{"id":267,"date":"2007-07-05T15:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-05T09:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/archives\/267"},"modified":"2014-12-29T23:31:54","modified_gmt":"2014-12-29T18:01:54","slug":"hugging-saint-visit-to-coralville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/archives\/267","title":{"rendered":"Hugging saint visit to Coralville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 4:24 AM CDT
‘Hugging saint’ pays visit to Coralville<\/strong><\/p>\n

CORALVILLE (AP) — Amma, the world renowned humanitarian, visited Coralville on Monday, drawing more than 2,000 people hoping to meet the “hugging saint.”<\/p>\n

Amma, whose actual name is Mata Amritanandamayi, is a 53-year-old woman from India who attracts followers who seek out her embrace, which many consider to be a blessing or have healing qualities.<\/p>\n

“If you are in the right frame of mind and really receptive, it is like eating or drinking something you have never had before,” said Kamal Bijlani, 46. “Many people cry or spontaneously feel very happy, or it just brings up great emotion in them.”<\/p>\n

Bijlani, originally from India, is one of the thousands that tour with Amma.<\/p>\n

Among the crowd that gathered Monday in a conference hall at the Coralville Marriot Hotel was Mayor Jim Fausett and Lt. Gov. Patty Judge.<\/p>\n

After a brief group meditation, gatherers sat at Amma’s feet and one-by-one came up to get a hug.<\/p>\n

Raj Solanki and his partner, Tracy Gonzalez, traveled from Fairfield so their 3-year-old son, Makaiah, could meet Amma.<\/p>\n

“I hear she has a really big heart and gives great hugs and we wanted to share that love,” Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n

Judge said she was pleased that Iowa could host a visit from Amma, who has a reputation for making an impact in humanitarian efforts, disaster relief and building homes for the needy.<\/p>\n

“It is not often we host someone of such international importance, especially someone who has done so much to bring the world together and improve the lives of millions of people,” Judge said. <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.wcfcourier.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 4:24 AM CDT‘Hugging saint’ pays visit to Coralville CORALVILLE (AP) — Amma, the world renowned humanitarian, visited Coralville on Monday, drawing more than 2,000 people hoping to meet the “hugging saint.” Amma, whose actual name is Mata Amritanandamayi, is a 53-year-old woman from India who attracts followers who seek out her … Continue reading Hugging saint visit to Coralville<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}