Mata Amritanandamayi

Mata Amritanandamayi is a widely known Indian spiritual leader. Her followers address her as Amma or Ammachi (mother). Due to her hugging habit she is also known as 'The Hugging Saint'.

Amritanandamayi was born as Sudhamani in the Indian state of Kerala in in 1953.Her family was engaged in the fishing trade. She had to drop out of school at an early age to help her family economically.

According to her followers Mata Amritanandamayi had divine experiences when she was a child. She founded Mata Amritanandamayi Mission Trust - a worldwide organization which does charitable work all over the world. She has also addressed the United Nations General Assembly.

Swami Amritaswarupnanda was one of her first disciple. She established an ashram which is now known as Amritapuri.Amritapuri Ashram regularly publishes a spiritual monthly magazine-Matruvani. Jan Kounen an award winning filmmaker made the film 'Darshan-The Embrace' on the life of this 'hugging saint' of India . The film was officially selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005.

'Mata Amritanandamayi Math' executes various charitable projects all over the world. She has donated a considerable amount of money to people devastated by natural calamities. She has helped the victims of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. She has also provided relief support to the victims of the 2004 tsunami in India and Sri Lanka and to the survivors of the Pakistan earthquake in 2005.

She was one of the Representatives of Hinduism at the 'Parliament of the World's Religions' at Chicago in 1993.


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Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Sri Sathya Sai Baba Ramakrishna Paramhansa