I am sharing this beautiful documentary about Swami Vishnudevanda
This is the story of a great yogi and of a man of peace. It is the story of struggle and faith, a story of all time. Swami Vishnudevananda, a disciple of Swami Sivananda, was born in Kerala, south India, on December 31, 1927. During his career in the army, he discovered Swami Sivananda’s teachings from a leaflet entitled Sadhana Tattwa (Spiritual Instructions), which began: ‘An ounce of practice is worth tons of theory.’ Impressed by the immediacy of the teachings, he took some leave and journeyed to Rishikesh, a holy town at the foot of the Himalayas, to meet the Master at his Ashram.
Swami Vishnudevananda, after some consideration, decided to forsake his worldly life. At age twenty, he entered the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh in 1947, took sannyasi (holy orders), and was appointed the first professor of hatha yoga at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy. There, he trained thousands of students, both Indian and Western.
At the same time, he continued his practice, mastering complex, advanced hatha yoga techniques. For ten years, he lived and worked under the direct guidance of his Master. In 1957, he set out from Swami Sivananda’s Ashram to carry out his Master’s instructions—to spread the teachings of yoga in the West.
He established the first Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Montreal, and from there, for the following thirty-seven years, he worked tirelessly as a dedicated spiritual teacher and peace missionary, travelling the world and establishing centres and ashrams from which this work could be accomplished. His teachings, following in the tradition of Swami Sivananda, were based on an integrated approach to yoga. Swami Vishnudevananda worked tirelessly to instil a strong, practical understanding of yoga and Vedanta in the people who came to him. Through his dedication, infinite love and kindness, his devotion to his Guru and his sheer undaunted fearlessness, he planted the seeds for yoga to grow into the worldwide phenomenon it is today. His motto: ‘Health is Wealth. Peace of Mind is Happiness. Yoga Shows the Way’ continues to inspire all who come to learn about yoga at the Sivananda Ashrams and Centres worldwide.
As a peace missionary during the 1970s, Swamiji made headlines by flying around the world in his small two-seater plane, dropping flowers and leaflets for peace over trouble spots and war-torn countries.
Recognised as a world authority on hatha and raja yoga, he is the author of the bestselling “The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga”.
He left his body on November 9, 1993, his legacy–a worldwide organisation dedicated to propagating yoga’s ancient and timeless wisdom.
Hari Om Tat Sat
