Sri Ammani

Sri Ammani was born into a humble Indian family in Malaysia, and her path began in her grandmother's Kali temple. Her grandmother was a devotee of the Divine Mother, and as a child Sri Ammani watched the temple rituals closely and became a devotee of Mother Kali herself. She fell often into deep meditation from an early age.

At twenty-six she felt a calling to renunciation and spent some years in isolation and deep meditation, including states of samadhi. She describes what came of that as Self-realization and God-realization, and says the expansion has not stopped since.

Her teaching works through shaktipat: a transmission passed from teacher to student through presence rather than instruction, offered as an invitation into meditation, rest and healing. She makes a point of saying it asks no experience — an open heart and a willingness to receive are enough, whether someone is a long-practising sadhaka or coming for the first time.

She is based in Tiruvannamalai, at the foot of Mount Arunachala, where she gathers with students at Skanda Yoga Shala. Between December and April there is a daily programme of yoga asana and silence from Monday to Friday, and a Sunday satsang of silence, questions and kirtan, with no booking needed. She also travels, and tours Europe in the summer.