See Amma the Hugging Saint (June 12-13-14)

We like to cuddle, hug, and embrace. Here's our chance to do it with India's "Hugging Saint" Mata Amrita-ananda-mayi (amma.org). FREE events and activities all day: Music, spiritual discourses, teachings, Eastern wisdom, veggie foods, and blessings alongside holy hugs, sacred squeezes, and enlightening embraces with darshan, "viewing," which is when Amma transfers positive spiritual energy.

Carpooling, ride-sharing, Metro, buses on website. This is an annual event across the world and in her California ashram in case you ever want to run away and join the Hindu circus. "Mother" Amma loves to hug all.

WHO IS AMMA?
As a small girl in South India, Amma drew attention by spending many hours in deep meditation on the seashore, composing devotional songs and singing to the divine, songs of remarkable depth and wisdom.

At 9 years old, her mother ill, she was taken from school to help care for her seven siblings. As she went door-to-door gathering scraps from neighbors for her family’s cows, she was confronted with the intense poverty and suffering in her community and the world beyond it.

Then when she encountered the needy, she gave them food and clothing from her home. She was scolded and punished by her family, but she continued and spontaneously began to embrace people to comfort them in their sorrow. Her affectionate care got her the name Amma ("mother").

According to Hinduism, the suffering of the individual is due to one's own karma — the results of past actions/deeds. Amma accepted this concept, but she refused to accept it as a justification for inaction.

She contemplated the principle of karma until she revealed a more profound truth, asking a question she continues to ask: “If it is one person’s karma (result of action) to suffer, isn’t it our dharma (duty) to help ease that person's suffering and pain?”

With this simple and profound conviction — that each of us has a responsibility to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate — Amma moved forward with confidence in her life of service and compassionate care, uniquely expressed by the motherly embrace she offers all who seek solace