Sivananda Saraswati (or Swami Sivananda; 8 September 1887 – 14 July 1963) was a

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 ...

, a

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 ...

spiritual teacher, and a proponent of

Vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, ...

. Sivananda was born Kuppuswami in

Pattamadai Pathamadai or Pattamadai is a special grade town panchayath in Tirunelveli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Demographics India census, Pattamadai had a population of 14,965. Males constitute 49% of the population and females 51%. ...

, in the

Tirunelveli Tirunelveli (, ta, திருநெல்வேலி, translit=Tirunelveli) also known as Nellai ( ta, நெல்லை, translit=Nellai) and historically (during British rule) as Tinnevelly, is a major city in the Indian state of Tam ...

district of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

. He studied medicine and served in

British Malaya The term "British Malaya" (; ms, Tanah Melayu British) loosely describes a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the island of Singapore that were brought under British hegemony or control between the late 18th and the mid-20th century. ...

as a physician for several years before taking up monasticism. He was the founder of the Divine Life Society (DLS) in 1936,

Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy 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. ...

(1948) and author of over 200 books on yoga, Vedanta, and a variety of subjects. He established Sivananda Ashram, the headquarters of the DLS, on the bank of the

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 ...

Muni Ki Reti Muni Ki Reti is a town and a municipal council in Tehri Garhwal district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It lies close to the pilgrimage town of Rishikesh and is known for its ashrams, including the Divine Life Society of Sivananda Sarasw ...

, from

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 ...

, and lived most of his life there. Sivananda Yoga, the yoga form propagated by his disciple Vishnudevananda, is now spread in many parts of the world through Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres. These centres are not affiliated with Sivananda's

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' (<

brahmin Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers ( ...

family on 8 September 1887, during the first hours of the morning, as the Bharani star was rising in

village on the banks of the

Tamraparni Tamraparni (Sanskrit for "with copper leaves" or "red-leaved") is an older name for multiple distinct places, including Sri Lanka, Tirunelveli in India, and the Thamirabarani River that flows through Tirunelveli. As a name for Sri Lanka The r ...

river in

district,

. His father, Sri P.S. Vengu Iyer, worked as a revenue officer, and was a great Shiva Bhakta (

Bhakti ''Bhakti'' ( sa, भक्ति) literally means "attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity".See Monier-Williams, ''Sanskrit Dictionary'', 1899. It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to d ...

) himself. His mother, Srimati Parvati Ammal, was religious. Kuppuswami was the third and last child of his parents. As a child, he was very active and promising in academics and gymnastics. He attended medical school in

Tanjore Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the ...

, where he excelled. He ran a medical journal called ''Ambrosia'' during this period. Upon graduation, he practiced medicine and worked as a doctor in

for ten years, with a reputation for providing free treatment to poor patients. Over time, a sense that medicine was healing on a superficial level grew in Dr. Kuppuswami, urging him to look elsewhere to fill the void, and in 1923 he left Malaya and returned to India to pursue his spiritual quest.

Initiation

Upon his return to India in 1924, he went to

where he met his

guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan- Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential ...

, Vishvananda Saraswati, who initiated him into the Sannyasa order, and gave him his monastic name; the full ceremony was conducted by Vishnudevananda, the mahant (abbot) of Sri Kailas Ashram. Sivananda settled in Rishikesh, and immersed himself in intense spiritual practices. Sivānanda performed austerities for many years while continuing to nurse the sick. In 1927, with some money from an insurance policy, he ran a charitable dispensary at Lakshman Jhula.

Founding the Divine Life Society

Sivananda founded the Divine Life Society in 1936 on the banks of the

Ganges River 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 ...

, distributing spiritual literature for free. Early disciples included Satyananda Saraswati, founder of Satyananda Yoga. In 1945, he created the Sivananda

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population repo ...

Pharmacy, and organised the All-world Religions Federation. He established the All-world Sadhus Federation in 1947 and the

in 1948. He called his yoga the ''Yoga of Synthesis'', combining the Four Yogas of Hinduism (

Karma Yoga Karma yoga ( sa, कर्म योग), also called Karma marga, is one of the four classical spiritual paths in Hinduism, one based on the " yoga of action", the others being Jnana yoga (path of knowledge), Rāja yoga (path of meditat ...

Bhakti Yoga Bhakti yoga ( sa, भक्ति योग), also called Bhakti marga (, literally the path of ''Bhakti''), is a spiritual path or spiritual practice within Hinduism focused on loving devotion towards any personal deity.Karen Pechelis (2014 ...

Jnana Yoga Jnana yoga (), also known as the jnana ''marga'' (), is one of the three classical paths ('' margas'') for moksha (liberation) in Hinduism, which emphasizes the "path of knowledge", also known as the "path of self-realization". The other two ...

Rāja Yoga In Sanskrit texts, ''Rāja yoga'' (; राजयोग) was both the goal of yoga and a method to attain it. The term also became a modern name for the practice of yoga in the 19th-century when Swami Vivekananda gave his interpretation of ...

), for action, devotion, knowledge, and meditation respectively. Sivananda travelled extensively on a major tour in 1950, and set up branches of the Divine Life Society throughout India. He vigorously promoted and disseminated his vision of yoga, to the extent that his detractors nicknamed him "Swami Propagandananda". His Belgian devotee André Van Lysebeth wrote that his critics "disapproved of both his modern methods of diffusion, and his propagation of yoga on such a grand scale to the general public", explaining that Sivananda was advocating a practice that everybody could do, combining "some asanas, a little pranayama, a little meditation and bhakti; well, a little of everything".

