A Hug and Kiss~
It was the winter of 2005 when I encountered Amma, an East Indian woman known as the
'hugging saint'. She's been gaining fame as a healing humanitarian, dedicated to uplifting
suffering of people through the simple act of hugging. Many have written about her ability
to create small miracles with her hugs, to open hearts and awaken divinity, compassion and
selflessness. She is known to have hugged millions and millions of people in multiple
countries over the past 30 years and has donated millions to charities of third world
countries. She once hugged more than 50,000 people, individually, in a single 20 hour
sitting while in India. When I heard she was coming to the Ann Arbor area I decided to get
my hug from her on the way to Kentucky from Lansing MI and booked a motel near her event.
There were two motels on the event list, both with the same name only one was on the north
side of town and the other on the south. The south side hotel allowed pets but didn’t have a
shuttle and the north side hotel had a shuttle but didn’t allow pets. I opted to drive and
keep Amber our golden retriever with us. Both kids, 17 and ten, were in tow with me but
they didn't want to attend because of waiting in long lines at the event, So I left them
with Amber, TV and video games in the cozy hotel room. As I walked to my car a heavy snow
began falling and part of me wanted to sit in the hotel Jacuzzi and relax instead of going.
Yet I felt I was supposed to see Amma and kept going. The drive was cautious with low
visibility and I drove slowly through the ice in busy traffic following map quest directions
from our hotel to Amma’s hotel.
Large snow flakes slammed my windshield and giant trucks sped along in the dark spraying ice
water everywhere, but I managed to find my exit. At the stop light I turned right according
to directions and suddenly the buildings and roads looked too familiar, I somehow had in a
thirty minute circle ending up back at my hotel again. Frustrated I took this oddity as a
sign I was supposed to keep my tentative Jacuzzi appointment rather than a hug with Amma who
was thirty confusing minutes away though a snow storm.
I walked back into the hotel lobby determined to relax my plans and enjoy the evening a
different way, but as I passed through the automatic doors a woman sitting on a bench by the
window attracted my attention. She was slender and young, wearing a modest patterned skirt
and long sleeved blouse. What drew me to her was a facial expression of tense concern, she
was worried about something. I simply ‘knew’ she was part of the Amma event although
reasoning told me the chances of this were slim because most people staying here at the
south hotel were Red Wings hockey fans.
“Are you going to Amma?” I queried.
“Yes but the shuttle is late and I have a massage table to set up.” She was squeezing her
clasped fingers with nervous energy.
“There is no shuttle from here” I told her, feeling a pleased that someone else felt as
confused and shaken as I at the moment “Service is only from the north hotel.”
“Bhanu!” she exclaimed to a tall man walking toward us. “Amma has sent us this woman to take
us, there is no shuttle”.
I knew her energy, it was Krishna consciousness energy and I supposed my Jacuzzi plans were
canceled because it was Amma who’d sent me mysteriously back here. I accepted her reasoning
and claimed my confusing ‘circle-driving-ending-up-as-Amma’s-shuttle service-experience’ as
a divinely guided destined occurrence. At least it brought sense to my world again!
On the icy drive there I discovered that the woman’s name, Avani, means earth and her
husband’s name, Bhanu, means sun. Avani told me miraculous stories about Amma and of her
adventures of living in India with husband Bhanu. They devoted themselves to learning from
and caring for Amma.
Inwardly I wondered if Krishna consciousness had not actually sent these young devotees for
me on this night, to prepare me for Amma. They gave me good advice about how to move quickly
through her event without standing in the long lines and described for me what to expect
once there. They stood with me among the fountain of people who formed a long tunnel for
Amma to walk through during her entrance from the limousine to the hotel ballroom, and
narrated her arrival.
“See her beauty?” Bhanu asked me. “She smiles and we fall in love with her.”
She was a short dark skinned woman, plump and smiley and she passed us under an exquisitely
made umbrella held above her head by devotees. She touched open palms as if running her
hands along a chain link fence, the links being hundreds of hands.
“Touch her hand!” Bhanu nudged me forward as she moved closer. He didn’t want me to miss her
touch, considered by devotees to be a very special blessing. Circles of devotees on the
outskirts of us chanted and sang as she moved through the lobby and smells of curry and
sandalwood incense brought me a nostalgic sense of childhood familiarity.
Shoes were piled up everywhere along the hallway walls and doorway entrances. It was a
concern of mine that if I took my shoes off I’d never find them again, and if I hung my coat
up on one of the twenty or so mobile coat racks that it would disappear also. Numbers for
standing line were handed to us on lottery type tickets as we entered the large carpeted
room where Amma would speak, sing and pray before us on the stage. Tables of beads, clothes
and music lined the outskirts of our room where devotee venders stood nearby. I took my seat
among the masses and did some people watching as I waited for it to begin.
She came on stage and spoke with us about love and compassion, then sang to us in a
hauntingly beautiful husky voice. I was inspired to seek out a CD of her voice when I had a
chance, and to see if the cooks had made ‘sweet balls’ because I wanted to taste one after
over thirty three years of departure from Krishna food!
We stood in line after her appearance for the hug that would come next, I had a number in
the five hundreds and this appeared to be a long night ahead. Out of the blue a familiar
face appeared in the crowd, she was a nurse I’d briefly worked with on my unit in Lansing
before she left for Ann Arbor. She was helping direct people in the lines and she recognized
me immediately.
“You can have my ticket, it’s only 100 and since I’ll be here all night I’ll take yours!”
She offered. Suddenly I was near the front of the line thankfully realizing that my night
with Amma had been a gift all along! I’d come to this city and this event with seemingly no
connections yet my experience had been guided by these loving spirits from the moment I’d
arrived to the hotel.
The hug was a warm embrace with many prayers said over the crown of my head. She took my
right hand and kissed it before tossing flower petals over my kneeling form. Unlike our
touch as she walked past me in line, I felt a small electric charge go through my hand and I
feel this charge in my hand ever since, only when I think of her at the same time. It was
this electric kiss on my hand that I attribute to healing that occurred a month later: