Changing the world through an embrace

10-12 November 2018
Malpensa Fiere, Busto Arsizio, Italy

Amma's program in the Milano region of Italy is always marked by a special enthusiasm. It is indeed to a sight to behold the way Amma is welcomed by the crowds as she enters the program hall. The Milano program was attended not only by devotees from all over Italy, but also by large contingents from Greece, Russia and Serbia. The Greek devotees shared their joy at being in Amma's presence with an exuberant performance of traditional Greek music that brought the entire crowd to their feet.

Amma was welcomed to Italy by Mr. Emanuele Antonelli, Mayor and President of the Province; On. Manlio di Stefano Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and Italian delegate to the Council of Europe; Angelo Branduardi, renowned Italian folk singer; and Italian television presenter Victoria Cabello.

Mayor Antonelli remarked, "Meeting Amma is always very emotional. Her embrace surprises us every time, consoles us and envelops us with her sweetness, her generosity, her spirituality. Every time we realize that we really needed it. Her embrace is a simple yet complex gesture. Practical and and symbolic at the same time. A gesture that frees us from our egoism and invites us to open our arms and ourselves to others, overcoming barriers, prejudices, embarrassment and difficulties in order to meet one another."

The Undersecretary of State reflected, "In my opinion the darshan is in itself two things: when we are in her arms it conveys a sense of protection and the hope of being able during this moment of protection  to get in touch with our inner self and with our inner emotions. It's exactly this sense of protection given by the embrace that I would like to last even after these days with the hope that no one will be left behind, in our country, in the rest of the whole world because it is what it nourishes us with what we really need, a protection given to us and to the 38 million people that Amma has embraced in the past decades."
 
Mr. Branduardi mused, "You might wonder how infinity can be small. It's very simple: if you take a piece of paper and cut it in half and half again and again in half and still in half and so on, and so on ... In reality you will never stop dividing even the smaller piece into one more half. This was an intuition of Saint Francis which means that the Universe is not outside of us, but within us. Thank you for giving me the chance to be here tonight. This was a new experience for me and I'm leaving as a new person."
  
Ms. Cabello shared, "I knew about Amma because I am a very curious  person always looking everywhere and this search at some point brought me to her through some people who had talked to me about her. Then I read,  I studied, and I tried to understand how a woman could really move mountains, could change the world through an embrace. And yes, I will start to cry now, because reading was much different from the experience of being here, in the presence of Amma where even the amount of love in this hall is too much in every square meter and I think that this authentic emotional wave that envelops us, overwhelms us, takes us, and  takes us somewhere else, it takes us deep inside ourselves."

Ms. Cabello was not the only with tears in her eyes. For many of Amma's children, her last stop on the continent was the last place they would see Amma until next year, and they bid her a tearful farewell at the end of the three days of programs in Busto Arsizio.

For her part, Amma urged her children to be steadfast in their commitment to the spiritual path: "We should not lend an ear to words that may turn us away from the path to our goal. While moving towards the goal we may encounter many obstacles. Many people may discourage us but, we must move forward, ignoring them. It may take 30 years to push a large boulder up a steep hill, however it takes only a single push to undo all our years of hard work. Likewise, it may take years to overcome our negativities and channel our thoughts towards higher emotions, but a single negative person can pollute our mind and urge us to squander all our hard effort."