Goldberg argues,
has developed an entire discursive register, a "lingua spiritus" among
those who hybridize and adapt Asian religions for Western audiences
and their followers.16 In fact, in surveys conducted between 1999 and
2002 in the United States, persons claiming this categorical status ranged
from 16 to 39 percent of the American population.17 Many who replace
the term religion with spirituality aim to avoid the negative valences of
that which is often associated with religion. As Robert C. Fuller tells us,
"The word spiritual gradually became associated with the private realm
of thought and experience while the word religious came to be connected
with the public realm of membership in religious institutions, participa
tion in formal rituals, and adherence to official denominational doc
trines."18 This increased emphasis on the privatization of religion
reconfigured as spirituality (and the corresponding promotion of per
sonal spiritual experience) might be read productively as a pragmatic
sociocultural remedy to the potential for conflict and divisiveness. Many
see this move as the inevitable consequence of the direct proximity and
immediate accessibility of multiple religions interacting in the public
sphere augmented by the increased mobility inherent to globalization
(Luckmann 1967, Bellah 1985, Wuthnow 2003).

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

Similarly, contemporary Hindu religious spo

term religion to a bounded set of doctrines subs
and institutions who assert their exclusivist worldviews. In their views,
the term religion emphasizes obligatory ritual actions to appease a tran
scendent God, whereas the term spirituality notions toward the inner
transformation of the individual in order to foment the recognition of
the imminent God within. Many of these spokespersons' ideological
lineages can be traced to the neo-Vedantic universalisms of the eigh
teenth-centuiy religious reformer Rammohan Roy and his Hindu-Unitar
ian society of the Brahmo Samaj. In 1893, at the World's Parliament of
Religions in Chicago, Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, representing the Brahmo
Samaj, similarly attached importance to "faith," "intuition," and
"spiritual" experiences as opposed to doctrinal "religion." Speaking of
the mission of the Brahmo Samaj, he explained, "It [Dogmatism] is the
lifeless mass of complex theology, inherited by tradition, enforced by
external authority, unrealized by spiritual experience, contradicted repeat
edly by the spirit of the times and the ascertained laws of things, that the
Brahma Samaj repudiates...The great and really profound doctrines of
religion are...deposited within the mind in imperceptible accretions by
the deep flow of spiritual impulses."19 He envisioned a spiritual life as one
comprised of intimate experiences of transcendence cultivated with the
aid of devotions to and guidance from prophets. Mazumdar's dichotomy
between dogma and spiritual experience created a Hindu-derived
prototype for the contemporary distinction between religion and
spirituality.
The ecumenical and universalistic neo-Vedantic ideas of the Brahmo

Samaj, which fascinated American Unitarians as early as Rammohan

Roy's articles in the Christian Register, profoundly influenced the tendency
of contemporary transnational gurus to supplant Hindu religiosity with
Advaita Vedantic universalistic spirituality. Swami Vivekananda (and
many of his contemporaries and subsequent gurus) made "a conscious
decision to emphasize a universal, adaptable Vedanta-Yoga, and to keep
aspects of Hinduism that might be construed as cultist or idolatrous in
the background, as a family might put exotic décor in a closet when con
servative guests come over."20 Nearly thirty years later, Paramahansa
Yogananda (founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship) also argued that,
"If by religion we understand only practices, particular tenets, dogmas,

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

customs, and conventions, then there may be gro

of so many religions. But if religion means prima
or the realization of God both within and witho
body of beliefs, tenets, and dogmas, then, strictly
one religion in the world, for there is but one God."
In distancing themselves from the perceived or
ism of Hindu religiosity, many contemporary pr
spirituality through the (also Hindu) ideal of sanatan
nal truth/law). They use the term sanatana dharma
business and potential sectarianism of the religi
ism. In this popular view, sanatana dharma is distinc
"-ism" at all. Proponents distance sanatana dharm
religion by arguing that it is instead a way of being
of values, focused on the personal experience of
scendent God. Furthermore, one may accept san
altering one's prior allegiance to a particular rel
caveat proves particularly useful when appealing
non-Hindu global audiences. While Hindus may be linked together
through sacred geography, ethnicity, ritual actions, and an inherited
wealth of religious scriptures, modern followers of sanatana dharma need
only ascribe to a "philosophy of life," which can coexist with a variety
of religious beliefs and practices.
Amma's movement uses this categorical distinction to advocate a form
of religious tolerance in which devotees are encouraged to maintain their
extant religious worldviews but also fold themselves into Amma's religios
ity. Amma often highlights the parallels between the various world reli
gions, from which she concludes, "though expressed in different ways,
the principle conveyed here is the same. The import of all these sayings is
that: As the same Soul, or Atman, abides in all things, we must see and
serve all as One. It is the people's distorted intellect that makes them inter
pret these principles in a limited way."22 Amma's interpretation attempts
to minimize differences and highlight similarities among world religions,
but ultimately she reads each religion through the lens of Advaita Vedantic
monism: "we must see and serve all as One."
Beneath this ecumenical surface, one finds that sanatana dharma is in
actuality a recoding of Hinduism, for example, Amma says, "The great
souls living in different countries during different epochs gave their

