AVUI- Catalonian Newspaper -19. marraskuuta 2002

Hugs That Produce Love

Thousands of people listen in Barcelona to Amma's message, an Indian Spiritual Leader.

"Sri Mata Amritanandamayi, Amma, was born 49 years ago in the Indian province of Kerala. Since her childhood, she looked for the divine Mother and Father without need of help from any master. She had to bear the attacks of the family, the rationalists and the non-believers, who tried to destroy her. At the age of 21 she manifested externally her state of Divine Realisation" These words are part of Amma's written biography, a spiritual leader who travels round the world proclaiming that the basic cause of the world problems is within and that love and peace have to become elements of progress. Amma has made hugs (darshan) the most representative element of her philosophy and has turned them into the way of conveying her message.

Amma was in Barcelona on Thursday and yesterday, Friday. This has been her fourth year here. The Mar Bella Sports Hall was full of people who were all patiently waiting for their turn to receive the hug which will rarely take longer than 20 seconds. On Thursday about 4,000 people received the darshan and the last one had to wait until 6 o'clock in the morning. Therefore Amma decided to sleep in the dressing rooms of the Sports Hall, because yesterday at 10 o'clock in the morning she had to start again receiving thousands of more people.

"What she passes on with her arms is energy, compassion… it's not easy to put it in words because darshan is an emotional experience, which fill the people with strong spiritual interests", explains Almudena Antolín, a Bilbao resident "deeply Christian", who is 33 and has been coming to Barcelona to receive Amma's hugs. One of Amma's teachings aims is the unity of all religions. "The day everyone realises and works on the inner path there will be unity of religions. The problem is that people eat the peel and throw away the fruit", explains Amma in her mother tongue, Malayalam, while a Swami (similar to a monk) puts her speech full of metaphors, into English.

Charitable projects:

Besides the spiritual aspect, Amma has numerous charitable projects underway in India, which receive support from the Government. She believes that the only way to eradicate poverty in her country as well as in the rest of the world is working in charitable projects.

Thousands of people of all ages walked around the Mar Bella Sports Hall barefooted. Amma hugged the people and gave them a petal and a sweet while she answered the press with a smile. There were no shouts or cries and above the human murmur prayers were coming out of the loudspeakers. There were people who got a number for the hug at 11 o'clock in the morning and wouldn't receive it until early morning the following day. "We don't mind." They said with conviction. The time has stopped at least for two days in the Mar Bella Sports Hall.