Mother -Nanammal

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mother nanammal

Mother is one of the most important persons in our lives perhaps a person who is the foremost in order of prominence. She plays so many roles from a life giver to a nurturer, a teacher, a protector, a support, a friend, a motivator, a critic. She is like a mirror that reflects our true self and allows us to become what we wish to be. She is around us in so many forms, a mother, a grand-mother, a mother-in- law, a teacher or a mentor. In all her magnificent forms she infuses or inculcates something positive in our personalities be it by her wisdom, her anger, her care or may be just by her beautiful heart touching gestures which inspire us to follow the same.

Let me introduce you to one such mother – V. Nanammal- Amma , a name with which she is known today by her disciples. She is quintessential living legend of yoga expertise and a Silambattam expert ( Indian form of martial arts using sticks). She is 98 years old yoga teacher and practitioner who hails from an agricultural family in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Nanammal has been practicing yoga since she was just 10 years old. Amma’s entire family has been disciplined yoga practitioners and she is passing on the same legacy to her children and the entire world. The food she eats includes fruits, vegetables, milk ,porridge and herbal tea. She uses only natural products and lives a disciplined life where she sleeps at 10:00 pm and wakes up at 4:30 am. Not a single day goes without practicing yoga. Even as a teacher she is strict, flexible and energetic and her students admire her.

Amma has earned several recognitions because of her dedicated approach and consistent endeavor to make yoga an integral part of peoples’ lives.  Even in this age she is flexible enough to do more than 50 asanas like padahastasana (hand-to-foot pose),paschimottanasana (seated forward bend), sarvangasana (shoulder stand),kandharasana (bridge) or sirshasana (headstand),which prove to be a strenuous task even for the young people. It’s quite surprising to learn that she has never seen a doctor because of any illness or disease, she is fit enough with proper eyesight, hearing ability and her entire body is in sync with her mind and soul.


Nanammal has trained around 10,00,000 students apart from her family members. Many of her trained students are expert teachers today.  Many students of her yoga center, Ozone are established yoga practitioners and many of them have won gold medals at yoga competitions. They are adept in yoga and spreading their wisdom all across the world. A mother enriched the lives of so many people and continues to do so.  Amma is the recipient of Nari Shakti Puraskar(2016) , Yoga Ratna award(2017) and a Padma Shri award this year. These are a few awards from a long list of recognitions she has earned. Moreover she has given special attention to woman health and issues related to it. She spreads awareness about the various aspects related to female well -being and care.

Her son Balakrishnan also teaches yoga at Ozone. It provides Bharat Sevak Samaj of the Government of India certified courses a two-year teacher training course, a diploma in yoga and Naturopathy.

This is how this mother is nurturing her children all across the world and inspiring them to follow her footsteps to lead a healthy and successful life. Nanammal is probably the oldest yoga teacher in India. She rejected offers from yoga federations because she doesn’t know English and prefers to be away from limelight.

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