Mahasamadhi

Swami Sivananda died, described as entering Mahasamadhi, on 14 July 1963 beside the River Ganges at his Sivananda Ashram near

Disciples

Sivananda's two chief acting organizational disciples were Chidananda Saraswati and

Krishnananda Saraswati Swami Krishnananda Saraswati (25 April 1922 – 23 November 2001) was a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati and served as the General Secretary of the Divine Life Society in Rishikesh, India from 1958 until 2001. Author of more than 40 texts, a ...

. Chidananda Saraswati was appointed president of the DLS by Sivananda in 1963 and served in this capacity until his death in 2008.

was appointed General Secretary by Sivananda in 1958 and served in this capacity until his death in 2001. Disciples who went on to grow new organisations include: *

Chinmayananda Saraswati Swami Chinmayananda Saraswati (born Balakrishna Menon; 8 May 1916 – 3 August 1993) was a Hindu spiritual leader and a teacher. In 1951, he founded Chinmaya Mission, a worldwide nonprofit organisation, in order to spread the knowledge of Advaita ...

, founder of the

Chinmaya Mission The Chinmaya Mission is a Hindu religious and spiritual organization engaged in the dissemination of Vedanta, the science of the self as expounded in the Vedas, particularly the Upanishads, and other Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad G ...

* Karunananda Saraswati, founder of The Valley of Peace yoga ashram in the Moonbi Ranges north of Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia *

Sahajananda Saraswati Sahajananda Saraswati (10 July 1925 – 10 December 2007) was the spiritual head of the Divine Life Society of South Africa, and its founder in that country. Early life Sahajananda was born as V. Srinivasan in the small midlands town of Estco ...

, Spiritual Head of Divine Life Society of South Africa * Satchidananda Saraswati, founder of the Integral Yoga Institutes, around the world * Satyananda Saraswati, founder of

Bihar School of Yoga The Bihar School of Yoga is a modern school of yoga founded by Satyananda Saraswati in Munger, Bihar, India, in 1963. An Institute of Yogic Studies was created in 1994. History The Bihar School of Yoga was established in 1963 at Munger, in the ...

* Shantananda Saraswati, founder of Temple of Fine Arts (Malaysia & Singapore) *

Sivananda Radha Saraswati Sivananda Radha Saraswati (March 20, 1911 – November 30, 1995), born Sylvia Demitz, was a German yogini who emigrated to Canada and founded Yasodhara Ashram in British Columbia. She established a Western-based lineage in the Sivananda tradition ...

, founder of Yasodhara Ashram, British Columbia, Canada * Venkatesananda Saraswati, inspirer of Ananda Kutir Ashrama in South Africa and Sivananda Ashram in Fremantle, Australia *

Vishnudevananda Saraswati Vishnudevananda Saraswati (31 December 1927 – 9 November 1993) was an Indian yoga guru known for his teaching of asanas, a disciple of Sivananda Saraswati, and founder of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres and Ashrams. He estab ...

, founder of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, HQ Canada

Works

Sivananda wrote 296 books on subjects including

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...

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 ...

vedanta ''Vedanta'' (; sa, वेदान्त, ), also ''Uttara Mīmāṃsā'', is one of the six (''āstika'') schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning "end of the Vedas", Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, ...

, religion,

western philosophy Western philosophy encompasses the philosophy, philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the Pre-Socratic p ...

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that nega ...

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

, ethics, education, health, sayings, poems,

epistles An epistle (; el, ἐπιστολή, ''epistolē,'' "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as par ...

, autobiography, biography, stories, dramas, messages, lectures, dialogues, essays and anthology. His books emphasised the practical application of Yoga philosophy over theoretical knowledge.

References

Bibliography

* (1944) Yogic Home Exercises. Easy Course of Physical Culture for Men & Women, Bombay, Taraporevala Sons & Co. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ''Sivananda and the Divine Life Society: A Paradigm of the "secularism," "puritanism" and "cultural Dissimulation" of a Neo-Hindu Religious Society'', by Robert John Fornaro. Published by Syracuse University, 1969. * ''From Man to God-man: the inspiring life-story of Swami Sivananda'', by N. Ananthanarayanan. Published by Indian Publ. Trading Corp., 1970. * ''Swami Sivananda and the Divine Life Society: An Illustration of Revitalization Movement'', by Satish Chandra Gyan. Published by s.n, 1979. * ''Life and Works of Swami Sivananda'', by Sivānanda, Divine Life Society (W.A.). Fremantle Branch. Published by Divine Life Society, Fremantle Branch, 1985. *
Sivananda: Biography of a Modern Sage
', by Swami Venkatesānanda. Published by Divine Life Society, 1985.

External links

* *
Biography and spiritual instructions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sivananda, Swami 1887 births 1963 deaths 20th-century Hindu philosophers and theologians Indian Hindu monks Scholars from Dehradun Indian spiritual writers Indian autobiographers Indian Hindu spiritual teachers Indian yoga gurus Neo-Vedanta Modern yoga pioneers Modern yoga gurus