Anandamayi Ma (April 30, 1896 – August 27, 1982) was an Indian spiritual leader.  Sivananda Saraswati of the Divine Life Society described her as “the most perfect flower the Indian soil has produced.”  —Wikipedia

Hinduism has given rise to many renowned female spiritual teachers over the millennia. Among the most famous of recent times was Sri Anandamayi Ma (1896-1982, “Blissful Mother”), a guru from Bengal who was born in a very pool orthodox brahmin family.  Often seen sitting in samadhi as a child, but nonetheless scrupulously carrying out all her domestic chores, she was married at a young age to a kind young man. Their marriage was never consummated for when he tried to approach her, he received a powerful electric shock.  When she was twenty years old, she began spontaneously adopting advanced yogic postures and reciting ancient Sanskrit texts and mantras that she had never learned from any human teacher.  She was suspected of being possessed, and exorcists were called, but they were unsuccessful in stopping her spiritual expressions; one exorcist even experienced severe pain until Ma healed him.  An inner voice told her that the power manifesting in her was “Your Shakti.  You are everything.”  Ma later explained, “I realized that the Universe was all my own manifestation.”  When she was twenty-two, she was guided to give herself mantra initiation, thus adopting the roles of both guru and disciple.  People began flocking to her for darshan, healing and spiritual counseling.  Detached from worldly concerns and thoughts, she ate very little and ultimately stopped feeding herself, so her devotes tried to hand-feed her.  Following only the inner guidance, in total disregard for cultural and religious mores–especially restrictions on women–she sometimes gave brilliant teachings in Vedanta philosophy (even though she was nearly illiterate), traveled unpredictably, attracted stray animals by her aura of love, and reportedly manifested siddhis (spiritual powers) such as appearing at several places at the same time,  changing her size, helping people at distant locations, multiplying food, and transforming people by her joyous and peaceful presence.  Ultimately millions of people became her followers, regarding her as the Goddess in human form, but she reportedly did not consider herself a guru, nor did she recognize anyone as her disciples–she saw only Herself everywhere.

–Mary Pat Fisher from Living Religions