INDIAN SPIRITUAL guru Amma distributed approximately 15,000 embraces over the weekend in a hugging marathon that drew to a close this morning.
Affectionately known as the “hugging saint”, Amma continued to cast her arms around queuing devotees until a closing ceremony at 7am brought an end to proceedings.
Hundreds milled about the National Show Centre in Cloghran in north Dublin yesterday, basking in the afterglow of Amma’s hug yesterday, while others sat in quiet meditation, enjoying a sense of peace and positivity.
Tree surgeon and wood sculptor Christy Collard, of Future Forests in Kealkil, Co Cork, travelled with his partner Ciara O’Driscoll and their children Saira and Naoise to hug Amma.
“The first time I hugged Amma, I didn’t feel anything special. It wasn’t until hours later, during the closing ceremony, that I felt this huge emotional release. I’d lost my mum to cancer and I attributed that release to the environment I was in,” he said.
Ms O’Driscoll described a “motherly” experience in an “‘incredibly positive atmosphere.”
“It’s not like being hugged by a stranger – her embrace is very familiar. It brings a sensation of lightness, she has a warmth of presence, a vibrancy and an incredible ease about her,” she said.
In an interview conducted between hugs, Amma urged the people of Ireland to embrace their spirituality and practise compassion. She said many people were turning away from God because “they have tasted the skin of the fruit and found it bitter.” She urged people to “look deeper inside to find the sweetness”. Through an interpreter, Amma said that Irish people have a rich spiritual tradition.