“Don’t Bug Me,Hug Me”

This bumper sticker maker eminent sense according to the take by spiritual columnist Vithal C.Nadkarni who states that the Indian saint Mata Amritanandmayi also known as the “ hugging sanyaasini” has embraced a mind boggling 32 million people in 30 years. Osho knew this fundamental concept and used the technique very effectively in his commune. His group therapy was based on free love, after a dance its hugging round. Everyone receives a welcome shower of love- wherein everyone gives and receives a big warm heartfelt hug and chant the mantra “be the master or mistress of your life’ to each other. The group gently embraces each other lovingly for some time, in a sort of active group meditation- a sort of spiritual foreplay. Sanyaasini groups are offered the opportunity to lose inhibition, before the actual labor of love starts. However some puritan groups have labeled it a sex cult because he advocated free love to groups - who performed bouts of generous loving with each other. However Paul Zak the neurologist who carries the moniker Dr.Love has focused on the feel good factor of the chemical Oxytocin popularly known as the female reproductive hormone whose levels induce feeling of love. Zak states this hormone level increases with loving intimate physical contact, as seen during sexual reproduction, child birth, stimulation of the nipples and breast feeding. This hormone is associated with Venus and called the love hormone, since a kiss or a hug can spark a reciprocal surge of this chemical. Mercifully this justifies my earlier post, that even though Men are from Mars and women are from Venus the impact of an embrace can give rise to a bout of love making on earth. As the sanyaasini Mata Amritanandji says “If you touch and embrace people- you can touch the world.