Reflections from our dear friend Dr. Suresh Subramani, immediate past Executive Vice Chancellor of the University of California San Diego and an esteemed Molecular Biologist, on our visit with Amma: 

February 7th was the second day that we went to see Amma in Chennai. As was the case on February 6th, we got there by about 10 o’clock– but this time we knew that because there were other dignitaries, we were not going to be on stage. We were requested to wait and then someone escorted us to the second row where we had a direct view, and a different perspective of Amma. She came in a little after 11:00 and did a similar program as she had done on the previous day. She delivered a sermon and we had the English translation on the screen directly in front of us. This was then followed by singing for an hour and a half and it was as beautiful as it was on the previous day. Then she led us through meditation. This whole process took about four hours.

At about 3 pm, I had three elderly relatives who wanted Amma’s blessing, so I escorted them to see Amma, but did not accompany them because invariably Amma would have asked me to sit next to her and some of these elderly visitors would have had trouble sitting on the floor.

After they had their darshan with Amma, they left. Then around 4:30 pm, Manny, Janice, Feroza and I went up to get a hug from Amma. As I had mentioned to Manny, she immediately wanted us to sit next to her and there we were at her feet again! I was sitting next to her with Manny next to me and Janice and Feroza behind us. We were there for almost 2 hours and again it was wonderful to watch her during this entire period. Sadly, Amma was still suffering from back and foot problems, but she seemed much more relaxed… even though the crowd was twice as many (about 10,000 people that day)!

So in sum total, if you take the 10,000 people we estimated to have visited with her in Salem, the 5,000 that she hugged on February 6 and another 10,000 on Feb 7, in three nights she has probably hugged 25,000 people. She has hugged over 35 million people around the world and transferred positive energy to each one of them. The reason this is so remarkable is that she hugs people nonstop until the last person leaves. As Manny has said, there’s a constant flow of energy from her through the people she’s hugging; it is rarely in the opposite direction. She continues to give her love unconditionally until the last person leaves. It must mean that she has this tremendous power to help other people, whatever their problems are in this world, and this is really the the sign of a true saint. None of us have seen anyone with these remarkable powers or the infinite compassion and love she shows for all types of people.

Like all good things that must come to an end, at about 6:30 pm we decided to take our leave of her. I knelt in front of her and told her that we were about to leave and so she gave Manny a big smile. I made a personal request that I cannot disclose at the present time but she put her hand on my cheek and then gave me a big smile that indicated yes. Obviously, I was thrilled. We were absolutely delighted that the entire trip had been successful with all obstacles removed from our path, and that we had spent a good six hours on each day with dear Amma. We left feeling sad but left also feeling truly blessed.