Amma offers a rousing round of hugs in Chelsea

Chelsea Now photos by Jefferson Siegel

Amma wrapped her arms around a woman recently as part of a three-day event that brought tens of thousands of her followers to the Manhattan Center, in northern Chelsea.

By Anjali Mansukhani

After waiting in line for hours in her search for comfort, Vanessa Strieff, a 26-year-old brunette actress from San Francisco who now lives in New York City, kneeled in front of “the hugging saint” at 10 a.m. a couple Wednesdays ago. This unusual scene would have been more fitting in an ashram in India, but in fact it unfolded inside Manhattan Center on 34th street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, in northern Chelsea.

The hugging mystic whispered something into Vanessa’s ears, rocked her from side to side, kissed her cheeks and sent her off with a piece of chocolate. A tearful Vanessa said afterward, “My friend told me about this lady who gave out hugs to spread her idea of motherly love.”

Mata Amritanandamayi (translation: “the Mother of immortal bliss”), a simple sari-clad woman lovingly known to her followers as “Amma,” gave massive hugs to a never-ending line of people in New York recently, as part of a two-month North American tour. By the time she was done at the Manhattan Center, she performed a stunning feat, having greeted followers for 18 hours a day over a three-day period (July 11–13) and doling out nearly 20,000 hugs. Reportedly, she has hugged 26 million individuals over the span of her lifetime.

Having dedicated her life to uplifting those who suffer through the simplest of gestures—an embrace—Amma spreads a straightforward message: Give generously and compassionately to the poor. The recipients of these hugs sometimes feel inspired to make unsolicited donations, resulting in the millions of dollars her organization has given to various humanitarian causes worldwide, for which she has won several international awards.

Wearing a nose ring and a beaming smile, Amma was seated on a decorated chaise below the Manhattan Center’s stage two Wednesdays ago, and was the center of attention as she faced hundreds in the audience, all of whom were seeking solace in her loving arms. Onstage, devotees sang lilting, devotional songs. Posters, photos and pamphlets with Amma’s cheerful face were everywhere, and she was surrounded by a retinue of volunteers wearing white Indian garb and colored satin sashes. Her entourage, both of Westerners and Asians, were busy organizing people into queues that snaked in three directions.

Meanwhile, Amma received each person (or gave darshan) with a bear-like hug, enveloped each individual in her arms, embraced them as if she were their long lost mother. She then sent them away with a little blessing, and the next one in line surrendered into her tender, rose-perfumed cuddle.

When asked how she has the stamina to hug so many people and why she does it, Amma replied, “That’s like asking a river why it flows. It flows because such is its nature. That is a mother’s way of expressing her love to her children.”

Standing in several lines was a diverse cross-section of the world—several suited professionals, tattooed women, giggling students, a long-haired hippie, people with yarmulkes, Moroccans with Fez hats, a screaming autistic child and an old man in a wheelchair pushed by a woman who understood only Polish.

Amma answered all their questions, wiped away their tears, blessed their young and appeased their emotions, and they didn’t mind waiting for hours for their 30-second personal audience with her. “Amma encourages people of different religious backgrounds to pursue their own faiths, to become better Christians, Muslims or Jews,” said Manisha Daswani, a housewife from Englewood Cliffs, N.J., in her mid-40s and a devout follower of Amma’s since 1993.

Amma didn’t seem frazzled by either the crowds or the difficult and personal questions scribbled on paper: My son is sick; I feel alone; My spouse is having an affair; Should I file for a divorce? Some see Amma as a mother figure, while others see her as a goddess or guru. She made no such claim, but offered everyone specific advice and answered questions rapidly in Malayalam, a south Indian language. Translators were at hand, helping devotees comprehend her responses.

And though the room was packed, the audience maintained a respectful silence. Some people meditated in the balcony and in the aisles, while others looked on from their folding chairs on the main floor with humility, curiosity and gratitude. On the stage, a film updated the audience with Amma’s various charitable activities.

The aspect that is sometimes forgotten in the frenzy of all the hugging is that Amma inspires thousands of people with her mantra, “Compassion to the poor is our duty to God.”

When hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf States, Amma rallied her volunteers in the United States, and her foundation, Mata Amritanandamayi Math (M. A. Math) donated $1 million to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. The donation was one of the largest received from a non-governmental organization.

Similarly, under the encouragement of Amma, volunteers have helped with disaster relief by providing homes, food and addressing the needs of children. During the Asian tsunami, volunteers built more than 4,500 homes, while helping raise $23 million for relief aid. The United Nations conferred Special Consultative Status to Amma’s organization for this work. The World Movement for Non-Violence conferred upon Amma the Gandhi-King Award for Non-Violence at the U.N. in Geneva, in 2002. And, in 2006, she received the James Park Morton Interfaith Award along with Bill Clinton and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The M.A. Math projects span a wide spectrum of activities, including the funding of orphanages, schools, hospitals, universities and vocational training centers. Her global outreach includes free homes for the poor, slum renovation, caring for destitute children, free medicine, food and pension for life, and even a widows’ pension fund.

Swami Amritswarup, an orange-robed priest with a long salt-and-pepper gray beard and a close confidante and translator of Amma’s, explained Amma’s nature: “Amma feels that the lack of compassion is the biggest problem in the world today. True happiness is when the love that is within us finds expression in benevolent activities.”

Born in 1953 into a poor fisherman’s family, Amma lived in a remote coastal village in Kerala, India. As a young child, she realized that the purpose of her life was to spread the message of truth, love and compassion throughout the world by receiving one and all. With this holistic vision, at the age of 22, she began initiating seekers of truth into spiritual life.

The local people acknowledged her as a saint as she acquired healing powers. According to followers and newspaper reports in India, Amma licked the infected wounds of a leper and cured him. People started calling her “Amma” or “Mother.” The name stuck. In the 1970s, Westerners started visiting her in her hometown in India, and her following has been growing ever since.

Though her context is Indian, she has a large following in the Americas, Europe and Asia. “The fundamental problems of the East and the West are the same,” said Amma. “It looks different because of the cultural differences. For me, the world is like a flower, and each country like a petal. If one petal is infected, the whole flower is affected. Such is the situation of the world today. For pure love, there has to be recognition of oneness.”

On Friday, July 13, Amma’s last evening in New York, there were still hundreds of people in line at 10 p.m., spilling out onto the street and around the block toward Ninth Avenue while waiting for their moment with her. Meher Nigar, a 37-year-old occupational therapist from New York City, was told that her turn to see Amma wouldn’t come till 4 a.m.

“I don’t care. I want to meet the lady who is giving out hugs and doing so much charity work,” Nigar said.

Others in line were equally committed to Amma’s efforts to translate hugs into action that alleviates human suffering. Rob Sidon, who works for a small magazine in California, first met Amma 10 years ago in New Delhi while vacationing there.

“Some spiritual teachers are all talk, but Amma takes the philosophy to the streets,” he said. “Many of her followers feel that a spark of her spiritual energy opens up a channel in them to be more giving. I couldn’t agree more.”

For more information on the organization and its humanitarian efforts, visit www.amma.org.