Des Moines Register

Mount Pleasant, Ia, July 6, 2002

Amma's warm embrace envelops Iowa.
'The hugging saint' makes first stop in rural America

By MARY CHALLENDER
Register Staff Writer

Amma opened her arms to Iowa on Friday.

In the gym at Iowa Wesleyan College, more than 1,000 barefoot and stocking-footed men, women and children waited hours for their turn to receive a comforting, two-armed embrace from the small Indian woman renowned worldwide as "the hugging saint."

It was the first visit to Iowa for Amma, also known as Ammachi and Mata Amritanandamayi, or "Mother of Immortal Bliss." The 48-year-old has gained a following from 15 years of touring primarily larger cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, where her hugs were so much in demand last month that the event lasted all night and into the next morning.

Amma has said she realized as a young mystic in India that a simple hug was an expression of love so many yearned for but rarely received.

At Iowa Wesleyan, diehard devotees and first-time Amma attendees were each given a number and asked to remove their shoes.

Inside the gym, the atmosphere was part trade show and part meditation class.

Booths lined the walls, selling everything from apples and flowers to give as gifts to Amma, to compact discs, dolls and even calendars. Hundreds of people sat on their heels on the floor, listening to Indian music piped through several speakers.

Everyone's focus, however, was on the sari-clad woman sitting on a chair at the front of the room, surrounded by white-garbed helpers.

Supplicants who were physically able made their way up the long line on their knees. When they reached Amma, she greeted them each with a warm, crooked-tooth smile.

Then a helper firmly pushed their heads into her bosom where she held them, one hand rubbing the napes of their necks, the other rubbing their backs. She rocked them back and forth in her arms and whispered in their ears - "my son, my son," "my darling, my darling."

Some sobbed openly as they were held. Others just closed their eyes and smiled.

After receiving a hug, each person was showered with rose petals and given a chocolate kiss.

And that was it.

No proselytizing, no collection basket-passing, no arm-twisting to join Amma's legions of volunteer helpers.

"If you want to help, great," said Rob Sidon, Amma's spokesman on the U.S. tour. "If you want to give something, great. If you don't, that's OK, too."

Bill and Joan Brady, both 55, traveled from St. Louis with their grandson Joseph Brady, 5, to get a hug from Amma. Joseph folded into the Indian woman's enveloping arms without reservation.

Although they know Amma is likely to be viewed as an exotic oddity by many Iowans, the Bradys said her message is very universal.

"It's no different than what we try to teach our grandson," Joan Brady said. "That's to be a loving person and share that with everyone."

By midday, Mira Herzberger, 16, and David Murphy, 20, both of Fairfield, were still waiting for a hug. Herzberger had seen Amma before in Chicago. She said what drew her back was "just the peace she puts in my system."

Murphy, a first-time Amma attendee, said he was hoping her hug would help take his spirituality to a new level.

"I haven't really had the spiritual focus I've been looking for," he said. "I'm a musician, and that's the closest thing to spirituality for me."

Murphy said he was interested in Hinduism, but Amma isn't trying to gain converts to anything but selflessness, Sidon said.

"She's not encouraging people in any religious path," the spokesman said. "She's really encouraging them to go deeper into their own path."

Reporter Mary Challender can be reached at (515) 284-8470 or

challenderm@news.dmreg.com

If you need a hug

Amma, or Mata Amritanandamayi, also will be giving hugs today.

TIME: She will be available from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

PLACE: Iowa Wesleyan College, Athletic Arena, 601 N. Main St., Mount Pleasant.

Copyright © 2002, The Des Moines Register. (updated 7/31/2001)