Sreeni Pattathanam

Sreeni Pattathanam is a rationalist and atheist activist , writer from Kerala, India.

Pattathanam was born in Kollam, Kerala in India. He began his career as a police constable, but later took up the job of a primary school teacher.

Pattathanam was the Editor of "Ranarekha", a monthly in Malayalam, which ceased publication in 1980s. He was also the secretary of the Kerala state branch of Indian Rationalist Association. Pattathanam later left IRA and started, with like-minded people, another rationalist association, Bharathiya Yukthivadi Sangham.

On Mata Amritanandamayi

Sreeni Pattathanam authored a book, "Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum" (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities), which became controversial for the alleged derogatory remarks by the author about Matha Amritanandamayi.

The book contains critical comments about Mata Amritanandamayi, Mata's personal life, and sexual behaviour. The book also has references to court records, newspaper reports and quotations from some literary figures, and attempts to refute the Matha’s claims to miracles and contends that there have been many suspicious deaths in and around her ashram, which he says need police investigation.

Some of deaths which the author alleges as murders are:

# The suicide of Subhagan alias Sunilkumar, brother of Amrithananda Mayi. The author alleges that Subhagan was beaten to death for opposing the activities of his sister.
# Vellappillil Narayanan Kutty of Kodungallur , an inmate of the Amrithanandamayi Ashram, died on April 4, 1990, due to internal hemorrhage as per postmortem report. He was an employee of Government Bureau of Economics and Statistics, Trichur, Kerala. ("The New Indian Express", April 19, 1990, Kochi, Kerala, India and "Janayugam" a Malayalam daily April 22, 1990).
# Pradeep Kumar, a relative of Amrithananda Mayi, died on August 16, 1994 under mysterious circumstances.
# Rumdhur, a historian and inmate of the ashram, died on July 15, 2000 within the precincts of the ashram. The ashram authorities did not intimate his death to his friends or his relatives.
# Ramanatha Iyer of Mumbai allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the 12th floor of Amrithanandamayi Math at Vallikkavu on September 5, 2001. ("The New Indian Express", September 6, 2001, Kochi, Kerala)

Advocate Ajan, a devotee of Mata Amrithanandamayi, found these allegations objectionable and asked Kerala government to prosecute the author for the derogatory and defamatory contents in the book [ [http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/21/stories/2004022107390300.htm The Hindu] ] . Despite pressure from the matt and devotees, Kerala government refused to prosecute the author, but allowed the devotee to file a case for prosecution (government permission is required to move private prosecution in similar cases). There were public protests by International Humanists, Indian Rationalists, writers, and the youth wing of the Indian Communist Party (Marxist) in which the author was an activist, which yielded result.

References

#"Matha Amritanandamayi: Divya Kathakalum Yatharthyavum" (Matha Amritanandamayi: Sacred Stories and Realities): Mass Books, Kollam, Kerala