It was only three months back -- in June this year -- that Yolanda King met spiritual leader Mata Amritanandamayi.
But King, daughter of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, talks ceaselessly about Amma's love and compassion as if she knew her for the last three decades.
"I felt elevated when I met Amma during one of her tours in New York. I felt a sublime spiritual energy in me when she hugged me. So I am here once again seeking Amma's blessings," King, one of the hundreds of thousands of devotees of Amritanandamayi, participating in the spiritual leader's 50th birthday celebrations at Kochi, told rediff.com
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The chance meeting with Amma three months back has prompted King to join hands with the spiritual leader to chalk out several social and economic welfare projects for the poor and the powerless across the world.
King, who is the director of the US-based Martin Luther King, Jr Centre for Non-Violent Social Change, says she is thrilled to be part of the hundreds of humanitarian projects that Amma is implementing in India and abroad. "What is more, I will work with Amma for world peace," she said.
"It is the men who are behind most of the problems that negate peace and harmony in the world. We want to give women's love and compassion as the true virtues and medicines of world peace to combat the atrocities and attacks that men indulge in," King said.
King, who calls herself a 'womanist,' says a woman has a lot to give to the world. "We have to ensure that women value themselves. I feel if there are women at the helm of affairs at the US administration or any other governments across the world, policies that affect world peace would be different," she said.
"I would say if there are more women in positions of leadership, things would not only be different, they would be better," she added.
The daughter of the American civil rights leader is a true Gandhian. "I have been always inspired by Gandhiji's thought that an eye for an eye will make everybody blind," she said.
Saying that war should be banished from the world, King vehemently opposed the US war on terror. "The way the US administration is combating terror is in fact only increasing terrorism," King said.
King, who is on her second visit to India, says meeting Amma has been a moment of transcendence for her. "I could grasp for the first time the essence of true fulfilment and unconditional love. I felt I was flying without wings. That is the power of Amma's love," she said.
King is one of the more than 8,000 foreign delegates attending a four-day global spiritual summit in connection with the birthday celebrations of Amritanandamayi.
On Thursday, King delivered a keynote address on women's initiatives at the celebrations.
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