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In Search of the Divine Mother: The Mystery of Mother Meera

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This book is a classic spiritual text, destined to last through the ages.

It is a 20th century Gospel, inviting the reader into a meeting with a teacher......and then into a uniquely 20th century perspective--of being conscious enough to witness the evolution through love, alienation, and growth beyond pain and betrayal. Something the original Gospels are not conscious enough to do.

This is a Gospel of Self-discovery, a unique testament to the harrowing search for authenticity. It rewards re-reading as much as St John of the Cross, or any of the handful of the great mystics.

Goodman does not put himself across as a great mystic; far from it. He studiously brings us into the reality of his search. For any totally honest spiritual writer--and in this arena Goodman has few peers--that search is turmoil leading to light. The honesty in this text is almost unique in literature--only Kafka's "Letter to My Father" comes to mind.

With Goodman we intimately experience the entire range of the human spiritual life: the flush of devotional love, the alienation of the guru's rejection, and the self-integration beyond all the pain.

How does mother Meera come off? As a human being with profound spiritual gifts, who throws a very dark shadow by claiming to be so completely divine that she is not a human being. Mies van der Rohe said, "God is in the details." In Goodman's account, we see the details in someone who claims to be God, and the details add up to a very real human being with unique gifts but a profoundly unintegrated human personality.

How does Goodman come off? As thoroughly honest; as much more honest than his guru Mother Meera. As someone who wants not to compel the reader to worship him, but to help their own deep search for who they are.

We end the book wanting not to be someone who thinks they are God, but, with Goodman, to hold in the daily hands of miracle the broken perplexity that is the grace of being human.

Mother Meera claims to be God. Goodman plays a quieter and infinitely more subtle music, in lapidary prose.......in the end, who is saner, who helps the reader more, who do we trust?

For me there is no question. Read the book, and experience your own propulsion into self-trust, integration, and maturity.

This is a valuable contribution to spiritual literature, with a focus on the central problem of how Westerners can absorb Eastern wisdom without denying their own individuality. Perhaps we are finally coming of age, challenging the Eastern model of unquestioning surrender and finding the courage to affirm our own intelligence. The best part of the book is in the last few chapters where the author shares his hard-won insight and offers a sane view of the paradox of Mother Meera as both human and divine, as fallible and omniscient. I found the author's recounting of Mother Meera's life a bit unsettling, not being sure where exactly he was coming from. Apart from the inconsistency in point of view, I would recommend this book to anyone who is sorting out the difficulties inherent in dealing with a spiritual master, especially when that master is from another culture.

The world of guru disciple relationship is a confusing one, and this book has hugely helped me in sorting out my own experience. It is the only reliable information on Mother Meera I have found, and it helps so much to know the human story of her life, after my experience of her as a great master. I wish everyone who is working wiht a teacher in any tradition could read this book, because I believe that it is the most healing and clarifying book on working with a guru that exists.

I have been struggling in my relationship with a spiritual teacher for the last year or so, and looking for solid advice about how to understand it all. This is what I got from this book, and it helped me a lot to just see where I am in my life, and what I have been looking for from others, instead of finding within myself.

The first two chapters of this book are quite well done. Martin gives a good intellectual appraisal of Mother Meera, and says a lot of the right things, but I think he misses the deeper message. He makes many personal judgements about Mother that reflect an undercurrent of his own agenda and personal disatisfaction despite the attempt he says he made to "edit out his anger". He also trivializes her development to be largely the result of a manipulative uncle. I guess that is his perogative as an author, but it casts an unfair shadow on this woman's incredible talent and free offering of Love to the world. I left this book feeling subtly manipulated by Martins personal agenda that he has projected on Mother Meera. I would not recommend reading this book, other than the first two chapters or at least not until someone has already had the opportunity to experience being in her presence.

In Search of the Divine Mother by Martin Goodman is a very human attempt to understand the mystery of the incarnation of the Divine. Christians claim this mystery to explain how Jesus, a man born of woman, was also the Christ: God come to Earth to redeem humans of sin. The gospels of the New Testament are the Christian story of how this happened 2,000 years ago. Mr. Goodman took as his starting point Mother Meera, a woman born in 1960 in the Andhra Pradesh region of India who claims to be an avatar (or incarnation) of the Hindu goddess the Divine Mother.

The book is in three parts. In the first part, "A Journey into Devotion" we learn how Goodman and others receive "darshan" (being in the presence of God) from Mother Meera in her home in the small German village of Thalheim where she has lived since 1985. "Her darshan consists of a ritual, where she will touch a person's head, and then look into his eyes. During this process, she reportedly 'unties knots' in the person's subtle system and permeates him with light. She doesn't charge any money for doing so and she will not give lectures." -- WIKIPEDIA.

