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She may be the most hugged person on the planet. She's been
known to hug thousands of people at a stretch, and her message
of love, compassion and selfless service has won her devotees
around the world.
This weekend, a woman known as Amma, or Ammachi, for "darling
mother," comes to the Seattle area, kicking off a 10-city
tour throughout the United States, where the past decade has
brought her a groundswell of spiritual devotion.
"Her message is the same message Christ gives,"
says Karuna Poole, who is helping to organize Ammachi's visit
tomorrow and this weekend at Lynnwood's Embassy Suites Hotel.
"Her message is love."
A petite, mostly unschooled woman from a small Indian fishing
village on the Arabian Sea, Ammachi seems an unlikely candidate
for such widespread devotion.
But her U.S. appearances have drawn crowds of several thousand,
just a fragment of those in her native India, where many consider
her an incarnation of the Divine Goddess.
She began touring internationally 14 years ago and in 1995
was a keynote speaker for the interfaith portion of the United
Nations' 50th anniversary in New York.
In 1993, during the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago,
she was named one of Hinduism's three greatest living representatives.
Last year saw the release of "River of Love," a
documentary detailing her life, and her humanitarian work
in her homeland has earned her comparisons to Mother Teresa
and Mahatma Gandhi.
Born in 1953, Ammachi was initially scorned by her parents,
who were disturbed by her supposed blue-black complexion as
a baby and her teenage states of spiritual bliss. Kept home
from school and saddled with the bulk of household chores,
she turned to yoga.
Eventually she directed her energies to those around her
and began attracting followers. She took the name Mata Amritanandamayi,
meaning "mother of immortal bliss," and her devotees
began to call her simply Amma.
It was then that she began to conduct her lengthy programs
of "darshan," Sanskrit for "audience in the
presence of a saint."
It's there that she tirelessly embraces kneeling followers
one by one - welcoming them into her lap, rocking them in
her arms and delivering soft blessings in her native Malayalam
language.
"Now 47, Ammachi is still known to sleep only a few
hours a night.
"Some of us try to stay up and keep a little bit of
the schedule she keeps," says Rob Sidon, who left a marketing
job in France to do communications work for Ammachi.
"It's just hopeless. And you see that she does it day
after day after day. There's times where she sits for 18 hours
at a stretch with these huge crowds, and she'll get done and
stand up fresh as a daisy."
Although raised as a Hindu, she doesn't espouse a particular
faith, and those who've attended her sessions say there is
no pressure to join or even donate.
Proceeds from a bookstore and weekend retreats help fund
Ammachi's charitable operations in India and elsewhere.
Those operations are conducted through a trust, which she
founded in 1981. Its hundreds of branches throughout India
include orphanages, hospitals, hospices and shelters for battered
women, and the agency includes affiliates in the U.S., France
and Australia.
"Love is a universal religion and what society really
needs," The New York Times quoted her as saying in 1998.
"Religion is just a means and once you attain that goal,
you don't need the means."
Western culture has become too science-driven, she has said,
people relying too much on their heads.
"Honey locked inside a rock doesn't benefit anyone,"
she told Mind Body Spirit magazine. "There is a need
for balance, to open one's heart and love for love's own sake."
By Marc Ramirez, Seattle Times staff reporter
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