Amma - The Hugging Saint

How difficult can it be to pen my thoughts about the person who has been one of the most influencing phonomenon of our times?

The most amazing thing to me is the diversity among the followers of Amma. People from every corner of the world. In a world where people try to sneak a holiday to go out and spend time and money for sex, cigars and booze, it is so awe-inspiring to see so many people travelling all the way across the globe to spend a two month vacation just to serve people. Serve people who they are no way related to, except for sharing a binomial nomenclature.

According to me, the one uniting factor that brings all of them together is sheer-love. The word un-conditional love has been undermined/over-used so much that it sounds too simple to explain the love of Amma.

In my first few visits to the ashram, I was trying to be cynical about the activities of the ashram (natural for a person from a country where saffron is the color which is most exploited). How come an ashram started by a young lady from a fisher-man family earn so much reputation in such a short span.. Slowly but steadily I became more level-headed.. The only investment Amma had to make is Love.. And there were lot of buyers.. Buyers who were badly bruised by the harsh realities of this materialistic-world.. I learnt "Only by giving will we receive"..

If Amma's "Love and Serve" strategy is going to keep my neighbourhood clean, if it is going to transform me into a cleaner-me, if it is going to make a difference to the way the society handles the problems, I will be more than happy to be Amma's "Chella Kuttan". I want to live in a better world, if it has to be in Amma's lap, can I get any luckier..

Satguru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi ki, Jai..