Amma

A couple of days ago, I found myself amongst thousands of fellow seekers seated in a hall overlooking the vast expanse of the city.

As She spoke you could almost feel a ripple in your heart, a warm familiar place you always seem to miss in your daily life,moving here and there, whilst involving yourself in all sorts of dramas. She laughed like a child and we all laughed like children, Her children, children of the Earth, children of the sky above, children of the universe, children of the divine.

She regailed us with sweet anecdotes on the most basic home truths some of which we all too often tend to forget. Then She embraced me, ahh if ever there were a moment when all else goes quiet, when all about you seems warm and tranquil that is it.

Amma ia called the 'Hugging Guru' and has hugged thousands upon thousands of people all across the planet. For that momentary embrace people have travelled continents, waited for hours and in doing so received something very rare in this day and age - a moment of pure unconditional love.

Amma's embrace is Her outpouring of love, the kind of love only a mother can give her cherished and beloved children. What makes Amma so special is Her ability to love each and every person who approaches Her with the same depth and intention.
Truly speaking, it is not just an embrace, it is an outpouring of grace, something deeply moving, an awakening of sorts, a churning of the heart which stays with you ready to be accessed at anytime...there is something special about you, inside yourself and you just know it.

To some Amma's embrace is just that - an embrace, but no embrace can be described as mere. Just the very act of giving someone a hug is powerful in itself, for it denotes welcome, acceptance, honour, respect, gratitude, love. One can take all these from Her embrace and yet more. Just the very act of a hug is beautiful and if we can spread that beauty around this world in which we live in we become a part of that beauty and make the world beautiful to live in.

To me Amma represents the gateway to the source of all things, the Divine Mother, the Shakti inherent in all things, animate and inanimate, the vibration of all love from which we all begin and end.

I still feel the depth of Her embrace and the words She whispered in my ear signifying Her unconditional Love and neverending Grace just like that of my own beloved Guru - Gurumayi Chidvilasananda.