Amma the Hugging Indian Saint Back in Marlborough this Week

" I realize my purpose is to console - to personally wipe away tears through selfless love, compassion, and service." - Amma

Amma, the hugging saint from India will be at the in Marlborough on July 13 at 7 p.m. where she will conduct a public program. Amma is currently on her 2011 US tour visiting Seattle, San Ramon, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Iowa, New York, Dallas, Toronto, Washington DC, Chicago and Boston.

For the past 35 years Amma (Mother) has dedicated her life to the uplifting of human suffering through the simplest of gestures – an embrace. In this intimate manner Amma had blessed and consoled more than 25 million people throughout the world.Amma has inspired and started innumerable humanitarian services. Some of them are free food and clothing programs, charitable hospitals, hospices, disaster relief programs, free homes for the poor and the needy, medical camps, orphanages, schools, educational institutions, widows' pension schemes, free legal advice, preservation of nature and so on.

She has earned international recognition for her outstanding contributions to the world community and is recognized as an extraordinary spiritual leader by the United Nations and by people all over the world. She received the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Non-violence.

Over time, Amma's popularity has risen to the point where in India she has been known to individually hug over 50,000 people in one day, sitting sometimes for over 20 hours. Amma travels around the world to receive all her children

Amma's first spiritual center was established in Amritapuri, Kerala, India on May 6, 1981. Today, assembly groups spread across 33 countries worldwide including the United States, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Australia and Africa.