Saint Woman

Waiting for the Healing Touch of a 'Saint'
By DeNeen L. Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, July 5, 1998; Page B03

A tiny woman swathed in a clean, white linen sari wrapped her arms around nearly 2,000 people yesterday. They had crowded into a school gymnasium in Greenbelt just to put their heads in her lap and cry, to kiss her feet, to hear this Hindu guru whom many have called a "living saint" whisper in their ears, "My darling child, it will be okay."

Wise old people who had waited hours in the warm gymnasium at Eleanor Roosevelt High School burst into tears after she hugged them and stroked their backs, chanting in their ears, "son, son, son," or "daughter, daughter, daughter." Young people knelt barefoot before her and asked for blessings as she rocked them and dotted their foreheads with yellow paste. Mothers pushed children into her arms, and she kissed them, tossed soft rose petals over their heads and gave them Hershey's Kisses and sacred ashes in small yellow envelopes to heal them.
This 44-year-old woman called Amma is considered a holy mother or religious teacher in the Hindu faith, a guru who helps people find inner peace, bringing them closer to God through her teachings and presence. She is a religious leader and has been compared to Mother Teresa and Mohandas K. Gandhi, who devoted their lives to the poor. She is known in religious circles throughout the world.

During her travels, Amma asks for nothing, no money, no food, no lodging. But with donations, she has organized 24 schools and three orphanages as well as hospitals, hospices and shelters for battered women in India. In the United States, she has established centers for spiritual study in California and New Mexico. Amma, short for Ammachi, was one of three people chosen to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1993. She also spoke to the United Nations Interfaith Celebration in New York, where she told the convention: "The intellect has reached its peak, but the heart has remained dry. Knowledge without devotion is like eating stones." She is traveling across the United States on a 10-city tour to bless people with her hugs and will appear again today at Eleanor Roosevelt High School. Her full name is Mata Amritanandamayi, which means "mother of immortal bliss." "People feel a connection. It melts people's egos and opens their hearts," said Rob Sidon, a tour spokesman, who quit his job in France to follow her. "She does this every day of her life, hours and hours. She stays as long as there are people. She said she did not come on this earth to rest." Amma, the daughter of a destitute fisherman, was born in 1953 in a small village in Kerala, in southern India. She is said to have been born with a bluish hue, and because of her dark skin she became an outcast. "She became the house slave," Sidon said. But she did the work without complaint. As a teenager, "her love for the Lord grew to indescribable proportions," says a pamphlet published by her California center. It was not long, the book says, before "she could no longer distinguish between Krishna [an important Hindu god] and herself." She began attracting followers as a teenager after immersing herself in rigorous spiritual practices. As more people heard about her, her following grew. Jovan Jones, 28, of Boston, sat in line with her mother and father, Brenda and Ryven Jones, and friend Al Busbee. Jovan Jones said she met Amma four years ago in Boston.

"A friend of mine told me that I should go see a saint who gives great hugs," she recalled. "I thought I would go for a couple of minutes, get my hug and go." "I entered her presence, and for the first time in my life, whatever I was feeling inside . . . this was the answer," said Jones, who left a graduate program at Harvard and moved to India for two years to volunteer with Amma.
Jones's parents said they wanted to experience what had changed their daughter's life. "I'm trying to find out what she has that draws so many people here," said Ryven Jones, a military retiree. "I feel real sad," said Brenda Jones, gazing at the crowd before Amma. "I look around here, and I see a lot of hurt and a lot of pain. I'm sad that people have to wait years for someone to give them a loving touch. Because it is right here in our hearts."

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