Hero #007: Amma … (05/27/16)
Born Sudhamani Idamannel in September of 1953, Amma is a Hindu spiritual leader and healing presence …
After her formal education ended at the age of nine, she began to take care of her younger siblings and the family domestic work full-time. As part of her chores, Amma would gather food scraps from neighbours for her family’s cows and goats, through which she was confronted with the intense poverty and suffering of others. In her early teens, she started bringing these people not only food & clothing from her own home, but also solace in the form of spontaneous, heartfelt hugs. Her family, which was not wealthy, scolded and punished her for these deeds of Kindness, and yet she continued to do so — and continues to do so even to this very day.
Amma has been bringing peace to the distressed by gently hugging them ever since, receiving hundreds of visitors nearly every day since the late 1970’s — giving each one of them a warm, sincere embrace, one after the other, until all have been loved. Some days she does this nonstop for up to 20 hours. The organization that has built up around her large following estimates that she has soothed the troubles of more then 33 million people in this way over the past 30+ years.
“A continuous stream of Love flows from me to all of creation … The privilege of a doctor is to treat patients. In the same way, my privilege is to console those who are suffering … Attempting to change the world completely is like trying to straighten the curly tail of a dog. But society takes birth from its individual people. So by affecting individuals, you can make changes in your society and, through it, in the world. You cannot change it completely, but you can make changes. The conflict in individual minds is responsible for war. So if you can touch people peacefully, you can touch the world and bring peace.” ~ Amma
;