Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Millions: Be Embraced!

How do you dress for a meeting with an enlightened being from India, a holy person, a divine mother? It would have been worthwhile to think about it. You can meet Mata Amritanandamayi being dressed in almost any way, but not with shoes. Walking on the stone floor with thin socks you soon feel cold and you envy all those people who have brought woollen socks with them. (…)

(…) Most of the visitors come to see Amma to be embraced by her. That is Amma's trademark. At each stop she embraces hundreds.(…)

(…) People are waiting patiently. Some look just as one would imagine visitors of an esoteric fair would; most of them, though, are dressed in very ordinary ways: athletic young men, serious-looking elder gentlemen and fashionable ladies.(…)

(…)Right in front of Amma's chair you are asked to kneel down. Amma pulls you towards her and presses your head against her left shoulder, touching your cheek to her cheek. Sometimes she seems to murmur something into your ear. She speaks only Malayalam, her native language. After ten to twenty seconds she releases you; she might pull you back again, pat your cheek, kiss your forehead. Then she puts a flower petal and a candy in your hand and reaches for the next person.(…)

(…)In India, darshan, a meeting with a holy person, traditionally takes place in a very formal and honourable way. The holy person looks into your eyes and at the most touches your face a little. Embracing is Amma's invention. Amma was born 1953 into a low caste. As a child she had visions and felt herself to be "one with God and Love". Since 1980 she has been following an inner call and wants to transmit Divine Love to human beings. For Amma, embracing somebody was originally just a spontaneous act towards the poorest of the poor who sought her solace. Since then she has embraced 15 million people, say her followers. In her Ashram in the South of India she embraces up to 12,000 people a day.(…)

(…)Since 1987 Amma has been touring the whole world once a year, visiting her growing crowd of followers. She travels simply and on a low budget. The profit from the sales of books, CD's and religious objects is said to be invested in Amma's charitable projects in India: hospitals, schools,and other aid for the poor. She is fighting against the negative effects of the caste system and against the oppression of woman.(…)

(…)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.. What do you feel? A man says: "Pure love, pure truth." A woman says: "You feel totally accepted, you feel just as you ever desired to feel." (...) "Despite that, we are very sincere Christians, even though the church might not want to hear that," says one woman.(…)

(…)That Amma's visitors have to return to the harsh, cold world isn't a problem, says Amma. "It is not important to live close to a radio station. The important thing is to tune your radio." Amma is "on the air" in London today.(…)

(Translated from international German language newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) (excerpted)