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CASTRO VALLEY, CALIFORNIA, June 11, 2003: The latest stop on a 10-city U.S. tour found Mata Amritanandamayi at her Castro Valley Center on Tuesday, where she launched a 13-day visit that drew more than a thousand people to the morning and afternoon sessions for darshan, a free hug. Amma’s goal is simple: she wants to help people discover pure love and compassion, she said via a translator. In the 30 years that she’s been offering hugs, Amma is estimated to have reached about 21 million people. Her efforts have caught the eye of People magazine, and have been featured in major newspapers. In 2002, Jane Goodall presented Amma with the 2002 Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence at the United Nations. Amma is expected to do a lot of hugging during her East Bay visit, hugging about 2, 200 people each day said her Bay Area spokesman, Rob Sidon.

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