
A view of Amritapuri Ashram, birthplace of the Hugging Saint, from the 9th floor of the residential building. You can see the Kali temple on the left and the ocean in the horizon.
Over a long brunch last Sunday my friend Sowmya told me she was heading to Trivandrum to meet her guru. “Who’s your guru?” I asked her. “Amritanandi Maa,” she said, as though to have the world famous Hugging Saint as your guru is the most natural thing possible.
Decades ago I read a fun and entertaining book called Holy Cow, where I first came across the Hugging Saint. I didn’t think then that one day I’d actually get a chance to meet the saint. I rescheduled/cancelled a bunch of classes and on a sunny Wednesday afternoon Sowmya and I were on our way to Amritapuri. The countryside was lush and the glimpses of the ocean made the journey enjoyable.