Have you heard of the hugging saint – Amma? She’s here at the moment in the Palm Court, Alexandra Palace, giving talks and an endless number of her famous hugs today and tomorrow.
I first came across her in Sainsburys Muswell Hill, when an elderly man behind me at the till asked if I had had a hug. I didn’t know what he was talking about and he became quite cross, ‘get yourself down there young woman’ he admonished. I didn’t – but a couple of years later I was in Kerala and saw some pepper vines growing in a garden. I walked in and the owner very kindly showed me around and invited me in to her home. She took me to her private little shrine looking rather expectantly at me. We didn’t have a language in common and I was a bit confused but I suddenly recognised Amma and, thinking of my man in Sainsburys, knew that she wanted a hug.
It was a lovely moment and now Amma being in my place, thousands of miles from the little town of Tellicherry, brings back happy memories. I haven’t been to see her but if you have the time she comes highly recommended by people who have.
Amma presents the kind of leadership we need for our planet to survive. This is the most heroic person I’ve probably ever met.~ Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winner
A bit about Amma:
Mata Amritanandamayi was born in a remote coastal village in Kerala, South India in 1953. Even as a small girl, she drew attention with the many hours she spent in deep meditation on the seashore. She also composed devotional songs and could often be seen singing to the divine with heartfelt emotion. Despite her tender age, her compositions revealed remarkable depth and wisdom.
When she was nine years old, her mother became ill, and Mata Amritanandamayi was withdrawn from school in order to help with household tasks and the care of her seven siblings. As she went door-to-door gathering food scraps from neighbors for her family’s cows, she was confronted with the intense poverty and suffering that existed in her community, and in the world beyond it.
Where Mata Amritanandamayi encountered people in need, she brought them food and clothing from her own home. She was undeterred by the scolding and punishment she received from her family for doing so. She also began to spontaneously embrace people to comfort them in their sorrow. Responding to her affectionate care, they began to call her Amma (Mother).
http://www.alexandrapalace.com/whats-on/amma-2/
