Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was an Indian
yoga guru
Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern ...
known for his teaching of
asanas, a disciple of
Sivananda Saraswati
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
, and founder of the
International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He established the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course, possibly the first yoga teacher training programs in the West. His books ''
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' (1960) and ''Meditation and Mantras'' (1978) established him as an authority on
Hatha and
Raja yoga. Vishnudevananda was a
peace activist
A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pea ...
who rode in several "peace flights" over places of conflict, including the
Berlin Wall prior to
German reunification.
In 2007, his long-serving assistant, Julie Salter, reported
sexual abuse against her by the guru; she published details of her experiences in 2019, leading at least 14 other women to report their experiences of similar abuse by Vishnudevananda.
Early life and training
![Swami Sivananda Swami Vishnudevananda am Ganges](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Swami_Sivananda_Swami_Vishnudevananda_am_Ganges.jpg)
Vishnudevananda was born Kuttan Nair in
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...
,
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territ ...
, on 31 December 1927.
During his short career in the
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...
in 1944, he was inspired by a pamphlet, ''Sadhana Tattwa'', written by the yoga guru
Sivananda
Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a yoga guru, a Hindu spiritual teacher, and a proponent of Vedanta. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in Pattamadai, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He stu ...
, founder of the
Divine Life Society
The Divine Life Society (DLS) is a Hindu spiritual organisation and an ashram, founded by Swami Sivananda Saraswati in 1936, at Muni Ki Reti, Rishikesh, India. Today it has branches around the world, the headquarters being situated in Rishikesh. ...
.
He entered the Sivananda
Ashram by the
River Ganges
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
in
Rishikesh in 1947 at the age of twenty.
He took ''
sannyas'', becoming a monk, in February 1949,
and was appointed the first professor of
hatha yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. In this capacity, he trained many students in the Pacific Rim area in 1957, and became a recognised
yoga guru
Modern yoga gurus are people widely acknowledged to be gurus of modern yoga in any of its forms, whether religious or not. The role implies being well-known and having a large following; in contrast to the old guru-shishya tradition, the modern ...
.
Sivananda Yoga
A practice for the West
Vishnudevananda arrived in San Francisco in December 1957, and began to teach
yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...
; he moved to New York to teach hatha yoga in 1958. The practice he taught, which he named Sivananda Yoga after his guru, consisted largely of
asanas, yoga postures, but rather than emphasising
yoga as exercise
Yoga as exercise is a physical activity consisting mainly of postures, often connected by flowing sequences, sometimes accompanied by breathing exercises, and frequently ending with relaxation lying down or meditation. Yoga in this form has ...
, he taught a combination of
yoga philosophy
Yoga philosophy is one of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism,Maurice Phillips (Published as Max Muller collection), The Evolution of Hinduism, , PhD. Thesis awarded by University of Berne, Switzerland, page 8 though it is only at the end ...
, the
shatkarmas or purifications, the
sattvic diet, and
pranayama
Pranayama is the yogic practice of focusing on breath. In Sanskrit, '' prana'' means "vital life force", and ''yama'' means to gain control. In yoga, breath is associated with ''prana'', thus, pranayama is a means to elevate the '' prana'' ''sh ...
, breath control, alongside the postures. He is credited as the asana pioneer within Sivananda Yoga. He condensed the teachings of classical yoga into five principles: proper exercise, proper breathing, proper relaxation, proper diet (
vegetarian
Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter.
Vegetariani ...
), and
meditation
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...
and positive thinking. In the 1960s, he introduced
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
to yoga.
''The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga''
He published his guide to hatha yoga, ''
The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'', in 1960. It was one of the first reference books on asanas; it was illustrated throughout with 146 large monochrome studio photographs of Vishnudevananda, wearing swimming shorts, demonstrating the poses. It has been translated into at least thirteen languages,
and was said to have sold over a million copies by 1989. The book took
Surya Namaskar
Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th centu ...
, the salute to the sun, which Sivananda had promoted
as a health cure, and presented it as fitness exercise.
Centers and ashrams
Vishnudevananda founded the first Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in
Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, in 1959. He set up the first yoga vacation in Val Morin,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, (on 11th Avenue) in 1961; this has since become a tradition in the
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. In February 1962, Vishnudevananda saw the present site of the Yoga Camp in Val Morin, and chose to settle in the dense forest area near the
Laurentian Mountains
The Laurentian Mountains (French: ''Laurentides'') are a mountain range in southern Quebec, Canada, north of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River, rising to a highest point of at Mont Raoul Blanchard, northeast of Quebec City in the Laurentid ...
