Des Moines Register

Hugging Saint shares her love with Iowans

By LISA LIVERMORE
Register Correspondent
07/10/2003 Mount Pleasant, Ia.

Some Iowans offered flowers. Others showed up clenching pictures of family members, looking up at her as they kneeled and she hugged and hugged and hugged.

At times, Mata Amritanandamayi, an Indian woman known as Ammachi, Amma, or simply the "hugging saint," hugged people for nearly 30 seconds. A callus has started to form on her cheek from the heads that brush against her face.

This is Amma's second visit to Iowa. About 700 people had flocked to the Iowa Wesleyan gym by Wednesday. More were expected to stand in lines into the night and today.

Amma, 49, came to Mount Pleasant because of its central location and its proximity to Fairfield, where she attracts a strong following as an international faith leader whose name means "Mother of Immortal Bliss."

Fairfield is home to the Maharishi University of Management, founded by transcendental meditation leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

A few curious - but skeptical - Iowans showed up this time as well.

"Why do I deserve a hug?" asked Sarah Arens, a 22-year-old University of Iowa graduate who sat with Seth Bailey.

Amma's staffers said her hugs have a special healing power, and lines of sick or injured people were given priority for Amma's hugs.

Bailey, Arens" boyfriend, arrived in a wheelchair. A portion of his right leg was amputated when he was 16 due to a cancerous tumor.

Arens said Amma was immediately drawn to the wheelchair- bound U of I student when she saw him.

"When I first heard about it, I was skeptical," Bailey said. "Now - not really."

Eventually, Bailey, 24, said he would venture through the crowd "probably just for an overall sense of peace and healing."

Amma has been hugging for 20 years, and she and her staff insist it's only to spread motherly compassion, not to convert anyone to a particular religion. Amma primarily travels to larger cities, such as Los Angeles.

"It is easier to awaken someone who is sleeping, but not so much someone who's pretending to be asleep," Amma said through a translator. "Everyone is only looking at the objective world. They don't try to find out who they are - what's going on inside.