The second and main part of the book is called "The Life Story." Goodman was encouraged by Mother Meera and her followers to go to India and to write a book about her life. They gave him a list of contacts and he went. He interviewed these people and others who knew Mother Meera, Venkat Reddy, the uncle who discovered her, and Adilakshmi, her devoted friend and follower. Among those he interviewed were Mr. Reddy's family, whom he left to pursue his devotion to the child-god he had found among them. Here Goodman explores the question of how the Divine manifests itelf in the human. Does the human know of their divinity from birth? How does their divinity manifest itself on the material plane? How does a very human creature respond to their divine nature? How do others, who have no knowledge of the Divine, interpret the divine spark in someone they know? These are difficult questions that are not easily answered in the limited vocabulary of human discourse. Goodman makes a valiant attempt yet, as with all writing, we see more of the author than what he is trying to describe.

The third part "A Journey into Life" tells of his attempts to get his words published. Mother Meera and Adilakshmi ask him to delete his first draft and he complies. He struggles with his decision and, in anger, writes a second draft which is also never published. The book we have is a later draft and this last chapter is his attempt to come to terms with his contact with the Divine. He sums up by saying: "Mother Meera gives powerful spiritual transmission that helps people bud into the fullness of life.... I have met a power that comes from Mother Meera, and it has transformed my life. It did not come from her words but from within the silence of her public meetings. ... It is wonderful to know her through her silence alone." He sees her as "a superb channel" of the Divine, that the Divine energy flows through her human form to those who approach her. Yet he seems to be saying that she maintains human form and does not transcend it.

Goodman's devotion to Mother Meera helped him to come to terms with his own homosexuality, something that was also stated by her first biographer Andrew Harvey in his book Hidden Journey. Her unconditional love and silent acceptance were very healing to both men. When her 1997 book Answers Part 2 states that "Homosexuality is against the law of nature," both men are shaken from their devotion. Goodman states: "...since I know with certainty that Mother Meera is wrong in her condemnation of homosexuality, I cannot accept her word on anything else."

This is a wonderfully honest attempt to write about the human experience of the Divine. It will be insightful reading for any who are interested in spiritual growth.

This book is not recomended by to anyone who is serious about Mother Meera,or in finding out true information about Her.
Throughout, Goodmans tone is one of anger and bitterness, which verges at times on hysteria. He was given a commission by Mother to write a book, and when She was displeased with the result, decided to quit being Her devotee.The problem is further compounded by Goodmans homosexuality on one hand, and the nature of his subsequent work on the other. Also, in this book, there is some minor discussion of the work of Sri Aurobindo and Sweet Mother - which M.G. seems dismissive of until he wants to try to use it as ammunition in his battle with Meera.It is very misleading.
One is left wondering just what is Mr. G's agenda?He seems to be among the growing army of those who expect to get all the benefits of yoga without actually submitting themselves to the conditions under which such graces are granted.It's all very well until his ego is challenged......
My advice is don't waste your money on this.

Martin Goodman is clearly a gifted writer, but you can tell that most of his experience has been with short articles. This book is a series of short segments strung together. The book is as much about Martin as it is about Mother Meera. The beautifully decriptive passages about the countryside, etc. were inappropriate for what I thought would be a biography of Mother Meera. I frankly didn't particularly care about the setting, I wanted to know about Mother Meera. The whole discussion about Sweet Mother, Verdat, and everyone else was way too tedious. So, I started to skim the book about 2/3 the way through. Then, I got to the end where the author admits that the energy/motivation underlying the book was his anger (indeed rage) at Mother Meera because she ordered him to destroy his first manuscript, calling it filled with lies. I can certainly understand his anger, but that very anger makes me question the accuracy of everything I'd read to that point. How much of the material was colored/distorted by his rage? I don't know, so am forced to discount it all.

I am not a devotee of Mother Meera so I didn't go into this book with the mindset of someone who was, nor did I get out of it what a devotee would.I read this book because of my interest in Indian spirituality and spirituality in general.

Martin Goodman has a wonderful gift in his writing for making the divine down to Earth and accessible and Mother Meera's story is wonderfully told.

The book itself is an interesting paradox because although Martin Good man acknowledges and is sincere in his belief that Mother Meera has some kind of genuine divine power, he no longer follows or believes in her.

It should be noted that Mother Meera was against this book being published and that started the process of the unraveling of Martin Goodmans devotion to her.