Sharon Stone presents award to ‘hug guru’

The actor calls Mata Amritanandamayi ‘a remarkable angel’

PARIS: American actor Sharon Stone has presented India’s famous female guru, Mata Amritanandamayi, with an award for her humanitarian work. Amritanandamayi, also known as Amma, is best known for blessing her devotees with a hug.

Stone presented the spiritual leader with the prize in Paris at human rights film festival Cinema Verite. Amritanandamayi has a huge following in India and beyond. She is said to have embraced over 26 million people. Stone described her as a “remarkable angel,” according to the BBC website.

In January 2005, Amritanandamayi pledged a billion rupees ($23m) from her charitable trust to help survivors of the Asian tsunami. The “hugging saint” is the subject of a documentary titled Darshan, which premiered at Cannes earlier this year.

Amritanandamayi goes on annual tours around the world and is due to visit London in December this year. In 1993, Amma was one of the representatives of Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago.