Ammachi Down Under!

[Guest guest]

BRISBANE, Australia (April 24, 2004) - It is said that hugging

produces feel-good hormones. Just as the cuddle chemical – oxytocin –

floods the body when we nurture a baby, so too is it now believed

to be present when we fall in love, embrace friends and get intimate.

 

Dr Helen Fisher, a prominent anthropologist from Rutgers University

in New York who wrote the book "Anatomy of Love", says oxytocin

helps us bond with partners as well as offspring. Oxytocin fills us

with well-being, calm and a sense of peace. It has a narcotic effect.

 

Which is why I am thrilled to hear that one of the most famous

huggers in the world, the revered Indian guru called Amma or

Ammachi, "The Hugging Mother", is in Australia as part of her world

tour.

 

Famed for her charity work, which has included providing 25,000

houses for the poor, and respected by international bodies such as

the UN, her followers claim she is the embodiment of Shakti – the

Mother goddess.

 

Amma travels the globe hugging tens of thousands of people, taking

them close to her body and rocking them in a bid to open them up to

god.

 

Watching a video of her life, I notice that everyone who is embraced

becomes blissed-out or bursts into tears. Whether chemically induced

or not, the passionate emotion she elicits is a poignant reminder of

how isolated, emotionally deprived and lonely so many people in the

world feel. How desperately in need of a simple hug or stroke many

are.

 

It is also a sad indictment of how removed we are from Mother.

 

In India the goddess is as important as the god. Hindus revere the

feminine, worship Mother Earth, see divinity equally in male and

female energy.

 

So it's not surprising that a female guru has emerged to fill a role

that, in the West, would be the exclusive domain of men.

 

Indeed, so impressed was I with Amma when I first heard about her,

that I travelled half way across India to find her. Sadly, I arrived

at her ashram in Kerala only to discover she was not home. And here

she is, come to visit me instead.

 

SHE ARRIVES

 

The hall in Brisbane where she will be appearing is filled with

intense anticipa tion. Hundreds of followers await the Mother to

come on stage.

 

Finally amidst the clapping and chanting she emerges – smaller than

I imagined, voluptuous, with a warm, smiling face. She sits humbly

in front of us. A strange euphoria fills the room as she talks. Amma

explains that we all are sparks of the divine. She is not a god.

Rather a spark of divine light acknowledging the godliness in all of

us. Thus she bows to us in homage.

 

She explains that hugging is her way of teaching people to feel the

power of source. The feminine way is not the rational, academic way

of the male clergy. It is about being tactile and loving.

 

She says she never tires of hugging.

 

"To give fills me up. The more love we give, the more love and

rewards are bestowed upon us."

 

Then she begins to chant. When the singing finishes, Amma, or Ma,

takes audience with the crowd, hugging each person who comes and

kneels at her feet.

 

We are part of the stampede. People in front of us are crying,

sobbing, shaking as she holds them.

 

Finally our turn comes. My husband goes first. I watch him trembling

in her arms and wonder what is happening for him. He walks away

before I have a chance to ask.

 

It is my turn. I am suddenly thrust against her ample bosom. She

smells sweet like roses. She is rocking me and whispering things

into my ear. And it's honestly one of the most exquisite,

unburdening feelings I have ever felt. I feel the rush of bliss.

 

I'm a person who hugs a lot, yet there is something in this embrace

beyond chemicals. I feel as if I'm merging with all things.

 

My husband, who is a cynical finance journalist, is wandering around

in a daze.

 

"I left my body. I felt I suddenly become her. My heart opened up. I

can't explain it. I can't explain it," he keeps saying in the car on

the way home.

 

I know exactly what he means.

 

Chemicals or divine channelling? We have no answer. Biologists and

scientists now say all forms of love can be boiled down to a

chemical cocktail of amphetamines and opiates.

 

But does that explain the mystical specialness of love. And does it

matter?

 

Days later, my husband and I still feel high, and charged with a

healthy sense of well-being.

 

I think the most important thing we learned from the experience was

this: Whatever one's spiritual belief is, love giving and receiving

this potent elixir is still the closest thing to an ecstatic

religious experience we, as humans, can ever have.

 

SOURCE: The Weekend Australian, "Mother of All Huggers Showers Us

With the Love Drug," by Ruth Ostrow

URL:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9367185

%255E31499,00.html