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

disciples instructions on how to attain God (or t

These instructions later became different relig
India became Sanatana Dharma consists of the e
values, and ethical teachings that were revealed
Self-realized souls as their own experience, [sic]
known as Hinduism. It is all encompassing."2
sanatana dharma is not only proto-Hinduism, but it
for all world religions. When intertwined with
sanatana dharma becomes the underlying spiritua
and India, the sacred geography of its genesis,
world. As Amma says, "Every place has a heart ce
India is the heart center of the world. Sanatana Dharma, which
originated here in India, is the source of all other paths. When the v
word 'Bharatam' [India] is heard, we experience the pulse of peace,
beauty and light. The reason is that Bharat is the land of the mahatmas.
It is the mahatmas who transmit the life force not only to India, but to
the whole world."24 Sanatana dharma is proto-Hinduism without the bag
gage of religion, imagined as transcendent, eternal, value and ethics
based, ecumenical, and above all based in the internal experiences of
individuals. Much like the inclusivism of liberal Protestants, to which it
is often a respondent, this type of rhetoric becomes a similarly inclusi
vistic theology, a topic to which I will return shortly.
The ideology of the eternal, unchanging sanatana dharma combines
with neo-Vedantic monism and as such subsumes difference into a meta

category that coincides with one particular Hindu sectarian ideology. In

it there is no space for or acceptance of the cultural encounter of radica
difference; in fact, it is the very substance of multiculturalism—differ
ence—that is undermined. The universalistic monism of neo-Vedantic

philosophy, while often articulated in service of multiculturalism, inter

faith dialogue, and ecumenism, is in actuality its antithesis. For example
like Yogananda cited previously, Amma denies the actuality of diversity
among world religions when she asserts that there is only one omnipre
ent omnipotent God, whom various religions envision in different forms.
She says,

Gods? There are not many gods. There is only one God. The differ
ent forms are only to enable people to adopt and use the form

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

which they like, according to their mental tendencie

the goal is attained easily. People in different cou
by different names. God is not many because of
girl is looked upon as a sister by her brother and as
husband. The younger brother sees her as his elde
is no change in the person; she is the same girl. In
the Power is one but the names differ.25

Herein lies the commonly heard neo-Vedantic so

of deities in the Hindu pantheon, first implemented
period as a response to colonial and orientalist crit
ism. But instead of smoothing over differences betw
Shaktas and Vaishnavas, here the suppression of
ences takes on a globalized scale interlocuting betw
It is this interlocutive impulse between world reli
ates the displacement of the category of religion in
tic spirituality. It has at its heart the pragmatic
(and often conflicting) ideologies. In her discours
the blame for wars and social injustices at the fe
gious divisiveness. Speaking to the United Nation
2000, Amma said, "The very words 'nation' and 're
division and diversity."26 Whereas "true religion" is
ality that recognizes that "there is one Truth tha
creation"27 In one of her most commonly emplo
explains that "religion" is the husk, while "spirit
In other words, we must shuck the external propert
prevent us from enjoying its essence, spirituality
focusing on the essence of the religious principl
sion, we focus on the external rituals and traditi
religion to religion. That is how these religions,
meant to foster peace and a sense of unity among
tal in spreading war and conflict. If we are willin
tial principles of religions, without being overly
external features and superficial aspects, religion
for world peace."28 Thus, she maintains that we m
from religions (plural) to spirituality (singular) in or
ronment that minimizes religious conflict and p

