In Search of the Divine Mother: The Mystery of Mother Meera Hardcover - 1998

From the publisher

A young and undeniably powerful holy woman. A writer whose spiritual longing is gloriously fulfilled while his personal quest is fractured and temporarily subverted. In Search of the Divine Mother is an epic drama revealing, for the first time, the full story of the contemporary mystic known to her thousands of devotees as Mother Meera.

Tracing the history and significance of the mysterious Indian woman who is visited by hundreds of people--easterners and westerners alike--each week in her modest German countryside home, writer Martin Goodman reveals how and why Mother Meera, born an uneducated peasant in rural India, is considered by many to be the ultimate incarnation of the feminine divine in our time.

A former devoted insider given unique access to Mother Meera's inner circle, Goodman brings his considerable talent to this absorbing and wonderfully literate account of his own mystical encounters with Mother Meera, which began with his first visit in 1991, and the remarkable events that comprise her life and astonishing spiritual work.

In 1995, Mother Meera authorized Goodman to write her official biography, granting him unprecedented access to her life and her history. The book he wrote was completely destroyed on Mother Meera's orders. This is the work that rose from the ashes of those burned pages--a deeper, more subjective, and broader ranging volume that layers biography with the mesmerizing story of a true spiritual adventure. Filled with all the beauty and drama of a mythic novel, it yields a remarkable portrait of a genuine contemporary mystic on a crucial mission to bring divine light into the world.

Goodman's tale is one of clear insight and profound admiration. Having distanced himself from Mother Meera and her organization, he is uniquely able to provide a truthful and fair-minded reflection of the phenomena that surround Mother Meera and to add new depth to the stories of her that are familiar to readers of such works as Andrew Harvey's Hidden Journey and her own, published works. While he readily admits that she is not infallible, Goodman nonetheless reveals Mother Meera's true gift of opening up the divinity we each hold within us--she exists, he writes, "as an open door through which we can see and meet God."

I am walking down a hill toward a German village because people say God lives there. She is at home for the evening and receiving visitors.

Born in 1960 in a village in southern India, a sickly child named Kamala is soon "discovered" and guided out of poverty and onto the world stage as an incarnation of the Divine Mother on earth. Mother Meera, as she came to be known, is a figure shrouded in mystery and wonder. She holds court in a small town in Germany, where over 40,000 people from around the world have gone to seek enlightenment in her presence. She teaches only through her profound, silent gaze and remarkable touch, and asks nothing--no money, no allegiance--from those who choose to follow her.

For the thousands who have visited her, and the thousands more who have wondered at her power and widespread appeal, In Search of the Divine Mother offers a riveting inside account of one man's search to discover the truth about Mother Meera. Through his beautifully written and richly textured work, celebrated novelist Martin Goodman creates both a magnificent tale of spiritual transformation and a fascinating profile of a true mystic living in our time.