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 moder ...

known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, 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 Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

and

Raja yoga ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being attested f ...

. 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 pe ...

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

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 Ca ...

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, on 31 December 1927. During his short career in the

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in 1944, he was inspired by a pamphlet, ''Sadhana Tattwa'', written by the yoga guru Sivananda, founder of the Divine Life Society. He entered the Sivananda

Ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (<

River Ganges in

Rishikesh Rishikesh, also spelt as Hrishikesh, is a city near Dehradun in Dehradun district of the Indian state Uttarakhand. It is situated on the right bank of the Ganges River and is a pilgrimage town for Hindus, with ancient sages and saints meditat ...

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 Haṭha yoga is a branch of yoga which uses physical techniques to try to preserve and channel the vital force or energy. The Sanskrit word हठ ''haṭha'' literally means "force", alluding to a system of physical techniques. Some haṭha ...

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

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-consciou ...

; 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, he taught a combination of yoga philosophy, 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'' ''s ...

, 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), 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

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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, 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,

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, in 1959. He set up the first yoga vacation in Val Morin,

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, (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 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

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in 1967. He established the ''Sivananda Ashram Yoga Farm'' in 1971 in Grass Valley,

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. In 1974, Vishnudevananda inaugurated a fourth ashram, in Woodbourne, New York, near the

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, and in February 1978, he inaugurated the ''Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhawanthari Ashram'' in Neyyar Dam, near Thiruvananthapuram 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

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

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, a twin-engine

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plane painted by artist

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. Upon landing, he was joined by actor Peter Sellers. 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"

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and

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with flowers and peace leaflets. On 15 September 1983 Vishnudevananda flew over the Berlin Wall, from West 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 Amritsar (), historically also known as Rāmdāspur and colloquially as ''Ambarsar'', is the second largest city in the Indian state of Punjab, after Ludhiana. It is a major cultural, transportation and economic centre, located in the Majha ...

, 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,

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students studied Yoga at the Sivananda center in

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. 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 journalist and Sivananda

yoga teacher Yoga teacher training is the training of teachers of yoga as exercise, consisting mainly of the practice of yoga asanas, leading to certification. Such training is accredited by the Yoga Alliance in America, by the British Wheel of Yoga in the ...

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 spiritual sexual activity.

Works

* '' The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga'' ( The Julian Press, 1960 ;

Three Rivers Press Three Rivers Press is the trade paperback imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House. It publishes original paperback titles as well as paperback reprints of books issued initially in hardcover by the other Crown imprint ...

, 1988, ) * ''Meditation and Mantras'' (Om Lotus Publications, 1978; Penguin Ananda, 2014, ) * ''Yoga: the Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' (

Motilal Banarsidass Motilal Banarsidass Publishing House (MLBD) is an Indian academic publishing house, founded in Delhi, India in 1903. It publishes and distributes serials, monographs, and scholarly publications on Asian religions, Buddhology, Indology, Eas ...

, 1987; Om Lotus Publications, 1987, )

References

Sources

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External links

Vishnudevananda Saraswati
at International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres

at Sivananda Yoga Europe {{DEFAULTSORT:Vishnudevananda Saraswati 1927 births 1993 deaths American Hindus American male writers of Indian descent 20th-century Hindu religious leaders Modern yoga pioneers 20th-century American male writers Indian yoga gurus Modern yoga gurus