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

unity. She accentuates what she believes to be the

love and compassion in order to argue for a spir
from the sectarianism and differences in ortho
humanity into various religious allegiances. Prag
this shift in focus as a necessary component to u
perity among the diverse populations of the world's
However, in this case as well, her framing of
gion as spirituality cannot be dislocated from th
she derives her inspiration: Hindu religiosity. A
promoting universalistic principles that transcend any particular
religion, when in fact she is espousing a paradigmatically Hindu philos
ophy, championed as universal. She says, "My children, according to
Hinduism, there is Divinity in everything; everything is an embodiment
of God. Humans and God are not two; they are one. Divinity lies latent
in every human being. Hinduism teaches that anyone can realize the
Divinity within through self effort. The Creator and creation are not
separate. The Creator (God) manifests as creation. In Hinduism, to real
ize this non-dual truth is considered to be the ultimate goal of life."29
In this way, like her predecessors of the Hindu Renaissance and many
of her contemporaries, Amma transforms the Advaita Vedantic strain of
Hindu religiosity into the hallmark philosophy of Hinduism. In so
doing, she propagates and reinforces the contemporary depiction of
Hinduism (in its entirety) as Advaita Vedantic monism, a (misrepresen
tation that is particularly ubiquitous in global arenas. Amma, like
many other modern transnational gurus, extracts this transidiomatic
theolinguistic register of universalism—exemplified through the lan
guage of spirituality—for its ease of transference and its ability to reso
nate with diverse audiences. She deploys Advaita Vedantic universalism
alternately in the reductionistic modality as representative of the whole
of Hinduism or in the disassociative modality as entirely unaffiliated
with Hinduism in favor of a tenuous assertion of its roots in

non-denominational spirituality.

Ecumenism and tolerance

In either case, gurus espousing the universalistic monism of Advaita
Vedantic theology under the rubric of spirituality often accompany it
with claims to its ecumenism and tolerance toward other religious world

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

views. While modern gurus often promote ecume

universalistic ideals, it does not take much probin
to find their underlying belief that ecumenism and
the hallmarks of a distinctively Hindu brand of
ambivalence toward the category of the Hindu that
terns of affiliation: non-Hindu (universalistic/spirit
the particular theology of Advaita Vedanta and H
often valorized humanistic ideals (ecumenism and
nism and tolerance Hindu ideals as they are ofte
Observing the religio-political advances of the H
thirty years, one might answer a vehement no. B
the rhetoric of modern transnational gurus who
lowings through the implementation of a theolin
Vedantic universalism might suggest a qualified yes.
Like many debates, perhaps a closer investigati
this case those of the Hindu use of the term "tol
toward a more productive and perhaps even more
Hindu vision of religious tolerance is more aptly
meaning that it validates and includes theologies
other religions. Peter van der Veer effectively a
conception of religious tolerance is a product of
history of ideas." It is an Enlightenment discour
abstraction and universalization of religion that i
discourse of 'modernity.'" As a doctrinal notion r
"no specific place in Hindu discursive traditions,
incorporated so that "it has come to dominate Hin
duism, to the point where tolerance is now view
important characteristics of Hinduism."30
Hindus not only tolerate other religiosities, bu
them through its theological system of what Paul
chical relativism."31 This formulation depends o
ion that avatars (bodily manifestations) of the
formless (Brahman) operate in different ways wi
on a hierarchical scale of importance. In van der
general idea seems to be that the other paths do
as heretical but that they are inferior and thus cater to inferior
beings."32 We can see this tendency in a multiplicity of textual and

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

practical examples within the complexities of sectarian

various types of Hindus (from Shiva portrayed as a go
tee of Krishna] in the region of Braj, to Rama bhakta
subordinating Krishna to Rama). This same hierarchic
inclusivism that characterizes the historical relatio
sects also exemplifies the manner in which contempor
relate to other religions. Much to the chagrin of Chris
in India, Hindus demonstrate a willingness to incorpor
and deities of other religions into the Hindu pantheon
Hindus have a legacy of incorporating extra-Hindu id
extensive theological corpus often demonstrating parallel themes
already endemic to the scriptures of the Hindu traditions. With a tradi
tion as diverse and multifarious as Hinduism, it is relatively easy to find
nearly any theological or secular ideology somewhere in its voluminous
textual histoiy.
With regard to the contemporaiy Hindu claims to be the theological
birthplace of religious tolerance and ecumenism, many proponents
again use the concept of sanatana dharma in order to promote an inclusi
vistic stance. Amma iterates a common assertion in saying, "Hinduism
isn't against anyone. Nor does it require anyone to give up his or her
religion or faith. In fact, it considers it an unrighteous act to destroy
someone's faith. According to Sanatana Dharma, all religions are differ
ent pathways to the same goal. It doesn't negate anything. Everything is
included. For a Hindu there is no such thing as a separate religion. Origi
nally, such a concept didn't exist in India."33 At the 1893 World's Parlia
ment of Religions, Swami Vivekananda famously declared a similar
interpretation, "I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the
world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in
universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true."34

