News Media

"Ms. King called the Hindu woman "god in flesh."' Ms.Yolanda King, daughter of Rev. Martin Luther King.

Associated Press New Agency

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"Her hug is meant to impart divine inspiration"

The New York Times

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"Over the past three decades, Amma, 50, has been fighting world suffering by tirelessly offering hugs, both to strangers and to her legions of follower."

Corey Kilgannon
The New York Times

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"They came by the thousands, from the city and from all over the country, just looking for a hug."

Jennifer Lebovich
The New York Daily News

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"Her message is simple: only through love can humanity be united." 

Dallas Morning News

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"Mata Amritanandamayi, one of India's most famous living Hindu saints."

The Wall Street Journal

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"Known globally for her charitable work and her emphasis on selfless service.'

Los Angeles Times

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"So healing are the properties if her two-minute cuddles that hundreds of thousands of devotees have descended on the southern state of Kerala for Amma's golden jubilee…"

Catherine Philp
The Times of London

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"Technology industry icons, management gurus, business leaders, India's president, and 100,000 devotees from around the world…celebrated the 50th birthday of…a woman who wields considerable influence over the world's second most populous country…Amma…sends a simple but powerful message of "unconditional love" by hugging men, women and children."

Khozem Merchant
The Financial Times of London

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"Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam has joined one of India's best-known religious gurus, Mata Amritanandamayi, in an outspoken denunciation of poverty."

Charles Haviland, BBC News

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"Amma… one of the most notable religious phenomenon of the day."

El Pais, Spain's leading newspaper

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"Her visitors in Bonn feel as if they too have received a generous gift. Walking away from being hugged, many of them laugh and cry at the same time and are totally moved."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

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"…this Holy Mother Amma…must be an entirely extraordinary, remarkable Saint."

Die Welt

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"Recognized as one of the greatest spiritual social workers of the last millennium…'

The Times, Kuwait

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‘The motherly love expressed in her embrace—an unconditional love that doesn‘t judge or calculate —is the essence of “Bhakti Yoga,“ a life of selfless service and surrender… For many people it is exactly the absoluteness of that simple gesture that has drawn them to her… The embrace is the negation of all hierarchy between teacher and student, and therefore, devoid of any arrogance…'

Neue Zürcher Zeitung, leading national/international Swiss newspaper

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‘Amma—India's best-known and most-loved female guru—doesn't promise miracles or any sudden materialisation of jewels, no miraculous healing, no sudden illumination, but simply the gift of her embrace. For all, without discrimination, for whoever wants it.'

Paola Boncompagni
L'Unita, a leading newspaper of Italy

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"Amma manages a spiritual empire based on the principle of unconditional love for fellow beings…The impact Amma has, is to a large extent due to her absolute unity of motivation and action. …"

‘Whoever is shaking their head at the successful CEOs celebrating Amma's birthday, should think twice. After all, even their success and happiness is based on a successful dialogue between head and heart. As Sigmund Freud recognized, only "work and love" together build the crucial pillars necessary for the unfolding of a successful life.”

Antonella Mei-Pochtler
Der Standard, a top Austrian national daily

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"Hailing her qualities of love, compassion and charity, (Advani) the deputy prime minister said, 'May the almighty give her many more years to spread her love to the entire world.'"

Rediff, top news website of India

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Ann Curry: “She is known as Amma or Divine Mother. She draws masses with the simplest of gestures, a hug.”

Ann Curry
host of NBC's Today

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“Amma is renowned for her extraordinary hugging. Amma makes no promises, she welcomes all religions, her hugs are free.”

Ginny Moost
CNN

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"This is something you have to see to believe. Amma came to California to hug thousands of people.”

NBC News, Los Angeles

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"Wherever she goes, she draws huge crowds, and Chicago was no exception.”

“She is known around the world as the Mother of Love, the Hugging Saint.”

ABC News, Chicago

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"She will never turn anyone away, and She never charges any money for her hugs. In India, She has been known to sit for more than 20 hours, and hug more than 20,000 people, just in one day.”

ABC News, Chicago

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"Thousands of people are coming to Northern Virginia to meet the Hugging Saint.”

Fox News, Washington, D.C.

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"People wait hours, just to spend a moment with her."

ABC News, New York