Born with a smile

Amma's mother, Damayanti, has described Amma's birth in the following way: "The baby looked at me with a penetrating gaze and a benevolent smile on her tiny face."

Amma was born in Parayakadavu, a small fishing village in Kerala, south India. She was born to simple, pious parents. Her father, Sugunanandan, was a fishmonger. When Damayanti gave birth to Amma on September 27, 1953, the birth was quick and silent. Damayanti felt almost no pain at all. Damayanthi looked at the baby's face and was amazed to see the baby's dark eyes looking directly into hers with a sweet smile.

Later, when talking about her birth, Amma said she had no feelings of strangeness when she came into this world, that everything was so utterly familiar to her and that when one knows everything about the world one can only smile. She said, "When one beholds the entire universe as a play of Consciousness, what else can one do but smile?"