About Amma

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, affectionately known as Amma, is a spiritual leader who travels the world, affectionately embracing all those who come to meet her. Amma is a truly universal spiritual leader who has transcended religion and culture, to connect with people from all countries and walks of life. She leads by example, giving of herself on a daily basis the last fifty plus years, to serve humanity, animals, and nature for the upliftment of the world. Amma grew up in a poor fishing village in South India, in the state of Kerala.She only attended school up until the fourth grade, because her mother fell ill and she had to take on the responsibilities of the household work. Amma never had a guru or studied the Vedas, her knowledge is not academic knowledge, but the knowledge born of full God-Realization. From childhood, Amma has spent her life serving others. She says she sees everybody not as separate, but as an extension of herself. Amma’s ability to see God in all of creation and her universal love have attracted people from all over the world. Since she was 17 years old, people have been coming to her to receive her blessing, in the form of her embrace. Amma is a spiritual leader and mentor to hundreds of monastic disciples and thousands of lay person devotees worldwide. She has ashrams all over the world in India, Europe, USA, and Japan. Amma is also a humanitarian and runs a vast worldwide charitable network that includes orphanages, charitable hospitals, and disaster relief.

Amma’s international recognition is immense and growing year by year. Here are just some of the highlights:

The Parliament of the World’s Religions chose her as one of three Presidents of Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) in 1993.
In 2000 Amma led the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit, giving her vision for the millennium.
In 2002, she was presented with the Gandhi-King Award for Non-violence, at the UN headquarters in Geneva, where she also gave the keynote address at the Global Peace Initiative of Women and Religious Leaders.
In 2004 she addressed Parliament of World’s religions held in Barcelona
Also in 2014 Amma joined Pope Francis in the Vatican with ten other world religious leaders in signing of a declaration against human trafficking and slavery.
2023, Amma is the chairperson for the C20. C20 India 2023 is one of the official Engagement Groups of the G20 that provides a platform for Civil Society Organizations (CSO) around the world to voice the people’s aspirations to the world leaders in G20. It gives CSOs a forum to protect the agency of this sector, reflect the primary and common concerns affecting the world’s peoples, and to promote social and economic development with the vision of leaving no one behind. *From civil20.net.

For more information on Amma and how to meet her go to: www.amma.org. For information on Amma’s humanitarian activities go to: www.embracingtheworld.org.