Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, also known as Amma was in Boxborough and Marlborough for 4 days of programs from July 10th- 13th that were attended by several thousand people from all walks of life. Amma has been visiting New England for the the past 25 years, the final stop on her annual summer visit to the US. As more and more people become aware of her vast humanitarian and charitable activities around the world, the number of visitors to her programs over the years has increased dramatically. Dubbed  “the Hugging Saint” by the international press, Amma is known for receiving each person who comes to see her with a loving embrace. During her India tours, as many as 200,000 people come to the programs and she has been known to hug over 50,000 in one day, sitting sometimes for over 20 hours.

Lynne Cooke who was raised in an Irish Catholic family, first met Amma in 2008. “I had been seeing a client who's son died in the Iraq war and her suffering was great. When she walked into my office one day in July I immediately saw and felt her peace. I asked her what changed and she said a friend took her to see "The Hugging saint, named Amma". I canceled the rest of my appointments that day and went to Marlboro to meet Amma!“ When asked what that first experience was like for her, Lynne says it “was like I knew her and I knew in my heart SHE alone could help me in my life”. Since that first visit, Lynne has returned every year to put into practice Amma's core teaching of serving others. Her husband and two daughters also eventually received Amma's darshan.

Through out the program venue one could see evidence of Amma's teachings being put into action. Volunteers manned recycling and compost stations, helped prepare and serve meals and worked at booths where items are sold to raise money for Amma's charities. A multimedia display for “Embracing the World”, Amma's international network of charitable organizations informed visitors of ongoing projects throughout the world. One video showed the efforts to distribute rice, milk and other staples regularly to remote tribal areas of India that would not otherwise receive any relief services. Each year, 10 million meals are provided to the poor and impoverished throughout India. When asked where she gets the energy to embrace so many people while simultaneously building and running a world-wide humanitarian movement, Amma says simply, “Where there is Love, everything is effortless”.  

It is this same feeling of love which pervades the atmosphere around Amma that drew Manish Gupta, a native of Uttar Pradesh, to spend time with Amma. “I didn't get Darshan (embrace) for the first few times I went to the programs as I just felt very happy watching all the people - young, old, rich, poor, white, black - waiting with so much hope and so much love - to get Amma's Darshan. The first discourse I heard from Amma in 2006 really felt as if it were tailored for me, and those words of wisdom are still fresh in my mind”. Manish says he found the Atma puja, the ceremony for world peace that Amma conducts on the last evening of each city's program to be a very powerful experience.

“Om Loka Samastha Sukhino Bhavantu, is one of the most important mantras of Ancient India,” Amma says. “It means may all the beings in the world be peaceful and happy.” Putting this mantra into action yet once again, Amma recently announced a donation of one million US dollars towards the relief and rehabilitation of Japanese disaster victims, particularly for the education of children who lost both their parents in the devastating March 11 tsunami. Just  two days after the earthquake and tsunami struck,  Amma’s volunteers began actively participating in the relief work. Their activities include cleaning rubble and debris from houses and agricultural land, assisting the elderly and children at relief camps, distribution of food, household utensils, medicine and other daily necessities.

While Amma will return to the Boston area only next summer, local volunteers continue her efforts by serving at homeless shelters in the New England and participating in Amrita Bala Kendra, a forum for children to facilitate the appreciation, learning and practice of spiritual values and to help them develop social awareness and leadership skills.

For more information please visit http://embracingtheworld.org/  and http://www.ammanewengland.org/

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