KUALA LUMPUR: Renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, fondly known as Amma, will visit Malaysia this year as part of her global tour.
Amma is the head of Embracing the World, a multi-national collective of non-profit organisations dedicated to providing food, clothing and shelter for the poor and needy.
Amma operates from her permanent base in Kerala, India called the Mata Amritanandamayi Math [MA Math], one of the most active and prominent non-profit organisations in India that is recognised by the United Nations.
"Amma's message is quite simple. Just spread love and compassion and all will be well. This she does unconditionally with her motherly hugs to seekers in search of peace, solace, spiritual wisdom or simply her blessings.
"She works tirelessly round the clock during her world tours and on a daily basis in our Ashram [MA Math], without ever losing her poise or endearing smile.
"Her record of having embraced more than 37 million people around the world speaks for itself," said Ramakrishnananda Puri, a senior disciple of Amma with more than 40 years of service with the organisation, who was in KL to oversee preparations for Amma's Malaysia visit.
The hugging saint, who started from humble beginnings, propagates a world-view of universalism, peace and tolerance. Her decades of stellar philanthropic service has seen Amma establish various facilities aimed at improving the plight of the poor, namely the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, a multi-campus, multi-disciplinary research university in India spread across five campuses in three states of India and the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, an ISO accredited specialty tertiary care health centre in Kochi, India.
Through these institutes, she provides free medical care for the poor and till date has distributed more than 50,000 scholarships worldwide.
The devastating Asian tsunami of 2004 saw Amma's team spring into swift action offering disaster relief, both in the form of recovery as well as relief operations. The MA Math remains involved in rehabilitating the tsunami victims and rebuilding communities in India and Sri Lanka and its total resources dedicated to various disaster relief services since 2005 stands at more than RM280 million.
"Our organisation operates on the free will of followers who volunteer their time and expertise. It's the same all over the world, including here in Malaysia where all activities are coordinated by the Amriteswari Foundation of Malaysia (AFM).
"It is this support from volunteers that has enabled us to achieve gigantic feats such as the construction of more than 47,000 homes for the poor around more than 75 locations throughout India and caring for children housed in 650 orphanages and children's homes in India and Kenya, to name a few," said Ramakrishnananda Puri.
Amma's Kuala Lumpur visit will be at Mines International Convention Centre on March 22 2018 beginning at 7.30pm. For enquiries please call 012-4855655 or 012-1234658.
On March 24, Amma will be at the Spice Arena, Penang from 6pm.