A Hinduism without religion

Amma argues for both the universalistic monism of Advaita Vedanta
(iterated as non-Hindu spirituality) and the presumed Hindu proclivity
toward hierarchical relativism (iterated as ecumenism). In essence, she
attempts simultaneously to both expand and transcend the category of
Hinduism. She articulates a theological position which on the surface
appears to be quite ecumenical and palatable to interfaith dialogues, to

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

which she is often invited at the most prestigious le

presents her worldview as "spiritual" instead of "reli
regarded as a particularly effective mediatrix between t
ing voices of various religious traditions. For exampl
Summit during Amritavarsham50 in 2003, Shri. Bawa J
eral of the World Council of Religions addressed Amma
"It is Your mission and responsibility to unite the r
the world together in harmony and peace. You are
gious institutions or traditions.36 Many of her audien
most ardent devotees also believe that in adhering to
are being "spiritual, but not religious" and that their
side the boundaries of the religion of Hinduism whe
philosophical foundations that enable them to make t
derive from within Hinduism. The Advaita Vedantic monism with which

they defend their ecumenism, universalism, and religio-cultural relativ

ism signifies Shankara's hallmark contribution to Hindu theology.
Again, even when employing the discourse of spirituality as opposed
to religion, Hindu roots are not far below the surface. Amma says,
"India's culture is spirituality. The origin of spirituality, though it is
beginningless, to speak in empirical terms, is the Vedas. Therefore, to
preserve, protect and spread the Vedic dharma is equal to preserving,
protecting and spreading the moral and spiritual values of the country
which will help to uplift and unify its people. This alone will protect the
country from a great down-fall."37 Herein, the thin veneer of ecumenical
spirituality shows its roots to be in the Vedas, the foundational scrip
tures for much of contemporaiy Hindu religiosity (in name if not always
in practice). Amma's statement, laced with somewhat uncharacteristic
Hindu nationalistic overtones [India = Vedic "spirituality"], reveals that
even her idea of spirituality (as opposed to religion) must be understood
as culturally embedded within a specifically Hindu cultural and discur
sive heritage, despite its pretense toward universality.
Many devotees wholeheartedly imbibe this categorical distancing
between their spiritual worldviews and the perceived entrapments of
religion and more particularly of Hinduism. They envision Amma as one
who has Hindu roots, but transcends Hinduism and religion in general.
One senior brahmacari (renunciate aspirant), who lives at her ashram
headquarters in India explained, "She [Amma] transcends the religion, the

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

Hindu religion as such. And personally I believe she is th

ism—because it is an all-encompassing religion. It w
It does not say that this is the right path for you o
for you. You can worship God or not worship Go
form, name, or formless. This is total freedom. This is what Amma does.
You can worship Christ and be spiritual; you can worship Rama and be
spiritual. Amma exemplifies the Hindu tradition to the max. She tran
scends Hinduism, she is not religious; but she represents Hinduism, the best of Hin
duism. There is nothing religious about it, merely spiritual."38 Notice
how he defines Amma's discursive position toward Hinduism quite accu
rately, explaining that she simultaneously transcends and exemplifies/
represents Hinduism. There is also significance in his concluding value
judgment that the "best of Hinduism" is what is spiritual, while by con
trast that which is not the "best of Hinduism" must be religious. A mid
dle-aged Euro-American Amma devotee who developed her own eclectic
spirituality while living in San Francisco, the American heartland of
spiritual enterprise and exploration, explained, "Religion for me is static
and narrow and dogmatic...But when we get into the spiritual life and
the spiritual way of living, what we call spiritual—and it's really scien
tific, it's really scientific—then, when we can merge ourselves and our
heart with science then that will be the final [stage]."39 A Syrian-Ameri
can self-defined "liberal Muslim" and Amma devotee iterated founda

tionally Advaita Vedantic principles to me when he explained th

"Truth is truth, God is God, and it is expressed in different form
vis different traditions."40
In supplanting religion with spirituality, Amma creates a the
that resonates with many Hindus who ascribe to neo-Vedantic th
while simultaneously appealing to the inclusive perennialist ideo
of the variety of movements often characterized as "New Age" or
physical religion" in the United States. Many of these argue that "
all essentially one; all religions point to the same truth; the glo
whole; unity prevails within diversity."41 The complex cultural e
ter between proponents of neo-Vedantic theology and metaphysi
gions in the United States not only fuels these culturally ad
discourses but also supports practical commonalities among popul
of Indian Hindu and American spiritualist devotees who inter
many contemporary transnational guru movements.

