Citizen Journalist SUJITH NAIR sends us a picture of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and CM-in-waiting B.S. Yediyurappa greeting the “Hugging Saint” Mata Amritanandamayi at the inauguration of a hospital run by the latter’s trust in Mysore on Thursday.
Yediyurappa is slated to take over as CM once H.D. Kumaraswamy‘s 20-month stint comes to an end in October this year, as part of the JDS-BJP power-sharing arrangement.
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after a few days, the trust run by the lady will demand 100-150 acres of land in karnataka, govt will drive away farmers and allot the land for them for free.
this is the modus operandi .
I was the recipient of Matha’s hug on one occassion. I must say it had an electrifying effect. I actually felt some sort of energy.
Was it my imagination? I dont know
It was your imagination, Chetan, it was. The only electrifying effect Amritanandamayi had on me was when I heard of her hugging mentality. But when I went to one of her meetings to get one, saw hundreds waiting in a queue, and had to take a token (No. 917), I quickly knew it was a very bogus marketing USP her foreign coterie had given her to draw crowds, a bit like Sai Baba pulling out vibhuti and Swiss watches.
She barely gives you a full-throated hug of the sort Yediyurappa was “fortunate” to get. Usually she hugs females on her right side and males on the left, sometimes at the same time, while her foreign minders pace ice packs on her neck to cool her down.
Just before you turn comes, one of her mutt people will have enquired “your problem” and communicated it down the line. Amritanandamayi then gives you a catch-all blessing, like “kaapad-thare” (god will bless you) and a candy as prasadam, but no more.
There is no warmth in the hug, nothing spiritual, certainly nothing sexual, which admit it, some voyeurs seek. It’s all very business-like. At best, it’s a gimmick. At worst, it’s a nice occasion for the town’s Malayalees to converge and comingle.
In fact, I found her meeting a bit like a Malayalee trade fair, a “santhe” where you could buy ayurvedic laxatives, agarbathis, and Malayala Manorama subscriptions.
Her rise from being a fisherman’s daughter is commendable. She does charity work, has set up hospitals and schools and colleges, but as Vir Sanghvi wrote so well in the case of the Sai Baba (http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1852923,00110001.htm), it is all very questionable.
And to think that A.P.J. Abdul Kalam prostrates before the likes of her shows the true state of Indian science—and offers proof of how much our polity is in thrall of godmen and godwomen who seem to have become extension counters of “Swiss Banks”.
People who go to be hugged to divest themselves of the problems that they have should stop and think a little. These problems are complex and do not go away by sheer hugging, and they need solutions developed in a rational way. Hugging has the same effect as placebo in a drug trial. Whatever it is she has been very successful , there is an university in her name, a cluster of colleges including medical and engineering colleges, and some learned people are swayed by her power. If you study how these institutions work, they cater for those with money as they charge hefty fees ( think of paying to learn in a Godwomen’s institution!),. Those Godwomen and Godmen that I have come across all all very rich. Such is the gullibility of humans.
I am not an authority to comment whether these Godmen and Godwomen are closer to God or their touch/ hugging has electrifying effect but looking at the large number of Godmen and Godwomen that we have had in the recent past perhaps in every region- two things can be construde.
First Human beings (not only Indians) are very gullible ( as commented by Uttama)and they are always in search of supermen who can show them direction in life and find peace.
Second, these Godmen must be having something(call it leadership qualities or divine power) in them to have such a huge fan following. Their fans are ready to do anything for them