You are mesmerized as you watch a small Indian woman dressed in a simple white sari take each person in the line before you into her arms, beam at them, and then embrace them as if she was their own mother. Before you know it you are in her arms and she is whispering, "My darling child. My darling child. My darling child." The hug ends sooner than you would like and in your hand, you find a rose petal and a chocolate. You feel happy and peaceful—almost joyful.
This is the basic storyline that many share after meeting Amma for the first time. She has been traveling the world embracing people for 25 years and has hugged nearly 30 million people to date. "When people come to see me, I understand how much they are suffering," explains Amma. "When I see them crying, I wipe their tears. My main goal is to console them and help them experience peace and love."
Growing up, Amma expressed great compassion for the suffering and needy. While the embraces have always been a draw, Amma has emphasized the need for volunteer service and the reach of her humanitarian efforts has become truly remarkable. What started as a young girl collecting food scraps to feed the hungry in her village, today is a global organization that has been recognized by the United Nations. Amma’s international collective of charities, Embracing the World, is active in 30 countries and has spent over $50 million in disaster relief, responding immediately to earthquakes in Japan, Haiti and India, the 2004 South Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina in the United States. There is free medical care, orphanages in Kerala and Kenya, pensions for widows and disabled people, environmental protection groups, care homes for the elderly and scholarships for the young.
"Om Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu is one of the most important mantras of Ancient India," says Amma. "It means may all the beings in the world be peaceful and happy. The spirit of this mantra has been put into action."
Every year, Amma devotees prepare and serve 72,000 meals in 38 cities across North America. Every Tuesday night, a group of local volunteers serves meals to the homeless at the Unitarian church in Harvard Square. Similar groups in Connecticut and Worcester serve meals at area shelters
For Amma’s part, she sees no end to her mission embracing those who come to her and expanding her humanitarian work. She is here to deal with two types of poverty in the world. The first is financial and the second is poverty due to lack of love and of these two, she says the second is more important.
Amma will be in the Boston area July 10-13