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

In Amma's branding statements directed at re

tional populations of potential devotees, she often
ences to Hindu scriptures and Hindu orthopraxy
ambiguous and generalized terminology. One of
that Amma uses, "Love and Serve" condenses h
philosophy into two simple ideas, notably two
definitive reference to her Hindu roots. Nor does
statement "Embracing The World" (branded Sum
reference to her Hindu roots. Instead, Amma's or
endeavors to depict her as a global spiritual teac
to healing suffering and contributing to human
the world.

One might conclude then that Amma and her organization have truly
globalized and with so many of her discourses emphasizing the universal
and spiritual aspects of religion, even to the point of "transcending" reli
gion, that she has expanded beyond her religious roots that locate her
within the Hindu traditions. However, that is not the case. In fact, it is
quite the opposite. Amma's organization instantiates classically Hindu
religious ideas, scriptural references, devotional music, and ritual prac
tices as a matter of routine. Functionally speaking, it supports a common
place Hindu administrative structure of swamT-s, brahmachârilnî-s, and seva
ites (hierarchically stratified in descending layers of religious authority) as
well as multiple geographic centers in her ashrams and local satsangs
(congregational gatherings).42 It also routinely incorporates the full range
of traditional Hindu rituals such as darshan, pada puja, dratr, homas, and
special pujas and yajnas. In addition, Amma's movement encourages devo
tees to progress spiritually through daily mantra recitation, in-home puja
ceremonies, and by practicing Amma's patented meditation technique,
Integrated Amrita Meditation (LAM). Local satsangs and ashram communi
ties congeal the devotional community and revivify Amma's presence by
sponsoring rituals on special occasions that coincide with traditional
Hindu festivals and religious celebrations; many also sponsor weekend
meditation and yoga retreats, public discourses, sankTrtan (collective
bhajan singing), and seva (selfless service) projects.
Contemporary transnational guru movements of the present, thanks
to a long legacy of predecessors who broke down cultural barriers, are
largely free to express their particular religiosities without consternation

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

from the general public. While there are certai

warranted than others), contemporary gurus in
fewer doors to break down, and they no longer
coverage and trigger extremes of rapture and h
communities are still occasionally viewed askan
American populace, the ideas of karma yoga, h
tionalism, and ashram retreats have become int
scopic lens of popular American alternative rel
multiculturalism and the appreciation of diver
umphed over the assimilationist paradigms wh
nant throughout the majority of American hist
from India have hardly changed their theologies
ments. They continue to implement the "spiritu
nism of Advaita Vedanta and tuck the particularities of its Hindu
religious context in the closet (especially when speaking to diverse pub
lic audiences), much like their historical predecessors.
In essence, Swami Vivekananda spoke with as of yet unchallenged
authority when he created the hierarchy between the "high spiritual
flights of the Vedanta philosophy" and "the low ideas of idolatiy with
its multifarious mythology," which he presented to excited audiences at
the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions and later to packed lecture
halls across the United States. As Aravamudan notes, "The orientalists'
broad delineation and separation of philosophical doctrine from popular
religion—highbrow texts from lowbrow culture—is an early version of
modern Hinduism already at work."44 Here, Aravamudan points us to a
key component of this puzzle: the distinction between "progressive"
spirituality and "backwards" Hindu religion reifies orientalist concep
tions of cultural and religious hierarchies.
That said, the orthopraxies, if not the rhetoric of contemporary
gurus is changing. While still espousing the transidiomatic theolinguistic
register of Advaita Vedanta, many contemporary transnational gurus
have created cottage industries by offering services in particular devo
tional rituals, life-cycle ritual ceremonies, Vedic sacrifices (yajnas and
homas), and so on. Amma's movement, in particular, demonstrates the
discordant juxtaposition between universalistic "SBNR" rhetoric derived
from Advaita Vedantic sources (often espoused to audiences who are
unaware of its extraction from a Hindu context) and classically Hindu

