The Nourisher - Editor’s Blog

If you have been lucky enough to meet Sri Mata Amritanandanmayi Devi otherwise known as Amma you’ll be excited to know that she will be in Australia in March-April.

Amma (“Mother”) is world-renowned as an extraordinary humanitarian and spiritual leader who is transforming the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. She travels the world spreading her boundless compassion and love in a most personal way ~ she has actually, physically embraced over 23 million people. Recently in India, Amma cuddled 50,000 people in 22 hours.
A friend told me she saw her get up and vacuum the floor at 6 in the morning after cuddling people for 20+ hours.

I’ve had three cuddles with Amma, each was equally transforming and delightful. What this one woman achieves is incredible. Her charitable organization has such a vast, multifaceted infrastructure that when a major disaster strikes anywhere in India, Amma is able to immediately send out her monastic disciples and volunteers, including professionals in various fields, to take care of every aspect of disaster relief, from emergency work to long-term rebuilding and rehabilitation.

Amma’s compassion is the very hub of these projects. Her empathy and concern for the disaster victims is so complete that she responds to every detail of their suffering. She finds solutions that are often astonishingly touching and beautiful-for example, mothers who have lost their children are given jobs looking after children who lost their
parents in the same disaster. After the tsunami struck the coast near Amritapuri Ashram, most children living in the neighboring villages were terrified of water. Amma asked the foreign residents at the Ashram to teach the children to swim. Then, Amma herself came out one day and gave them swimming lessons.

She really is compassion personified and it is a great honour to be in the presence of this light filled being. Did I mention that the cuddle’s good too?

Check out her tour here.

About the Author...

Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).