Guru with Good Vibes
Mid Day Newspaper
-- Manoj Nair
March 2001
'All you need is Love,' says Amma, as she hugs thousands on city
visit.
On an average day, some 10,000 people queue up for a hug from her.
Sometimes their number goes up to 25,000 and the marathon hugging
sessions could drag into the wee hours of the morning.
But neither time nor constraints nor growing queues of devotees
stop spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi from hugging every
follower visiting her. The ritual once prompted the Manchester Guardian
to say "Come hug the mother of immortal bliss," during
one of her visits to the United Kingdom.
On Sunday, Amma-as she is known to her devotees who gathered at
Goregaon. Yesterday, she hugged a similar number of people at the
Mata Amritanandamayi Math's local headquarters in Nerul. Her followers
say that a hug from her sends you into raptures of joy. Others say
that the powerful vibrations from her body send them into unscaled
heights of bliss.
Skeptics may balk but some devotees have even reported that a touch
of her hand has cured illnesses as varied as arthritis and leprosy.
One devotee says, "She creates a divine field around her.
It is like the earth's gravity. When we are near her, we forget
all are problems."
Her charisma has drawn people from varied backgrounds and cultures.
Br. Balasubramanian left his job as a stock manager to join the
band of 1,500 brahmacharis and brahmacharinis who work for her.
He cannot quite explain his decision to leave his family home for
the austere confines of the ashram.
"Her presence drew me to her. It was not an intellectual decision,"
says this twenty something man who studied chartered accountancy.
Mata Amritanandamayi is a relatively new phenomenon. Born into
a fisherman's family in coastal Kerala, she was ridiculed and nearly
abandoned by her family for being too much of a Krishna devotee
and for having a blueish tinge to her skin.
According to her followers, she began teaching in 1981, after seeing
a vision of the Divine Mother.
Since then, the spiritual empire that has grown around this 47-year-old
guru encompasses an estimated 30 million followers all over the
world.
From its headquarters near Kollam, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math
runs a network of schools, management technical institutes, home
for the terminally ill, computer institutes, and a super-specialty
800-bed hospital in Kochi.
Her popularity amazes because she has just a few years of primary
schooling and speaks only Malayalam. However, the legions of devotees
who surround her-including westerners-during her tours vouch for
her success as a spiritual leader.
Deepak Chopra calls her a 'living saint'. She was one of the three
people chosen to represent Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religions
in Chicago in 1993. Her satsangs or prayer meetings attract lakhs.
Her philosophy is simple, though. "Only through love can humanity
be united," she says.
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