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

ritual practices. The popular ritualism of the movem

shift in the multiculturalist American public's valida
while its generalized rhetoric provides a blanket of
still uncomfortable with the influx of "foreign" religio
In the cultural encounter between East and West,
adapted both their religious products and their rhe
audiences. Today, the product remains to some degre
rhetoric continues to adapt in order to allay fear
cultural translation. The contemporary attachment
spirituality, an example of the transidiomatic theoli
neo-Vedantic universalism, signifies not the ecumen
logue that it often attempts to endeavor, but rather th
of the discomfort with cultural difference. Its nearly u
tion among transnational [Hindu] gurus is ample evid
ticultural aspirations have not yet reached fruition a
of others, not as essentially the same, but as fundament

Conclusion

At the outset, I asked not only how, but why contemporary transnational
gurus distance themselves from the category of religion and, in partic
lar, that of Hinduism. In addressing the why, thus far I have argued pr
marily that gurus use the language spirituality in order to reach divers
populations and to resonate with Christocentric populations in partic
lar (many of whom have become disillusioned with mainline Christia
ity). I have also suggested that gurus employ the non-denominationa
language of spirituality in order to stymie the potential for religio-cu
tural conflict in our rapidly globalizing world. Additionally, I would offer
two hypotheses that may warrant further consideration: first, that these
maxims reflect tendencies inherent to multiculturalism in the United
States, and second, that gurus continue to perceive these cultural trans
lations to be necessary in order to garner favor with American
audiences.

Multiculturalism in the United States suggests that cultural commu

nities be allowed and even encouraged to promote their particular eth
nic heritage, so long as it does not overtly clash with the overarching
commitment to proclaimed American values, such as liberty, democracy,

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

and freedom. But often this "heritage, or 'cultur

living set of social relations but as a timeless trai
talist understanding of the static Other in contrast
mism of European cultures.45 Vijay Prashad rig
understanding of the cultures of ethnic groups
as static undergirds a fundamental discomfort w
difference and similarity. "Either people are all
fundamentally different. There is little patience
though people share much they are also dissimila
uncomfortable ambiguity, contemporaiy gurus
theolinguistics of the similarity (or even samene
religions, perhaps in fear that their overt recog
oppositional differences would eliminate their c
appeal to diverse populations (which would als
ences and subsequent revenues). In this sense, the
an expansion of the tendency to construct avenu
complex territories of diversity, which is evident i
of multiculturalism.

Contemporary transnational gurus may also fear that espousing

particular and foreign theologies to American audiences might place
their movements within the more dangerous category of religious zeal
ots proclaiming radical differences—in contemporaiy parlance often sub
sumed under the reductionistic categoiy of "cult," or worse yet,
"terrorist."47 In fact, we might view the contemporary trend to recon
ceptualize Hindu orthodoxies into the universalistic theolinguistic regis
ter of Advaita Vedanta (voiced as spirituality) as a method for Hindus in
the American diaspora to distance themselves from the generalized anti
Islamic sentiment directed at Muslims. If Hindus alter their orthodoxies

to present themselves as the epitome of tolerance and ecumenicalism,

they may escape the fate of their Muslim brethren, who are often con
demned in the American public eye for their "fundamentalist" and
"orthodox" religiosities. While this explanation supposes that contempo
rary gurus engage in calculated market research and modify their mes
sages to suit particular audiences, the astute marketing teams in many
of these transnational corporations make it a plausible possibility. And if
so, then it might suggest that Americans of today are perceived to be
quite similar to our compatriot audiences at the 1893 World's Parliament

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 AMANDA J. HUFFER

of Religions, who were largely delighted to discove

nanda's discourses a universalistic, ecumenical, and tolerant version of
neo-Vedantic "spirituality," but rigidly opposed to the "heathen religion"
of Hinduism. If underlying orientalism and the intolerance of true cul
tural difference continue to demand the translation of much of Hindu

religiosity into the language of spirituality, then I fear that we m

unwittingly create the foundations for a fearsome form of religion
will call itself Hindu, a form that feels it must distinguish itself from
discourses of "spirituality" by claiming its authenticity through t
defining characteristics of its presumed antitheses: fundamentalis
orthodoxy, and intolerance. And as so many young South Asian im
grants search for tools with which to represent an "authentic" Hi
identity, this may be a dire consequence indeed.

