CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu’s biggest programme to teach yoga to jail inmates, initiated by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math in 2019, has touched the lives of over 5,500 prisoners, both male and female.
Trained Amrita volunteers have been teaching prisoners techniques such as breathing with awareness, selfanalysis and emotion control in the form of Amrita Yoga and Integrated Amrita Meditation Technique (IAM Technique).
The ongoing programme has been conducted in more than a dozen central prisons across the state till now, including in Chennai, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Pudukkottai, Vellore, Salem, Cuddalore and Tirunelveli. About 500 jail inmates were also trained online during the first two months of this year, considering the pandemic situation.
Swami Amritaswarupananda Puri, vice-chairman of the Math, said, “Usually those who commit such violent crimes have lost their sense of purpose in life. Their peace of mind has disappeared, and they don’t know how to align themselves with the greater good. Still, many prisoners when given a chance, feel inspired to achieve mental and physical healing.
"It was Amma’s resolve to try to uplift such people. She decided to offer them training in Integrated Amrita Meditation Technique. IAM is a unique tool that helps its practitioners to handle his or her emotions and channel them positively. This type of training helps the inmates immensely, reducing stress and helping them to overcome the various challenges they face.”
The meditation and yoga techniques are taught by 50 trainers certified by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math.
Any prisoner can participate, irrespective of race, religion, caste, creed or gender. All kinds of prisoners have benefitted from the programme, including those convicted of violent crimes such as attempted murder, rape, assault and robbery.
The batch size of prisoners for training varies from 50 to 120 inmates. The participants are trained for three days for 2.5 hours daily in the offline program.
Even a year after the first session, many prisoners have maintained a daily practice and found mental and physical health benefits. The inmates are taught the 20-minute version of the IAM Technique to reduce their stress levels.
The session also includes an invocation, philosophical discussions and chanting of universal prayer for world peace and happiness. They are given a certificate of participation.