Wednesday, July 9th 2008, 4:00 AM<\/p>\n
![\"alg_amma.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/files\/2008\/07\/alg_amma.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Amma, whose given name is Mata Amritanandamayi, has been hugging people for nearly 30 years.<\/em><\/p>\n Amma’s back – and not a moment too soon.<\/p>\n New Yorkers lined up by the hundreds Tuesday for the warm embrace of the spiritual leader they lovingly call the “Hugging Saint.”<\/p>\n And with the heat stifling, gas prices rising and the economy tanking, who doesn’t need a hug?<\/p>\n “Her hug is not an ordinary hug,” said Ila Campbell, 51, of South Manor, Long Island.<\/p>\n “My feeling is ‘Amma, please don’t let me go.'”The 54-year-old Amma, born Mata Amritanandamayi, looked radiant in a white sari, a silver star-shaped ring in her nose. She is here for two more days.<\/p>\n Campbell, who plans on following Amma to her next stop in Boston, sat with hundreds of devotees in the concert hall of the Manhattan Center in Midtown.<\/p>\n Many have waited in years past to feel the warmth of the spiritual Hindu woman, who says she supports all religions.<\/p>\n Heather Spillane, 38, an acupuncturist from Midtown, said Amma helps clear her mind.<\/p>\n “In life you’re always pushed to the edge and you get irritable, but I’m just not when I’m around her,” said Spillane.<\/p>\n “Everyone comes to her because they’re in some kind of pain – cancer, love, family, kids. They want something from her. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t,” explained Spillane, who hopes Amma will let her “reach a peace.” Amma, whose name means mother in her native Malayalam language, grew up in India amid intense poverty.<\/p>\n At age 8 or 9, she began spontaneously hugging people as a way of showing her compassion for them, her followers said.<\/p>\n She has spent the past 30 years traveling the world, giving an estimated 27 million hugs.<\/p>\n She is expected to hug 20,000 New Yorkers this week.<\/p>\n Evelyn Mikicic, 53, a homemaker from Astoria, Queens, said she plans to come back for more hugs.<\/p>\n “The strength of the love–it’s so genuine,” said Mikicic, who was visibly choked up. “I’ll be back in the next few days.”<\/p>\n Clive and Faith Poneroy-Ward brought their children, Claire, 2 1\/2, and Bretten, 1, from Hackettstown, New Jersey.<\/p>\n While Amma does not claim to be a faith healer, the Poneroy-Wards credit her with a personal miracle.<\/p>\n “We were married for several years and then we saw her, she hugged me, and (we) conceived,” Faith Poneroy-Ward says.<\/p>\n “The purest form of love can change people and that’s what I’m trying to do,” said Amma, through a translator to the Daily News. “The power of love is in everyone. It has infinite potential in us just as a seed contains a tree.”<\/p>\n Amma will be at the Manhattan Center, 311 W. 34th Street, Wednesday and Thursday. First hugs start at 10 a.m. and go to 3 p.m. An evening shift starts at 7:30 p.m. and can go all night.<\/p>\n![\"amd_amma.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/files\/2008\/07\/amd_amma.jpg\")
<\/p>\n