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Amritanandamayi Ma, 2004, "Living in Harmony," An address at the Millennium

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Amritanandamayi Ma, 2006a, "Understanding and Collaboration Between Religions,"

Delivered upon Amma's acceptance of the Fourth Annual James Park Morton Interfaith
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Amritaswarupananda, Swami, 1991a, Awaken Children! Dialogues with Sri Sri Mata Amrita

nandamayi Ma, Vol. II, San Ramon, CA: Mata Amritanandamayi Center.

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Notes

1. See Kurien, A Place at the Multicultural Table.

2. Srinivas, 91.
3. See Vitello, "Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for the Soul of Yoga."
4. Chryssides, 203.
5. Williamson, 4.
6. Philip Goldberg supplies a similar list of seven "core Vedantic principles that we in the
West have adapted." Goldberg, 10-11.
7. Dempsey, 186.
8. See Albanese, A Republic of Mind and Spirit.
9. Balibar, 146-74.
10. Badiou, 109.
11. Ibid., 98.
12. See Aravamudan, Guru English.
13. Robert Wuthnow, "Spirituality and Spiritual Practice," The Blackwell Companion to Sociol
ogy of Religion, 307.
14. Riesebrodt, 3.
15. James, 31.
16. Goldberg, 344.
17. Ibid., 22.
18. Fuller, 5.

19. Leaders of the Brahmo Samaj, 160.

20. Goldberg, 80.
21. Yogananda's speech at the International Conference of Religious Liberals, Boston, MA
(1920), cited in Goldberg, 113.
22. Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Understanding and Collaboration Between Reli
gions," 22.
23. Amritanandamayi Ma, The Eternal Truth, 10.
24. Amma, Chief Executive of Dharma, Immortal Bliss, 1st Quarter 2004, San Ramon: Mata
Amritanandamayi Ma Center, 27.
25. Swami Amritaswarupananda, Awaken Children! Vol. II, 184.
26. Amritanandamayi Ma, "Living in Harmony," 20.
27. Ibid., 23.
28. Ibid., 28.

29. Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, The Eternal Truth, 5.

30. van der Veer, 66-7.

31. Cited in van der Veer, Religious Nationalism, 68, see also Halbfass, India and Europe, 403-18.
32. van der Veer, 68.

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HINDUISM WITHOUT RELIGION: AMMA'S MOVEMENT IN AMERICA

33. Here, Amma rightly alludes to the fact that the term "r
Western construct that has no direct correlate in Indie thoug
has been raised and debated among many scholars (Asad 199
Dubuisson 2003). I would also like to express gratitude to Pan
that this entire discourse oscillating between the terms "reli
"Hinduism" suggests a struggle with the modern dilemma of
onto Indie ones. For example, if it were to adhere to indigen
discourse might focus on Sanskritic terms such as "dharma, "sa
The fact that the terms of debate are instead "religion," "sp
suggests that neo-Hinduism draws its tools of identity constru
Indie sources and cannot be extricated from the developmen
standings of subjectivity which emerged in dialogue with col
Amritanandamayi Ma, The Eternal Truth, 21.
34. Swami Vivekananda, "Response to Welcome," World's Par
September 11, 1893.
35. Amma has presented on collaboration between the world
of World Religions (1993), at the Interfaith Celebration of th
UN General Assembly at the Millennium World Peace Summi
Leaders (2000), at the Interfaith Center of New York (2006) u
Fourth Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award, and man
36. Far-Reaching, Immortal Bliss, 1st Quarter 2004, San Ramo
Center, 25.

37. Swami Amritaswarupananda, Awaken Children! Vol. Ill, 297.

38. interview with Surya, San Ramon programs, June 6, 2008.
39. Ibid.

40. Interview with Iqbal, San Ramon programs, June 9, 2008.

41. Heelas, 219.
42. I use the notation "seva-ites" to reflect the Sanskrit root of the term, however, within
the movement these volunteers are referred to with the Sanskrit/English hybrid term
"sevites."

43. Goldberg, 328.

44. Aravamudan, 32.
45. Prashad, 112.
46. Ibid.

47. Here we might understand ISKCON's troubled history of legal accusations and s
in the United States to be a potential warning to Hindu new religious movements to
consequences of espousing particularistic theologies that demand a high level of co
ment from American followers.

CROSSCURRENTS

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