Indian guru spreads her message with warm embraces (Amma in Seattle)

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/176346_vhugging04.html

 

Friday, June 4, 2004

 

Indian guru spreads her message with warm embraces

 

By VANESSA HO

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

 

BURIEN -- Of hugs, there are many. There's the manly

slap on the back, the lovers' cuddle, the awkward

side-shoulder squeeze. But nothing compares to the

tender embrace doled out by Mata Amritanandamayi to

thousands of weeping strangers in marathon sittings.

 

A petite, 50-year-old woman, Amma, as she is usually

called, is a revered guru in her home country of

India, where devotees follow her spiritual teachings

and participate in her enormous network of charities.

 

But it is her famous, bosomy, flower-scented hugs that

inspire crowds of 50,000 people in India to wait all

day for a single embrace, which often comes with a

sprinkle of rose petals and a mantra whispered in the

ear.

 

In the West, Amma, which is Sanskrit for "mother," has

a devoted, but more modest, following. Yesterday,

dressed in a white sari, she appeared in an empty

Gottschalks store in Burien for the start of her

annual 10-city hugging tour of America.

[dohhhhh!!! it's an 11-city tour! Toronto isn't part

of "America"! Keval]

 

Followers came from as far away as Edmonton, Alberta,

and Eugene, Ore., bearing gifts and questions

scribbled on scraps of paper. They knelt before her

and waited for their hug. Nearly 2,000 people were

expected to attend.

 

"It's just an incredible love that we don't get from

other human beings. It's a divine love. For me, it's

like returning home," said Kalavati Yates, a

57-year-old clairvoyant healer and metaphysics teacher

from Vancouver Island who gave up her given name,

Gloria, for a Sanskrit name that Amma bestowed her.

 

Barefoot devotees included mothers with babies,

elderly people in wheelchairs and middle-aged men in

tight T-shirts. Most of the people were white and did

not understand Amma's Malayalam language, but viewed

her as the embodiment of unconditional love. Many

people said she is God.

 

Born in a poor family in southern India, Amma is said

to have left school in the fourth grade when her

family forced her to become a house slave.

 

As a teenager, she began experiencing spiritual

visions and expressing her love for humanity through

hugs. Eventually, she attracted a following.

 

Her organizers estimate that she has given millions

hugs in the past 30 years. She has also founded an

800-bed hospital in India, a medical college, schools,

orphanages and women's shelters, and helped build

thousands of low-income homes.

 

Reared a Hindu, she is not affiliated with any one

religion, and her darshans -- the public hugging

sessions -- attract people of all faiths, including

Sanka Dassanayake, a 34-year-old Buddhist waiter from

Olympia who sat in line yesterday.

 

A Sri Lankan immigrant, Dassanayake had originally

been skeptical of Amma, because he knew of many

spiritual "fakes" in India.

 

But after getting his first hug a few years ago, his

beliefs took root. "You look into her eyes, and the

whole picture is going like this!" he said, shaking

his hands frantically and meaning that his vision had

quivered with spiritual force.

 

"You'll feel it. I thought, wow, that lady has some

good energy! If you look into my eyes, do you feel

anything? No, right? But with her, you can feel it."

 

He still turns to Buddhism for philosophical outlook,

but follows Amma's guidance, spending an hour every

morning chanting a mantra that Amma once gave him.

 

As devotees knelt before Amma yesterday, a volunteer

pushed their faces into her chest, as she enveloped

them in her arms, repeating "darling son" or "darling

daughter" to them.

 

Human grease and tears stained her shoulders. To

protect her, devotees do not hug Amma in return, but

place their hands beside her. Hugging was hard work.

Why do it? Why not bless people with a simpler

communal prayer?

 

"It's like asking the river, 'Why do you flow?' "

answered Amma through a translator, while cradling the

heads of three people and handing them Hershey's

Kisses afterward.

 

"Or the sun, 'Why do you shine?' Or the wind, 'Why do

you blow?' "

 

She said that there is a deterioration of motherly

love in the world and that her hugs remind both men

and women to be more loving. She said poverty is the

world's biggest enemy, which drives her to do her

charity work.

 

But does she ever need a hug herself?

 

Her translator said no. "Amma says the entire creation

is hugging her," he said. "She realizes the true

happiness is within."

 

 

WANT TO GO?

 

Amma will hold a session of public hugs, music and

mediation Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at Pacific Lutheran

University, 12180 Park St. S., Tacoma. The event will

be in Olson Gymnasium. It's free and open to the

public.

 

 

P-I reporter Vanessa Ho can be reached at 206-448-8003

or vanessaho

 

 

 

 

 

 

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