You Give, You Can! Everyone Can, says Amma

Who is Mata Amritanandamayi? She is a world famous Indian saint most people identify as the "Hugging Amma." She is always on tour of places around the world, going to the masses, meeting them, hugging them one after other, no matter it is going on overnight, till the last devotee standing is attended to personally like a dedicated doctor in a mad, mad Indian Govt hospital listening to every patient's problems. And you return with one of your palms folded you don't know why. Open it, surprising indeed, there is a precious gift in your hand. You were not aware she had put it in there and folded your palm! It is simply a toffee! The blessings are with you. You can go home.

A discourse precedes the hugging marathon of a day. Interspersed with interesting but didactic anecdotes reeled off from day-to-day events, the talk revolves around an exclusive philosophy that she propounds - an earthly reduction of the mysterious and elusive concept of what is spiritualism, which has remained enigmatically farfetched for the grass roots even since the dawn of Indian civilisation in spite of millions of yogis dotting our history, only confounding the confusion of the most quoted and least comphrehended of Hinduism's fundas. In a nutshell, she says, spiritualism is a set of principles, or any set of principles, which will make material life more comfortable, meaningful and beautiful, free of conflicts and too many sorrows. As simple as that!

Apart from this theoretical digression, Amma has one more major contribution to make to humanity that transforms one's life and the way one looks at it. This is one practical thing indeed. She says "Give", go on giving, even if not in cash and kind, there are plenty of things you can give - knowledge, providing solace, sharing someones's grief, going to those who are suffering, you can certainly reduce the pains of another soul and the like. Everyone can give, rich and poor alike!

-RM Nair