Amritapuri

Last Wednesday we had the great fortune to visit the Amritapuri Ashram in the Kerala backwaters.  The founder of the ashram Mata Amritanandamayi Devi or Amma is a gura famous the world over.  The Ashram is the headquarters of Amma and her spiritual empire :-)  Her singular claim to fame is that she spreads the power of eternal love through hugging...yes HUGGING.  She has hugged hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world.  The ashram itself is a fascinating place.  There are people from all over the world visiting, working, and living at the ashram.  The many foundations created by Amma provide charitable donations, education, and spiritual leadership globally.  We arrived around 11AM in the morning and the Ashram was in full swing!  Breakfast was just finishing and devotees were busy performing seva throughout the compound.  We waited in line for our darshan or "sight of the holy mother" tickets...in other words you need to wait in line to get a ticket to wait in line to give this woman a hug.  Needless to say we would have had to wait 5 HOURS to hug Amma...so we just decided to go to the beach instead.  But we plan on heading back to stay a night or two it is a pretty amazing place :-)