ABSTRACT
From classical times until the present, female gurus have explored and promoted the possibility that personal experience in the world is closely related to spiritual knowledge. Two stories of wives as gurus from the twelfth century offer both contrast to and continuity with the story of Gargi Vacaknavi. Both the Yoga Vasishtha, informed by bhakti, and the Tripura Rahasya, informed by Tantra, represent the gurus as behind the scenes wife-queens to their kingly husbands, in contrast to the brahman-identified public debate of Gargi the teacher (guru) questioning Yajnavalkya. The biographies of two early female gurus from the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries complicate the emerging picture of the female guru. This chapter considers three of the best-known gurus through these themes: Ammachi (Mata Amritanandamayi Ma), Shree Maa of Kamakkhya, and Gurumayi (Swami Chidvilasananda of Siddha Yoga) in order to examine what is particularly interesting is the distinctive contours of the themes in the lives of each of the gurus.
