25 million hugs

from SeattlePI.com

Mata Amritanandamayi opens her arms to anyone. Estimates are that India’s “Hugging Saint” has hugged more than 25 million people of every race on almost every continent.

Amma (“Mother”), as she also is known, added more embraces to that total when she hugged over 3,000 people at Seattle Center’s Fischer Pavilion on Friday. Some people cried as she embraced them, some smiled. All waited in a line that often stretched across the room.

As a young woman in impoverished India, Amma received people with their problems. She offered food, help and a hug. She took her embrace outside of India, where people, moved by the experience, donated money and purchased her videos, CDs and books. Today Amma is the face of a multimillion dollar charity that rebuilt thousands of homes after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, assists farmers and runs medical centers in poor countries.

Amma does not follow any major organized faith and said in a 2006 P-I story, “My religion is love, compassion, selfless service.”

Amma will be offering more hugs during another public event at the Puyallup Fairgrounds on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

When asked why she hugs so many people, Amma said through a translator, “Why does a river flow?”