A One-day Pedagogy Workshop in teaching and delivering MaOM course (MAstery Over Mind), was organised on September 17, 2022, at Amritapuri Campus, where more than 150 MaOM faculty members of all seven Amrita campuses; Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, Mysuru, Amaravati and Amritapuri.
Through the Infinite grace of Amma, and by the guidance of Swami Amritaswarupananda Puri the President of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and with the support of Dr. Maneesha V Ramesh, Provost of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, the Mastery Over Mind (MaOM) meditation program based on teachings of Sadguru Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi’s MaOM Meditation, has been expanded from shorter meditation session conducted on 2019, to a two credit course, coined as MaOM (Mastery Over Mind) with the course code 22AVO103. The course is now mandatory for all first-year students in 2022. It encompasses over 4000 students from 140 batches across various schools of Amrita University nationwide.
The workshop was blessed by the presence of Swami Shubamritananda Puri with his enlightening Guided MaOM Meditation session and Q & A session, creating a memorable and spiritual enriching experience. The Milestones of MaOM were beautifully portrayed in a short 5 min video, captured the hearts of all viewers through positive testimonials of Amrita student’s regarding MaOM Meditation.
The Illustrative Pedagogy sessions commenced with Bri Deepthi, the MaOM Course Coordinator, setting the course context. This was followed by four sessions that covered all six units of the MaOM course, each focusing on specific Course Outcomes. These outcomes spanned topics such as Introduction to MaOM, Stress Management, Science of Meditation, and the Effects of Meditation on Communication, Relationships, and Compassion-Driven Action.
The sessions were delivered by the experts in their respective fields, including Dr. Deepak Gupta, Dr. Shobhana Madhavan, Prof Udhayakumar, Br Chandrasekhar, and Mr. Sandeep (represented Dr. Shyam Diwakar). The workshop concluded with the distribution of participation certificates, and received tremendous positive feedback from all the participants, coined their experience as “Awesome Learning”, “Wonderful Time” “Great Experience” and so on.
The highlight of the workshop was the Meditation, Satsang & Bhajans with AMMA at Amritapuri Ashram in the evening. All the participants were also blessed with Amma’s Darshan, Special Blessings for Her Wonderful children.
Furthermore, Bri Deepthi provided the course context and AMMA’S message with her MaOM Facilitator Children. In response to the MaOM course offered across the Amrita Fraternity, Amma expressed “Meditation is priceless like Mother’s milk”, and should not be treated as a community to be priced. She emphasized the importance of cultivating compassion toward fellow beings and nature, which should be a measurable outcome of this course and responsibility of MaOM faculty members. It cannot be charged and compassion to fellow beings and nature is what Amma wants to see in her children as one of the important measurable outcomes of this course, which is our responsibility as MaOM faculty members. Amma added the need to instil a sense of gratitude in students, which can be manifested through acts such as providing pencils to underprivileged children and supporting our ancient rishi tradition that upholds Sanatana Dharma principles and universal human values. Amma lamented the decline of these values among the current youth, which she identified as the root cause of societal problems.