A Hug Above

On May 2, The Interfaith Center of New York bestowed the Annual James Parks Morton Interfaith Award on Amma, India's "Hugging Saint, and five other global humanitarians. In this exclusive interview in Common Ground, Amma talks about her ministry of love and compassion. By conservative estimates, she has given more than 26 million hugs over the past 35 years in countries all around the world. She has been compared to Gandhi and Mother Teresa in her charitable work that has resulted in food, shelter, hospitals, and homes for the poor.

"Compassion to the poor is our duty for God," she says. Amma also talks about the energy provided by God to give darshan to around 40,000 people in one day; her belief in the divinity within everyone; the ways in which she has tried to awaken within others the qualities associated with motherhood; her concern over the growing number of Indians who are committing suicide due to overwhelming debts; her certainty that the greatest enemy afoot in our times is poverty; and her hope that more people will do what they can financially to alleviate those suffering around the world.