Faithful Flock in
Westmont for Hug From Hindu Guru
Excerpted from Chicago Tribune -
Friday, July 3, 1998
Copyright © 1998 Chicago Tribune
"Where do you get the free
hugs?" the man hurrying toward the Inland Meeting & Exposition Center in Westmont
on Thursday morning asked the woman who was just leaving.
In there," was the answer,
"but you'll have to get in line."
The new arrival was in for a long
wait. Hundreds of followers of Indian mystic Mata Amritanandamayi -- more familiarly known
as Amma, Ammachi or simply Mother -- had traveled from as far as California to receive a
hug blessing from the 44-year-old guru since Tuesday, when she settled in at the Expo
Center for a three-day Chicago-area stop on her 10-city U.S. tour.
In her homeland, where she
oversees an 800-bed charity hospital in southern India and spearheads a handful of other
humanitarian projects, Ammachi has embraced and blessed as many as 20,000 people at one
sitting, according to aides. Wednesday evening in Westmont, more than 800 of the faithful
and the curious participated in a free devotional program and one-on-one blessing session,
known as darshan, during which the sari-clad, ever-smiling Hindu holy woman dispensed
hugs, foil-wrapped candy and flowers from 10 p.m. until 3:30 the next morning.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, she was back
after only a few hours of sleep, still smiling, ready to begin the final day of her visit
here with a hugging marathon that drew several hundred people.
"When you are connected to
the eternal source of energy, you are never exhausted," Ammachi said, speaking
through a translator as she opened her arms wide to a family of three.
"I can feel the energy when
she is in the room," said David Surette, 28, a graduate student in physics who had
driven from Downstate Mascoutah to join the orderly line of barefoot or stocking-footed
folks waiting to approach Ammachi. Visitors to the meeting room were required to stash
their shoes on shelves near the door in a show of respect for the guru.
Surette, who heard about Ammachi
several years ago through friends in alternative healing professions, described the
experience of meeting the guru as "tapping into a grace dynamic" that brought
about a "subtle, positive change" in his thinking.
"She teaches love and
selfless service," said Vellore Menon, 56, a design artist who is a member of the Oak
Brook-based chapter of Ammachi followers. According to Menon, 35 to 50 followers gather in
the chapter headquarters once a month to read from Ammachi's books and other writings.
Born into the Hindu faith, Menon
embraced Ammachi's universal message of divine love 11 years ago after meeting the guru
when she visited a Hindu temple in Lemont.
"Many people look upon her as
the embodiment of the divine," Menon said. "Each time she comes to Chicago, we
see new faces and more people, largely through word of mouth."
Seated in a gold-and-blue chair
and accompanied by orange-robed swamis who serve as interpreters, the woman known as the
"Mother of Compassion" embraced each kneeling, shoeless supplicant for 30 to 60
seconds, occasionally anointing a follower's forehead with fragrant sandalwood paste. Many
of those blessed were in tears as they lifted their head from Ammachi's shoulder or bosom,
rose to a standing position and slowly walked away.
"People experience
unconditional love from her; that is why they keep coming back," said Tara Devi, 35,
Who was raised a Christian and left a career as a food scientist to live and work at
Ammachi's U.S. religious community in San Ramon, Calif. "The first time I received
her blessing, I burst into tears and didn't know why. Now, I see her as a spiritual
teacher who can help me move toward a deeper communion with God."
Born into a poor family of
fishermen in the Indian state of Kerala, Ammachi had only a few years of schooling before
she was forced to drop out and help her parents and other relatives with domestic chores,
according to her biography. Deeply religious since early childhood, she often was
ridiculed by others for her ecstatic devotion to God and the deity Krishna.
One day, according to Ammachi, she
heard God's voice telling her that she had been put in the world to give solace to
suffering humanity and show mankind the way back to God. She began teaching in 1981 and
made her first visit to the United States in 1987.
Followers of Ammachi, according to
Menon, avoid alcohol, tobacco and meat and strive to spiritualize their lives as much as
possible.
"Materiality is excess
baggage on the journey through life," Menon said. "Mother lives very simply. All
of the [charity projects] are financed by donations. Mother has a vision of what needs to
be done, and things just happen." |
