Posted on Wed, Jun. 11, 2003

Spiritual icon embarks on hugging tour

By Lisa Fernandez
Mercury News

By the end of her 10-day stay in the Bay Area, the woman known as the Hindu hugging saint will have given an estimated 22,000 embraces to anyone who kneels by her pink satin chair.

That's 2,200 hugs a day, 150 hugs an hour -- almost nothing, her devotees say, compared to the 25,000 quick hugs she gives in one day in her native India.

Tuesday marked the first day of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi's 16th annual U.S. tour, with a stop in Castro Valley at the M.A. Center named after her. Her title means ``mother of immortal bliss.''

Simply called ``Amma,'' the short, plump 49-year-old woman from a low caste is considered a living saint by devotees, not just for her loving touches, but for the orphanages, elderly homes and hospitals she runs in India.

While she is lesser known to the mainstream public in the United States, Hindus and many spiritual seekers compare her to Mother Teresa and Mohandas Gandhi.

She has also earned the reputation of a feminist and a rebel within the Hindu caste system because she reaches out -- and touches -- anyone regardless of rank in life.

Last fall, Amma was awarded the Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence -- an honor that has previously gone to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

``What is so wonderful about her is the kind of human warmth she shows everyone,'' said Triloki Pandey, an anthropology professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, who has never met her but knows of her reputation. ``There is little public display of bodily contact among Hindus in India; women are very deferential. She has transcended the norms of society.''

Her message of love and compassion has remained the same for the past 30 years.

But her fan base keeps growing.

In her early visits in the 1980s, devotees met in living rooms and basements. Tuesday, 500 people showed up an hour before she arrived so they could chant, cry, blow horns and throw rose petals when she exited a gold Lexus.

Her words of advice to Silicon Valley? ``Some people might want only a particular job,'' she said in Malayalam, speaking through an interpreter. ``But they should have the willingness to do smaller jobs, otherwise they will have large problems.''

Most people walk away crying, after receiving a piece of fruit and a Hershey's Kiss. Amma hugs from 10 a.m. until about 4 p.m. each day. Then she picks up again at 7:30 p.m., embracing until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. Devotees, who carry a ticker, estimate she has given 21 million hugs in 30 years.

Kartik Venkatesh, 22, of San Jose took off work from his software job to be with Amma.

``It's just this natural attraction,'' he said. ``You feel like you know her.''

Amma's hugs are free. Organizers said she raises money from paid retreats, and sales of books, T-shirts and DVDs, which she pours into the non-profits she runs for the poor in India.

``Hers is a message that needs to be heard,'' said Rod Sidon of San Francisco, who serves as Amma's unpaid public-relations manager. ``I find it hard to believe she's not a household word. She's the hardest-working person in the whole world. She makes no claims. She's just opening hearts and imparting her own spiritual energy.''