International Day of Yoga special: Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre offers classes on various aspects of yoga, details here

In celebration of the International Day of Yoga, the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, India, is organising a host of programmes, including yoga asana classes, workshops and talk
Swami Sivananda observes Swami Vishnudevananda doing the scorpion pose
Swami Sivananda observes Swami Vishnudevananda doing the scorpion pose

‘People are waiting’ were the words of Swami Sivananda to his disciple Swami Vishnudevananda… The year was 1957. Swami Sivananda, a renowned sage and yogi whose life was based on the service of humanity, sent his ardent disciple Swami Vishnudevananda on a mission to the West to take the teachings of Yoga and Vedanta to the people of the world. As a farewell token, Swami Sivananda gave him a ten rupee note with the words, ‘People are waiting!’

By 1959, a Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre was established in Montreal, Canada, and the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres organisation was born. Over the following decades, ashrams and centres were established in over 26 countries around the world.

Having been appointed by Swami Sivananda, as the first professor of Hatha Yoga at the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy, Swami Vishnu mastered Hatha Yoga techniques under the guidance of his Master. He later published popular books such as The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga (1960), Meditation & Mantras (1978) and Hatha Yoga Pradipika: A Commentary (1987), and was recognised as a world authority on Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga.

Swami Vishnudevananda became known as the ‘Flying Swami’ for his wide travels and ‘peace missions’ that he undertook with his twin-engine Piper Apache plane.

He proved himself to be a great spiritual teacher and peace missionary. In the 1970s, he led peace missions in various conflict zones around the world. He marched through the troubled streets of Belfast with actor Peter Sellars, flew his plane over the no-go zone of the Suez Canal where he was challenged by Israeli airforce jets and flew over the Berlin wall from West to East in an ultralight aircraft, ‘armed’ with two bouquets of marigolds. He insisted on crossing borders with flowers not guns.

In 1969, he established the True World Order (TWO) with the intention to transform the global community with the disciplines of yoga. He believed that world peace can be brought about by realising one’s own inner peace through yoga. These same individuals could then become peace ambassadors to share the yogic knowledge with others. This might have seemed like a pipe dream in 1969 but now 50 years later we are beginning to appreciate the impact of yoga on the world community. The Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres pioneered the concept of the Yoga Teachers’ Training Course (TTC) with the purpose of training future leaders in the disciplines of yoga. Till date, over 50,000 yoga teachers from all corners of the world have been trained to spread the practice of yoga for individual and world peace.

The gurukula system offered by the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres has been well received by the global community, who throng the ashrams and centres to learn yoga and meditation in a traditional way based on the classical ‘Four Paths of Yoga’—Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga and Raja Yoga. Residential ‘Yoga Vacation’ and TTC programmes are available at our ashrams. Yoga and meditation classes for beginners and experienced practitioners are available on a drop-in basis at our centres.

We hope you will be able to take this opportunity to hear about, question and practice the various aspects of yoga by attending our free, on-line month-long sessions throughout June.

The writer is the director of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam, Kerala.

Free Online classes (June 3 to 26)

✥ Sivananda asana classes with senior teachers
✥ Special asana classes—Akarma: Action in Inaction; Shwasam (breath); Padmam (lotus hip opening); Hrdayam (heart opening)
✥ Talks: 4 Paths of Yoga in Daily Life—Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga; Jatharagni—the Fire of Digestion; Women walking the Path of Yoga; Vande Gurudev—The value of the Guruparampara; Purushartha—The 4 goals of human life
✥ Surya Namaskar challenge

In celebration of the International Day of Yoga, the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres, India, is organising a host of programmes, including yoga asana classes, workshops and talks on various related topics, which are open to all practitioners seeking the knowledge of this ancient science

For detailed schedule, visit https://sivananda.org.in/idy2022/

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