Years ago I was involved with a man who was a guru-phile. He was always looking for God in human form, someone to worship and stand in the presence of. Someone to set up little altars for. I didn't share his psychology; my cynicism is like a mothball around the neck, keeping me guru-free. For awhile my boyfriend glommed onto Sai Baba, a goofy orange-robed guru with a 'fro who performed miracles. His miracles--like making great quantities of ash billow out of an empty urn--didn't seem useful to me. If God were to manifest as a human, surely he wouldn't waste his time performing lame magic tricks. Like, who needs ash?

Later, my boyfriend moved on to Amma, a superstar Indian guru who gives power hugs. People wait in line for hours to get hugged by this roly poly smiling woman who sits on a stage. An Amma camp was set up in the hills outside of Santa Fe, NM. We sat with hundreds of other people who were singing kirtan, a religious tradition of repetitively singing the same line from a Sikh hymn over and over and over again. I figured that it was supposed to be transcendant, but I was restless and bored, a tag-along non-believer who didn't know the words. I went wandering in the woods while the people formed a giant queue to get huggy with Amma. Strangely, I don't remember whether I got a hug. I only remember the white tents, the circular music, and the crowd of weeping or beaming mostly middle-aged white people. She definitely had something they needed. Or thought they needed.

Today I came across an article about Amma at Salon. The author was granted a brief interview with the guru and she explained her work, the heavy work of doling out over 26 million hugs and counting:

"I'm trying to awaken true motherhood in people, in men and women, because that is lacking in today's world. Today there are two types of poverty. The first is a lack of basic necessities. The second is a lack of love and compassion. As far as I am concerned, the second is more important because if there is love and compassion then the first kind can be taken care of."