Last week, Mata Amritanandamayi, known popularly as Amma, or the “Hugging Saint” sponsored a three-day hugging marathon in New York City as part of her U.S. visit. The lines were astounding–people waited upwards of seven hours for their hug–reports April Dembosky in her article for The New York Times about Amma’s visit, “Tour of Embraces Makes a Stop in Manhattan”

Dembosky writes of Amma’s background:
“She began hugging strangers in her teens, first on the streets of her village in Kerala, India, then later in living rooms in Madison, Wis., and Dallas. Word spread about her message of unconditional love and, as many of her followers believe, the healing power of her embrace. Now she draws crowds of thousands to ashrams and conference rooms around the globe, including the Manhattan Center, the performance venue where she is holding a three-day hugathon that is to end Thursday. Her followers estimate that she has hugged 27 million people in her lifetime…The scale of Amma’s hugging operation is such that it has become an assembly line of love, whose efficiency depends on hundreds of sari-clad volunteers.”
Read the full article here.