. The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre was opened there on 19 September 1962 by Marcia Moore, an American trained by Vishnudevananda a few years earlier. Vishnudevananda founded the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat on Paradise Island in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
in 1967. He established the ''Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm'' in 1971 in
Grass Valley,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. In 1974, Vishnudevananda inaugurated a fourth ashram, in
Woodbourne, New York
Woodbourne is a hamlet (and census-designated place) in the town of Fallsburg in Sullivan County, New York, United States.
Woodbourne is bordered by the town of Neversink, the hamlet of Grahamsville, the hamlet of Loch Sheldrake, the hamlet of ...
, near the
Catskill Mountains, and in February 1978, he inaugurated the ''Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhawanthari Ashram'' in Neyyar Dam, near
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...
in the foothills of the
Sahyadri Mountains, Kerala. A small Himalayan ashram, ''Sivananda Kutir'', was established in Netala, just outside
Uttar Kashi on the banks of the Ganges. As of 2021, the organization founded by Vishnudevananda has 11 ashrams and 31 centers around the world. In addition, it has 33 affiliated centers.
Peace missions
![Swami Vishnudevananda - Der fliegende Swami](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Swami_Vishnudevananda_-_Der_fliegende_Swami.jpg)
In reaction to a vision of a world in peril, Vishnudevananda began his peace mission. The first act was to create the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course in 1969; this is said to be the first
training programme for yoga teachers. Later he conducted peace flights over the world's trouble spots, earning himself the name "The Flying Swami".
On 30 August 1971, Vishnudevananda piloted his Peace Plane from
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
to
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
,
a twin-engine
Piper Apache
The Piper PA-23, named Apache and later Aztec, is an American four- to six-seat twin-engined light aircraft aimed at the general-aviation market. The United States Navy and military forces in other countries also used it in small numbers. Origin ...
plane painted by artist
Peter Max
Peter Max (born Peter Max Finkelstein, October 19, 1937) is a German-American artist known for using bright colors in his work. Works by Max are associated with the visual arts and culture of the 1960s, particularly psychedelic art and pop art.
...
. Upon landing, he was joined by actor
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
. Later that same year, on 6 October, he took off with his co-pilot Bren Jacobson, who had been with him during the entire trip, from Tel Aviv to fly over the war-ridden
Suez Canal and was buzzed by Israeli jets. The same thing happened with the Egyptian Air Force on the other side of the Canal. He continued eastward, "bombing"
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
and
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
with flowers and peace leaflets. On 15 September 1983 Vishnudevananda flew over the
Berlin Wall, from
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...
to
East Berlin, in a highly publicized and dangerous mission to promote peace.
In 1984, he and his students toured India in a double-decker bus, conducting programs to awaken the Indian people to their ancient tradition of yoga. In February he tried to mediate between the
Hindu
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
and
Sikh factions in
Amritsar, entering the
Golden Temple to speak to the Sikh leaders who had sought refuge there. Over the years, Vishnudevananda met regularly with other spiritual and religious leaders to promote interfaith dialogue and understanding; among other things,
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
students studied Yoga at the Sivananda center in
Larchmont
Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York, approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village was 5,864 at the 2010 census. In February 2019, Bloomberg ranked Lar ...
.
He organized yearly symposia on topics relating yoga to modern life.
Vishnudevananda died on 9 November 1993. His body was then placed into the Ganges at the Sivananda Kutir, and the rite named ''jalasamadhi'' was performed, merging the abandoned body with the water.
Allegations of abuse
Julie Salter worked for 11 years as Vishnudevananda's personal assistant, until his death in 1993. She has stated that she was continuously overworked and sleep-deprived, and that she became dependent and unable to leave. She stated that for three of these years
Vishnudevananda abused her sexually.
In 2007, Salter reported sexual abuse committed against her by Vishnudevananda to The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, but they did not accept her allegations.
[ an]
archived screenshot, same date
/ref> In November 2019, Salter posted a personal testimony to Facebook, detailing the long-term physical, mental, and sexual abuse she received from Vishnudevananda. The testimony prompted several other women to publish their own testimonies about abuse by Vishnudevananda; Pamela Kyssa stated on Salter's thread that Vishnudevananda had raped her in 1974. The next month, December 2019, the Board of Directors published an apology for not believing her 2007 allegations. The Board promised to run an independent investigation of the allegations made by Salter and others. The investigator, Marianne Plamondon of Langlois in Montreal, declined to comment on whether the results of the investigation would be made public.
Salter and 14 other women described their experiences, including alleged rape, to the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
Ishleen Kaur. Salter stated that when she told Vishnudevananda she did not understand his instruction to lie down next to him, he replied "Tantra yoga", implying some form of
.
, 1988, )
* ''Meditation and Mantras'' (Om Lotus Publications, 1978; Penguin Ananda, 2014, )
* ''Yoga: the Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' (