Mata Amritanandamayi

Her Holiness Sri Mātā Amritānandamayī (born Sudhamani Idamannel; 27 September 1953), often known as Amma ("Mother"), is an Indian Hindu spiritual leader, guru and humanitarian, who is revered as 'the hugging saint' by her followers.

She is the chancellor of multi-campus research university Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

Born to a family of backward-caste Malayali fishermen on 27 September 1953, she was the third child of Sugunanandan and Damayanti.

Her mother Damayanti died on 19 September 2022.

She has six siblings.

As part of her chores, Amṛtānandamayī gathered food scraps from neighbours for her family's cows and goats, through which she was confronted with the intense poverty and suffering of others.

She would bring these people food and clothing from her own home.

Her family, which was not wealthy, scolded and punished her.

Amṛtānandamayī began to spontaneously embrace people to comfort them in their sorrow.

Despite the reaction of her parents, Amṛtānandamayī continued.

Regarding her desire to embrace others, Amṛtānandamayī commented, "I don't see if it is a man or a woman. I don't see anyone different from my own self. A continuous stream of love flows from me to all of creation. This is my inborn nature. The duty of a doctor is to treat patients. In the same way, my duty is to console those who are suffering."

Amṛtānandamayī rejected numerous attempts by her parents to arrange for her marriage.

Amṛtānandamayī's darshana has been the centrepiece of her life, as she has received people nearly every day since the late 1970s.

Given the size of the crowds coming to seek Amṛtānandamayī's blessings, there have been times when she has given darshana for more than 20 continuous hours.

In the book The Timeless Path, Swami Ramakrishnananda Puri, one of Amṛtānandamayī's senior disciples, wrote: "The [spiritual] path inculcated by Amma is the same as the one presented in the Vedas and recapitulated in subsequent traditional scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gita."

Amṛtānandamayī herself says, "karma [action], jñana [knowledge] and bhakti [devotion] are all essential. If the two wings of a bird are devotion and action, knowledge is its tail. Only with the help of all three can the bird soar into the heights."

She accepts the various spiritual practices and prayers of all religions as but different methods toward the same goal of purifying the mind.

Along these lines, she stresses the importance of meditation, performing actions as karma yoga, selfless service, and cultivating divine qualities such as compassion, patience, forgiveness, self-control, etc. Amṛtānandamayī has said that these practices refine the mind, preparing it to assimilate the ultimate truth: that one is not the physical body and mind, but the eternal, blissful consciousness that serves as the non-dual substratum of the universe.

This understanding itself Amṛtānandamayī referred to as jivanmukti [liberation while alive].

Amṛtānandamayī said, "Jivanmukti is not something to be attained after death, nor is it to be experienced or bestowed upon you in another world. It is a state of perfect awareness and equanimity, which can be experienced here and now in this world, while living in the body. Having come to experience the highest truth of oneness with the Self, such blessed souls do not have to be born again. They merge with the infinite."

Amritanandamayi is known for frequently referring to herself in the third person as "Amma", which is a common spiritual practice in Hinduism.

In her public talks and in articles, Amritanandamayi has taken up several social issues, including the importance of selfless service, the need for inter-religious harmony, for environmental protection and of desegregating science and spirituality.

She also regularly speaks on the importance of women's empowerment and gender equality as well as that of humankind cultivating what she refers to as viśva-mātrutvam — an attitude of motherliness towards all beings in creation, specifically through expressing compassion, patience and selflessness.

In 1981, after spiritual seekers had begun residing at her parents' property in Parayakadavu in the hopes of becoming Amṛtānandamayī's disciples, the Mātā Amṛtānandamayī Math (MAM), a worldwide foundation, was founded.

Amṛtānandamayī continues to serve as chairperson of the Math.

Today the Mata Amritanandmayi Math is engaged in many spiritual and charitable activities.

In 1987, at the request of devotees, Amṛtānandamayī began to conduct programmes in countries throughout the world.

She continues to do so annually.

Amṛtānandamayī's form of giving darshana is hugging people.

As to how this began, Amṛtānandamayī said, "People used to come and tell [me] their troubles. They would cry and I would wipe their tears. When they fell weeping into my lap, I used to hug them. Then the next person too wanted it... And so the habit picked up."

Amṛtānandamayī has embraced more than 33 million people throughout the world for over 30 years.

When asked, in 2002, to what extent she thought her embraces helped the ills of the world, Amṛtānandamayī replied, "I don't say I can do it 100 percent. Attempting to change the world [completely] is like trying to straighten the curly tail of a dog. But society takes birth from people. So by affecting individuals, you can make changes in the society and, through it, in the world. You cannot change it, but you can make changes. The fight in individual minds is responsible for the wars. So if you can touch people, you can touch the world."

She has also spoken out against human trafficking and forced prostitution, speaking at the Vatican and signing the Universal Declaration Against Slavery in an event organized by Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2014.

In July 2015, Amritanandamayi delivered the keynote address at a United Nations Academic Impact conference on technology and sustainable development, co-hosted by Amrita University.

There, she requested the scientific community to infuse its research with awareness and compassion, stressing the importance of keeping the aim of uplifting the poor and suffering in mind when undertaking technological research.

She has spoken several times at the United Nations and twice at the Parliament of the World's Religions.

In 2018, she was felicitated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for largest contribution to the Government of India's Clean India Campaign Swachh Bharat Mission.

She was the first recipient of Vishwaratna Puraskar (Gem of the World Award) by Hindu Parliament.

Mātā Amritānandamayī Devi is an Indian guru from Parayakadavu (now partially known as Amritapuri), Alappad Panchayat in Karunagappally, Kollam District, in the state of Kerala.

And in 2018, under the patronage of Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, she participated in a similar event aimed at protecting children from abuse and predation via the Internet.