Swami Vishnu-devananda
Biography
Swami Vishnu-devananda was born on December 31, 1927 in Kerala, South India. As a young man, he was serving in the army when he came across a pamphlet in the trash titled "20 Spiritual Instructions." He was very moved by these writings, and decided that he would go on a weekend leave to meet the author in person. He traveled far across India to the Sivananda Ashram in Rishikesh to meet Swami Sivananda for the first time. After his discharge from the army, he visited Rishikesh again and decided to stay with his guru.
After about ten years living at the ashram in Rishikesh, Swami Vishnu was sent by his master, Swami Sivananda, to the west with the instructions that "people are waiting." With only pennies in his pocket, he began the long journey across the Pacific Rim, teaching yoga classes on the way to earn money.
In December, 1957, Swamiji arrived in San Francisco. He traveled across the US and eventually went to Montreal, Canada where he established his first yoga center. In 1962 he bought the Sivananda Yoga Camp property in Val Morin and started the Yoga Teacher's Training Course. During the next ten years, many more yoga centers and ashrams were started in several places around the US and Europe.
Swami Vishnu began his world peace missions in 1970, flying around the world distributing flowers and leaflets in the name of peace. There are many exciting stories told by his students and disciples of his flying expeditions to such places as Belfast, the Suez Canal, Jerusalem, Lahore, Bangladesh, and the Berlin Wall. All throughout his journeys Swami Vishnu spread the teachings of peace and unity.
Differentiation is a contradiction of yoga and Vedanta. If you remove these ideas: "I am different from you, My religion is different from yours, My God is different from yours," then you have yoga and Vedanta. Swami Vishnu-devananda
During the late 1980's, Swamiji's health began to fail him, and he returned to India for several visits for intense sadhana and to travel, trying to reawaken the spirit of yoga in India. On November 9, 1993 in Manipal, India he left his body.
Swami Vishnu is considered one of the greatest and most dynamic yogis of the 20th century. Not only did he live the philosophy and practice of yoga, he also passed it on to his students so that everyone would have the opportunity to try for themselves to reach the goal of self-realization. The work he began with his Teacher's Training Courses continues to this day with over 13,000 teachers trained in this lineage. There are now 9 Sivananda Yoga Vedanta ashrams and 22 centers located around the world.
He is the author of "The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga", and "Meditation and Mantras".
