- Maya Tiwari
-
Maya Tiwari, known as Mother Maya (born April 16, 1952)
Tiwari with DeerMaya Tiwari (b. April 16, 1952 in Liverpool Village, Guyana) is a spiritual leader, speaker, and author. Also called "Mother Maya," she is a teacher of Ayurveda and the founder of the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda and Mother Om Mission. [1] She is currently on a 4-year world tour, which she embarked on after speaking at the 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions, spreading her message of ahimsa with an aim of reaching 1 billion people. [2]
Contents
Early life
Maya Tiwari was born in Guyana the daughter of a Brahmin priest, Pandit Bhagawan Ramprasad Tiwari, whose family originated from Lucknow, India.[3]
Thereafter, she became a fashion designer in New York City.[4] The late Sally Kirkland, then Chief Editor of Life Magazine, called Maya's work, "the first of American High Fashion." Her fashion and "Maya" boutiques were featured in Bergdorf Goodman, Henri Bendel's, and Saks Fifth Avenue to Harrods in the UK.[5]
At the age of 23 she was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. Following her complete recovery from cancer, Tiwari returned to her ancestral roots in India and her traditional heritage of Hinduism, eventually becoming a renunciate in the Veda Vyasa tradition.
Spiritual work and teachings
Tiwari spent three years at Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Saylorsburg, PA before relocating to Dayananda Ashram in her motherland of Rishikesh, India where she received her diksha as a sannyasin from her guru. She returned to the US in 1981 to establish Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, the first school for Ayurveda studies in the US.[6][7] Wise Earth Ayurveda is based in the knowledge of the Greater Vedas.[8]
On Mother's Day in 1998, Tiwari founded the Mother Om Mission (MOM), a charitable organization that provides Ayurveda education and services to at-risk communities in New York's inner cities and Guyana, South America.
Among the healing programs pioneered by Tiwari are Living Ahimsa — the Power of Peace and Inner Medicine Healing, teaching the cultivation of harmony and non-violence in our thoughts, speech, and actions in order to heal ourselves and the world. Hinduism Today writes, "The Living Ahimsa Vrata mission makes the spirit of nonviolence a palpable reality for individuals [...] So far, over 143,956 have taken the vow. The vow can be taken in person or online. Central to the vow is a thirty-minute meditation twice a day. Aum is chanted 108 times, two times, followed by contemplation on key Hindu Vedic verses."[9]
Inner Medicine Healing is based in the understanding that each one of us has the ability to heal ourselves.[10]
A part of Tiwari's Inner Medicine Healing program is Honoring Ancestors.[3] Another part, the Cosmic Memory Principle refers to the collective refers to timeless memories of all species and life forms in the universe.[11]
In 2010, Maya Tiwari made the decision to renounce her monastic title and spiritual moniker—Her Holiness, Sri Swami Mayatitananda—and, as she puts it, “walk a simpler and more accessible life in service of the populations in need." [12]
Published works
- Ayurveda: A Life of Balance (Healing Arts Press, 1994 ISBN 9780892814909)
- Ayurveda: Secrets of Healing (Lotus Press, 1995 ISBN 9780914955153)
- The Path of Practice: A Woman's Book of Healing with Food, Breath, and Sound (Ballantine Books, 2000 (1st Ed.) ISBN 9780345430304)
- Women's Power to Heal: through Inner Medicine (Mother Om Media, 2007 ISBN 970979327902)
References
- ^ http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-30/holistic-living/29599273_1_food-body-natural-foods-sadhana
- ^ http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-21/science-of-spirituality/29171055_1_ayurveda-college-ashram-food-and-spirituality
- ^ a b The Everyday Miracle of Healing, Shift!, Winter 2008–2009, by Elliott-Escobedo, Catherine
- ^ New York Daily News, December 20, 1999, by Richardson, Clem
- ^ http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=3615
- ^ The Path of Practice, Ballantine Books, (2000, 1st Ed.) by Tiwari, Maya ISBN 9780345430304
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/stories/2008/2154871.htm
- ^ http://www.wisearth.org/ayurveda/index.html
- ^ http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=5068
- ^ Women's Power to Heal, Mother Om Media, 2007, 2010 by Maya Tiwari ISBN 970979327902
- ^ Reclaiming Your Cosmic Memory of Ahimsa, 2009 by Tiwari, Maya
- ^ http://www.speakingtree.in/public/mothermaya/blog/Spiritual-Teacher-Mother-Maya-on-Living-Ahimsa-World-Tour
External links
Categories:- Ayurvedacharyas
- Hindu gurus
- Vedanta
- 1952 births
- Living people
- Hindu saints
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